@asharangappa.bsky.social
Fmr FBI Special Agent, lawyer, @JacksonYale. Tiger(ish) mom. Legal and national security analyst. Editor @just_security. Steam mop influencer. Views mine. https://asharangappa.substack.com
#ICEOut ‼️
"Right now, [Cambridge is] one of the few institutions where we still have the political oxygen to do this work.
... the fact that we are being threatened means that our work matters. ... So, we convene to continue our work."
ccodactivity.substack.com/p/discussing...
Steps in Trump war rhetoric:
1. We don’t have to play by the rules in war
2. We won the war
3. If you go by the rules I just made up we won
4. No fair
The is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled.
A truly extraordinary moment.
We aren't on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.
Act like it.
Pete Hegseth is openly calling on Trump-friendly oligarchs to take over the media while unshackling the military from the "rules of engagement" he hates so much. What he really wants is a world in which horrors like the school bombing don't ever fully come to light.
newrepublic.com/article/2077...
“So damaged is the department’s reputation for truth telling at this point, one judge noted despairingly, that ‘the court is left with little confidence’ that government lawyers ‘can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”’
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/o...
Inside the Department of War are two wolves:
"We've shut down the Colleges of War because book learnings are woke, gay, and irrelevant to war fighting."
"How come no one told us the Strait is important, there are different kinds of Kurds, Iran is big, and air power historically doesn't win wars?"
Americans are dying so that Kushner can make money
New: A federal judge in Boston has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending legal protections next week that have allowed nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. www.reuters.com/world/us-jud...
Ossoff: "The WH put out a video depicting this war as a video game. When service members are returning in flag-draped coffins, & even more have lost limbs or suffered brain injuries or are fighting for their lives, this WH treats war like a game. It's a disgrace. And it speaks to a moral rot."
We simply cannot survive as a society or a democratic polity with ~40% of the population not paying taxes.
We certainly can't have a Scandinavian-style welfare state, as Bernie Sanders pretends he wants, as he co-sponsors bills like these.
Per @socio-steve.bsky.social: bsky.app/profile/soci...
The latest step, and a major one, in the Trump administration’s consistent efforts to keep the Russian army in the field against Ukraine.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/u...
Too much to keep track of, but don't sleep on AG Bondi's new proposed rule that would let DOJ lawyers avoid key ethics checks that prohibit lying to court. Ratcheting up the assault on courts & the reality-based world at the same time. Mine in today's NYT. (Gift Link)
Those little girls didn't stand a chance!
I feel like there’s an important word being ignored here.
I hope the first thing this task force does is inform Pete Hegseth about what happens in the war colleges he's never attended - or apparently, even visited - because all this stuff isn't it.
He has no idea what he's talking about here, but that's no surprise.
It’s just a video game to them so they burn through real world supply like it’s replenished after earning enough game stats.
ICE detained a 9-year-old with severe autism and his mom for more than 80 days.
The boy depends on daily therapy, but at Dilley, those supports vanished.
Unable to understand why they couldn’t go home, he would cry through the night and hit himself, his mother told me.
My latest for @nbcnews.com
Defense secretary openly states that a pro-Trump billionaire taking over a news network (following regulatory help from the administration) will result in coverage more favorable for the administration.
One of the problems in a concentration camp regime is that institutions tend to respond to authority the way they always have, and are often incapable of shifting gears to acknowledge in any panoramic way exactly how bad the situation as a whole has become.
The Pentagon dismantled its civilian protection effort as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made “lethality” a top priority and the Trump administration reorganized national security around two principles: more aggression, less accountability.
Murphy: I have great sympathy for our soldiers and our military leaders they are being given directions by a senile old man who is losing his mind. And so it's no surprise that this war is going horribly
#BREAKING Federal prosecutors in Chicago drop charges against Catherine Sharp and Joselyn Walsh, two of the so-called "Broadview Six" ICE protesters who were indicted for conspiracy.
They either didn't know Iran would shut down the Strait of Hormuz or they knew and didn't have a plan.
Either way - just totally clear they don't give a damn about what this war means for hardworking Americans.
The juvenile trolls didn't get it, but their bowling analogy is perfect.
The ball hits the first pin straight on. That's not how you get a strike. That's how you get an almost-impossible-to-solve split.
Their own metaphor predicts a quagmire.
We literally killed Iran’s leader
I keep seeing people ask about the 25th Amendment.
Guys. His entire Cabinet is walking around in shoes that don’t fit because they’re scared to take them off.
The 25th is never happening.
1. Trump was told a war could trigger oil shocks, especially at home, where the affordability issue is rapidly eating the heart out of his presidency. But risks were “downplayed,” the Times said, in favor of a plan to “decapitate” Iran.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...
In South Burlington, Vermont, protesters are being tear-gassed by ICE and local police as they attempt to prevent a kidnapping.
