Trump is enraged about the leaked classified report that interrupted his victory dance over the “complete and total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program. [NYT]
A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months, according to officials familiar with the findings.
The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, the officials said the early findings concluded.
So, all that huffing and puffing, and it’s entrances blocked? Sad. Like Laura Loomer handcuffing herself to half of a double door at Twitter’s NYC office building sad.
This morning, Trump sent Kegsbreath out to insist that actually, it was TOO a total and complete obliteration, and if you don’t think so, that’s because you hate the troops. Also, wave more flags.
“How about we talk about how special America is?” — Secretary of Defense Hegseth castigates the press for “cheering against Trump” (he even mentions Fox!) and urges them to do unthinking propaganda stories about how awesome the troops are
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 26, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Okay, that was weird and creepy and North Korea-like, but it was also ineffective because the smelly overgrown toddler was still throwing toys out of his gilded playpen this morning — after the scoldy Pentagon press conference:
But the tantrum was even weirder last night if you scroll down. Trump orders the judiciary of another sovereign nation to cancel an upcoming trial:
BREAKING NEWS…I was shocked to hear that the State of Israel, which has just had one of its Greatest Moments in History, and is strongly led by Bibi Netanyahu, is continuing its ridiculous Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister! Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land. Anybody else would have suffered losses, embarrassment, and chaos! Bibi Netanyahu was a WARRIOR, like perhaps no other Warrior in the History of Israel, and the result was something that nobody thought was possible, a complete elimination of potentially one of the biggest and most powerful Nuclear Weapons anywhere in the World, and it was going to happen, SOON! We were fighting, literally, for the Survival of Israel, and there is nobody in Israel’s History that fought harder or more competently than Bibi Netanyahu. Despite all of this, I just learned that Bibi has been summoned to Court on Monday for the continuation of this long running, (He has been going through this “Horror Show” since May of 2020 – Unheard of! This is the first time a sitting Israeli Prime Minister has ever been on trial.), politically motivated case, “concerning cigars, a Bugs Bunny doll, and numerous other unfair charges” in order to do him great harm. Such a WITCH HUNT, for a man who has given so much, is unthinkable to me. He deserves much better than this, and so does the State of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State. Perhaps there is no one that I know who could have worked in better harmony with the President of the United States, ME, than Bibi Netanyahu. It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu. THIS TRAVESTY OF “JUSTICE” CAN NOT BE ALLOWED!
Emphasis mine. What the fucking fuck?
Trump held a grudge against Netanyahu after the PM congratulated Biden on his win in 2020. But since Netanyahu let Trump in on his glorious victory over Iran (i.e., played Trump to obtain U.S. pilots to deliver costly U.S. ordnance), all is forgiven and Netanyahu is “a WARRIOR, like perhaps no other Warrior in the History of Israel.” (More proof Trump has never read a bible in his life.)
Anyway, this is all so fucking weird. I don’t know what to make of it.
Open thread.
Lyrebird
Hello Betty C,
Thank you once again for applying lipstick or rather pig faces so I don’t have to see that visage any more than I have to!
Lemonade – no I am not giving you a pat answer. Seriously, if the bloviating yam in chief can foster enough resentment for this crap, maybe it will help justice be done! It doesn’t make everything all better (I know YOU know that, just saying), but that’s what I am hoping.
Trollhattan
BBC cut to the drunk live and once he got to the “fake news” portion of his rant, cut away. Motherfucker even tried using a thesaurus. Think that stumped him.
YY_Sima Qian
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but thinking too hard about it kills my brain cells.
Every country out there still looking to integrate deeper into alliance w/ the U.S. (New Zealand, Australia, looking at you) need to have the brains of their heads of government examined.
Spanky
Wake me up when the toddler decides to hold his breath until he gets what he wants, and then he suffocates.
Fucker is finding out that no one in the world gives a shit what he says. Cry, little shithead! Cry!
I see that news orgs are now using the term “Trump says x” rather than “x to happen”. Even slow learners finally catch on.
Elizabelle
“Bibi and I just went through HELL together.” LOL and WTF.
Pay attention to MEEEEEEE. I am a wartime decider.
Raoul Paste
The Laura Loomer handcuffing analogy is perfect
Steve LaBonne
But our “news” media will never stop pretending that demented orange Fox News grampa is compos mentis.
CliosFanboy
Apparently the non US reporters were laughing and giggling through the press conference.
Spanky
Did I mention what a slimy greaseball Pigsbreath is?
jimmiraybob
Daddy!
Spanky
You could make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl …
Sherparick
With the loss of export markets, good Bourbon is likely to be inexpensive so that may be one way to get through the next 4 years. It is for moments like this that Trump selected Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump should issue the pardon himself for Bibi and issue a EO declaring June 22 a national holiday in Israel. That would be stupid.
