Kurt Andersen

Such sweet schadenfreude.

I don’t I don’t think she’s trolling anyone. I think she’s a good Soviet-formed dictator’s wife.

Spy Magazine 1986-1998 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Spy Magazine 1986-1998

I’ve come to prefer the @internetarchives.bsky.social version: archive.org/details/SpyM...

Why Iran wants nukes.

Last October in the elevator at 30 Rock I gave in to fandom and took my first and possibly last selfie ever. Go, @jamestalarico.bsky.social, go!

Every Accusation A Confession

Hegseth this morning: “Iran negotiated in bad faith, stalling, scheming, and preparing to strike.”

Trump yesterday:

At Spy we reported on and satirized Trump correctly, relentlessly and, as it turned out, presciently. Lately these bits have seemed especially apt and well-aged —from from our first cover story (1986) and a brilliant cartoon by @BruceHandy.bsky.social for our NBC TV show. youtu.be/oCN_uISlJ-k?...

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Cornyn spent $75 per vote he received in a primary he didn’t win.

“The red wedding begins’” his senior advisor said of the 12-week runoff campaign starting today against the opponent they call a “wife cheater and fraud now wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven.”

Very dark comedy.

The mad cult leader’s response last night to the heretics Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly for opposing his war with Iran: “I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two. MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it."

Sure. They keep their unelected jobs. But republicans lose big.

I grew up in one and return regularly.

I doubt that for most of them.

Definitely Leavitt. But Noem’s dumbness and hard-wired Dakota manner don’t really let her pull off the performative condescending petulance.

We do like seeing the MAGA crackup.

“Do not vote in the midterms. And if you do, vote for the Democrats. The Republicans have to lose. Fuck them. Fuck Trump.“ www.instagram.com/reel/DVWi3YN...

Sincerely curious: do Republicans actually like the patronizing, petulant, bitchy, grrrrr public performance styles of Hegseth, Vance and Bondi?

👏👏👏

Iranians Take to the Streets to Celebrate Khamenei’s Death

Joy for now. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/w...

Trump/Hegseth operational security: at Joe’s Stone Crab, a restaurant a 2-minute walk from the White House, someone was having a conversation about the attacks on Iran that were going to start in 6 hours. Loud enough for the founder of @TMZ.com to recount it in real time with his podcast cohost.

Right before we started the Iraq War in 2003, polls found that 59% to 72% of Americans supported it. Versus the 21% who wanted to attack Iran now. sadat.umd.edu/sites/sadat....

🤷🏻‍♂️

@WSJ.com story gift link: wsj.com/finance/stocks…

Speculative investor-adviser scenario: citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

So AI will cause radical economic changes —crises for a while—requiring radical sociopolitical changes to acommodate. We need to invent whole new ways to divvy up our big economic pie. Other developed countries—the Nordics, Germany, Canada, China—seem more equipped to manage this than the US. 3/3

Many writers on political economic futures (e.g. Marx, Keynes and many in the AI era including me in Evil Geniuses) have envisioned an ultra-disrupted future that knocks out long-standing economic premises. Tech-enabled abundance, human work less required, per Keynes “economic problem” solved. 2/3

A 7,000-word work of near-future speculative fiction caused a big drop in the stock market yesterday. Because the guy who wrote it has an investment newsletter that was more bullish early on GLP-1 drugs and more consistently bullish on AI than lots of other stock-pickers. 1/3

A handy 3 amigos timeline:
• Trump & Epstein best buddies c. 1990 to 2004-7
• Epstein & Andrew pals (via Maxwell) 2000 to 2010
• Trump & Andrew pals (via Epstein & Maxwell) starting 2000
• Epstein convicted 2008

Separated At Birth: early 20th century character actor Adrian Morris and early 21st century political journalist Jonathan Martin.

During protests in Iran last month, government forces killed 7,000 protesters, most of them gunned down over three nights. Today big crowds of student protesters rallies at three top universities, chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Our target is the entire system.”

Courage.

Of the 900 living Mauds in the United States, my wife and I know 4 of them.