Maneuver Ghoul of Excellence

New: Pentagon briefers acknowledged to congressional staff in a briefing Sunday that Iran was not planning to strike US forces or bases in the Middle East unless Israel attacked Iran first, multiple sources to @NatashaBertrand , @jmhansler & me. Why this matters: It undercuts Trump admin’s argument on Saturday that Iran was planning to potentially strike the US preemptively & posed an imminent threat:

No legal basis under either U.S. or international law to attack Iran.

No attack upon the U.S., nor imminent threat of one, nor any congressional authorization.

And the USG ought to be able to restrain the principal recipient of U.S. military assistance from provocations.

All utterly lawless.

DoD tweet saying the Iranian attacks are part of "Operation Epic Fury"

This war is so horrifying but giving it the most cringe millennial name possible is just salt in the wound

The fact that the Pentagon is trying to bully Anthropic into letting them use hallucination-prone LLMs to power killer robots & drones but it’s the company that’s telling them that’s a terrible idea shows how far the US has fallen under Trump.

Vonnegut's GHQ pieces and board

This game that Kurt Vonnegut designed and failed to sell before becoming an established author is actually pretty great. Surprisingly dynamic and strategic. Plus a great little booklet on the history of the game with plenty of archival materials.

Mercury is in retrograde tomorrow, I’m told.

This App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses Nearby The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media's coverage of how people are using Meta's Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to ...

New: this app warns you if someone is wearing smart glasses nearby.

Meta plans to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. A 404 Media reader made this app after we showed men filming people w/o their consent, and DHS officials were wearing the glasses www.404media.co/this-app-war...

Watching the Lilith Fair doc and it’s very good at recalling the social temperature at shows vs Woodstock ‘99 with gross shit from acts like Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. Reader, when I went to Lilith Fair as 15yo me it was not in my bingo card at now 43 we’d still have to see gross shit from Kid Rock.

Palantir's Swiss Exit Highlights Global Data Sovereignty Challenge | NewsCase Switzerland's military has terminated its contract with Palantir Technologies Inc. following a security audit. The review concluded that U.S. intelligence ag

"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir Technologies Inc. following a security audit. The review concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data, a deal-breaker for the neutrality-focused Alpine nation." #DataSovereignty

I can’t explain it but The Jerk was my favorite movie as a kid.

In 2009, this was the mask of a UK SAS character in “Call of Duty.” By 2015 it was de rigeur among Iraqi government commandos and Shiite militiamen. In 2018, in “Sicario 2,” it was what CIA surrogate characters wore to disguise themselves as cartel gunmen.

Now US law enforcement wears it.

if there is one thing that drives repulsive old men completely insane, it’s “younger women who don’t smile enough.”

amazing how consistent this is

Stars and Stripes in Peril | On the Media | WNYC Studios Hegseth's Defense Dept is steering the award-winning paper away from "woke distractions that syphon morale"

Great On The Media @onthemedia.bsky.social podcast about Stars and Stripes.
If you value Stars and Stripes as a respected and unique news organization, please give it a listen.
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

👇🎯 We're now having a "debate" on the Sunday shows & in the Sunday papers about whether the Second Amendment exists, or whether the last 20 years of far right behavior with guns in public exists. It's a total failure of journalism to fall for this diversion.

Time to call it what it is - state terrorism.

Renee Good’s Death Officially Ruled a Homicide The mother of three’s death has been ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent during a protest in Minneapolis, has been ruled a homicide.

Oh, the NDS finally dropped:

media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/...

First page of the new NDS, you don’t need to read it

My “this does not mean isolationism” shirt is getting a lot of questions already answered by the shirt.

This 1943 U.S. Army film warned about fascism in America

Now the actual military has to dress like it’s not the military cuz federal law enforcement agencies dress too much like the military

It took everything in me not to lose it when he was invited here to Benning last year to speak to OCS/BOLC’s for a “Preparing the Soul for War” symposium.

Just some bangers from the COIN Manual that informed so many of our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The level of restraint we expect from our soldiers and Marines, even in a COIN environment, is remarkable.

Such professionalism should be expected of every American we trust to bear arms.

On the Media's "Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Protest Edition" 1. TV news will fixate on incidents of violence, even if rare and uncharacteristic of the overall event. 2. Opponents will try to delegitimize protesters by claiming they are "paid" or otherwise dishonest. This is almost always untrue. 3. Measuring crowd size is an imprecise, politicized enterprise. Be skeptical of hard numbers: view aerial photos and compare sources. 4. Beware loaded terms such as "riot" and "rebellion." They often reveal the political leanings of the media outlets using them. 5. Crowds at protests are so diverse that the media can tell any story they want. Beware broad conclusions based on extreme people or events. 6. Coverage often considers whether protesters left a mess, or helped clean up a subtle jab or praise. The truth is somewhere in the middle. 7. Protest coverage tends to be episodic, not long-term. Seek out stories that place events in their larger political and historical context. 8. The media will try to tabulate immediate successes and failures of protests. Remember, their impact may not be felt for years.

Tips for following coverage of protests in Minneapolis:

"if these guys (ICE) weren't here, none of these people (protestors) would be here"

that neatly sums up the US foreign policy experience for the past 25 years, and now applies to domestic policy.

My Delta pilot friend is thirsty for a flight number with 6-7 in it to make the joke. This looks like a contender.

You want civilian control of the military in a democracy. Well, this is it. Elect better civilians.

You want the military to be part of the checks and balances? That’s a praetorian guard.

Year-end tally of Trump admin combat actions in 2025:

—Yemen—1,000+ strikes*
—Somalia—140+ strikes, 1 ground raid**
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids***
—Iran—3 B-2 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
—Nigeria—1 set of TLAM strikes
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Venezuela—1 known CIA strike