Leemeade
Call it a different flavor of ‘stolen honor’. Politicians have tried to hide behind the troops before, but this sleazebag and his scumbag boss take it to a whole new level.
catclub
@Elizabelle: “I had to stand up and WALK into the situation room to watch a video feed simulation of a bombing raid. “
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Did you notice the attacked was code named “Midnight Hammer”, and here I was thinking Hegseth was morning drunk.
Old Man Shadow
Sure. How exactly are we special?
Have we solved poverty?
Have we solved Hunger?
Have we solved homelessness?
Does everyone have medical care?
Does everyone have mental health care?
If someone lost their job today, would they have help sufficient to keep paying rent or their mortgage?
Do we lead the world in education?
Do we lead the world in happiness?
Does everyone enjoy six months of paid parental leave?
Can everyone who wants to attend college and university do so without incurring massive debt?
Does every kid have a safe place to go to school?
Does every kid have a quality place to go to school?
Does every family have safe child care available?
Safe afterschool programs?
How exactly is America special among the world? Do tell.
Chetan Murthy
@Old Man Shadow: Men are men and
sheepwomen are scared. That’s how.Enhanced Voting Techniques
Maybe the Southern Baptist can replace the Stations of the Crosses in their churches with The Trump Hell March.
Belafon
The Supreme Court ruled that states can withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, and not only that:
Basically saying that that section means the opposite of what it means.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/26/2330228/-Supreme-Court-hacks-away-at-civil-rights-in-latest-cruel-ruling?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web
bbleh
Old Man Yells At Clouds, part CCLXVII.
One arguably hopeful sign, in addition to the change in the media formula noted above, is that poll results appear to be suggesting that even normies are becoming aware that grandpa is crazy as a fruit bat. *IF* so, then we should start to see some cracks in their Congressional caucuses as well.
Hard to believe we’re less than 6 months in…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chetan Murthy: Men are men and
sheepwomencoaches are scared.VD Vance just entered the chat
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: It would not be hard. Southern Baptists have not heard of the Stations.
That’s a Catholic thing.
Old Man Shadow
We served together in the Mar-a-Lago back nine.
I didn’t realize you became a great warrior by sitting in an office and ordering young people to go kill other young people and die.
catclub
@Old Man Shadow:
 
Yep, just like David and Joshua.
Captain C
@Old Man Shadow:
Bibi’s brother sacrificed his life for his country, to save hostages. Bibi himself is happy to sacrifice his country and let a bunch of hostages die so that he can stay out of prison.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Old Man Shadow:
We’re special precisely because we don’t do any of that stuff, or lead doing any of that stuff or show any inclination to actually improve on any of that stuff.
We’re special because we spend gazillions of dollars on military hardware that may or may not actually do what it was theoretically designed to do.
We’re special because…reasons.
MURKA! FUCK YEAH!
Ken B
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I wonder if the originally intended code name was Operation Midnight Hammered?
brantl
@Spanky: I wish they would, also, you know, report every time that that stuff he says is going to happen,doesn’t happen, and make a point of telling everyone, every time he reverses himself.
pat
@Ken B: tee hee
Old Man Shadow
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-mayor-zohran-mamdani-trump-biden-1561ca0aa1821f88b97603f00221b64f
If you feel like getting angry, AP serves up some Democrats who are convinced that electing a leftist actual populist as a candidate for New York’s mayor instead of a pseudo-Republican sexual harasser of women has doomed us.
Betty Cracker
Just read that the White House is planning a victory tour around July 4th to celebrate passage of the deeply unpopular tax cuts for the rich and shit sandwiches for everyone else bill. Sounds like a good opportunity to stage mass protests!
lowtechcyclist
Went to his bathroom to take a dump, and it was right there! Who was I to decline this gift? ;-)
Elizabelle
@Old Man Shadow: Trump has Bibi mixed up w his brother, the Entebbe hero. He was an actual soldier.
Bibi is a warrior to maintain his own style of corruption.
Steve in the ATL
@Old Man Shadow:
Quick question: will this be retroactive?
Steve LaBonne
@Old Man Shadow: Yeah, I really care what Larry “Math Is Hard” Summers and Third Way think, LOL.
Jackie
Hegseth was Sean Spicer this morning, and probably shitfaced for the needed courage to out shout Spicer declaring FFOTUS’s first inauguration had TWICE as many attendees as Obama’s inauguration.
brantl
@bbleh: I think you’re dissing fruit bats. It’s not like they fly right into walls and shit, Whereas Stumpy…..
Belafon
@Old Man Shadow: It really only named two, and I knew to ignore those two already.
Old Man Shadow
@Steve LaBonne: I literally laughed when I read his name and the “Third way Democrats”.
Elizabelle
Bibi’s dead hero (and better) brother was Yonatan Netanyahu, raid in Entebbe was July 3-4, 1976.
