Josh Chafetz

On some level, I know that if people like us don't buy the first book in a series when it comes out, there wont be second & third books, but on another level, I'm so tempted to just be 5 years behind in my reading so I can read series all at once ...

It's so good, right?

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Our goal is to make sure Iran cannot become again the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

WELKER: Does the the president have a plan to guarantee that happens?

GRAHAM: No. It's not his job.

The Department of Education has hung a massive banner honoring a racist college dropout who built a lucrative career out of targeting professors for harassment

“.. The attack came despite U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran’s forces were unlikely to pose an immediate threat to the U.S. mainland within the next decade.”

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

okay, good for you

If by "there" you mean roughly 35 miles away in a different city in a different county, then yes.

what the fuck are you talking about? it's a goddamn restaurant review, which one click would have told you.

The Best New Reason to Visit the Barbecue Capital of Texas

want www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/d...

I suspect there is gender stuff happening too? Honest salt of the earth plumbers with proper views are 100% male, by stipulation.

Senator Tim Kaine to CNN: “I'm on two committees that give me access to a lot of classified information.

“There was no imminent threat from Iran to the United States that warrants sending our sons and daughters into yet another war in the Middle East.”

Texas has some incredible cities, which are just as Democratic as cities are everywhere else in the country, for one thing.

how tedious of you

The Best New Reason to Visit the Barbecue Capital of Texas

want www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/d...

Sorry, I should have specified that the person zooming in in the NYT excerpt is Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas

(FWIW, I tried to find a Dem senator as liberal as Lee is conservative, based on DW-NOMINATE dimension 1 scores. Unfortunately, there is no Dem senator as liberal as Lee is conservative, so I went with the closest.)

Can you imagine if Sonia Sotomayor zoomed into a meeting from Liz Warren's office? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

Relatedly, if someone *is* invoking Libya, important to ask whether they are actually implying that the Libya stuff was legal—or are trying to obscure such questions by making some kind of point about hypocrisy.

because it would be stupid to cite an illegal thing as support for an illegal thing.

CNN's @natashabertrand.bsky.social reporting rumored rationale that Iran was about to strike us first, preemptively, is not accurate to US sources she's spoken with.

VERY important because that would be a reason to not go to Congress first - imminent threat to US forces.

But note that the memo explicitly finds that the Geneva Convention *does* apply w/r/t the war in Afghanistan.

I thought they denied that AQ was a lawful combatant. Didn’t Taliban prisoners get treated as POWs?

Does international law specify the wording such declarations must use?

The Constitution just says, “The Congress shall have power … to declare war.” It doesn’t say what form that has to take, and it’s in Art. I, Sec. 8, the rest of which is effectuated through normal legislation.

Honestly, there’s no real difference between something styled a “declaration of war” and something styled an AUMF. The meaningful difference is going to Congress or not.

We seem to have collectively decided, gradually and mostly out of apathy, that presidents can launch flagrantly unconstitutional wars of choice without congressional approval and there just won’t be any consequences. Would be nice if this is where we start reversing the trend.

One very minor silver lining: this war is incredibly unpopular across the political spectrum and it is extremely unlikely that we will see the kind of civil society mobilizations on par with the post-9/11 hysteria.

OCASIO-CORTEZ STATEMENT ON TRUMP'S COMBAT OPERATIONS IN IRAN "The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic. "Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead.President Trump flippantly acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, stating "that often happens in war.' "Mr. President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people. "Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region and this will be no different. "In moments of war, our Constitution is unambiguous: Congress authorizes war. The President does not. I will do my part to uphold our Constitution by voting YES on Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie's War Powers Resolution. Every member of Congress must join us in rejecting this aimless war.

My statement on President Trump’s combat operations in Iran⬇️

Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "If there was ever a time for Republicans to find their spines, it's now, when the Commander in Chief readily admits that he is choosing to put our troops' lives at risk without a legitimate imminent threat to our homeland or our citizens."