Ladies and gentlemen, your Secretary of Defense

If you've read a history of the papacy, like this one, you understand why Pope Leo and the Vatican legitimately feel threatened when the US throws "Avignon Papacy" at them.

In addition to firing the diplomatic, intelligence and military experts who could have prevented the humiliation, they fired the cybersecurity experts who could protect our critical infrastructure against these types of hackers. CISA was gutted by DOGE. 1/

Can someone explain to me what this was all about? What we were trying to accomplish? What we achieved by this fucked-up fire mission? Because this sure looks like a masterclass in losing. And we're all going to be paying the price for decades.

The only question is, did he TACO himself, or did the military TACO him

This is why he was considered a third-tier realtor in NYC, and why all the other realtors mocked him mercilessly

Reading for our time. We ignored the history. Now we’ll have to forge our own.

What did anyone think they were up to when they unilaterally tried to change the name to the "Department of War?" What do people think will follow as they demand a 40% increase for "Department of War" spending to $1.5 trillion annually?

Silencio = consentimiento = muerte

Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse

I retired into a brutal bear market so I have a stomach of cast iron when it comes to this stuff, but what's happening right now not only is not necessary and completely self-inflicted on our country, the criminals in the White House 1/

Absolutely fascinating article about the historical progression of attempts to automate the military "kill chain" which led to the US bombing of an Iranian girls school. Wow. Masterclass.

Yeah okay we could replace the entire world with robots and AI leaving everyone else as military recruits and all-but-in-name slaves but maybe stop for a minute and think who wants to do that and why

Don't know why this doesn't have a million signatures already. Please read and share. "We cannot build a just world on a foundation that treats the freedom of women and girls as negotiable."

Brilliant thread and article.

With the secret police in the airports, the entire US is a no fly zone. Do not travel. Shut it all the fuck down.

We are the terror. At home. Abroad. Our government. The terror.

Many have been our allies for centuries, fought beside us in many wars, sacrificing their own. And this is how our president talks to them? A fucking five-time draft dodger gets to call ANYone a coward about ANYthing? I’ve never been more embarrassed by my country.

As with many stories like this, there have been hints about Chavez for decades. Read between the lines of Miriam Pawel's biography and we shouldn't be surprised about today's revelations, and we should welcome the justice. Now we have work to do renaming everything from him to Dolores Huerta.

Almost as if we didn't have a Secretary of State to form a coalition before we went to war. Oh wait, we do, but he's too busy negotiating the rendering of our citizens to slavery in foreign prisons

This is a major hit piece on Hegseth, too good not to share. Every word rings true.

May 1974, the country was in pretty bad shape: a corrupt president we couldn't get rid of while half of his administration was being sent to prison; the worst recession since the Great Depression, resulting from an oil crisis caused by a Mideast war and including crippling stagflation driven by 1/

Yeah it was a great fucking idea to elect a convicted felon failed businessman lifelong mobster child rapist as president, and fill the cabinet with second-string talk show hosts and podcasters

In my lifetime, the United States has spent $45.5 trillion on defense without fighting a single war that was necessary. Yes I did the math: $45.5 trillion in 2024 dollars. 1/

People of every religious faith except the "right" kinds of Christianity need to be paying very careful attention to this. Same for people of no faith. They're not hiding it any more, and they're coming hard. (And no, in this country, at this time, Catholics are not the "right" kinds of Christians)

The Nakba never ended

Some of us were alive and paying attention during the Vietnam War. We can see through all kinds of absolute bullshit. These guys are amateurs at it.

The double-tap missile attack on the girls' school in Iran was conducted by the United States and was deliberate. We intentionally killed children and used them as bait. 1/ (Analysis in this article done by Al Jazeera. Syncs with similar analysis done by the New York Times two days ago.)

Two must-reads for the weekend: First, Rebecca Solnit’s @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social illumination of why those with “the mentality of a rapist” will not win, and…

Politicians are only the errand boys. Dirty energy is yesterday’s garbage. Want to stop this current wave of madness, tech billionaires need to be brought down.

The Secretary of Defense said we would no longer have “stupid rules of engagement.” There is no wriggling out of this. There is no excuse for this. There is no absolution for this. There is only justice. Let us only hope it comes at our own hands.

If you had to pick the one person to replace Kristi Noem who would be worse for the situation or our country, you would pick Markwayne Mullin. That guy is absolute garbage. There will be open warfare in our streets before summer, which is probably the intention.

The way Hegseth and Leavitt whine about the reporting on our war dead is absolutely disgusting. “For you don’t count the dead When God’s on your side And ya never ask questions When God’s on your side” — Bob Dylan

Really interesting report on the 20 largest employers of low-wage US workers. They rely on public programs like Medicaid to subsidize their employees while they pay their CEOs millions. Want to divert your business from companies for legitimate reasons, start here.

Getting flashbacks to the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1980, a bit of personal terror that in some ways has never left me, in case people wonder why I am the way I am sometimes. 1/

Not buying the Talarico thing. What’s with all that dark money. Is it Satan?

Adtech industry has a lot to answer for, but first step is to shut it the fuck down

Bad time to be low on pimentón You'd think though Spain would allow the use of the base at Morón

Don't know if there's any way to unravel the mess of Rubio's press conference except to interpret it that we only went in because Israel decided to go in. Netanyahu must have as much as Putin on Trump because Trump is everyone's bitch which makes the United States everyone's bitch.

The tools for the War on Terror became the tools for the War of Terror

I don't know how anyone can be my age and still be so gullible as to believe anything the regime is saying about this war. We grew up with this shit and have seen it over and over and over.

Translation: we're sending in groups troops. Or nukes. But don't the curtains look nice?

How is a little-known, young and inexperienced Texas state legislator with no profile outside of his district getting so much money behind him in such a high-profile high-stakes campaign with national impact? 1/

Everyone should be concerned about DoD's procurement of AI systems, especially in Hegseth's classification of Anthropic as a national security threat to the supply chain, which will put them out of business. Why is the Pentagon doing that? What do you think those concentration camps are for?

In my lifetime the United States has initiated military action against 41 countries in 75 incidences.

Iran isn't the only regime that will be brought down by this war.