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“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he said. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”

The promise to kill an entire civilization has caused anxiety, panic, and fear since it was issued in the morning. Some are calling for impeachment or invoking the 25th amendment. White House sources have told reporters that nukes are off the table, while others have told other reporters that nukes ARE a possibility.

It’s good to remember that we’ve been here before. Trump once threatened “fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen” against North Korea which set off a similar round of nuclear panic and worry. But America wasn’t at war with Iran then and North Korea had nuclear weapons.

So we are left to wait. Maybe you’re reading this on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday and nothing happened. It’s possible Trump just ordered the destruction of civilian infrastructure like bridges and power plants, something he’d threatened in an Easter missive. Feeling relief at that possibility is an obscenity.

“I think what’s happening is that, for the first time in his life, Trump is being told “no.” Having dealt with people who have this particular personality disorder, there’s no obvious limit to what he’ll do to himself or others trying to avoid accepting it,” Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert and previous guest of the show, said on Bluesky.

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3/30/26

TMZ published photos of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham enjoying a vacation alone at Disney World. The images are odd as is the idea that Graham, who is a 70 year old lifelong bachelor, would visit Disney World by himself. There is a war on, one he has championed. There’s an energy crisis and a partial shutdown of the government.

And there is the Senator, hanging out with Mickey Mouse.

3/31/26

Reuters reported that Italy had previously denied the United States access to some bombers that were headed to the Middle East as part of America’s war with Iran. Speaking with reporters, Italian officials reiterated that they were abiding by existing agreements. The day before, Spain had closed its airspace to any US planes involved in the Iran War. Austria would do the same a few days later. Both France and Portugal have set conditions on the use of their airspace but stopped short of an outright ban.

4/1/26

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments about birthright citizenship. Trump sat in the crowd for a little more than an hour and listened to the Justices, even those he’d hand picked, tear into his administration’s argument against birthright citizenship. A decision on the issue is expected this summer and early analysts predict it won’t favor Trump. This was the first time a sitting President attended a Supreme Court argument hearing.

Later that evening, Trump addressed the nation on national television to update them on the war in Iran. He thanked the troops, said the War had gone well, denounced Barack Obama, declared victory, and said there was still so much war left to fight.

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future. The whole world is watching and they can’t believe the power, strength and brilliance, they just can’t believe what they’re seeing—theyu—leave it to your imagination, but they can’t believe what they’re seeing, the brilliance of the United States military,” he said.

4/2/26

Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General.

“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900. We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Blanche has previously claimed he was magically “transported” or “teleported” to a Waffle House in Georgia. The Waffle House employees do not remember this. In a post on Truth Social, Blanche claimed that God had cured his prostate cancer and “transported” him.

“I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES,” he said.

4/3/26

It was a big day for American airpower losses.

Iranian forces shot down an F-15E over western Iran. During an early search and rescue mission for the pilots, an A-10 Warthog took fire and went down. The Warthog pilot ejected and American forces recovered him. A Black Hawk and a HH-60 helicopter also took fire during the search but made it back to base. An Iranian drone hit a CH-47 Chinook on the ground in Kuwait.

Back home, rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine got out of jail and showed off a Spongebob Squarepants toy signed by fellow inmate and former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

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4/4/26

The State Department revoked the permanent resident status of the niece and grand niece of assassinated IRGC leader Qasem Soleimani. According to a notice from the State Department, the women spread Iranian propaganda and called America the Great Satan.

“Afshar Soleimani pushed this propaganda for Iran’s terrorist regime while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, as attested to by her frequent posting on her recently deleted Instagram account,” the memo said.

4/5/26

Trump celebrated Easter by praising Allah and threatening to destroy Iran.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” the President of the United States said in a post on Truth Social.

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Propaganda emphatically does not tell you how a war is playing out on the ground. It can not communicate who is “winning” or “losing” or if a particular military is achieving its objectives. It captures a vibe and elicits an emotional response in the viewer. That’s the goal. It’s best to guard your heart against it.

I’ve got much more to say about this on the Kill Switch podcast which you can view below.

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3/23/26

Trump made good on a threat/ promise and deployed ICE agents to America’s airports. On Bluesky, independent journalist Marisa Kabas collected images from readers of agents milling around at airports and published a daily thread.

“counted 25 ICE officers (most with ERO vests) during my 26-minute wait in the LGA Terminal C Touchless line this morning,” writer Megan Greenwell said on Bluesky. “every one of them was either standing doing nothing or slowly walking the length of the line doing nothing. at least four were in masks.”

One of Greenwell’s photos showed two young ICE agents wearing plate carriers and walking through the airport in NYC. The image of the young brown-vested ICE agents wandering Laguardia touched a nerve and was shared and reshared online. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s official X account posted the photo through a blurry fashwave filter with the caption “Fly Safe, Patriots. JOIN. ICE.GOV.”

3/24/26

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon has called up 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne to the Middle East.

“The 82nd Airborne’s combat brigade serves as the Army’s emergency response force and can be deployed anywhere in the world in under 24 hours. They train to parachute into hostile or contested territory to secure airfields and land. The brigade would be deployed along with the division headquarters, which is responsible for planning and coordination, the officials said.”

