Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Giving up is unforgivable.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Not all heroes wear capes.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Bark louder, little dog.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I really should read my own blog.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

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Eclipse of the Blood Moon…

am i planning on staying up until 5 am for the lunar eclipse? yes.
is it worth it for this view? yes.

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— Jasmine 🌌🔭 (@astrojaz.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:05 PM

Iraq War Veteran Crow: Trump announced the start of this war with Iran at Mar-a-Lago. He talked about the fact that service members were going to die. Then he literally walked behind the curtains to his private club and he hosted a million dollars a plate dinner and dance party that night.

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— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 5:56 PM

The MarkWayne Indicator strikes again!
(MarkWayne Indicator: If the GOP is shoving Mullin out to defend their latest atrocity… it means nobody with better thinking skills is willing to put themselves in the line of fire.)

— Anne Laurie (@annelaurie.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 6:58 PM

Hunt: “Did the president not run on not starting a war with Iran?”
Sen. Mullin: “He ran on ending wars. He's ended eight of them.”
Hunt: “He started this one.”
Mullin: “This isn’t a war.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) March 2, 2026 at 5:13 PM

When you are shoveling that much shit it helps to have a plumber on speed dial.

— Jason Barscheski (@jasonbarscheski.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 8:41 PM

MarkWayne, just following orders…

Very putinesque.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 7:01 PM

My government has a real “we didn’t know starting a war would cause a war“ vibe going on which I realize I should be outraged about in the abstract but find myself mainly nonplussed by at this point.

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— Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast (@irhottakes.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:23 PM

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Tuesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (177)

Open Thread: Flee While (If) You Still Can

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THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDS THAT AMERICANS LEAVE IMMEDIATELY FROM OVER A DOZEN MIDDLE EASTERN NATIONS DUE TO SAFETY RISKS.

— FinTwitter (@fintwitter.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:54 PM

The State Dept urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.

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— Shipwreck (@shipwreck75.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:57 PM

End of the day, even his fellow oligarchs are just NPCs to Dear Leader. But Semafor would like us to remember the real victims here — “Exclusive / Riyadh becomes transit hub for worried rich fleeing Gulf”:

Riyadh has emerged as a key exit route for the super-rich and senior executives stranded in the Gulf looking for a safe passage out of the region.

Cities including Abu Dhabi and Dubai have become playgrounds for the wealthy over the past few years, attracted by the year-round sunshine, tax-free lifestyle, and perception of safety. That was shattered over the weekend as Iranian missiles and drones rained down on the two cities, along with Qatar and Bahrain, causing those that could to attempt to flee.

The Saudi capital’s airport is one of the few still operating in the region, forcing executives and their families stranded in other parts of the Gulf to take the long drive in order to catch private jets or commercial planes.

Private security companies have been booking fleets of SUVs to ferry people on the 10-hour drive to Riyadh from Dubai and then charter private planes to take them out of the region, according to people familiar with the matter. They have been evacuating a mix of people, including senior executives at global finance firms and high-net worth individuals in the region for business or holidays, the people said. The rush in demand is sending prices for private jets and SUVs soaring, these people said.

“Saudi Arabia is the only real option for people who want to get out of the region right now,” said Ameerh Naran, chief executive of private jet brokerage Vimana Private; private jets from Riyadh to Europe now cost up to $350,000, he said…

Riyadh’s emergence as a relatively safe spot in the region is a turnaround for the city, which has previously carried a higher risk perception than its neighbors. In prior years, regular rocket attacks by the Houthi militia in Yemen caused frequent closures of airspace. And in previous moments of crises or regional instability, like the Arab Spring or last year’s 12-day war between the US and Iran, the well heeled have typically traveled through other cities. Before that, strict religious rules and the legacy of terror attacks in the early 2000s gave a perception that the kingdom was unsafe.

But with few other options available, Riyadh has seen perceptions change.

“We’ve been approached by a mixture of clients including families, individuals, and corporations that want to get out of the region either because their fear for their safety, or for business reasons they just need to be able to travel,” said Ian McCaul, operations and future plans director at UK-based security firm Alma Risk…

"The trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai."

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— Emma Yeomans (@yeomans.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 10:19 AM

From two drones according to the Saudi MOD. It doesn’t sound like major damage but highlights how vulnerable US assets and interests are at the moment.

