Sunny Sunday Afternoon

21%

You can - and we have, somewhat, lately - get more than 21% on the side of infectious diseases. 

I suspect the view of the 21% will be disproportionately represented in our finest news outlets, though perhaps not quite as much as usual.

Pew Pew Pew

War does, of course, have serious consequences.

Few pretend they think of Palestinians as anything other than subhuman, but now that we are back, sort of, sometimes, in the peeance and freeance game...

Gravitas

The entire Discourse leading up to the Iraq war was just theater, of course. The war was inevitable and the Decider had already Decided.

Still "we" at least took, or pretended to take, the view that going to war was a serious endeavor with serious consequences.

 

A lot of that was, in part, self-important people imagining that newspaper columnists were the real protagonists of history. This was serious because they were serious people writing serious columns about serious things. 

Still it was seen as serious.

Decades later, it is all just pew pew pew.

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Evening

Enjoy

Illegal Wars

The perfect sweet spot for a certain type of hawkish centrist. They get to signal oppositij (to the process) while supporting the actions.

Confidence Inspiring

Almost like the good old days when Bush was "clearing brush" at the "Western White House."

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine are monitoring the U.S. operation in Iran from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Trump is currently located, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

No Choice But To Print His Next Statement Without Any Skepticism

 (Not a criticism of these reporters, just the general tendency to headline Elon's bullshit uncritically)

In 2020, Elon Musk announced he was moving to Texas from California and embarking on a personal austerity campaign to strip his life of belongings.

“I am selling almost all physical possessions,” he posted on social media. “Will own no house.”

But in the years since, Mr. Musk, 54, has quietly built an empire of more than 90 companies and other legal entities in Texas, which have amassed a vast collection of assets, according to an examination by The New York Times.

Mushroom Clouds

The lesson the hawks learned from the Bush years is don't bother putting in any effort.

Trump has claimed Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the US. Sources say that’s not backed up by US intelligence

I bet all the "centrist hawks" are mad. This should have been their moment to raise their profiles, get those book deals.  You know, man who has never been to Iran explains Iran. 

Morning

War on

Friday Evening

Busy busy 

Afternoon

Enjoy

Shooting Our Own Dudes

The "scary Mexican drone" thing is just some nonsense, but they have all cooked their brains on their own bullshit.

The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.

Threatening? 

Policy Ideas

Yes we know that wealth taxes are UNPOSSIBLE so how about my little idea of a kajillion % tax on private passenger jet flights.

Somewhat kidding, but I used to think that the fact that 1st class passengers had so share some indignities with the rest of us would minimize those indignities somewhat.

Now the actually rich, and Trump officials, fly private.

This isn’t just about air travel.

Weird

These 18.5 minute gaps just keep happening.

The lobbying company founded by Lord Mandelson discovered during an internal investigation that a “significant” tranche of his business emails was missing.

Global Counsel conducted an internal audit of Mandelson’s company emails after the government agreed this month to release tens of thousands of messages relating to his time as the British ambassador to the US.

The company was concerned about what would be published about its own business interests under the mass disclosure, and conducted the audit as part of a due diligence process.

The investigation was still going on when the company went into administration last week but an initial report said that significant numbers of emails were missing from Mandelson’s account. The company does not know how the emails came to to be missing.

The emails that have been kept include a series of exchanges with senior officials and ministers in government, relating directly to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador.

Morning

Filthy Friday

Happy Hour

earned mine

Bad Blogging Day

Have some unpleasant life things keeping me busy at the moment.

Even The Centrists

The value of centrist-coded people saying this stuff is that leadership can't try to wave it away as some "left wing bluesky thing" which they have wants to do (resistance is fading, however).