This is among the greatest moments in the history of Fantasyland. Absolutely perfect chef’s-kiss distillation of our self-satirizing historical moment.

uh huh

How Much Has the War in Iran Depleted the U.S. Missile Supply? Defense officials inside the Trump Administration were already concerned that American stockpiles were insufficient for a potential standoff with China. A war of choice in the Middle East has only mad...

How does the US spend $800 billion a year on defense and yet after just six weeks of war with Iran, we're running out of missiles and munitions? For my latest @newyorker.com piece, I dove into the dysfunction of the US defense budget: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

A piece I've been hoping to read for years: Sergey Radchenko on Sergey Radchenko. Thanks for writing this, @radchenko.bsky.social. bsky.app/profile/radc...

maybe the real deterrent was the straits we closed along the way

The Foreign Affairs Interview Politics Podcast · Updated Weekly · Foreign Affairs invites you to join its editor, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, as he talks to influential thinkers and policymakers about the forces shaping the world. Whethe...

In the fog of cease-fire, it helps to have a lighthouse like @suzannemaloney.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

When I got an email with this statement, I checked to make sure it was authentic, because I've never seen the Red Cross send a message like this.

The next time Trump takes questions from the press, I hope a reporter asks him this question: “Sir, if we’ve accomplished all of our objectives in Iran, why do we need a deal?”

In conclusion, the U.S. is now locked into a ”mowing the grass” strategy with Iran.

Only 23% of government workers believe they “can report a suspected violation of a law, rule, or regulation without experiencing retaliation.”
That's way down form the share the prior year (72%) who said they could report suspected illegal activity without fear
www.thebulwark.com/p/two-more-g...

"In the midst of what is going on now, it is hard, when you sit down at a desk, to feel confident that morning after morning spent fiddling with words and rhythms is a justified activity – especially as there is never any certainty that the whole thing won’t have to be scrapped." — T.S. Eliot, 1942

I learned what "haptic" meant from the late, great Spencer Golub. I can't help but think of him every time I see that word—which, in 2026, I see a lot more than I ever did in 1996!

Also:

2006 internet: a small number of social media platforms, used by relatively few people on computers, not mobile devices

2026 internet: many social media platforms with intensive, global, society-wide use of them, largely on mobile devices

Share Your Voice | Reverb Record Record and share voice notes and audio instantly without an account. Embeds to Twitter and websites. Share in messengers and email.

RIP CBS News Radio.

If you grew up in the NYC metro area in the 1980s and spent time in the car as a kid, this may be burned into your brain. record.reverb.chat/s/GLLUSGkHb0...

Stephen Kotkin has spent his career trying to understand what makes authoritarian regimes strong—and what makes them vulnerable. (Often the same things!) He and I spoke about how the US-Israeli war on Iran fits into the longer history of "regime change." podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

John F. Burns, Prize-winning Foreign Correspondent for The Times, Dies at 81 In a 40-year career that brought him two Pulitzers, he reported from trouble spots around the world, eloquently conveying the chaos of war.

Breaking News: John F. Burns, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times best known for his work in Iraq, died at 81.

Old Dominion University shooting victim was decorated veteran

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the man killed in a shooting at Old Dominion University, flew Apache helicopters in Iraq, earned numerous awards for his military service and helped grow the university’s ROTC program enrollment by almost 50% in one year.

He was 41-years-old.

"It took the United States and its allies 51 days to clear 907 mines off the Kuwaiti coast in 1991—and that was after the Gulf War was over and with the advantage of minefield maps provided by the defeated Iraqis."

"The new U.S. concept for mine clearance relies on the littoral combat ship working in combination with helicopters and unmanned underwater vehicles. But this concept has never been tested in combat."

"[T]he U.S. Navy has never prioritized mine clearance. Just last fall the United States removed its last dedicated mine countermeasure ship from the Persian Gulf. Only four such ships are left in the U.S. inventory—and they are stationed in Japan."

The Hormuz Minefield In the strait, Iran holds the advantage—and America has no good options.

To understand the true depth of the tactical and strategic challenge posed by Iran’s closure of Hormuz, read @proftalmadge.bsky.social. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/hormuz-...

Bill Callahan:
I could not work, so I threw a bottle into the woods
And then I felt bad for the doe paw and the rabbit paw
So I went looking for the pieces of the bottle that I threw
All because I couldn't work

Ingmar Bergman:

Taiwan!

Opinion | It’s Trump’s War. We’re Stuck With the Bill.

It’s Trump’s War. We’re Stuck With the Bill.

Check, please.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/o...

Operation Concepts of a Plan

We Are Together Again, by Bonnie "Prince" Billy 10 track album

The new BPB record, "We Are Together Again," is a ray of light in dark times. Profoundly rich. Get it. bonnieprincebilly.bandcamp.com/album/we-are...

flat circle, baby!

Nate Swanson & Richard Haass: America's War of Choice on Iran | Foreign Affairs Interview YouTube video by Foreign Affairs

I find the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran to be, among other things, baffling in basic ways. It was good to talk to Richard Haass and Nate Swanson, in no small part because I found that they are almost as baffled as I am. Luckily, they also shed a lot of light. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgHH...

This week's cover @thelancet.com

I guess what I see is intense opportunism, which might yield different results when incentives shift. Which is very bad in its own way! But the massive scale of Netflix would create perverse incentives of its own—and the track record there is also pretty poor, albeit in a different way.