Sam (ABeardedPanda)

Given that we appear to have lost several planes to friendly fire, it would be incredibly funny if running out of interceptors means we lose less planes rather than more

>Khamenei is dead
>Nasrallah is dead
>Haniyah is dead

The Bashar Al Assad B plot:

This always becomes a motte and bailey where the motte is a political discussion of ethnic interest groups and how they try to influence US policy and the bailey is sweeping accusations about the political inclinations of entire ethnic groups on the basis of their ethnicity

"Hi I'm Major Arshad and welcome to Jackass" is barely an exaggeration of what Pakistani nuclear doctrine is like

“Moved to Dubai for tax shelter and now I’m in a bomb shelter,” says someone quoted in the FT.

UK Inland Revenue and wealth tax proponents glued to their screens...

every explicitly ethnic cossack formation involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War is on the Russian side and some of them are even actual Russian military units in the same vein as the Kadyrovites

>discover new left-coded populist
>ask supporters if they're cosmopolitan or herrenvolk
>they don't understand
>explain what is cosmopolitan and what is herrenvolk
>they laugh and say "they're a good progressive ma'am"
>see how they describe the working class
>it's herrenvolk

This is also not exclusive to Israel and the Jewish diaspora, a lot of people are also really fucking bad about doing this with Asians but especially Hispanics

I genuinely don't care if it's "directionally correct," especially because most people don't bother to be specific about anything, they just paint with an extremely broad brush about how people celebrating the demise of dictators who drove them away from their home countries are actually bad

I would simply not observe globally rising anti-immigrant sentiment and especially the actions of the Trump administration to target immigrants and refugees and then start talking about all the ways in which "certain" immigrants suck

"Members of diaspora populations often have reactionary politics as side effect of the circumstances that drove them to become part of the diaspora" is one of those topics where you really shouldn't be touching it unless you're part of the group in question

The funniest and best outcome from the whole Platner situation would be if he wins and then becomes enemies with Fetterman over Israel, leading to a fight on the Senate floor where they both kill each other and get replaced by proper senators

A CM-11 tank of the 2nd Battalion, 269th Combined Arms "Lion" Brigade, Taiwan Army, on a combat readiness patrol in northern Taiwan, 3/1/2026.

one thing about the cotton oped is, arguably he got his political start from doing a navy seal copypasta letter to the editor about nyt due their reporting on bushs warrantless surveillance program and then they go publish his oped arguing to make that reality possible

I think it's really worth unpacking this. I think in some ways, yes, publishing op-eds that represent the genuine opinions of people in power is a legitimate use of your newspaper even if those opinions are "wrong" or abhorent or whatever. Not what I'd do, but whatever.

However,

I think this is also a good look into Trump's psyche because it's another example of how he clearly views governments as intrinsically personalist in a way that feels feudal.

"Mob boss" is probably more accurate but I don't think there's formal political theory for organized crime

If you look at what Trump did with Venezuela, he clearly believes that "regime change" is just swapping out the boss with someone he likes better whereas there's others with an otherwise more traditional view that "regime change" is completely dismantling the institutions

At this point I think I'm reasonably convinced that the definition of "regime change" is fundamentally different across various factions within the Trump administration

"Let's weaken their negotiating position by killing the people we should be negotiating with" is some Crusader Kings-ass strategy here

Such a perfect example of Pundit Brain at work: Harper says he always knew Trump was lying about being the peace candidate — but still turned that into criticism of Harris.

these are the eyes of a man who has more Modafinil in his body than blood

US F-15E has been shotdown over Kuwait in what was likely a friendly fire incident

The "this is just a distraction!" thought-terminating brainworm is one of the most infuriating holdovers from Trump's first term.

Nothing is a distraction; they're not that disciplined or clever. Everything is important; their one strategy is to DDOS democracy and its mechanisms of accountability.

You know, I’ve been talking tonight with everybody I know in the energy industry about Iran, and to a man they’ve all now used the phrase “energy crisis“ now

Again, for emphasis: russia has not agreed to ANYTHING. Nearly 100% of the media coverage presents the current situation as: if Ukraine agrees to giving up Donbas, there will be peace. That is not the case! Stop acting as if it were.

it turns out the second order effects of Operation Midnight Hammer were revealing that GBU-57 isn't as good as we thought it was (the PRC is taking notes) and dispersing the Iranian nuclear stockpile to make it harder to secure in the event the regime collapses

The guy made one speech about the military industrial complex and people remember him as some bleeding heart liberal when he tried to gut welfare and only pushed on civil rights because the courts told him to

Eisenhower presidency really is one of the all time historiographic Houdinis

Suzy Wiles was photographed at the MAL "SCIF" during recent operations wearing an Apple watch. Wiles specifically previously had her email hacked by state actors and then her personal phone hacked.

The surface area is vast, the stakes are enormous, the situation is grim.