TACO

good book on the missed opportunity between the Soviet-US competition to get a peace settlement within the Middle East:

Maybe a cold take but it doesn't actually seem like being a world power and being staffed from top to bottom with intelligent and curious apparatchiki are compatible things

How many times does somebody in power have to re-learn that the Islamic Republic is resilient and maintains a coherent, organized social base and that, when existentially threatened, would execute on its *extremely well understood* military strategy?

I post about this a lot but I do not know how to deal with the fact that my first cousin runs a major podcast and is having cordial interviews with Doug Wilson and then ranting about how all Muslims are inherently threats to United States. and yes I’ve confronted and argued with him many times.

I spent 45 minutes trying and failing to convince a full bird Colonel with multiple Afghanistan and Iraq deployments that Afghanistan is not an Arabic speaking country. I was helped in this discussion (to no avail) by two Afghan interpreters who were more polite than I was.

Nonzero chance the Chinese see that the IRI didn't collapse immediately and decide it's now ok to provide extremely basic technical assistance to make their missiles substantially more dangerous (aka better guidance+metallurgy) at basically no cost to the Chinese.

Yeah, "it's not fair the Iranians have missiles abluhbluhbloobloo" has been a longstanding FDD/etc whining point for a decade now

The major pressing issues facing Jewish families in NYC right now are who the Mayor invites to Gracie Mansion for iftar; the cancelled lease of a drone company at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; and the Instagram likes of the First Lady. The rest, especially "the economic," is downstream from there.

this conflict is stupid, wrong, and infuriating

Barak Ravid (Axios) reporting that the US has requested Israel stop hitting Iranian energy assets. www.axios.com/2026/03/10/i...

Iran accuses the US and Israel of targeting civilians, saying more than 1,300 have been killed across the country.

"Why won't the Iranian just give us a ceasefire when we broke our not!treaty with them and keep attacking them every nine months? Why don't they take us at our word??"

Yeah we all know that Jonathan Greenblatt would love to see Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria because Greenblatt is a raging racist

Seems to me like the only logical end-result to this is a repeat of how the British and French fared after the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt but it is almost inconceivable that the US will do this of their own accord

Jake Tapper having an Israeli who has been repeatedly proven to be a paid-for propagandist on to explain the Iranian perspective and then having a raving lunatic on to rant about Mamdani's wife in back to back programs is really quite something. CNN has a perennial racist on its prime time.

Seems to me like the only logical end-result to this is a repeat of how the British and French fared after the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt but it is almost inconceivable that the US will do this of their own accord

“An excellent, unflinchingly honest account of what every Arab knows: America's policies and dominance in the Middle East have provoked untold disasters based on a deep-rooted culture of racism and colonialism. The world needs this book now more than ever." Fida Jiryis www.amazon.com/Americas-Mid...

is AIPAC for real going to do Mejia 2

IL-09 POLL: In the 2nd @evanstonroundtable.bsky.social/PPP primary poll, Daniel Biss is unmoved at 24% and Kat Abughazaleh has jumped to 20%, narrowing the gap to 4%. Laura Fine falls to 14%, Mike Simmons up to 10%. Undecideds still sizable at 17%. Polled March 9-10, MOE 3.6%. See below for more!

Get ready to learn to install solar panels, buddy

Reminder

Tbh the entire race to the bottom between the US, China, and Russia

Her statement was infuriating. We (her staff that is) all made fun of her during her tenure for constantly talking about "the privilege of sitting at the table" when it's like girl if you're not gonna say anything while at the table get your ass off that chair for someone who will!!

It also reveals the shortsightedness, and for some the intellectual dishonesty, of those who defended Israel's tactics in Gaza as the unavoidable horrific nature of urban warfare. In fact it's been a component of Israel's tactical/strategic approach since at least the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

🚨 NEW POLL of Democratic primary voters in FL-23 🔹Oliver Larkin leads incumbent Jared Moskowitz 49-36 after positive bios 🔹 63% of voters want to end or reduce military aid to Israel 🔹 Voters oppose strikes on Iran by a 50-point margin 🧵Read the thread for more insights

Apologies if the cynical is showing through but it'd be funny in a way if the next Democratic president's response to Biden's and Trump's respective failures in MENA was to just triple down on the idea that the Abraham Accords are the skeleton key to fixing everything

No offense but is this guy stupid

I believe in stove touching and that's why oil should be 440 dollars

This is *not* true. Brent rose 12% off the 1:20p lows, roughly $10/bbl. When market are moving as fast as they are in this kind of info environment *please* specify event effects better than "the standard % change vs prior close widget".

Summing up Iran news today, I think. - US/Israel strikes continue - Iran doesn't want talks, still firing on neighbors - US asked Israel to stop hitting Iranian energy infra - US claimed to be escorting tankers - oops no it isn't - Mines in the water - ~80-90% of Iran mine laying capacity intact

Crockett did 1(!) broadcast ad and her team was just floored at the idea of spending ads increased Talarico’s support How many times are people going to have learn this lesson

No country has been more pathetic than Germany

A lot of time and resource was dedicated to insisting that Israel and by extension the US didn't want to balkanize the entire Middle East so that Israel could lord over dozens of smaller, weaker, less cohesive neighbors who squabble with each other nonstop and then the US goes and does this openly.

They want to rule a region of rubble and the US is, at best, perfectly fine with this albeit not motivated by it and at worst is actively in agreement.

Average Democratic member of Congress lol

"Did you see that Elica le Bon is sueing Sharghzadeh for defamation?!" You bolt awake, remembering that you are General Chormaqan Noyan. It is the of winter 1230 AD, and you are gathering your forces on the borders of the Khwarezmid Empire. The future must not come to pass. No mercy will be shown.

That said, everyone acts like Netanyahu is playing some sort of immoral genius 3D chess, but the net outcome of all of this strikes me as fundamentally failure? The regime still exists and now has no reason not to actually do nuclear breakout - which they absolutely can achieve.

No country has been more pathetic than Germany

If the genocide on Gaza didn't prove that the Abraham Accords were definitively a failure then this war on Iran really should. If you dedicated the last half-decade to the idea that you can delegate to Israel and UAE and reorient towards East Asia then you've been proven a sucker again and again.

These are the kinds of results that make clear, by the way, why the US can't really be considered a true hegemon in the region. And even more so, why Israel can't.

"In 2022, the Arab Public Opinion Index administered by the Arab Center in Doha found that across 14 Arab countries, 59% of Arabs considered the US and Israel the greatest threats. In 2024, in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza, a staggering 77% said Israel and the US, with 51% singling out America."

This constantly repeated scenario of hundreds of thousands fleeing from one bombed out location only to then be forced to flee from another. What a moral stain.

check the date on this poll from Brookings / UMD

‘Stop sending free money to Israel’ feels like such low hanging fruit popularism it’s a wonder MattY isn’t more dedicated to it