Citizen Alan
@Spanky: Anyone who slicks his hair back to the point that it looks shiny is automatically suspected in my book. When I was in private practice, hair like that invariably meant a lawyer for whom the Canons of Professional Responsibility were nothing but quaint suggestions.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Old Man Shadow:
“Democrats” like Larry Fucking Summers or Third Way clown Matt Bennett.
Third Way, the same people who said this earlier in the year:
Citizen Alan
@catclub: I remember when Hillary got mocked for being in the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid and, in one photo, it looked like she yawned at 3 am.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
I always assumed Steve in the ATL was bald.
Josie
@Old Man Shadow: Lawrence Summers and members of the Third Way?Give me a break. I’m so concerned with what they think.//
ETA: Comrade Scott got there before me, and much more eloquently.
rikyrah
Chris Murphy 🟧
@ChrisMurphyCT
The Republican budget is apparently going to have a slush fund to bail out red state hospitals while allowing blue state hospitals to close because of the devastating Medicaid cuts.
Let’s call this what it is – a fundamental corruption. A blow to the heart of our 50 state union.
https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1938270580018454791
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
It would be impossible! You can’t replace something you don’t have.
Citizen Alan
@Belafon: Buttery males.
oldster
Lying about the Bomb Damage Assessment soothes the toddler’s ego, sure.
But the real beneficiaries of the lies are Iran.
After all, if they can say, “Yes, Mr. Trump, your awesome and manly bombs have completely ended our nuclear ambitions!”, then they can continue their progress towards a bomb in peace and quiet (so to speak). “You obliterated us so bigly, that we have no idea what happened to 800 pounds of highly enriched uranium! It probably just evaporated from thinking about your manliness! No need to look for it now!”
This is how personality cults make their victims less safe.
I will bet you money that Netanyahu, for all of his viciousness, at least insists that his intelligence team tell him the truth about Iran’s nuclear program. And I’ll bet you that the truth is not as flattering to Trump as he would like it to be.
tobie
@Elizabelle: He’s warring to stay out of jail.
Maybe Trump will appeal to SCOTUS for emergency relief for Netanyahu. Maybe John Roberts will comply.
The only article I’m seeing in Ha’aretz on this latest absurdity from Trump is that if Netanyahu asked Trump for the statement, he (Netanyahu) may find himself in more legal hot water in Israel. This can’t happen soon enough.
Steve LaBonne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Hey, I’m OK with capitalism! If and only if it’s tamed and harnessed to the public good by Nordic-style social democracy.
lowtechcyclist
@Elizabelle:
Easy to confuse a living person with someone who’s been dead for half a century.
Harrison Wesley
Sounds like Our Favorite President is entering the George III zone. “Was just teeing off at Bedford and this oak tree comes up to me. Big, strong tree, beautiful tree. ‘Sir’ it said – it had tears in its eyes – …,…….”
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’
Citizen Alan
@Steve LaBonne: Capitalism, as it is practiced in 21st century America, is the economic theory that says if there’s enough money to be made from poisoning babies, then it should be legal to poison babies, and anyone who complains about their babies being poisoned is an America-hating Marxist.
Baud
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: so you don’t follow my Insta? That hurts.
Elizabelle
@tobie: Indeed.
And Trump is also a warrior to stay out of jail and avoid paying millions of dollars in judgments assessed by a court. Sad as fuck that being “POTUS” achieved his goals. And he has earned millions in new corruption.
USA! USA!
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: Along with a bit more treatment of corrupt CEOs the way China does.
Steve LaBonne
@Citizen Alan: And of course I wish nothing but destruction on that sort of capitalism.
tobie
@rikyrah: I write sample letters for residents in my mother’s senior home in Florida. Many are Democrats there and are outraged by the Trump admin’s policies.
My letters are not particularly good but I try to keep them coming. If you want to send a note to your Republican Senator but don’t have the time to compose something, feel free to tweak this latest (geared to Florida).
Steve in the ATL
@lowtechcyclist: he’s being recognized more and more
Shalimar
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: If Hegseth makes it another 12 months, they will eliminate the subtlety and just call the next operation “Trump’s Massive Dick”.
terraformer
I keep wondering if the oligarchs who helped put Hair Führer in office are looking for ways to remove him. I mean, they got their tax cuts and their regulations watered down or removed, but even they must see he’s more than a few cans short of a six pack – and that his increasing meanderings and reflexive actions are ultimately…bad for business
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah: sure sounds like he’s running for president in 2028!
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Who isn’t?
Shalimar
@Steve LaBonne: I have sadly used that quote too so many times in the last decade. Republicans absolutely do not care what words mean.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Josie:
Heh heh, if there’s one thing I’m quick to jump on, it’s center-right “Democrats” like Third Way.
