Every time I see that ballroom mentioned, I think about how this man tore down the entire East Wing of the White House without any authorization or permission. Yeah, then he started a war in the Middle East the same way.
The U.S. presidency is not supposed to work this way.
If Russia could have magically caused the U.S. to start a war with Iran, it would have.
That Iranian Navy ship we torpedoed had no ammunition on board because that was a requirement to participate in the MILAN 2026 exercise (organized by the Indian Navy).
The US Navy knew this because IT ALSO PARTICIPATED IN THE EXERCISE. What a national embarrassment.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...
Add to that the cohesion necessary to an effective fighting force. In a time of war, do we want our soldiers, who practice many different faiths, to fight among themselves about the rightness of their mission? 9/n
And even if the soldiers are Christian, they are not required to believe that the Christian god has anointed a person such as this president to wage a holy war.
These claims are likely to cause dissent within the ranks — even among the Christian soldiers. 8/n
But that easy analogy isn’t the real point to focus on.
The real point is that our soldiers have minds and their minds (one hopes) are fully functional. 7/n
The easy analogy to make is: What if a Hindu commander told U.S. troops that Vishnu has ordered our military to strike the historic enemy in Iran? Yeah — would that get the commander a dishonorable discharge? 6/n
Those commanders are free (in private life) to believe any religious predictions and stories they like. If they want to believe the current president is someone God would favor, no one can stop them believing it. But preaching about it to the soldiers they command?
5/n
HuffPost reported that complaints were filed “from more than three dozen military units situated in at least 30 different military installations,” detailing how commanders told troops that war in Iran is ordained by the Christian god in the New Testament Book of Revelation. 4/n
While there’s no law that prohibits the free exercise of non-Christian faiths, I would wager that lots of people do not feel safe exercising their non-Christian faith in places where random American Christians might see them.
That’s very sad.
3/n
Sadly and tragically, Christians can insult and condemn any other religion with impunity in the United States.
It doesn’t cut the other way, though. 2/n
Thinking about those U.S. military commanders preaching about Trump’s holy war. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” doesn’t actually prohibit self-righteous idiots acting AS IF the U.S. is a Christian nation. 1/n
Is no one talking about the torpedoed Iranian ship in Sri Lankan waters?
Irony: the U.S. has chartered dozens (hundreds?) of planes to fly immigrants out of the U.S. to various countries in Asia and Africa but somehow cannot manage to charter any planes to rescue U.S. citizens stranded in the Middle East.
There's been a lot of debate within the Democratic establishment about what rhetoric to use via ICE.
Well, an incumbent doesn't lose by 48 percentage points very often—and her vote on collaborating with ICE was the defining issue here.
Interest in posts about the NICAR data journalism conference March 5-8? This Bluesky feed collects posts with either the #NICAR26 or #NICAR2026 hashtag - plus searching for "NICAR" without a hashtag
bsky.app/profile/smac...
(Created with @blueskyfeedcreator.com ) #DDJ
Everyone in this administration is stealing from the taxpayers, all day, every day.
He’s so great in this!
Everybody talks about Ted Lasso but Shrinking is actually the series with all the feels.
Oh FFS
Bombing Iran as a ploy to make us forget the Epstein files.
Not working. I can think of many things without forgetting others.
-Zero Congressional consultation or approval.
-Zero preparation of public for need/consequences of war.
-Zero evidence of thought about "OK, what might the other side do?" Next month. Next year.
-Zero mention of anti-nuke agreement Trump voided, or Trump claim last year that nukes "obliterated."
Lawsuit challenges Kansas anti-trans law that revokes driver licenses. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...
“Only 41 percent of Kansans have a passport.”
“The new law also invalidates birth certificates that bear a gender marker other than the one assigned at birth. This presents a potential challenge for trans Kansans who might have otherwise used their birth certificates as one of the two pieces of ID required to replace a driver’s license.”
According to the Kansas DMV website, it can take 45 days to receive a new credential. It will also cost each person $48 to get a new license. In the meantime, they cannot drive. At all.
Text in image: Affected Kansans were informed that their licenses would become meaningless pieces of plastic with letters that went out from the Kansas Division of Vehicles this week. “Please note that the legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials,” it read. “This means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credential will be invalid immediately.”
I had to look up this Kansas mandate that invalidated more than 1,000 people’s legitimate driver licenses instantly. Could the reports be true? They are true.
I tried to explain this to undergrads, saying take any topic you personally know a lot about & ask the chatbot hard questions about that topic. You will see how it makes errors and gives you false information. Now realize it does that with every topic.
I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.
