Don Moynihan

Just to recap from my soda-straw perspective:
My government started a war of choice that led to my home being bombarded by missiles and drones depleting our air defenses which they refuse to resupply while telling us to evacuate after our airspace was shut because their war put us in danger

The tariff decision was like 10 days ago

“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”

How Wesley Hunt of Texas Is Working in Plain Sight With Outside Groups

A remarkable level of flouting of the remaining campaign finance rules, as everyone now knows enforcers are sleeping and SCOTUS will shrug away what’s left at some point

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...

Israel simply does not have the power to force the US government to do something it does not want to do. What Rubio is doing here, by claiming Israel forced the US hand, is making Israel the scapegoat for a US policy he knows is unpopular. This framing is going to be so bad for Diaspora Jews.

Kash Patel’s latest firings ousted agents with expertise in Iran The FBI director gutted a specialized, global espionage unit of counterintelligence agents, just days before Operation Epic Fury.

Patel "targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran" days before the US attacked Iran.
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...

When you start a war with a country of 90 million but without a compelling or agreed-upon explanation as to why

It is important to note at this point that while FBI employees are not civil servants in the classic sense, senior FBI employees enjoy “for cause” protection, i.e. they can only be fired for “misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer of function.” (See Peyton Baker for a longer discussion of the unusual and opaque nature of FBI personnel processes). And Patel promised Senators in confirmation hearings that he would not politicize the FBI, saying: “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI.” He also testified that “personnel decisions should be based on performance and adherence to the law.”

It's illegal and Patel told Senators at his confirmation hearings that any personnel actions would be based on merit
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...

Dr: “I was wrong a study on racial disparities”

“In health care until the White House cut the funding”

Other doctor says “yeah, you are not alone”

The Pitt on research funding cuts in health care

Reminder, this is all illegal.

worst free agent contracts in NFL history. Kirk Cousins is No. 1.

Cousins remains the greatest pure money maker in American sports history. Never been good. Never won anything. Career earnings of $322 million.

Prediction: this will not go well for all concerned.

Rubio and Mike Johnson today said that Israel was going to attack, which made US involvement a fait accompli.
NYT reporting portrayed Netanyahu as the key decisionmaker, able to get Trump on board.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-reason...

he blocked me both on Twitter and here. I will simply have to wait for his next memoir (fourth? fifth?) to find out what he is up to

I've radically revised and expanded this piece to try to keep up with the torrent of bullshit coming from the administration.

The key point remains: there was no imminent threat to America. This is a war of choice lacking a single compelling justification.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-reason...

It’s been a while, so quote this skeet with your favourite $20 dollar word.

I’m going to start in hopes you all y’all escalate:

- inchoate
- perfunctory
- epiphenomenal

Now you all y’all go:

No warning, no siren: six US service members killed in Iranian strike that hit makeshift operations center in Kuwait | CNN Politics The first US service members to die in the conflict between the US and Iran were killed by a direct Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday morning local...

Why do I have the sense that the administration is trying to soft pedal a mass casualty incident?

www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/p...

thats fair. Trump and Hegseth have said its a war. I have not seen White House statements describe it that way, presumably because this weakens their claims to not be violating the War Powers Resolution.

OPERATION EPIC FURY!!! not even a smol war

I have to say the Post chose a hell of a moment to lay off all their foreign correspondents

This shitty culture destroyed a generation of centrist intellectuals and weakened our defenses against fascism.

website with a list of tech competences

"U.S.A.I.D. said the work “requires subject matter expertise,” even as it included the clause “the contractor must preclude anyone with previous U.S.A.I.D. experience from recruitment.”" The $150 million contract went to an org, 2TechJV, that does not list development expertise as a competence.

The government has specifically precluded former U.S.A.I.D. employees from working for a contractor who is winding down the remaining programs, grants and contracts that the Trump administration abruptly ended a year ago. The reason: to “avoid the risk of impaired objectivity,” according to a Jan. 6 memo from the agency’s chief terminations officer, obtained by The New York Times. Bringing on a new work force to finish the job will inject “fresh, independent viewpoints,” the memo said.

“fresh, independent viewpoints,” is one way to justify hiring people who won't know what they are doing amidst a labor market full of very well qualified people www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...

Sounds like they're taking advice from Putin:

Govt officials & pundits blustering about it can call it a war, people questioning govt actions should not call it a war.

Also, when you attack a country just try saying the other country started it first, some people will go along with it!

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 25A914 NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, ET AL. v. MICHAEL WILLIAMS, ET AL. ON APPLICATION FOR STAY No. 25A915 PETER KOSINSKI, ET AL. v. MICHAEL WILLIAMS, ET AL. ON APPLICATION FOR STAY [March 2, 2026] The applications for stay presented to JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR and by her referred to the Court are granted. The January 21, 2026 order entered by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, Index No. 164002/2025, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the New York state courts and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the issuance of the mandate of this Court.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN and JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting from grant of stay. The Court's 101-word unexplained order can be summarized in just 7: "Rules for thee, but not for me." Time and again, this Court has said that federal courts have limited jurisdiction. Time and again, this Court has said that federal courts should not interfere with state-court litigation. Time and again, this Court has said that federal courts should not meddle with state election laws ahead of an elec-tion. Today, the Court says: except for this one, except for this one, and except for this one. Ignoring every limit on federal courts' authority, the Court takes the unprecedented step of staying a state trial court's decision in a re-districting dispute on matters of state law without giving the State's highest court a chance to act. Because that order violates basic principles of jurisdiction, federalism, and equity, I respectfully dissent.

BREAKING: SCOTUS blocks New York state court redistricting order, over the strong dissent of the Democratic appointees.

Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families Difficult budget decisions in a number of states are threatening vital programs for disabled people at home and caregivers in the workforce.

States have started proposing steep reductions in disability services to cope with Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Idaho is the first to suggest scrapping home care altogether — An action with a high human cost. My latest @19thnews.org.

TCW recurring nightmare
bsky.app/profile/donm...

I hate cancel culture, which I define as the spreading of damaging falsehoods about people. That’s why i’m on X where that never happens and certainly is not the entire purpose of the social network under Elon Musk bsky.app/profile/donm...

BREAKING: Credible whistleblower discloses that FBI forensic experts were ordered to stand down from processing the scene where Renee Good was killed, because Kash Patel did not want Good referenced as a “victim” in the warrant.

Turns out Iran is not Venezuela

"Hayes" - thats Irish right? Weren't the Irish Nazi collaborators sir?