This piece is behind a firewall which is too bad because their corporate funding stream, what we know if it (mainly techbro billionaire Reid Hoffman), is telling.
https://readsludge.com/2025/03/04/think-tank-funded-by-elites-and-corporations-tells-democrats-to-drop-small-donors/
Chetan Murthy
@Citizen Alan: This is my itinerant plug for the Baffler interview with Melinda Cooper: https://thebaffler.com/latest/extravagances-of-neoliberalism-kunkel
“Extravagances of Neoliberalism”
and her book: Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance
It explains that when these assholes say “capitalism” what they really mean is a regime that gives massivae advantages to asset owners, producing (since the 80s) massive inflation in assets, e.g. land, housing, financial assets. This is most definitely by design (as she explains) and her book (and the interview) explain how it was done.
We’ve endured nearly a half-century of -rampant- inflation, only in prices of -assets- and not in anything else. And that’s the root of “the rent is too damn high”.
ETA: it’s a long book, but (haha) HALF of it is end-notes. She’s footnoted -everything-, bringing -all- the receipts. And Li’l Donnie and his career are a thru-line all thru the book. Turns out, he was instrumental in getting a lot of this neoliberal shit passed.
Elizabelle
@terraformer: They don’t have their Big Beautiful tax cuts yet, do they?
Elizabelle
@Chetan Murthy: Thank you. Will check it out.
Steve LaBonne
@terraformer: Yeah, well, the German oligarchs thought they would be able to dispose of Hitler when they were done with him. It never seems to work that way.
Harrison Wesley
@tobie: I’m sure Senator Medicare Fraud will get right on it.
Captain C
@Shalimar: Which will turn out to be two guys with peashooters taking potshots at the Iranian consulate in Iraq.
tobie
@Harrison Wesley: I know it’s probably pointless to write these letters, especially to someone like Rick Scott. But it’s easy enough to do and maybe there’s some strength in numbers. Old people vote and there are a lot of them in Florida, so maybe Scott and Moody don’t want to piss them off too much.
Who knows? I’ve been called the queen of lost causes and for good reason.
MazeDancer
Trump will be focussed on Nobel Peace Prize, er, Iran news for a while.
The non-stop racist attacks on Zohran Mamdani will be a reminder of how difficult the media would have made it for Kamala Harris.
Plus misogyny
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
Ooooh, thanks for that link.
A companion piece:
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-real-post-neoliberal-agenda/
Harrison Wesley
@tobie: Sorry, I’m criticizing him, not you. Better to be doing something than just to roll over and wait for the tidal wave.
Chetan Murthy
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Oh thank you for this! The one thing that Cooper’s book lacks, is any real idea of what to do about all this shit. I mean, she tries, but she doesn’t get there. Which, hey, I’m not gonna blame her: a clear, detailed -diagnosis-/-indictment- is valuable and important. You can’t start to treat until/unless you figure out what the disease is, and how far gone it is.
But I -am- looking around for cogent thoughts on how to undo all this shit. It’s hard, b/c so many people, even most of us, are implicated, entangled, in the neoliberal system: our retirement savings, our kids’ college funds, etc, are all snarled up in it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: Heck, the Stadium faithful have booed Rudy Giuliani out of the Stadium, and he was once their own mayor.
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: Nobody knows how to do it unless a major catastrophe happens. The “good” news is that we’re probably heading for one.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Felonious Thunk hears “State of Israel”and his syphilitic brain interprets that as Israel being one of the
505154how-many-states-with-Canada-Greenland-Panama-wherever actual United States states.Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: It took a complete collapse of the world economy and a world war to fix things the last time, and then 80 years to forget it all.
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: I think it was Piketty who pointed out that the only way that the accumulation of wealth is ever reversed, is by major wars. Sigh.
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: He sort of tried to take that back in Capitalism and Ideology, but still doesn’t have a plausible alternative.
Harrison Wesley
The Black Mirror series has come to life.
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: Now that I’ve read Cooper, I guess I should go read Piketty’s two books.
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: I don’t know that I would recommend bothering with the first. The second will convey pretty much all the substance of the first and a good deal else besides.
tobie
@Harrison Wesley: No worries! I didn’t take your comment as criticism. I myself am at a loss of what I can do that would be effective.
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: Ah, good to know! I’ll follow your advice!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
Two worthwhile reads from Daily Kos diaries:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/22/2213332/-The-End-of-the-American-Dream
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/22/2218817/-America-is-at-a-Crossroads
TONYG
“Bibi and I just went through HELL together”. Ha. Two tough guys with big swinging dicks who sat at desks telling themselves how great they are while pilots dropped bombs (that apparently had little effect) many miles away. Two clowns. I don’t know nothin’ about nothin’, but it seems to be the case that, at least since World War One, military leaders have watched while artillery bombardments, and later arial bombardments, have had little impact on underground fortifications. (Battle of the Somme, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, etc.). One would think that they would learn from history, but, nope.
