I've turned all this into a post now with some added material. /7
Former glorified trash man, current glorified forklift operator. Happily crosscut. Don’t be ninjerin’ nobody who don’t need no ninjerin.’ Istud dolebitis.
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I've turned all this into a post now with some added material. /7
No, not all the JAGs (only the most senior ones—still not good). & firing all of the people who can say “X is illegal” doesn’t make X legal. It means that—absent some undisclosed information not currently available to us—at least some of the participants in this operation are legally exposed.
K, GWOT isn’t a blanket authorization to use *unprovoked* deadly force anywhere in the world. The AUMF *might* authorize interdicting the boat & *if* the crew started, say, shooting at a helicopter or something, it could *then* authorize self defense. But that ain’t what this looks like right now.
It does bear repeating that if Obama had, say, sent the Illinois National Guard to Texas, Republicans would have had a massive meltdown.
Whatever happens next, I’m sure it will be pretty stupid.
An extraordinary footnote today in a 4th Cir. decision holding, 2-1, that a man who (initially unknowingly) cooked 8,000 meals for a terrorist organization did not provide "material support" and was therefore not ineligible for asylum. www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/242...
The truth? Trump is once again tacoing because he is so weak youtu.be/y69NXtzTfV4?...
everyone should listen to the @michaelhobbes.bsky.social podcast episode about how the Population Bomb is a book about how Paul Ehrlich thinks Indian people are gross.
The state of civics knowledge in this country is a national crisis. Seriously, so much of the doomer bullshit here comes from people who do not know, at a basic, mechanical, who does the work and where level, how America works.
The Guardian - Legal experts say charges against an Afghanistan war veteran mark an escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on first amendment rights. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Of the cities I’ve been to, Boston is the only one that tracks.
I love looking at this graph, showing it to my students, and sharing it on social media, even though it unerringly brings out the trolls. This is the efficacy curve of Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine. This, people, is what ended the emergency phase of the COVID pandemic. Despite what RFK Jr says.
The United States is now Putin's deportation partner. Russian political refugees who sought safety in the U.S. are being returned on charter flights. Upon return, they face hours-long interrogations by security services. 🧵Here's what is known about the latest flight:
Weird, putting tariffs on construction materials and throwing day laborers in concentration camps should have solved the supply problem by now
The Internet always remembers, unless a high government official decides to level a takedown demand to make it forget.
I let out several different audible “NO”s during this video incredible stuff, you gotta watch the whole thing
The people who de-invented the weekend [via @chrisfreiman.bsky.social]
Once again, of the laws creating aircraft carrier-sized loopholes for the president to utter the magic words "national emergency" or "national security" & then rule like a King must go. We can have nuanced discussion about re-delegation later but not now. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Did everyone else miss the news that Trump's director of personnel failed a background check, was using a false name, was born in the Soviet Union despite claiming to be from Malta, and has now been made Ambassador to India? nypost.com/2025/06/17/u...
Results so stunningly clear they inspired this classic xkcd (xkcd.com/2400/):
Fact.
Structures in this area are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes and over a million people were exposed to strong or very strong shaking. 💔 apple.news/AhMVfWvI9TS-...
⚡️ Update: EU confirms von der Leyen’s plane hit by GPS jamming, Russian involvement suspected. "We can confirm there was GPS jamming," European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta told the media, adding that Bulgaria suspects Russia to be behind the “blatant interference.”
Trump’s meeting with Putin guarantees the war will expand and continue. Anyone selling a different story is attempting to impose intention on the Russians that simply does not exist. www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
apnews.com/article/trum... This impacts a President George W Bush program that helps rural communities in Alabama, Maine, Kentucky, Louisiana, Appalachia… @statesnewsroom.com @alabamareflector.com @kentuckylantern.com @mainemorningstar.com @lailluminator.com
This is what happens when you obliterate the presumption of regularity. Endless homework assignments because the court can't trust the government to follow orders in good faith.
www.rawstory.com/trump-infuri... lmao they’re activating them for 29 days over and over so they don’t get full active duty pay
This should be a bigger story. A government official had the YouTube channel of a private citizen shut down bc he didn’t like what that citizen was saying. This administration’s version of free speech is a joke.
Turns out the home owner friend in renting my spot in is selling the house. So I need to repair my Marley even sooner. Time to move on anyway. I think West until I hit the ocean. Any help is appreciated.
In retrospect, Trump's early move to create a sovereign wealth fund was an ominous sign of his interest in developing a sort of personal piggy bank to hold the proceeds of corporate shakedowns and expropriations [Tad DeHaven, @cato.org]
If you thought America was a country of stable and reliable property rights, Trump's team has decided to alter the deal. Pray they do not alter it any further.
Seems like something federal law enforcement resources would be better used for than random patrols on the National Mall and car checkpoints on 14th Street.
NEW -- Exactly 10 days after taking the oath early this year, Donald Trump nearly drowned dozens, potentially hundreds, of his own citizens in California’s Central Valley. Why? Because he is one of the most ignorant people you will ever meet. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
This is an extraordinary thread. Click here, but scroll back to the top. Extraordinary.
