Ben Friedman

Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told

The war on drugs keeps getting more literal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

This is extremely similar to what Duterte did in the Philippines. Killing of supposed drug dealers without due process. Dictator level stuff, scary.

Terror on The High Seas In the latest migration of a term with lethal consequences, "terrorism" is a pretext for murdering 11 people in international waters

I wrote in my book that "Trump had learned the foremost lesson of 9/11: the terrorists were whomever you said they were." Now "terrorism" is what he's using to apparently provoke a war with Venezuela.

Macron says 26 countries pledge troops as a reassurance force for Ukraine after fighting ends French President Emmanuel Macron says that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.

I can't speak for Ukraine, but the fact that Europeans feel compelled to call their proposed force for post-war Ukraine a "reassurance" force suggests it is not gonna be backed by a credible threat and won't be reassuring at all.

apnews.com/article/russ...

Along with Trump and Rubio, the bipartisan empowerment of presidents to blow up whoever they want by calling them terrorists is the big culprit here.

The purpose of attacking the ship seems to be to pretend are a we're at war with criminals and Venezuela, not to stop drugs or terrorism. In that sense it's a big escalation over the worst belligerence of the drone wars.

US military kills 11 people in strike on alleged drug boat from Venezuela, Trump says The U.S. military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics, President Donald Trump said, in the first known operation since his administration's recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.

Blowing up a boat and killing 11 people and in the name of stopping a drug shipment is a depraved act of needless violence. If it's a drug shipment, stop it with the Coast Guard.
www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Muslim Brotherhood terror designation ‘in the works,’ Rubio says “As long as Hamas exists, there will be no peace in Gaza,” the U.S. secretary of state told the radio host Sid Rosenberg.

This news is a throwback to the aughts, with Marco Rubio doing his best to resurrect the dumbest parts of the war on terror, conflating Islamism and terrorism.
www.jns.org/muslim-broth...

Law Firms That Settled With Trump Are Pressed to Help on Trade Deals

Despite everything autocratic thing that's happened this year, it's still shocking to me that these huge law firms are agreeing to be subordinated to Trump: working pro bono on an insane protectionist agenda. Corrupt, autocratic, and barely even a scandal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/u...

Even before Alaska summit, Putin is redrawing global order to his liking The Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin represents a return to great-power politics in which big countries call the shots.

This article asserts baselessly that Putin is already reordering the world in Russia's favor just by having a summit with Trump. The implication is Russia isn't a major power unless we treat it as one, an idea Ukraine war should have disabused people of.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Is starvation in Gaza really Israel's fault? The facts are clear Rising starvation in Gaza may have a number of factors. But Israel's wartime policies on humanitarian aid are inarguably among them.

For @forward.com, I wrote about how we know that Israel has been withholding food as a military tactic because Israeli officials have said versions of “we are withholding food as a military tactic” for the entirety of the war and pretending otherwise is willful ignorance forward.com/opinion/7586...

This suggests the opportunity for an off-ramp, which may be facilitated by Israel running low on a few key things, and thus willing to quit after they hit a few more militarily useless targets in a bank-shot attempt to destabilizie the Iranian government.

Live Updates: Iran Fires Missiles at U.S. Base in Qatar

Both the US strikes on Iran and their retaliation today seem partly theatrical. The US didn't do the sustained campaign likely in the can to really cripple Iranian nuclear weapons program, and the Iranians shot at well-defended bases with warning.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

Trump’s Iran Choice: Last-Chance Diplomacy or a Bunker-Busting Bomb

This binary view is wrong. The third choice is to live with Iran as a nascent nuclear weapons state, as we've been doing for a while, or fully nuclear one, and pressure Israel to not destabilize the situation by bombing.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/u...

Under no circumstances should we get sucked into Israel's preventive war on Iran, which will likely prove counterproductive. The question is how bad it gets.

US begins evacuating Mideast embassies, army bases as Iran nuclear talks come to a head CENTCOM chief shelves Senate testimony as nonessential embassy staff, troops' dependents depart region; Iranian defense minister threatens to strike US bases amid stalled talks

If Israel bombs Iran in an attempt to kibosh US negotiations and drag us into a war, can we stop underwriting their military? Or at least acknowledge we shouldn't pay them to screw us? www.timesofisrael.com/us-begins-ev...

As Trump Seeks Iran Deal, Israel Again Raises Possible Strikes on Nuclear Sites

Long and short of this is Israel is considering striking Iran in order to screw up US diplomacy and expecting US help if they do. What is stronger than chutzpah? www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/u...

How U.S. cuts in Somalia could imperil the fight against al-Shabab Somalia’s government has increasingly turned to Turkey to repel al-Shabab, as America’s diminished focus on Africa scrambles global power dynamics.

News article advocating endless US war in Somalia, in part by overstating Al Shabab's threat to the west. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Hamas Says Witkoff Personally Promised to Lift Gaza Blockade in Exchange for Edan Alexander The U.S. immediately broke the deal, senior Hamas official Basem Naim tells Drop Site. “They threw it in the trash” and there has been “zero” progress on a Gaza ceasefire.

If Trump indeed agreed to get the last US hostage freed in exchange for getting the blockade of Gaza lifted and then ignored the obligation, it's no favor to the remaining hostages. If the US won't honor its own agreement, who will push Israel to honor theirs? www.dropsitenews.com/p/witkoff-ha...

Trump’s gifted Qatari 747 would be a security problem, officials say The Qatari luxury jet offered to Trump is in San Antonio, Texas, suggesting that improvements to the plane may already be underway. But officials have raised security concerns.

It's very DC to treat this Qatar aircraft gift, which is potential (arguably open) corruption of US foreign policy as primarily a security problem because of bugs and so forth.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Trump administration will accept a luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One Trump is expected to discuss arrangements for the plane during his visit to Qatar this week, one source said.

Is Trump being bribed by Qatar good because it somewhat reduced the odds of a war with Iran? www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

It's confusing, but for the US it's a win if we are quitting a failing little war and letting Israel fight its own battles.

The Houthis are denying the deal and Oman confirming it? But no one is saying they agreed to stop shooting missiles at Israel, just ships (maybe US ships, maybe all ships).

US to stop strikes on Houthis in Yemen | CNN Politics President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US would “stop the bombings” against the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen, after the Houthis told the US that “they don’t want to fight anym...

Seems like Trump either jumped the gun, prematurely announcing Houthi deal before it was finalized or threw Israel under the bus by making a separate peace with the Houthis just as their fight with the Houthis escalates, or both.
www.cnn.com/2025/05/06/p...

A political prisoner in other words.

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News BREAKING NEWS: Hegseth Blasts Media Over Signal Story At White House Easter Egg Roll

Some real Kenny Powers energy from Hegseth here.
youtu.be/vf7-d9mIGvA?...

Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels The administration has increased surveillance flights over Mexico as it tries to track the powerful cartels that dominate the fentanyl trade.

Is there anyone in or out of the Trump administration who truly believes that drone strikes on cartels would work to limit fentanyl flows or really in any sense beyond just showing that we remain committed to illegal and unpredictable violence?
www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

Make him veto it!

Trying unsuccessfully to open shipping lanes. But yes it's ironic for him to promote free trade.

U.S. Strikes in Yemen Burning Through Munitions With Limited Success In just three weeks, the Pentagon has used $200 million worth of munitions in Operation Rough Rider against the Houthi militia, officials said.

Bear in mind this is not being done to defend core US interests but rather to reduce increased shipping costs, which mostly fall on non-American consumers, and to defend Israel from a failed Houthi effort to coerce it into not starving Gaza. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/u...