Chetan Murthy
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I clicked-thru and skimmed. What I would say is: those posts are fine, but they don’t say what to -do- about the situation. Cooper’s book is a -detailed- tick-tock for how we got to this pass: if anything, it’s -too- detailed. What I find lacking, is any idea of what to do about the situation, esp. given that so many people’s lives are snarled up in the neoliberal system.
Soprano2
I’m sure Hegseth would tell us that all women are “too emotional” to do important jobs. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough. He wants us to be China or Russia or North Korea.
Pappenheimer
@Shalimar: Well, Kissinger is supposed to have suggested ‘Operation Rampant Manhood’ as the code name for the Mayaguez rescue mission, but the name was rejected – so it’s still up for grabs.
So to speak.
p.a.
I’m doubtful the “red state hospital slush fund” will help at all. Grifters, thieves, incompetents all the way down; national, state, local. Nothing will reach the “Real Murcans.”
Mr. Bemused Senior
A good analogy is LLMs, which have no understanding of meaning. Rather, they manipulate lexical tokens.
I once heard of an attorney who commented “it’s just words” referring to the claims in a patent.
Myself, I like to think that words have meaning and there’s such a thing as objective reality. Opinions differ.
Chetan Murthy
@p.a.: I should hope not! Unless Red Staters suffer mightily, the Republic is doomed.
BlueGuitarist
@jimmiraybob:
I keep seeing/hearing references to NATO Secretary General Rutte supposedly calling Trump “Daddy”
But all Ive seen is the video cnbc summarized as
“As Trump compared the Middle Eastern adversaries to ‘two kids in a school yard’ who ‘fight like hell,’ Rutte interjected, laughing: ‘And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.’”
Is that’s all there is?
Chetan Murthy
@BlueGuitarist: more deets: https://thehill.com/policy/international/5369816-nato-rutte-daddy-comment/
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: I remember during the Financial Crisis, people were pointing out that the O(wner’s)E(quivalent)R(ent) was much higher than the actual rent for such properties. Owners were overpaying (via their mortgage payments) and the (quite plausible) thesis was that they were doing it in expectation of future appreciation. Too many of us have our financial lives tied-up in ever-increasing asset prices.
Matt McIrvin
@Shalimar: Those code names always make me think of Gibson’s “Neuromancer” and its backstory involving a cockamamie military operation by the (now defunct) US called “Operation Screaming Fist”.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Murphy has really stepped up in the crisis. He sees things clearly and talks about them like a normal person.
@tobie: That’s good, and thanks for doing that work.
Miss Bianca
I can’t even get half-way through what passes as a sentence in that idiot’s unhinged screeds before my brain starts to hurt so badly that I have to stop. (Although the Pig Person decorations from BC help to soften the hammer blows somewhat).
But I do think it might serve as something of a public service if some of the Very Serious Newsreaders would just read some of them verbatim on the screen instead of trying to put lipstick on the Pig Person by sanewashing his shit.
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: My wife’s small inheritance is in a 60/40 mutual fund, and the health of the state pension fund from which we draw most of our income depends on investment income. No middle class person is insulated from the neoliberal order. It’s a diabolical problem.
Tom Levenson
Deleted because it had been said plenty upthread.
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: Yes, Cooper writes about how pension funds invested in assets starting in the 70s, and thereby invested in their own workers’ impoverishment.
Steve LaBonne
@Tom Levenson: Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one.
Chetan Murthy
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: @Steve LaBonne: It seems like the one big change that everybody in the middle class can get behind, is steep progressive taxation. [I know, and I want a pony too] Everything else is such a difficult lift.
rikyrah
@CliosFanboy:
Good for them
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: But by sapping the ability of the rich to buy politicians and reducing the incentive to pay CEOs obscene salaries that would be an important first step. It would also provide the revenue needed to rebuild vital public services.
BlueGuitarist
@Chetan Murthy:
Thank you!
Chetan Murthy
@Steve LaBonne: 100% with you. What I wish, is that we could get behind ending all the tax expenditures that drive asset inflation. sigh.
Hoodie
@Chetan Murthy: My problem with these treatises is that they often become impenetrable with jargon when they are trying to convey relatively simple points.
japa21
@Chetan Murthy: Not really. There are a lot of middle class people that think they will become wealthy some day and don’t want to pay higher taxes when they get the3re. And they want not just ponies but unicorns.
Jeffro
GOOD
Hey if “clicks” are what our media want, I suggest they get ’em by asking ever more pointed questions of Hegseth, Bondi, trumpov, etc and then rolling their eyes or laughing at the fumbling and juvenile responses.
japa21
@Steve LaBonne:
One of the worse things is allowing CEO’s to get paid via stock options which actually deflate their earnings for tax purposes.
Plus several other special benefits they get thanks to the government.
I have yet to hear a CEO be able to justify his/her earnings in any rational way.