"Constant outrage is energizing, at least for a while, for partisans and activists. It’s exhausting for everyone else. The more that MAGA tries to bully America, the more resentment it will build. Bullies only win for a while, and when the backlash comes, MAGA will have only itself to blame."
⚡️ Civilian ship damaged after hitting unidentified explosive device in Black Sea near Odesa. It is reported that part of a Russian Shahed drone shot down previously detonated under the ship.
Holy shit.
“What if the Romanovs made Rasputin everyone’s doctor?”
For those keeping score at home, the Navy has sent 3 destroyers, a guided-missile cruiser, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine and an amphibious ready group with a Marine Expeditionary Unit to the southern Caribbean. New @taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-sh...
Brisket & pork belly transferred to the OG smoker. Ribs are on the pellet smoker. Cheese is out. Drink is open. This show is on the road. I’ll be by the fire. #BlueskySupperClub
On the smoker: grass fed brisket flat. On deck: pork belly.
He wasn’t some savant or genius. He was trained & he follows his training.
SoundCloud!? Tell me that you’re not responsible for any children without telling me that you’re not responsible for any children…
So you don’t know what “positive” vs. “negative” rights are. How am I not surprised? 🙄 We ALREADY know that this hurts people—*the children who are trying to use phones at school.* *By your own standards,* phones should be banned for children at school.
Who TF said anything about “enjoyed?” Children *necessarily* don’t have the same rights as adults. What specifically about the world today necessitates a positive right to cell phones that didn’t exist previously?
1. There were no phones to take away. 2. We sure as shit got in trouble for passing notes. 3. Crime rates were DOUBLE what they are today. 4. I grew up in BFE Vermont & my alcoholic bus driver almost killed us multiple times in inclement weather. IT WORKED OUT FUCKING FINE.
as a millennial with *severe* ADHD who’s been extremely online since I was like 8, I feel like I have some skin in the game here when I say that I think kids absolutely shouldn’t be allowed to use their phones at school
I’ll think on it. There have been VERY MANY bourbons between my classroom days & today for me. I’m way better at remembering broad concepts than sources. That being said, if you stumble across anything by Dr. Kirk Yeager, it’s definitely worth paying attention to.
K, great, you know what Tannerite (ammonium nitrate aluminum) is. Can you describe for me how powerful an initiator it takes to make ANAL undergo high order detonation? Also, are you familiar with the hygroscopic properties of AN?
Post-OKC, the government did a really good job of making it difficult to mix/cook effective high explosives. If you can find a recipe to make an explosive & you can get all of the stuff to do it, odds are that 1. it’s really dangerous to for you to proceed &/or 2. the end result probably sucks.
Seriously. I live by myself in a single unit house. That chore is getting finished IN THE FUCKING MORNING.
IME: there’s a whole mess of extremely effective TTPs sitting out there on the table but nobody is reaching for them because their thinking is constrained by other paradigms. One of the things that I worry about is that we’re going to nudge these assholes into getting creative.
If I think of it, I'll ask a friend who's coming over tomorrow for the recipe he's been using.
Everyone dunking on him because his dad was governor but ~actually~ when he was that age, his dad was merely secretary of state and then lieutenant governor after a legal career that had made him a multi-millionaire.
I wonder why Trump imposed secondary tariffs only on India for buying Russian oil while not caring about all the other countries who buy Russian oil?
"For This Tractor Manufacturer, Tariffs Are Making Competition Even Stiffer" www.wsj.com/articles/for... “If what we really want as a country is more U.S. manufacturing, then making it harder for people to do that seems counterproductive" 😲
"She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it." She attacked our Capitol "to stop the peaceful transfer of power, one of the most sacred traditions of our Republic." @markhertling.bsky.social, soldier and patriot, on the abomination of military honors for Ashli Babbitt
This deserves notice and applause: "2025 isn’t 1991. And although we haven’t changed [IJ's] principles in those 34 years we realize that highlighting liberalism, the rule of law, and the justice that is part of our namesake is something that makes more sense and is, frankly, more important today."
If wildfire crews, who carry out essential, demanding and apolitical jobs for which they are almost universally admired, fear being retaliated against for talking to the media, imagine the climate of fear this administration has been able to create among others who provide public services. /2, end
I appreciate the Seattle Times taking the time to report that the (presumably citizen) firefighters who watched the raid as bystanders "requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from federal agencies for talking to the media." What a commentary that makes in itself!... /1
(Not right this exact second, though.)
Steph and I are doing our part!
"US truck makers look for cover as Trump's tariffs raise costs" www.reuters.com/business/aut... "Companies with a higher manufacturing footprint in the US than in Mexico are at a relative cost disadvantage and this is the complete antithesis of what the Trump administration wants" 😲
Exactly right, @jwvizzard.bsky.social. The reason our military take their oath to the Constitution was to explicitly put loyalty to the nation above state loyalty — it’s the supremacy clause section. That was well known in 1861.
