Competitive authoritarianism watch. Ominous.
I really don’t think enough is being made of the fact that it’s a three supposedly do-nothing toothless scholarly organizations—the AHA, the MLA, and the ACLS— who are directly responsible for one of the clearest and most damning exposures of this administration’s stupidity and malfeasance.
Trump officials privately pessimistic there's a strategy to end war, but they fear telling this to Trump, NYT reports. On the pod, @profsaunders.bsky.social brilliantly explains how this shows perils of "personalist" rule and the total absence of constraints on him:
newrepublic.com/article/2076...
NLRB Filing:
NEW: 416 brewery workers for Molson Coors in Virginia are unionizing with the @teamsters.bsky.social
5/ And on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. I can't go into more detail about how Iran gums up the Strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don't know how to get it safely back open.
Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.
4/ Ok, so what ARE the goals? It seems, primarily, destroying lots of missiles and boats and drone factories.
But the question that stumped them: what happens when you stop bombing and they restart production?
They hinted at more bombing. Which is, of course, endless war.
3/ Second, they confirmed "regime change" is also NOT on the list. So, they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime - probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime - will still be in charge.
2/ Maybe the lead is that the war goals DO NOT involve destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program. This is, uh...surprising...since Trump says over and over this is a key goal.
But then of course we already know air strikes can't wipe out their nuclear material.
I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.
I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.
1/ Here's what I can share:
and he would have got away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids
For months, we warned DOGE's access to Americans' private data was ripe for abuse. And here it is:
A former DOGE employee stole the Social Security numbers & personal info of over 500 MILLION Americans.
Musk, Trump, & their DOGE lackies must be made to answer for this, NOW.
Some of the frivolous September purchases made under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stewardship include a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of …
newrepublic.com/post/207555/...
JUST IN: Democrats flip a seat in the New Hampshire state House.
Dem Bobbi Boudman has won today’s special election, NHJournal reports.
(Boudman was the Dem nominee in 2024 & lost by 14%; Trump won here by 9%.)
This is Dems’ third legislative flip so far this year, after Texas and Arkansas.
President Trump’s decision to freeze refugee processing left thousands in limbo. For more than a year, 1,100 Afghan refugees who thought they were bound for the United States have been stranded on a disused military base in Qatar. https://to.pbs.org/4b2jKxM
A country divided on so many fronts is finding common ground in pain at the pump, where the cost of the Iran war is hitting Americans squarely in the wallet and aggravating people across the political spectrum.
In 2024, the % of all campaign donations (i.e., $ raised) coming from billionaires was 19%.
Before Citizens United, that was 0.3%.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...
"You want some Cuba? Why you've barely finished your Iran and Venezuela."
".. The last few years have been a steady exercise in market humility. 'Oil can’t go negative.' It did. 'Russia will always be a reliable supplier of gas to Europe.' It wasn’t. 'Hormuz is too important to actually stop.' Until it did."
- Morgan Stanley
“1979.” 🕺🏻
@politico.com
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
“.. Nearly seven months ago, Ukrainian officials tried to sell the U.S. their battle-proven technology for downing Iranian-made attack drones .. The Trump administration dismissed the Ukrainians ..”
@axios.com
www.axios.com/2026/03/10/u...
Iraq cost us $6 trillion. Even a short Iran war could add $1 trillion to a budget deficit that Trump may already be tripling. trib.al/txXV9QN
The Pentagon calculated it was spending $1 billion a day on Trump and Netanyahu’s war. The truth? It was $3 billion…and that’s just for munitions.
Plus they’ve alarmed everyone by burning through scarce munitions in a matter of days.
The Iranian girls’ school was hit by a US tomahawk cruise missile. NPR has confirmed the footage.
Great work by NYT showing Trump's war is the most unpopular ever. Supports my argument (see below) that in some ways the public rejection of Trump across the board is a very heartening development:
One day the NYT's editors will read these stories again and be ashamed of themselves. Mamdani called the attack "heinous," "criminal," "reprehensible," "terrorism," and "the antithesis of who we are." The insinuation that he's conflicted about this is disgraceful. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/n...
NLRB Filing:
NEW: 226 Healthcare professionals in Portland, Oregon are unionizing with @aft.org @oregonnursesassoc.bsky.social