The Thin Black Duke
@japa21: As John Steinbeck said, “Too many Americans think of themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
Chetan Murthy
@Hoodie: I agree; the thing I would say about Cooper’s is that she does try to lay out things in a comprehensible way. That said, it’s vrey detailed, and it has to be in order to be complete. I’ve read people say that Piketty did much the same, and the reason was that he tried to pre-rebut all the expected counter-arguments. So …. long treatise.
@japa21: I agree. But compared to the lift required to end this rampant asset-inflation, raising income tax rates is a walk in the park. As i said, I also want a pony. So I don’t hold out a lot of hope there either.
Jeffro
am I the only one who busted out laughing reading that?
YES…stop taking $5 here and there from a lot of people, and instead go with the ‘broader electorate’ of a handful of big dark-money donors…
…there are not enough eyeroll emojis in the world…
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: Any system for change has to include some provision for the people who vote for the other party or don’t vote when change doesn’t happen fast enough.
Geminid
It was a slow and groggy morning for me, and I haven’t really checked out much news at all about the Middle East; I just figure there’s plenty of it as usual these days.
But I would caution people about that leaked DIA report on Fordow and Iran’ broader nuclear program, and the damage done to them. This was one very preliminary report from one agency, and my understanding is that the finding was labeled “low confidence,” which Laura Rozen has pointed out.
That is to be expected because it will take days and weeks to get a true picture of the status of Iran’s nuclear program. The claims are all over the map right now, and many are being made to further particular agendas as this leak might have been intended to do.
It is tempting to take this story and run with it, as it fits a desired political narrative. But it might be one of those things that prove to be too good to be true.
Harrison Wesley
Pardon him,boys, get on the Netanyahu choo-choo.
satby
Sure you do. We all do. The felonious fucker is nuts. Senile with a big dollop of narcissistic decompensation nutzo. And all the people around him still think they can manipulate him to their advantage so they continue to pander to his delusional world view. Plus, they’ve created an army of fanatics that will be as happy to shoot them for disloyalty as they would be to shoot an immigrant or Democrat, and they know it.
The only way out is through, and it’s going to be rough.
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: Around here, talk to someone ranging from a mid level manager at a large company to a school teacher and they’ll get in your face about you wanting to take their “fair share” away.
Jeffro
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: btw thanks for the link to the Boston Review! I sent it far and wide
Chetan Murthy
@Belafon: A-yup. A-yup. Which is why, fundamentally, I don’t believe this will be fixed, barring a cataclysm. Like Great Depression-level cataclysm.
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: My house is worth about 3 times as much as it was when I bought it in 2001. And a lot of that is being driven by people moving to the DFW area and huge houses being built everywhere rather than building more smaller ones.
Chetan Murthy
@Belafon: As I said, I think that reining-in rampant asset inflation is too much of a lift. For the very reason you cite.
mrmoshpotato
I’m the pwezident! I’m the pwezident!
Thankful Colbert is new this week. There’s no way he passes this dumbass shitstorm by.
Jay
@Geminid:
According to the Iranians, after they removed some of the equipment and the enriched uranium from Fordow, they buried the entrances under dirt and stones.
Worried I guess about Tomahawks using the entrances.
Only the IOAC will be able to maybe, tell us the extent of the damage, if they are ever allowed back.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: To be fair, Bibi did serve on active duty on the IDF. He made it to Captain and served in combat.
Geminid
@Old Man Shadow: Who are these “some Democrats” you say we could be getting angry at? I saw a consultant or two, but no office holders. But it was a long story that focused on a lot of things including Republican hopes that Mamdani’s candidacy would divide Democrats.Maybe I missed something.
mrmoshpotato
@CliosFanboy:
Did anyone’s eyes roll out of their head?
Geminid
@Jay: The Iranians are self-interested in this matter and I do not take their reporting at face value. Just like I didn’t when their foreign minister said the sites were “badly damaged.”
Bulgakov
America is governed by an imbecile and his confederacy of dunces. Democrats in Congress should become ungovernable. Gum up the works, stop voting for cloture on nominees, stop voting for his nominees, screw up their schedule, don’t let him get his BBB bullshit on July 4th like he wants. Stop the madness, Democrats, you are the only ones with the agency to do this.
AM in NC
@Belafon: It is just enraging that these “textualists” feel free to ignore/purposefully misread any text they just don’t happen to agree with. We need to make the judiciary such an important issue in every election.
No longer able to do X? Thank GOP judges
Forced to do Y? Thank GOP judges.
Missing X benefit? Thank GOP judges.
Want to go back to first-world status? Vote for Democrats and Democrat-appointed judges.
We need to constantly be hammering the link between political action/inaction and very personal and immediate effects on people’s lived experience.
Nettoyeur
@Leemeade: I am old enough to remember W being ferried to an aircraft carrier (US shore in background) sportin a “Mission Accomplished” banner. The US went on to spend nearly 20 years and several trillion dollars in a Mideast quagmire. Something about not learning from history…
RaflW
I saw a clip where Kegsbreath (brilliant, btw!) berated a Fox reporter in the WH pressroom for her apostasy in daring to question the perfect, brilliant assault. It was very North Korea “how dare you be disloyal” and just creepy and rude AF.