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— Michael Hanna (@mwhanna.crisisgroup.org) March 2, 2026 at 7:38 PM

lmao even the KSA gets to learn where doing business with trump eventually leads

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— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 2, 2026 at 11:08 AM

Open Thread: <em>Flee While (If) You Still Can</em>Post + Comments (157)

War for Ukraine Day 1,467: It’s Been a Month Worth of Mondays on Monday

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A modified panel from the Tin Tin comics. Tin Tin is on the left. He is looking at the Captain who is sitting at the bar. There is a drink at the Captain's right elbow and Tin Tin's dog is sniffing it. The Captain's word bubble says "What a year, huh?" Tin Tin replies: "Captain, it's only the 3rd of January."

Another long horrible day, so I’m just going to work through the basics again.

#closethesky :-)

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 9:33 AM

It’s funny because it’s true.

Day 1466 of my 3 day war. It’s going so well that all I can send Iran are thoughts & prayers and even the Belgium military are not afraid to board my ships. I didn’t even know they had one!

I remain a master strategist.

— Darth Putin (@darthputinkgb.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 2:58 AM

It’s also funny because it’s true.

Ukraine’s Paralympic team has been banned from using their parade uniform, which features a map of Ukraine, at the 2026 Winter Paralympics!

The International Paralympic Committee ruled the uniform “political” and prohibited the team from wearing it.

What a freaking circus!

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 12:05 PM

This is true and it is NOT funny.

President Zelenskyy attended an Iftar dinner and presented Ukrainian Muslim service members with awards. Video below, write up after the jump.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,467: It’s Been a Month Worth of Mondays on MondayPost + Comments (29)

Monday Night Open Thread

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A lovely day here, got a swim in, then headed off to an urgent care clinic because I have been having this nagging ear issue where it isn’t painful but itchy and just felt “sensitive” so I started using those swimmers ears drops and things just got progressively worse so I decided to go get it checked out. I spent entirely too much damned time online and on the phone the last 36 hours with my health insurance provider to try to figure out where the hell I could go that I just went to one of those pay as you go clinics. It was La Clinica Familia and it was weird having all the signs be in spanish but the staff was great and fast, I paid cash, saw a doctor who somehow got my medical history from my provider here and got diagnosed with really bad swimmer’s ear and was given some special drops that cost 20 bucks at walgreens. It was the most normal doctor’s interaction I have had in decades. I didn’t have to schedule something in two days to see a doctor, I just walked in, said “this ear sucks,” gave them some money, left with a paper prescription and receipt. I wasn’t even trusting walgreens with their digital fuckery and three day waits. I walked right up to the counter and five minutes later, had it. Why is it not always like this. Also all the nurses were latina and adorable.

Let’s check in on the headlines:

Several of the FBI agents and personnel fired last week for their work on Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s retention of documents at Mar-a-Lago were members of a counterintelligence squad that focused on media leaks, global espionage, and threats that included those involving the Iranian regime, several sources familiar with the dismissals told the Sun.

The ouster of at least a dozen staffers from a counterintelligence unit, known as CI-12, which operates out of the Washington Field Office, was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, according to four former officials familiar with the dismissals. The dismissals came just days before the start of Operation Epic Fury and, separately, a deadly mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, by a man reportedly wearing a sweatshirt that said, “Property of Allah,” beneath which was a T-shirt that was “emblazoned with a design similar to the Iranian flag,” CBS News reported Monday.

CI-12 focuses on media leaks, global espionage, and international threats against America emanating from countries such as Cuba and Iran, former FBI officials tell the Sun. More broadly, CI squads are the lead domestic teams for investigating insider threats and foreign intelligence activity on American soil.

That’s ok, I am sure it will not be a real problem, after all, we can hang our faith on the remaining counterterrorism folks:

Monday Night Open Thread 41

Moving right along

***

This is disgusting:

After graduating college, he persuaded friends and family to lend him $12,500 in seed money for what became Ameritrade, the investing firm that would go on to disrupt the Wall Street trading establishment and put Mr. Ricketts on a path to riches. By 2015, his wealth had grown to $1 billion, and even that stunning figure now feels like a quaint memory, as the powerful elixir of rising stocks and falling taxes that has minted new billionaires across the country has catapulted Mr. Ricketts’s personal net worth to $8 billion.

