Originally published at: The Historic Self-Own of Trump’s Iran Misadventure
The Unforgiving Geopolitics of Oil and Gas I wanted to use the occasion of the resignation of a prominent climate scientist from NASA, citing the Trump administration’s attacks on climate science, to note how Trump’s foreign misadventures are inextricably intertwined with his retrograde energy policy. In the face of overwhelming evidence of catastrophic climate change…
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Everywhere you look in the Republican Party today, you see insecure men trying to show how manly they are.
Sen. Josh Hawley posts a video of himself doing pushups in a Senate hallway. Pete Hegseth posts videos of himself working out with troops. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posts a video of himself doing a bizarre and deeply homoerotic workout with Kid Rock. Kennedy even posted an AI video in which an even more jacked version of himself (shirtless and in jeans, naturally) manhandles a Twinkie in a professional wrestling match.
This administration and the entire right-wing movement is full of pasty edgelords looking for other men through whom they can achieve a vicarious experience of masculinity. And the performance of manhood to which they are most attracted is violence, whether it’s in the ring or perpetrated by a masked ICE goon giving a beat-down to a peaceful protester. So it’s no surprise that the administration has turned itself into a promotion machine for MMA, and in particular the UFC.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently announced that UFC fighters will be coming to Quantico to train FBI agents in MMA techniques. Because while it’s true that the bureau has cracked a lot of important cases in its history — the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 attacks, taking down criminals like Al Capone and the Unabomber — just imagine what it would have been able to accomplish if agents had known how to perform a triangle choke or an arm bar. Who knows, with a little more practice in ground-and-pound, maybe they would have found Savannah Guthrie’s mom by now.
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“From a long-term perspective, the ultimate price of our oil and gas dependence will be a centuries-long rise in global temperatures that is expected to threaten the pillars of civilization and imperil human survival. Nothing major.“
Agreed. It’s only a flesh wound.
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The US military is not large enough to do those.
Which means CF-DJT will order it done.
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The new plan:
- TACO
- Ask Iran for an NDA
- Declare victory
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A fiasco in the making and it will made by Trump because it’s what he is.
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Even Clarence Thomas went with the majority on this one. Alito broke with everyone.
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After reading the Morning Memo, all I can say is Donald Trump is the absolute worst leader of any nation ever.
“this regrettable error appears to have occurred because of agency attorney error.”
Do not believe it. The problem is really at the top.
Flynn
Good to know that $1.2 million of our taxes will be given to Mike Flynn, supposedly a military man who loves his country, just not America.
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MM: “From a long-term perspective, the ultimate price of our oil and gas dependence will be a centuries-long rise in global temperatures that is expected to threaten the pillars of civilization and imperil human survival.”
Aw, jeez, David, so pessimistic! Don’t you know that the remaining humans of the 25th century will be living underground or on Mars?
This planet is past its sell-by date, anyway! I’m sure there are much better planets out there – great planets – top planets – planets that will be named for our great overlords, Trump, Musk, Thiel, and MBS!
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Counterpoint. From Krugman today in a sobering post where he ironically notes he was in presentations all day yesterday and didn’t have time to write anything substantive.
Let me mention, however, that one of the meetings involved closed-door presentations from strategic experts about the Iran conflict, and it was even more depressing than I expected.
I asked what the 6000 or so Marines and paratroopers on their way to the Persian Gulf can do to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and the answer was basically, are you kidding? Iran can fire missiles and launch drones against basically any target in the Gulf, from anywhere along its very long coast or from the rugged mountains behind that coast. Policing that area would be extremely difficult even for a force many times as large as what the U.S. is deploying.
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And that makes those civilian sites valid Iranian targets because we are “hiding” our military among civilians.
JHFC!
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There have been worse…this egomaniac got 50% of the population of his country killed, 70% of the men. And his countrymen consider him a hero.
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ICYMI — There was some good news recently.
Delta Air Lines announced on March 24, 2026, that it is temporarily suspending special services for members of Congress, including expedited screenings and gate escorts, until the TSA is fully funded. Due to the partial government shutdown creating high demand, lawmakers will now be treated like regular passengers.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my leave to dry my tears.
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Had Donald J. Trump ever served in the military, he would have learned (or, probably not) one of the first, basic tenets of service instruction, i.e: “Never sh_it in your own mess kit.”
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Absolutely. $1.2 million goes a lot farther in Russia.
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“Ground operations to secure control over the highly enriched uranium buried in nuclear facilities” is the most laughable of the options mentioned.
There are satellite photos showing Iranians burying the entrances of the facility at Isfahan where the main stockpiles are rumored to be, deep within mountain tunnels. It would take months of securing the area from attack, and heavy equipment to dig out the buried or collapsed tunnels and reach the enriched uranium. Which is barrels of uranium hexaflouride, dangerous to handle, and probably hidden among hundreds of other decoy barrels.
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