David Kaye

This is a lie every bit as egregious as those that were used in an attempt to justify the Iraq war. Moreso in that even more people know it is untrue.

Chotiner: It’s like the domino theory, but in reverse. Landsman: Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

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1. A short thread on a Bluesky phenomenon that might be described as "They are a dead-eyed cultist who must be cast out lest the heresy take root!" OP has blocked me for mocking them - I'd usually obscure their name but since they themselves were quote-dunking to demand someone else be blocked ...

starting to see destruction porn here and elsewhere which, as always, shows hegseth's 'destruction' but hides all the horrible 'death'

each thing hegseth says is more insane, lawless and incriminating than the last.

democratic governments set up decision-making processes to make decisions on the basis of full knowledge of risks, costs, challenges. when you adopt an ideological or personalist one where thoughtfulness is taken as disloyalty, affirmation the highest value, well you end up here, with disaster.

She Came Out of the Bathroom Naked, Employee Says Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’...

The data from your Meta Ray Bans is used to train Meta's AI, which most people don't understand means that humans are looking at the most intimate details of their lives. www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/met...

Kafka quoted at duty free

the fragrances are . . . Kafkaesque?

FT story from couple weeks back suggesting heathrow seems crowded because British and European travellers walk on opposite sides abd keep bumping into each other

consider this a timeline interruption of sorts. source: FT

this is unsurprising from a government that has a record of repressing human rights defenders and freedom of expression

Here’s the latest.

from www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

When asked about a worst-case scenario for the future of Iran, Mr. Trump said that it would probably be “you go through this and in five years you realize you put somebody in who’s no better.”

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Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye discusses U.S. strike on Iran This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on March 2, 2026.

Great questions from local news in LA as I explain all the challenges arising from this war on Iran:

Three very good threads this morning. Here is the first!

also: the framers didn't think in terms of congress' role only in the context of "offensive war".

something of a side note, but i also want to point out that, although the nuremberg charter/tribunal is popularly thought of for its war crimes prosecution, the very first ground for jurisdiction is "crimes against peace" - the illegal use of force.

historically, the us (among others of course) has expanded to breaking-point the definition of self-defense & sought to justify using force outside security council authorization. there was at least an effort at legal justification in a way understandable within the law. nothing of the sort here.

OFFS. When Iran tried to interefere in 2020, researchers caught them and called them out. Then the Benz-Weiss-Taibbi-Musk-Jordan-Trump axis labeled those researchers "censors" ... and set about defunding them and dismantling their organizations.

what we see from the trump admin is a total failure to justify on these grounds. their inarticulate sputtering about the question isn't just a failure of rhetoric; it's a demonstration that the basic requirements are not only far from being met - they know that to be the case.

the brilliance of the UN Charter's ban on and conditions for use of force -- legitimate individual or collective self-defense, or Security Council authorization -- is that it challenges governments to justify what is the most devastating use of state power. it's also intuitive.

yep, that's what i'm talking about! put that IR degree to work!

on the flipside, when all this is done (and i mean *all this*) we're going to have a lot of global (re)building to do, so understanding int'l institutions & law will be a major asset.

at least rumsfeld, himself a warmongering propagandist, had a philosophy behind his rhetoric

rubio counts on american manipulability. but when it comes to war - to americans spending 'blood & treasure' for an unjust cause, in fact a 'cause' that cannot even be explained - i think he's wrong.

my guess: this ends up as notorious as "alternative facts", it's just so absurd

Will be interesting to revisit @brianstelter.bsky.social's analysis in the coming months. There are varying degrees of media capture--even if we haven't hit full-blown Orban levels yet, plenty of evidence suggests legitimate cause for concern. I do hope my critique proves to be entirely unfounded.

insane

Guerre au Moyen-Orient : l’Espagne interdit aux États-Unis d’utiliser deux de ses bases dans l’offensive en Iran et prend ses distances avec la France, l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni L’Espagne refuse l’utilisation de deux de ses bases militaires par les États-Unis dans l’offensive en cours contre l’Iran. Quinze avions ravitailleurs américains ont quitté les deux bases. Madrid prôn...

Spain refuses to allow the US to use two of its military bases in the ongoing offensive against Iran. Fifteen American tanker aircraft left both bases. Madrid advocates de-escalation and dialogue, standing out from its European partners.

the question I have for mainstream media oped page editors and elite orgs: do you have red lines for whom you won’t platform?

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.