I'm not sure we're really "in" Iran now?
Monday, July 20, 2026
Piss Christ
A New York sculptor has been left furious after spending $100,000 of his own money to build a lifesize statue of Charlie Kirk, only to find that no one wants to buy it.
Sergio Furnari, originally from Italy, had hoped the statue of the deceased far-right activist, which he intends to display in Times Square, would raise “millions” of dollars. Instead, he said he has been inundated by messages from people saying they intend to urinate on the sculpture.
Reading the rest of the article, it's just a pure grift attempt but he wasn't quick enough.
Hiding the Consequences
Again, the New York Times is reporting this, but are we going to have full coverage on the Islamophobia Hour with Troop Respecter Jake Tapper (for example)? He made Troop Respecting one of his brand$, so I would expect him to be very mad about this stuff!
Central Command has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason, U.S. officials say.
In the days since the collapse of a fragile truce, the Pentagon has provided little information about the American military strategy after nearly five months of war. The last major Pentagon briefing on the war was in early May.
In the past several months, the Trump administration has failed to disclose how the Iran war has drained U.S. supplies of critical, costly weapons, and how Iran retained and rebuilt substantial missile capabilities.
The subject of American casualties in the war is similarly sensitive. The deaths of two Army soldiers in Jordan on Friday and another service member in northern Iraq bring to 17 the total number of American military personnel killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
The Pentagon’s casualty reporting protocols call for publicly identifying deceased service members only after 24 hours have passed since next of kin were notified. The names of troops wounded in action are not typically released.
"Meddling"
Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and the various party organizations are not (in theory) in charge of selecting primary candidates. In practice things aren't so neat and nobody really denies that, but it does mean that they shouldn't be handed the presumption of power over the issue, either by journalists or, of course, themselves.
Sen. Bernie Sanders had just announced his intent to unseat a sitting House Democrat — this time, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus from North Carolina — when Rep. Hakeem Jeffries decided it was time to confront Sanders himself.The House Democratic leader warned Sanders against meddling in House primaries, particularly one involving a Black Democrat, in such a critical midterm election year, according to three Democrats familiar with the conversation.“He seemed to not care,” Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, a Jeffries ally who was also on the call, said of Sanders, recalling the previously unreported phone call. The intervention from those powerful Washington Democrats came just before incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee edged out her challenger, Nida Allam, in the March primary.
There is the norm of House members not trying to other House incumbents, and the same for Senators and the Senate, but we have recent examples of House members supporting challenges against sitting Senators. Such as:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Rep. Joe Kennedy in his Senate challenge Thursday, a surprise move that could provide a significant boost over incumbent Democratic Sen. Ed Markey as the contentious Massachusetts race comes to a close in less than two weeks.
Pelosi wasn't just some backbencher. She was (as it says) Speaker!
Also this is internalizing some assumptions that aren't always true:
At the heart of the debate: whether to nominate candidates more friendly to the party establishment and seen as wooing swing voters, or to pick democratic socialists or further-left progressives who can energize a restive party base but who risk alienating independents.
Amusingly, the problem is actually right there in the text. I am open to the idea that candidates who are more "centrist" in some sense are better able to woo swing voters (though this is very debatable!), but there is basically no reason to think candidates who are "more friendly to the party establishment" are better able to do that.
The "party establishment" is notable for its ability to woo donors! These are not the same things.
17
During Afghanistan/Iraq, there were various ways in which the the magnitude and impact of US military deaths were minimized, but there was still a general weepy "our brave boys are sacrificing for our country" sentiment conveyed. Now it seems like none of this is real at all, as generally presented in The Discourse.
17 U.S. service members have been killed since the war in Iran began.I am obviously not saying "the news isn't covering this." I just linked to the news covering this! But there is a way that things can dominate and set the tone of coverage, or not, and "US service members are dying" is not currently dominating coverage.
Going Well
Lindsey Graham would have enjoyed all of this so much.
DUBAI, July 20 (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia effective immediately, their military spokesperson said in a televised speech.The militant group announced "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of 'an eye for an eye' effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement."
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Conservatives Are The Same Everywhere
Not sure if that is comforting or enraging.
A senior German politician and ally of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has resigned as parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party after he and his husband used a surrogate mother to become parents, a practice he has criticised in the past and his party is vehemently opposed to.Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy Jens Spahn refused to relax when he was health minister in 2020, so he and his husband, Daniel Funke, used a surrogate mother in the US.
"Resolve"
That was a favorite word of W.
Godspeed, heroes,” Hegseth wrote on X while reposting a news release about the service member deaths. “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” he added.
At some point I started saying that the purpose of staying in Iraq was to kill everyone who wanted us to leave, at which point we would leave.
That was a sensible, well-defined mission compared to whatever this is.
"Stiffens our resolve" for what? To send more people to kill and die, but FOR what?
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Never Bet Against Elon
Maybe it will all collapse, finally.
About 30 per cent of the roughly 640mn SpaceX shares available to trade have been borrowed to sell short, up 10 percentage points over the past 10 days, highlighting how traders are becoming increasingly sceptical of the company’s market prospects.“Investor enthusiasm for SpaceX seems to have cooled,” said Dec Mullarkey, managing director of SLC Management. The company’s equities and bonds are suddenly “pricing in more risk”, he added....About 900mn further SpaceX shares could become available to trade as soon as next month when certain lock-up provisions for pre-IPO investors expire. Traders who doubt there is sufficient demand for the deluge of extra equity are cashing out now as a result, market participants say.“With more shares coming to market in August, [SpaceX] could announce that they’ve conquered the moon and found gold inside it and there still wouldn’t be enough money out there to buy the stock,” said the chief investment officer of a small North American hedge fund. His firm made $20mn shorting SpaceX earlier in July, he said.
This Is Excellent News For Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Mostly linking to reminisce about the several month period during which Ron was the most important politician in America.
Still immensely popular among Florida Republicans but barred by term limits from seeking reelection, DeSantis has refused to hand the baton to Donalds and has spent months publicly and privately arguing the Naples congressman is unfit to replace him. He has even shared his reservations directly with Trump, according to a person close to DeSantis with knowledge of a recent conversation between the two.
Nothing Really Matters
I won't say very many positive things about the Iraq war era, but it was the case that people treated the whole thing with a degree of gravitas, or faux gravitas at least. Sure that was also a part of the marketing myth, and a reason for self-important pundits to gaze at their reflected importance, but there was still the fading notion that going to war was a big deal. People were going to die, and that mattered.
All the cable news NATION AT WAR graphics were toxic in their own way, but at least they acknowledged that it was actually a big deal
Friday, July 17, 2026
Sure Why Not
Iran does not fit neatly into the Epcot Pavilion. It is 4 times the size of California. I suspect a land invasion would be difficult.
At Least The War Is Over
Attacks on desalanization plants are potentially catastrophic.
Iranian strikes on Friday hit a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait, damaging one of the key sources of drinking water in the small desert nation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)