Jay
@Geminid:
We know that the Iranians successfully moved equipment and nuclear materials from the all the sites hit, because no radiological events have been reported.
The US Admin’s constant claims of having utterly destroyed Iran’s Nuclear Programs is like a 8 year old boy constantly claiming that he dove off the highest tower at the Olympic Pool or that he invented gummi bears, is not reassuring, either for the damage claims or confidence in the Administration and the entire chain of command.
That the Pentagon launched a dummy strike, not to fool the Iranians but instead to misdirect TACO Don and Kegstand and prevent leaks, well. And the fact that the first BDA was immediately leaked from inside the Pentagon, well,……..
A sane Administration would have left it to “we successfully struck”,……………………………………….”we will know the extent of the damage, when all the assessments are in.”
We know the “sites” were badly damaged, but the sites are concrete buildings, it is what was inside that mattered, and apparently, what was inside was barely scratched, or moved.
Geminid
@RaflW: I think that reporter was Jennifer Griffin. She’s been Fox’s Pentagon reporter for quite a while now.
According to Laura Rozen, Griffen told Hegseth she had noted in her reporting that the leaked report was labeled “low confidence,” which I gather is fairly normal.for an initial assessment. That was a chance for Hegseth to take a “W” but the dumbass kept whining at her.
Reports are that the leaked report really hit a nerve with Trump. That’s probably why Hegseth bullied Griffin, to show his loyalty to the Boss. But between that stupid Signal Chat and the pathetic parade he staged for Trump’s birthday, Hegseth is on shaky ground himself. He might have hurt himself more with this exchange than he hurt Griffin.
Geminid
@Jay: There are people out there who’ve made it their business to study this stuff, for years; people who do not have a particular ax to grind or narrative to push. I want to see what they have to say.
RaflW
@Geminid: Thanks for the details. I watched the clip yesterday but I don’t know the various Fox ppl other than (gaack) Harris Faulkner, because she was on a not-terrible local station here a long time ago.
But yeah, my perception was that he flew off the handle at a former colleague in what was pretty obviously an effort to avoid a blunt but professional question. I wonder if any of that ever gives Fox producers even a moment’s pause to reflect on what they’ve done to undermine fact-based news reporting?
Ruckus
@Spanky:
Wake me up when the toddler decides to hold his breath until he gets what he wants, and then he suffocates.
A person passes out before they suffocate. And unless they stop their normal brain from functioning they do not die.
Now, seeing as how he really doesn’t have a normally functioning brain…….
Jay
@Geminid:
On the bright side, we have learned who not to “trust”, the USA and Israel.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: thank g-d he was able to overcome his bone spurs and actually serve
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Come on, Trump went to a military boarding school for high school. We all remember the kids who got sent to military school, don’t we?
prostratedragon
@BlueGuitarist:
He thinks he’s Daddy, per a new and utterly disgusting t-shirt grift. If you want to avoid seeing it, don’t click that link, but know that it features his mug shot with the undertitle “Daddy.”
Steve LaBonne
@prostratedragon: Mark Rutte should burn in hell for this.
dww44
@Betty Cracker: Murphy has been at the top of my dance card since at least January 20. I’ve long believed he’d be an excellent president.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
So his parents sent him to a school that should have given him a least a minimal education on how to at least fake being human, and this is what we get? I mean I know some of these schools teach pompous arrogance as a necessary concept of life…. Maybe the school expected the graduates to enlist in the military after graduation so that they didn’t have to teach them to be, what’s the word, oh yeah it’s human. Because in my experience that was at least attempted to be taught in the military, even through it didn’t always take there either. But then it would likely have been pounded into that lump in the head, what’s that called???
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne: You mean Burnett? He has a lot to answer for. I’m sure I was not the only one to groan inwardly when hearing of that damn show. But then I still have a bit of imagination.
Johannes
@Citizen Alan: Yeah, I’ve always called that do “Evil Lawyer Hair.” Examples may be obtained from the snack bar.
prostratedragon
@tobie:
Maybe somebody should tell him [My bold]:
Steve LaBonne
@prostratedragon: No, I mean the NATO secretary general whose stupid joke, in the course of brown-nosing Trump, started this Daddy shit.
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne: Oh, I never did get his name.
Christ, as it sinks in that it was the NATO secretary, that’s inexcusable!
Ken B
@Geminid: To me, the two biggest signs that the attack failed are 1) the apparent lack of radiation released, and 2) the administration’s hysterical insistence that it all worked perfectly.
Jay
@prostratedragon:
There are two ways to “handle” Diaper Don, suck up to him, with out meaning any of it, ideally in a way he doesn’t know he is being mocked and insulted, which Rutte did, or give him something he demands, that you had already arranged with Biden, like Mexico and Canada did, that he is too ignorant to know was already a done deal, with Biden.