In which the President destroys our relationship with a global power and drives it into the arms of Russia because their strongman won’t help him get a Nobel Peace Prize. (Sorry, used up all my gift links this month.) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
I really wish I could send a double for annual review with Xi.
Hello serfs. In China for my annual employee review with Xi. I remain a master strategist.
House Republicans Want To Doxx Wikipedia Editors Over Bogus ‘Bias’ Complaints Congress has absolutely zero constitutional authority to investigate a private website for its editorial decisions. Zero. None. This is First Amendment 101. Yet House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and…
Impoundment is wildly unconstitutional, as even Scalia & Rehnquist long confirmed. When Nixon claimed full impoundment powers in 1973, SCOTUS shot him down 9-0, and Congress passed a statutory ban on top of the constitutional ban.
NEW from me at The Dispatch. Imagine if a president could just eliminate border spending on a whim. Or gut defense, Medicaid or veterans spending. Even defund SCOTUS after a decision, or end SocSec in blue districts. This is the power Trump seeks with impoundment. 🧵 thedispatch.com/article/trum...
Doomers: The 2026 election doesn't matter, Republicans are just going to rig the whole thing anyway Various red state republican incumbents: I'm just going to quit now because if I run in 2026 I'm going to get absolutely killed
Wrote about Comer/Mace attempting to doxx and intimidate Wikipedia editors in an effort to force their own viewpoint onto Wikipedia.
Trump take LEGO. (Let's hope the courts can use the Federal Circuit's decision as the basis for a speedy resolution of remaining procedural and merits questions that just tells him NO.)
"I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States," he declared. trib.al/WazrDdk
lol, this appellate judge just smacking Alan Dershowitz around like a little cat toy. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Absolutely bonkers personalist regime stuff www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
⚡️Ukrainian drone strikes halt operations at Russia’s Kuibyshevsk refinery, sources tell Reuters. The refinery, operated by Rosneft, saw both of its main crude distillation units — CDU-4 and CDU-5, each with a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day — taken offline in the recent strikes.
"Trump is lying about the crisis of crime. Not saying that crime isn't a problem. It's not on a level that qualifies as a crisis." -- @jonah.g.bsky.social on The Dispatch Podcast
Turns out setting up an immigration detention tent camp without legal authority in a protected swamp nature preserve with a dark sky designation, that had almost zero infrastructure, in the scorching hot Florida summer, during hurricane season, did not turn out well.
Welp guess who figured out a new way to explain bad tariff policy to his kids.
Could be an algorithm encouraging conflict to run up replies/interaction. Or some cursed combination of multiple things.
Here’s a brief explainer on free speech, flag burning, and what former Justice Antonin Scalia said he would do about flag desecration if he were king.
Honestly, I really should just delete that account like I deleted Facebook. It's done nothing for me other than send annoying notifications.
Due to my past life, LinkedIn is showing me other former bomb techs arguing with "entrepreneurs" who want to replace airport X-ray operators with AIs that *demonstrably don't work right now.* The absolute hubris of some people…
Huh. Looks like you found Justice Alito’s burner account!
If you think First Amendment protection should depend on "social value," you're gonna have a real bad time.
(It's not me that's changed) Twenty Things Republicans Once Opposed But Now Support or Accept from @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social executivefunctions.substack.com/p/twenty-thi...
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. A lot of it is dangerous to anyone who tries to follow it. There are several “better” sources in the anarchist & jihadist literature. I will not name them.
".. military leaders privately questioned whether the troops had received proper training and warned of the 'far-reaching social, political and operational' risks of aiding law enforcement, according to a Reuters review of military records .." @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/us/mil...
Don’t worry. Sooner or later, he’ll self identify.
Dude. You’re famous. You share your opinions about things. You’re *going* to be a lightning rod for dumbfucks.
That all being said, some fuzes are *designed* to hit the ground before they’re armed. Sometimes for an anti-disturbance function, sometimes for a random delay.
There’s a general trade off with explosives—sensitive explosives are not powerful, powerful explosives are not sensitive.* The way around this is an explosive chain that builds in power. For the safety of troops, fuzes USUALLY break that chain until they’re fully armed. *some exceptions apply
It’s mostly easy to figure out how things work from how they’re made. If you can do that, you can figure out how *not* to piss it off. What madeThe Blitz so dangerous for bomb disposal personnel was that the Germans were actively trying to kill BD officers so they devised a lot of booby traps.
My (army) drill sergeants circa 2006 fucking loved that movie.
My marine classmates loved Generation Kill. Personally, I find the Sergeant Major especially convincing.
Fair warning: roughly 65% of that series is the protagonist being an insufferable cryass. It can be a kinda extremely tedious getting through that to the sweet, authentic rope tricks.
It got almost everything *wrong,* but EOD technicians are deeply split on The Hurt Locker. OTOH, there was a British series from like the 80s called “Danger: UXB” that positively *nailed* some WWII-era bomb disposal procedures.
