The scale of failure & incompetence & alienating allies now, compared to Biden/🇦🇫, is orders of magnitude worse. And the tone of the coverage is simply the polar opposite. You don't have to believe me. You can go back & read @joshtpm.bsky.social & @brianbeutler.bsky.social from 2021:

Again, this "The President has a unique style of strategic ambiguity" is simply not the way Joe Biden & his inability to provide a 100% surgically clean implementation of Donald Trump's totally unplanned timetable for an 🇦🇫 withdrawal were covered in 2021. Just an incredible double standard.

Anything to shift focus from Iran. Anything!

Yup! Faithfully describing himself.

The Ghost of Nixon stumbling drunk in the White House told him it was a great idea.

Let’s assume for a second there are contacts and the beginning of negotiations about a ceasefire, would you *really* send that witless moron Witkoff to engage with the Iranians? Sideline both Witkoff and the Boy Wonder, Jared, and send some serious people who know their shit

Never seen a war this badly planned, conducted and mismanaged by the US. The Secretary of Lethality-Warfighters-LethalWarrior-No-Woke-War-Department really got his ass handed to him. And it is true to form—as you’d expect Trump to deal with a serious crisis.

They are literally flailing.

There are several scenarios of how this war could end. All of them are not ideal at all—some are very bad—but we have to choose the least worst scenario among a set of not so good ones, as I outlined here earlier bsky.app/profile/roch...

This ship has no functioning toilets, if I remember correctly, and now no bed or laundry service. Of course, Hegseth doesn’t give a damn.

My 2 cents on Cuba: If the war against Iran was going well—and he knows with his primitive senses that it’s not going well—Trump wouldn’t pivot to Cuba or start talking about Cuba this soon. I think he’s going to wrap up the war in Iran, claim victory, & go look for a decisive win in Cuba.

I have no doubt the Iranians are smart, but you, you’re dumb as fuck. And he is still a racist and a misogynist.

It is physically challenging to watch him talk. I physically struggle to do it.

He is in over his head and he knows it. This is worse than COVID

1-Short 🧵 about war: Let’s game how this war might end or escalate. @dhnexon.bsky.social, @mcopelov.bsky.social & others pls feel free to add your scenarios, or correct me NB: I think Trump is in escalation trap right now Scenario 1: Iran collapses, regime gone. Total victory. Very unlikely now

Stop lying! Stooooooop! Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the region would have told you that the GCC & Israel would be the first targets.

A friend from DC took this picture! And it’s a good poster too 🤣

Stop lying!!

Wow, the ignorance is strong with this one. Jesus… 1920s? Really? Marcus Aurelius’ The Meditations. Heard of it? It’s all about introspection… almost every page of it The more these guys talk, the more incredibly stupid they sound

Not when you are facing a spike in inflation

What the hell is he talking about?

He is now blackmailing our allies—blackmailing the security alliance that we created & he undermined over and over. Things are getting worse by the day. It’s going to be extremely rough for a while.

This is NOT normal. It cannot & should not be normalized. He is deteriorating & losing it. The situation with Iran is making him lose—I should say, lose more—his capability to control his already unhinged impulses. 1st crisis he faced, & he came unstuck for the whole world to see.

You know why you join international institutions & security coalitions even if you don’t get anything from them for years & even if you pay more than others? So, when you need them they show up. You don’t spend your time insulting your oldest allies, then you ask them for help.

He’s consistant and courageous.

What evidence or intel does the @nytimes.com have to advance this bit of information in an article that basically justifies escalating the war against Iran & maybe sending troops into Iran? Is this a new Judith Miller episode? PS: if you’re too young to remember Judith Miller, pls google her.

@cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy has become the butt of jokes of late night comedians and award shows because… well we all know why.

Interesting! Just before Trump goes to China

You disrupt oil and its derivatives, you disrupt the entire supply chain. Goldman Sacks don’t want to pick a fight with Trump because they know better.

"The cousin of Tech Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28—one of six American service members killed Thursday--said, 'We didn’t need to be in this war.' Simmons’ grandmother [added], 'Just to create a war because you want to create a war is not right.'" www.thedailybeast.com/family-of-fa...

The grumbling in the GCC has gotten so loud that it’s directly broadcast. It’s coming from princes close to the royal families, important businessmen, former Intel chiefs (like Turki bin Faisal), etc. The anger at the US is real, & some of these guys are speaking directly for the palaces.

More big personalities, close to the leadership, are talking in all GCC countries. The core of the argument: appeasing Israel & its interests, & investing in the US to acquire leverage have produced nothing, but humiliation & insecurity. Can they rethink their strategy? Not easy, but they can.

Our media does not at all understand the absolutely deadly moment we are in. They are a bunch of bubblehead opportunist lightweights. All of them, from the @nytimes.com all the way to @cnn.com.

He wasn't just an asylum seeker. Paktyawal was an Afghan special forces soldier who worked with the U.S. Army's 3rd Special Forces Group. He was evacuated on August 30, 2021, entered the U.S. legally and had a pending case with a work permit and social security number. Killed by ICE maggots.

Those who are arguing (like some in the WSJ editorial page) that the war against Iran is a deterrent to China needs to explain to me how. How’s that a deterrent? I’d argue just the opposite. China is very happy with what they see.

A dozen thermonuclear bombs—a DOZEN HYDROGEN BOMBS? Son, you lost your freaking mind! The combination of Viagra and TRT is turning men of a certain age into total psychopathic imbeciles

I recommend you watch this. You don’t have to agree with Robert Kagan to acknowledge that how he analyzes events and developments is very interesting, & accurate.

I have the solution for the Louisiana crawfish industry. Would they listen though? Idk

Oh @nytimes.com, go fuck yourself! Selling the frame that Trump had an economic boom in the offing and only his disastrous decision to go to war derailed that boom is patently false, a lie, not supported by economic data at all. Stop printing lies, as my friend @mcopelov.bsky.social often says.

“We want to change the rules of the next election so Democrats don’t win anymore”

All of this incredibly obvious and infuriating welfare fraud happened under the first Trump administration and I don't recall them ever threatening to block funding to the state of Mississippi as a result.

That explains a lot.

Does anyone remember the Iraq-Iran war?

Why didn’t just title this article “I’m sorry I hit your fist with my face”? The press and media has gone way out of its way to make Trump look good during his disastrous war with Iran.

it’s not good for society that there is an entire sector of the culture industry that both selects for individuals of this intellectual and temperamental caliber *and* serves as the primary context for both elite and mass opinion formation for one of the two major political parties

I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵

Each person shot in the head in the village of Tammun, while two other children of the deceased couple sustain injuries.

Bombing mosques during Ramadan, specifically during the last 10 days of Ramadan, when worshippers are doing Tarawih & Qiyam Al layl, should be considered a war crime. Now, they are bombing mosques of Isfahan, most of them are historic religious sites. And whoever ordered that is truly an idiot.

If I hear another journalist say “400 million barrels are being release” I’ll probably lose it. Do your homework, for God’s sake. The market lost 20 mb/d. The release rate of SPRs is 1.5-3 mb/d. That’s a shortage of 18.5-17 mb/d. Do you see the problem now? The damage has already been done

cc: @diplomatofnight.com, I think you will like this piece.