Stephen Morrison

Israel launches new attacks on Tehran and Beirut, as US embassy in Riyadh hit by two drones Israel says it is hitting

Israel has used the cover of the Iran War to launch a ground invasion of “strategic parts of Lebanon”.

All part of the plan.

Scenes from a personalist regime

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.

One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

Hmm. It turns out that all those Gen X movies about high school being a nightmare were because our generation sucks.

I get the Dems always want to do health care and such, but priority number one when we have the next trifecta absolutely must be democratic reforms: add states, a national ban on gerrymandering, and (probably first) major changes to the Supreme Court. If they don't do this, nothing else will matter.

any democrat in 2028 who isn’t running on packing the court, or STRONGLY signaling that is what they’ll do, isn’t getting my vote in the primary

Screenshot of Mastodon user @scott@carfree.city writing: "As an ethical AI user, I begin each session by asking the chatbot to give a stolen data acknowledgement. It is an important first step toward justice."

Good example of the way anti-trans hate and antisemitism continue to be intertwined in American discourse. Once more subtly, now far more overtly.

This is the part where I point out that the original Nazis also blamed transness and gayness on Jews, specifically because one Jew in particular was ahead of his time on the matter, whom Hitler referred to as "the most dangerous Jew in Germany." This is not new, but it's still dangerous.

After Renee Good was killed, career FBI agents were ordered to stand down from investigating her killing.

Why?

Kash Patel wanted to falsely spin Renee Good as a threat to law enforcement.

One of my favourite sides of politics/media.

Raytheon Executive: I know you’re skeptical about buying American again. But hear me out. The MIM-104 Patriot is the only surface to air missile system with a proven track record of success against the US Air Force.

Danish Defense Minister: Continue.

THE DEATH OF US SCIENCE ☠️

Ban all sports betting.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says sports betting on Kalshi is ‘destroying lives.’ The data is on his side. Prediction markets have created a loophole that has effectively legalized gambling in Utah. There’s plenty of research to show the downsides.

"In all, for each $1 spent on online sports betting, net investments ⬇️ by 99 cents. In other words, basically all of the money people spent on sports betting didn’t replace other leisure activities or discretionary income, but ended up in less money in retirement accounts or other investments."

In a nod to the United States now being on a war footing, this afternoon President Trump is playing golf with his camouflage clubs.

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream? With the rise of influencer Clavicular and ‘looksmaxxers’, sexist language from niche memes has infiltrated official government accounts and NYT headlines

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream?

Trump assumes voters will reflexively see everything through the lens of zero sum conflict, because he does. But what if we're seeing a cultural shift in the other direction, in favor of immigration, trade, and positive-sum economic interdependence? 5/

newrepublic.com/article/2071...

The Supreme Leader insisted on not taking special security measures even though he knew the attacks were about to start and was killed in his home. He wanted to die this way.

The concept of martyrdom is an extremely potent, galvanizing force in Shia and Iranian culture.

A list of news outlets and social media sites whose billionaire owners, investors or parent companies also have U.S. government defense contracts:

Axios
CBS
NBC
The Washington Post
TikTok
YouTube
X
Soon: CNN

As a Gen-Xer, I came of political age with the Iranian hostage crisis, the failed October surprise, and a split screen of Reagan getting inaugurated and the hostages coming home with all my schoolmates saying they were freed because Reagan was so tough. Sigh.

Screenshot of New York Times website February 27, 2028. Highlighting the headline: In Trump's Case for War With Iran, a Series of False or Unproven Claims: Key elements of the Trump administration’s arguments this week for another military campaign against Iran do not hold up. With red underlines under "False or Unproven Claims" and "do not hold up."

Good job, New York Times. Directly calling Trump's case for war with Iran based on "false" claims that "do not hold up." In the headline, top of the homepage. And no hedging with "critics say."

I don't think they ever did that in the lead up to Iraq, and rarely do anything like it for Trump's lies.

Lionel Hutz from the simpsons editing a business card which reads "PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST - NO MORE FOREVER WAR" to read "PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? NO, MORE FOREVER WAR"

We had a deal to keep Iran from getting nukes!

Trump backed out of it because he wanted to own Obama. Iran kept following its end of the deal for a year anyway, begging Trump to reenter the deal.

Trump literally backed out of the no nukes deal and then initiated a war because of nukes. Insanity.

I love that we all know 90 percent of them will flip on a dime now, from “trump won’t send your sons to war” (like it’s only sons) to “trump is sending your sons to war and that’s good.”

The thing about Republican voters is that they are very stupid.

For shame, sir.

I'm redeploying all of our brave boys to Jupiter, for the mission-critical purposes of getting more stupider

I'm afraid "malicious moron" doesn't actually narrow it down that much with this administration, but I'm glad you got it anyway!

For what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos.