The Third Trajectory and Hopes for Rebuilding - emptywheel The global catastrophe Trump created in Iran may provide an opportunity to disrupt his authoritarian trajectory.

Read this from Marcy. It's brilliant. Take the time.

emptywheel.net/2026/04/21/t...

Maryan Zablotskiy shares about the historic experience of piloting a drone from a distance of 2,000km:

"Last week,I conducted a historic experiment: I piloted an FPV interceptor drone first from my office, then near the state border, and then from about 2,000 km away from the drone - from abroad⤵️

Front page Washington Post, April 22, 1914

OTD 1914
The navies of Great Britain, Germany, France, and Spain assist in evacuating American expats, abandoned by their government in Tampico.

Anti-American demonstrations rock cities across Mexico, protesting the invasion.
1/
#TampicoAffair

It Is Time for Ruthless Aggression The national battle over gerrymandering should be just the first step. Next up: expanding SCOTUS.

NEW: Next up?
www.thebulwark.com/p/it-is-time...

Israeli bulldozers uprooted dozens of olive trees in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya in the occupied West Bank. A local farmer says trees he nurtured for over 40 years were destroyed. Olive groves are central to livelihoods and identity in Palestinian rural life.

The Scale of Iran’s Advantage Comes Into View The country is beginning to wake up to the sheer level of...

Josh Marshall: "The mainstream press is now saying more openly what's been clear almost since the beginning of the conflict. Trump started this war on an impulse. In strategic terms he lost almost immediately."

Recalling Washington’s mandatory inoculation of entire Continental Army for smallpox in 1777. Kegbreath would lecture Washington on “freedom.”

Screenshot of the opening of a Bulwark newsletter article by Gen. (ret.) Mark Hertling, from 22 April 2026. It is titled "Undue Command Influenza" (https://www.thebulwark.com/i/195027925/undue-command-influenza) and the excerpt reads as follows: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced that he is discarding mandatory flu vaccinations for U.S. service members. It may appeal to an anti-vax political base, and it may sound minor in the abstract—part of what Secretary Hegseth described as “restoring freedom to the joint force.” But “freedom” also comes with civic and community obligation, especially in a profession built on individual and group responsibility. In military units and on military bases, individual choices have immediate and cascading consequences for the health and readiness of others. Consider how other high-performance organizations or facilities with throngs of people in close contact handle contagious illnesses. If a professional sports team has a player with the flu, that athlete often isn’t welcomed into the locker room or told to push through practice. He’s isolated to prevent the spread of the virus.

Hegseth's announcement that service members are no longer required to take the flu vaccine may look like just "a small policy change by a naïve civilian leader appealing to his boss’s base," writes @markhertling.bsky.social. But it's more troubling than that:
www.thebulwark.com/i/195027925/...

Oh, and you know who was in favor of mandatory immunization treatment for troops? This guy:
www.thebulwark.com/p/george-was...

BREAKING: Dems Remember They Can Play Hardball, Too Virginia voters decide turnabout is fair play—at least for four years.

Come for my defense (sort of) of Elbridge Gerry. Stay for my praise of the citizens of Virginia.

"Two Cheers for Gerrymandering (For Now)"

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Iran's military more capable than Trump administration is publicly acknowledging, sources say About half of Iran's stockpile of ballistic missiles and its associated launch systems were still intact as of the start of the ceasefire in early April, officials said.

Iran still has more military capacity than Trump admin is admitting publicly.

www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-mo...

Tesla just unlocked sales to 50,000+ government agencies It marks a significant step in expanding Tesla's presence in the public sector, where procurement processes have traditionally slowed electric vehicle adoption.

ah cool, more tax money going to prop up Tesla's falling sales

www.teslarati.com/tesla-just-u...

I FUCKING CALLED IT! bsky.app/profile/krag...

"I was ABSOLUTELY told that the Democrats would be bringing knives to the gun fight. What the fuck are they doing bringing guns?" --a whole lot of Republicans looking at the results from Virginia right now

@mb_ghalibaf • Translated from Persian by Grok A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world's economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted; reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire. They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation. Rate this translation: 11:39 AM • 4/22/26 • 70K Views

⚠️ Iran Speaker Ghalibaf says reopening the Strait of Hormuz is “impossible” as long as US blockade is in effect and ongoing Israeli offensive operations continue “across all fronts”:

Yesterday was not a good day for the corrupt, serial lying psychopath. 😂🤣👇

A lot about the world is very heavy right now but if a college football podcast that got jettisoned by Vox during the pandemic for not having a marketable audience can raise this much money for refugees in Atlanta in two days then just think of all the stuff we can all do together

Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe X.com EXCLUSIVE: It could take six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines deployed by the Iranian military, and any such operation is unlikely to be carried out until the U.S. war with Iran ends, the Pentagon has informed Congress — an assessment that means the conflict's economic impact could extend late into this year or beyond. 11:52 AM • 4/22/26 • 5.3K Views

Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe X.com A senior Pentagon official shared the estimate, which has not been previously reported, during a classified briefing Tuesday for members of the House Armed Services Committee, officials said. The timeline was met with frustration by Democrats and Republicans alike. 11:55 AM • 4/22/26 • 1.4K Views

⚠️ It could take six months AFTER the Iran War ends to clear mines from Strait of Hormuz, per Pentagon.

This timeline means the war’s economic impact could extend late into this year and beyond.

Reporting by WaPo:

This one weird trick can help any state or city pass clean energy policy A political strategy that actually works.

Hey, it's Earth Day! Back in 2019, I wrote about "one weird trick" that anybody can do to help advance good climate & energy policy.

Click for the surprising answer!

Red-Pilled Morning Show Host Stars in First Clip From The Onion's InfoWars Takeover In exclusive first look at The Onion's InfoWars takeover, Jim Haggerty has rid himself of "corporate shackles" to helm "The Jim Haggerty Show."

It’s coming.

Nine of the last ten members of Congress to die in office have been Democrats.

It's when he breaks out into "Luke. I am your father." That's when it really freaks...

you are not prepared

Sounds like he's on a ventilator. A very broken ventilator...

These hearings are a total freak show. America is so broken.

OMG -- the RFK Jr breathing noises during this hearing are absolutely horrifying

"I WAS TAKING 80 MG FENTANYLS, TWO IN THE MORNING, STUFFING THEM UNDER MY GUMS. I HAD TWO 300 MG PATCHES OF FENTANYL ON MY LEGS AND THEY GAVE ME SIX 1500 MG FENTANYL LOLLIPOPS TO EAT. • 95 HULK HOGAN REVEALS HOW MUCH FENTANYL HE WAS TAKING IN TNA

Pretty sure the unifying theme of MAGA celebrity is Sex, Drugs, and 80’s show tunes.

Point is that it's going to make inflation graphs be sad, even beyond gas prices

The Hormuz situation seems so so bad, like gonna-destabilize-half-the-globe-and-tank-the-economy bad, with no obvious resolution even plausible, and it’s still getting the “distant crisis mostly of interest to nerds that will work itself out” treatment in American press

C.D.C. Cancels Publication of Study Showing Benefits of Covid Vaccines The report found that the shots cut the likelihood of hospitalizations, but the agency’s acting head said it gave an inaccurate picture of the vaccines’ effectiveness.

The acting head of the CDC has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter, a Health Department spokesman said.