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Bombing alone cannot end Iran’s nuclear program. As SecDef Robert Gates warned over a decade ago, attacking Iran “would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable. They would just bury the program deeper and make it more covert.” 1/n

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

"It would be hard to envision what circumstances do not amount to war that Congress must authorize if using military force in Iran in this set of circumstances does not reach that threshold" Brian Egan, ex-DOS Legal Adviser, NSC Legal Adviser & @tessbridgeman.bsky.social ex-NSC Deputy Legal Adviser

submitted 2 days ago • 10 comments

Bluesky is full of agitated people giving advice that will get you killed or might, MIGHT, result in your acquittal after the complete destruction of your life. Real life ain’t a flame war, kids.

submitted 2 days ago • 223 comments

In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I made “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today.

submitted 2 days ago • 202 comments

What fucking NSC, it’s just Rubio hopping from seat to seat like a fucking Mr. Bean skit.

submitted 3 days ago • 44 comments

This is an absolute betrayal of promises made by Congress to protect the people who protected American soldiers. A betrayal by people who think American greatness is based on half-assed military parades rather than being a credible ally to those that risked their lives for America.

submitted 3 days ago • 129 comments

Please read and share this statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, children of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. (via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)

submitted 3 days ago • 450 comments

Not now, toxic invasive hammerhead flatworms We are busy

submitted 3 days ago • 7 comments

Kind of stunning how much less stable the world has gotten in fully less than a week

submitted 3 days ago • 25 comments

A top staffer to Sen. Tina Smith emailed Sen. Mike Lee’s top staffers on Monday about “how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend” Full emails below

submitted 3 days ago • 764 comments

The Minnesota assassin appears to be a hate-filled right winger. So can we stop walking on eggshells about MAGA's legitimization of political violence? Yes, Republicans have also been the target of inexcusable violence, but this isn't a "both sides" issue. 1/ A🧵on the danger.

submitted 4 days ago • 325 comments

Hello from Berlin where a few hundred Americans are outside the embassy, currently reading aloud from the Declaration of Independence. #nokings

submitted 6 days ago • 482 comments

Imagine Ted Cruz being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed in Texas by the Feds during a Mayorkas presser in Dallas. While Mayorkas declares the liberation of Texas from its incompetent state government by the federal government.

submitted 7 days ago • 47 comments

The JCPOA was very good, actually.

submitted 7 days ago • 13 comments

BREAKING: Judge Breyer orders Trump to return control of the National Guard back to California, saying the call-up was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 7 days ago • 214 comments

Knowing what I know, I don't see these strikes meaningfully putting Iran's program back (I suppose you can quibble about what meaningful constitutes for Netanyahu). Iran will strike back and odds of a political choice to leave the NPT/take other steps have gone up.

submitted 7 days ago • 11 comments

We drill into military officers that Members of Congress have Constitutional oversight rights, Members outrank four-stars in protocol, and even Congressional staffers are treated like generals/admirals. To see sworn federal officers manhandle and handcuff a U.S. Senator... I'm still shook up.

submitted 8 days ago • 54 comments

Iran has been months away from a nuclear weapon since ~2007. Whatever holds Khamenei back is political, not technical. Politics are worth keeping in mind because (1) some Iranians still oppose a bomb and (2) bombing them will settle that argument in favor of the other Iranians.

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

leftists: that thing you teach us in school to be terrified of is happening historians: that thing is definitely happening star wars: here is a beat-for-beat breakdown of how the thing happens, but with pew pew lasers. we know you watched it news outlets: these protesters are out of control

submitted 9 days ago • 100 comments

"[Researchers] spoke of the tremendous waste generated by an effort intended to save money — years of government-funded research that may never be published... But most of all, they said they worried about the people who, because of these cuts, will die."

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

this sort of gives the game away. the whole point of the LA deployment is relitigating the dispute (both political and cultural) that the right feels it lost in 2020

submitted 9 days ago • 100 comments

In Ukraine, safety tips aren’t about seatbelts or sunscreen. They’re about what to do if you’re trapped under rubble. How to pack a go-bag. Which corner of your apartment might shield you from shrapnel. No one in Paris or New York lives like this. But people in Ukraine do.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Not breaking any ground here but there’s a through line to his presidency based on his unshakable belief that all of this is his — the White House, AF1, the attorney general, the military. It shapes tons of what he does and nothing has happened to convince him it’s wrong.

submitted 9 days ago • 57 comments

The media is going to BOTH SIDES us right into martial law

submitted 10 days ago • 566 comments

Homicide rates: NY 4.5, FL 7.2 Life expectancy: NY 79, FL 76.1 Uninsured rate: NY 4.8, FL 10.7

submitted 21 days ago • 329 comments

Every year on Memorial Day, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring. They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died. France also gave us this land as American soil.

submitted 25 days ago • 1152 comments

OMG is real www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

submitted 41 days ago • 19 comments

Short thread (hopefully in plain English) on the nuclear deterrence dynamics in the India-Pakistan relationship and where this goes if escalation continues. <1>

submitted 41 days ago • 25 comments

I'll just take this moment to point out that the US Institute of Peace, just a few weeks ago, contained one of the finest concentrations of US expertise on India and Pakistan, and crisis management in South Asia.

submitted 41 days ago • 125 comments

Five former National Weather Service directors have taken the unusual step of signing onto an open letter warning that cuts to the organization by the Trump administration may soon endanger lives.

submitted 48 days ago • 89 comments

Two of the offices without senior officials are Houston and Tampa, which, whew, that’s not good. A slow moving catastrophe that won’t be widely understood until it’s too late.

submitted 49 days ago • 84 comments

April 28, 2025: Migrants are making SOS signs out of their bodies so drones can see them at our country's concentration camps.

submitted 51 days ago • 792 comments

Again. They deported an American child with cancer AGAIN.

submitted 55 days ago • 12 comments

Here is the federal complaint filed against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, along with the supporting FBI affidavit: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 56 days ago • 61 comments

Our cover this week.

submitted 57 days ago • 1318 comments

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

submitted 56 days ago • 616 comments

reporting on this has really got to get better about communicating the magnitude of the breach here. if you read the nyt article with minimal context, you would have no sense that this was watergate-level impeachable misconduct

submitted 56 days ago • 107 comments

Oh my GOD.

submitted 57 days ago • 70 comments

Oh my god this is insane - I’m struggling to find a comparison but it’s something like “the Navy cancelled all submarines”

submitted 58 days ago • 45 comments

NEW: A SECOND story was released today of a Venezuelan man disappeared by the Trump admin. Neiyerver Leon is a barber who entered legally seeking asylum in June 2023. ICE arrested him on March 13 and accused him of being in TdA. Days later, he vanished off the face of the earth.

submitted 59 days ago • 95 comments

Mind-boggling that DHS's official position on this case is genuinely that a US citizen dad from Albuquerque visiting family in Tucson went up to a Border Patrol agent and said "Hi, I'm a Mexican man who entered here illegally, please deport me." Do they think we are dumb?

submitted 60 days ago • 192 comments