Jay
For those interested, Jeff Tiedrich covers the batshittery of the Iran things well,
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/wait-did-preznit-shitwit-tell-iran
Just so people know, under the subscribe button on substack posts, there is often a note of , “No, just let me read it”, if you click on that, you get to read everything that is not subscriber only, no need to give emails, no need to send money.
Paul Krugman has everything open except his Sunday posts, which are usually a deep dive, often into a continuing theme, but even on Sunday, you can read an intro into the subject covered.
Ruckus
@YY_Sima Qian:
They know shitforbrains will not last forever and very likely hope that we do not elect another rethuglican for a while when this one is gone. Of course there are a few voters in the US that very likely want the same thing. And by the way that “for a while” is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting.
Geminid
@Ken B: I never expected the Trump administration to claim otherwise, so I’m not sure this signifies anything. But like i said, there are people with a real base of knowledge working this problem. That’s who I want to hear from.
I know there are people exprassing certainty about it, but I also know that certainty is one of the most easily achievable states of mind even in areas a person has not studied thoroughly. Or rather, especially in areas they have not studied thoroughly.
Jay
@Steve LaBonne:
Rutte did not start this “Daddy shit”, MAGgot House Members and Congress members started it over 2 months ago and it’s a theme in MAGgotville.
Steve LaBonne
@Jay: He blew it up all over the media in the course of disgustingly brown-nosing Trump.
Marc
@Jay: Do “we” even know what was damaged beyond some visible holes in the ground? The “security” video I’ve seen (real or not) is short and doesn’t show much, not even shaking. No subsidence, no radiation, not a huge amount of even dust.
I was some back of the envelope calcs a few days back, I may have screwed up somewhere. Given a 30K lb low drag object lofted from 45K feet at 600 MPH, how fast will it be going at the point of impact? Roughly 1300 MPH, which gives it about 2.2 billion Joules of kinetic energy, or the equivalent of a bit over 500 metric tons of TNT or 0.5 kiloton. If went from that speed to zero in 200 feet, deceleration is about 275Gs for 0.2 seconds. Clearly enough energy release to vaporize whatever it hits along with the outer layers of its own case (hence the high velocity gaseous plumes visible in the video), but not clear to me that a near miss would do much damage other than a lot of shaking, even if the explosive goes off.
satby
@Steve LaBonne: not sure “mocking” is the same as ” brown-nosing” in a press conference where some of the international press were openly laughing at Trump.
Matt
It’s not that complicated: Netanyahu is facing legal trouble, and he’s going to keep escalating the genocide until either his legal trouble goes away or the whole goddamn world burns down.
This was obvious to anybody who wasn’t hypnotized by the “but that infant is HAMAS!” propaganda since October 7th.
YY_Sima Qian
@Ruckus: Having seen GWB follow Clinton, Trump 45 follow Obama, Trump 47(!!!) follow Biden, why would any foreign country place themselves at the mercy of the US electorate?
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy: Tax capital gains at the same rates as regular income, to start.
Weird advise coming from someone living in the PRC, where capital gains is not even taxed, but the PRC government is much more intrusive in all aspects of the political economy, & has & uses many other levers to suppress financialization.
karensky
@Steve LaBonne: I am with you in re: Larry Summers!
YY_Sima Qian
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Unless I am mixing you up w/ another commenter, you worked in military intelligence back in the day, right? If I may ask, how did you end up becoming a lefty? Presumably you weren’t on the political left while service in military intelligence during the Cold War?
YY_Sima Qian
Interesting shift on emphasis in Iran:
YY_Sima Qian
It’s a big deal when Japan takes its disagreements & grievances w/ the US public (link to Le Monde article below):
prostratedragon
NYT (archive link):
I do wonder what in the world the passive previous understander could have been thinking.
YY_Sima Qian
Unexpected? I think it is entirely predictable, & in fact wrote something along those lines as soon as Bibi launched his Pearl Harbor style attack (gift link to WSJ article below):
Maybe that explains the Israel Hayom “reporting” making the rounds on X that said Bibi & Trump reached agreement on the future of ME: ending the war in Gaza in 2 weeks, Hamas go into exile, Gazans willing to “emigrate” leave for unspecified countries, Arab states take over administration of Gaza, Abraham Accords expanded to all of Sunni Arab states, Israel commits to a “future” Two State Solution pending unspecified “reforms” of the PA. No Arab states was involved in the “agreement”, neither were the PA or Hamas, or the far right in Bibi’s coalition. Pure fantasy, but perhaps was a trial balloon to salvage normalization w/ the KSA.
YY_Sima Qian
Sigh…
The Ha’aretz article referenced (behind a paywall):
I have not seen reports of any IDF soldier has refused to follow such orders that obviously violate international law. (Doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any.)