Along the way, Mr. Ricketts found new community in and around Jackson, Wyo., a playground for the rich. For some things, he has been celebrated: He has donated to research on conservation of red squirrels and American beavers. He contributed $1 million to building a hospital. He has taken pride in building a herd of white bison.

But lately some of his neighbors have come up against the raw power of Mr. Ricketts’s financial muscle. Many of them fought against a plan he advanced a few years ago to turn his ranch into a resort for wealthy tourists, proposing to bypass regulations that limit construction during the brutal winter months to protect local wildlife.

This gilded age will end like they all do, but you really need to do yourself a favor and read the entire thing. It’s a long read for today’s age but worth it.

I still have no idea what is going on really in Iran or what the plan is and I keep typing Iraq because of muscle memory and I am so sick of this shit. That’s my Iran update.

Like I said, I am under the weather and having some anxiety, so I will talk to you all later.

Monday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (78)

Trumpery Open Thread: Iran Does Not Have Nukes

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If Trump hadn’t torn up the Iran deal, those 6 American soldiers would still be alive

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— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:46 PM

Time to say it again!

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— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 7:11 PM

Former front-pager Cheryl Rofer, now posting at Lawyers, Guns & Money:

It’s time to say it again: It’s highly doubtful that the Iranians were pursuing a nuclear weapon. And they certainly don’t have any.

Donald Trump says that (one of the purposes/ the purpose) of his attack on Iran is to make sure they never get a nuclear weapon. He has also tried to look reasonable by saying “All they have to do is say they will not build a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has done that second thing already, by ratifying the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. When North Korea decided to build nuclear weapons, they withdrew from the treaty. Iran has threatened to withdraw, but they haven’t. This is a signal of their intention not to build nuclear weapons.

Trump’s insistence seems more like that of a middle-school boy sitting on another, hollering “Say uncle.” Big strong ayatollahs must come to Trump with tears in their eyes and say it.

Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003 and then gave it up. Iran has said that. Western intelligence services have said that…

All along, there have been factions within Iran that wanted a bomb, mainly in the IRGC. But Ayatollah Khamanei has said several times that nuclear weapons are forbidden by Islam, another expression of that statement Donald Trump says he wants.

I have seen reports that the current negotiators, whose expertise is in real estate, not nuclear issues, may have misunderstood Iran’s recent offers and seemed not to know what the IAEA was. It’s a subject for specialists, which is why specialists were included in the 2014-2015 negotiations.

Iran hasn’t been working toward a bomb. They have played a negotiation based on an understanding that a bomb could be one outcome of their work. The subtlety of that produced the JCPOA. It doesn’t work with a regime whose basic mode of operation is that of gangsters.

what in the world

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— Mike Black (@mikeblack114.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 7:44 PM

this is also true for 90% of the military's understanding of military affairs tbh

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— thinkingbayonet.bsky.social (@thinkingbayonet.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 9:06 PM

Probably not related, but it has been noted today that The World’s Most Dangerous Cranky Grandpa has a new health issue. If the neck rash is shingles, I understand that they are very painful & liable to make victims (more) cranky. How fortunate that Trump has the best medical care available to him!

whoa — this is new. Trump has a significant rash-like injury on his neck today in addition to his disfigured hand
(Saul Loeb/Getty)

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 2, 2026 at 12:47 PM

Trumpery Open Thread: Iran Does Not Have NukesPost + Comments (151)

Promoted from the Comments (Open Thread)

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Deputinize America shared this with us in an earlier thread today, and I think it’s definitely front-page worthy.

History may not repeat, but it definitely rhymes.

(Verse 1)

Well, come on all of you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in old Iran
So put down your phones and pick up a gun
We’re gonna have a whole lot of fun

(Chorus)

And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is Tehran
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die

(Verse 2)

Well, come on generals, let’s move fast
Your big chance has come at last
Now you can go out and get those Reds
Wait, it’s the Ayatollahs instead
The only good fundamentalist is one that’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve finished the job that we’ve begun

(Verse 3)

Well, come on mothers throughout the land
Pack your boys off to the desert sand
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate
Send your sons out before it’s too late
And you can be the first ones on your block
To have your boy come home in a box

(Chorus)

And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is Tehran
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die

Open thread.

Promoted from the Comments (Open Thread)Post + Comments (59)