The Psychology of Military Incompetence How the Iran War was lost

That time I got a massive shoutout from Paul Krugman .... paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-psycho... @pkrugman.bsky.social

Hegseth’s Culture Wars Are Inviting a Military Disaster Fifty years ago, a British psychologist famously laid bare the character defects behind some of the UK’s biggest wartime fiascos. The Secretary of Defense’s plans for the Pentagon check every box.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s military will have no problem with aggression. But warfare has at its heart the paradox of waging both war and peace, says @harshwords.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Great @harshwords.bsky.social piece on Hegseth's psychological assault on the US military. Historical precedent suggests it will end very poorly.

Yes, please! rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/escape-from-new-york

How We Avoided World War III Atomic bombs didn’t prevent it. Humans did.

Those hoping for WW III were gravely disappointed. Here is my theory why @opinion.bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

How We Avoided World War III Atomic bombs didn’t prevent it. Humans did.

Smart, serious writing by my editor @opinion.bloomberg.com Toby Harshaw @harshwords.bsky.social He is spot on! As the nuclear agreements fall into disuse, we are standing into danger. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

Yep, to kick off his presidential fitness program, in the middle of the Epstein mess, Trump invited registered sex offender Lawrence Taylor to the White House. Cannot make this up

offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sop...

William F. Buckley Set the Stage for Donald Trump Turns out the shift from “Firing Line” to “You're fired!” wasn’t that big.

MAGA is entirely different than Movement Conservatism, except for all the ways MAGA is consistent with Movement Conservatism. My latest: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

full story here www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/o...

Beginnings of a new Maritime Statecraft under Trump Trump signs an executive order to revitalise the maritime sector, which will in turn attempt to strengthen the US naval industrial base.

When Trump blames "decades of neglect" for the state of US sea power, does he forget who was president for 4 of those neglectful years? Or which president initiated the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program in ... 2022? www.naval-technology.com/features/beg...

Nicola Meets with the Guardian | The Thick of It | BBC Comedy Greats YouTube video by BBC Comedy Greats

This is so tantalizingly close to Nicola Murray's "simple wooden toys for simple children" policy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLqX...

More give Trump an F than any other grade for first 100 days, poll finds Nearly half of Americans give President Trump a failing grade for his presidency so far, with near record low approval ratings at this point in the job, as he hits the milestone 100 days in office.

No, the story here isn't that nearly half of voters gave him an F. It's that only half of Republicans gave him an A
www.npr.org/2025/04/29/n...

Trump says Boeing will build the new generation of fighter jets, the F-47 Trump said Boeing had won the contract to build the U.S. Air Force's next generation of fighter jets. Little is known about the jet's specifications, appearance or capabilities.

More left hand-right hand amusement: Musk says “some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35 in an age of drones." Meanwhile ... www.npr.org/2025/03/22/n...

But you have to love Peter Navarro saying the economy is actually in great shape, while Trump blames Biden for the economy being in the tank

Trump Blames Biden After U.S. Economy Shrinks Amid Tariff War Underlying economic growth remained solid in early 2025, but tariffs and uncertainty are expected to cause a further slowdown.

Excellent piece by Ben Casselman on why the gloating over the negative growth number is misplaced and the figure is "misleading." Don't worry, there will be a chance to gloat about shared misery in future quarters www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/b...

5th Straight Rent Increase Is Likely for a Million N.Y.C. Apartments The city’s Rent Guidelines Board appears likely to vote in favor of rent increases for nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments as landlords say they face rising costs.

The "typical monthly cost" of a market-rate apartment in NYC is $2,000? What neighborhood is that in, and how can I move there?

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/n...

Zohran Mamdani wants to use empty subway retail to help homeless New Yorkers The model has been successfully tried in Philadelphia and hailed as innovative by local policy experts.

yep,, because you know what New Yorkers really want is more homeless people in the subways and fewer cops gothamist.com/news/zohran-...

States Can Stop Recipients From Spending Federal Food Assistance on Soft Drinks, Kennedy Says

Doesn't this seem kinda, well, smart?

I also wonder if they could lift the ban on prepared hot food at grocery stores, which are likely (maybe?) more healthful than McDonald's and BK, some of which take EBT in New York (and give 10% off)
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/u...

What Colin Powell Would Say About the Pentagon DEI Purge The former general and secretary of state told the author that a true leader is “a dealer in hope” — not in fear, chaos or anger.

Admiral Jim Stavridis had a lot of chats with that famous "DEI hire" Colin Powell

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

OTOH the percentage of federal government spending on academic R&D has plummeted over the longer stretch, from basically everything in the 50s to little more than half today

Never has a truer typo been written:

College Presidents on Trump, Tuition and Universities Under Pressure From impending funding cuts to ballooning costs, an industry still reeling from student protests is facing some of its biggest challenges in decades.

This is priceless: the chancellor at UC-Boulder saying that his inviting Lockheed to a career fair shows that the "we are truly content-neutral in our approach." Did I mention this was Boulder?! www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

What do Trump's pals at the Heritage Foundation have to say about this?

Ukraine Needs US Weapons But It Needs Intelligence More Shutting off the flow of information for a few days cost Ukraine countless lives, and Putin will want Trump to do it again before any ceasefire.

Former NATO supreme commander thinks of all the ways Trump may harm Ukraine to appease Putin, shutting off the flow of intel is the dangerous www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Cyberattack on X Hit Servers Faulted for Lacking Key Protection A cyberattack that brought down Elon Musk’s X targeted servers that were insufficiently protected from malicious traffic, according to cybersecurity analysts.

"Musk suggested in a Fox Business interview Monday that his company had traced IP addresses to the 'Ukraine area.'
The majority of the devices used to flood X with traffic were located in the US, Mexico, Spain, Italy and Brazil"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Canada Is America's Real Oil Reserve The Trump administration wants to spend $20 billion buying millions of barrels. They’re looking at the wrong place for energy security.

Filling the SPR while trashing trade with Canada is like filling a couple of jerry cans with fuel while also setting a match to your local gas station
@opinion.bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Buy Infowars for the Memes Also asking questions about Tesla, bribing auditors and Never Alone Capital.

"I assume the bankruptcy judge has never seen a meme-coin bid before either. He’ll see it again, though"
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Ukraine Can Survive With the ‘Least Worst’ Peace Deal Even with Trump leaning toward Putin, Kyiv can salvage most of its land and assure its own security.

Negotiating over Ukraine, Team Trump is going to be sitting across the table from Sergei Lavrov. @stavridisj has been there, done that www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Mount McKinley Is Just a Distraction for Mount Inflation President Trump’s historical idol learned that when voters blame tariffs for higher prices, the politician who imposed them feels the pain.

Today’s newsletter is about the Corn Laws. Also tariffs, inflation, Mt McKinley and Abe Simpson. But mostly the Corn Laws

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Trump says he discussed ending Ukraine war with Russia's Putin U.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday about starting negotiations immediately to end the war in Ukraine.

In other words, the World's Greatest Negotiator has agreed to come to the table with an opening bid of the very minimum acceptable deal -- a diminished Ukraine with no map to closer integration with the West
www.reuters.com/world/trump-...