3/25/26

Trump visited Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee on Monday and the White House published photos from the trip two days later. In my favorite, a bored looking Trump stares forward as if waiting for everything to be over.

On Capitol Hill, members of Congress left a closed door briefing with the White House about the war and signaled their alarm. “I will not support sending South Carolina’s sons and daughters to war in Iran. I won’t do it,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said in a post on X.

“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered. And we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions,” House Armed Services Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers said.

“We just wanted them to tell us what’s the plan, and we didn’t get any answers,” Rogers told Politico. “I understand they can’t give us, they shouldn’t give us, specific operational details. But generally, we should be able to get more texture than we’re receiving from them.”

3/26/26

Trump spent the past few days talking about how negotiations were going well with Iran because the Iranians had given him a present. During a filmed cabinet meeting, Trump finally told everyone what was going on. “Steve, can I reveal the present?” Trump asked.

“You can do anything you want sir,” US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said.

“They said to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re gonna let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil,” Trump said. “And they’ll sail up tomorrow.”

The present, Trump explained, was that Iran allowed some ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. “I hope I haven’t screwed up your negotiation,” Trump said to Witkoff. “I felt it was appropriate to say because I did taunt you the other day by saying they’re gonna give us a present.”

3/27/26

An Iranian-linked hacktivist group called Handala breached FBI director Kash Patel’s personal Gmail account and published mildly embarrassing pictures from Patel’s photoroll online. Most of the photos come from a personal trip Patel once took to Cuba. They’ve got Patel sniffing cigars, staring at a fancy bottle of liquor, and hanging out with a statue of Ernest Hemingway. The FBI later confirmed the hack and issued a $10 million reward for “information leading to the identification of the Handala Hack Team out of Iran.”

3/28/26

A US AH‑64 Apache helicopter buzzed Kid Rock’s home near Nashville and the rockstar filmed the whole thing and put it online. “This is a level of respect that shit for brains Governor of California will never know. God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her. 🇺🇸 🙏” Kid Rock said in a post on X.

This was, apparently, an off the books trip. “Fort Campbell leadership is aware of a video circulating on social media depicting AH-64 Apache helicopters operating in the vicinity of a private residence associated with Mr. Robert Ritchie (also known as ‘Kid Rock’),” a 101st Airborne Division public affairs officer told journalists. “The command has initiated an investigation to review the circumstances surrounding this activity.”

By Tuesday the investigation was wrapped up and the Army suspended the aircrew involved.

3/29/26

Another piece in The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Trump and American military leaders are talking about what experts have long known: there’s no way to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon without a ground force.

“‘This is not a quick in and out kind of deal,’ said retired Gen. Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command.

“U.S. troops could avoid such a dangerous operation if Iran agreed to hand over its uranium as part of a peace settlement. The U.S. has previously removed enriched uranium from a foreign country in a peaceful transfer. In 1994, the U.S. removed uranium from Kazakhstan in an operation dubbed Project Sapphire. In 1998, the U.S. and Britain were involved in an operation to remove highly enriched uranium from a reactor near Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. It was taken to a nuclear complex in Scotland.”

For more on this, I’ll point readers to my interview with François Diaz-Maurin of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists from a few weeks ago. Diaz-Maurin laid out all the complications in expert detail. On Sunday evening, concurrent with the Journal article, Diaz-Maurin published an investigation that detailed the current location and nature of Iran’s enriched uranium.

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No one should be “monitoring the situation” if they’re not paid to do so, but world circumstances have made it impossible to look away. How many will die? When will it end? What new obscenity will we be forced to swallow with a grin? These are questions we’re all grappling with right now, the questions that have created a world where The Wall Street Journal is explaining why Iran keeps releasing AI-generated Lego videos.

Here’s what kept me sane this past week: the success of the excellent Project Hail Mary and the sheer excellence of the video game Marathon. Project Hail Mary is an original film not based on an existing IP that shot almost everything in camera. The alien co-star is a puppet. It’s been so long since I’ve seen a big budget film that felt grounded in reality that I had forgotten how good it is. Go see it.

Marathon is a video game about learning to accept death and loss while listening to a corporate executive wax poetic about a drinkable cheeseburger.

The game is best with friends, just like the drinkable cheeseburger.

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3/16/26

The week kicked off with the US Transportation Department stripping 200,000 immigrant truck drivers of their commercial driver’s license. According to reporting from The Washington Post, the new rule will wipe out 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses in America.

The Post told the story of Aleksei Semenovskii, a 41-year old Russian asylum seeker.

“This [rule] is devastating for my family,” said Semenovskii, breaking down in tears. “I’ve built this small business relying on my driving privileges. I didn’t think anyone could take this away from me for just being an immigrant.”

3/17/26

Joe Kent, a former Army Ranger, resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent said in his resignation letter. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

Later that day, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—who hates wars unless they’re waged on behalf of Bashar Al Assad—announced her unwavering support of President Trump. It was impossible not to read it as a response to Kent.

“As our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country,” she said. “After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.”

The next day, the FBI announced it had launched an investigation into Kent over improper handling of classified material.

3/18/26

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, heir apparent to Kristi Noem, sat through a round of Senate grilling today as part of the confirmation process for Director of Homeland Security. Opinions from the Congressional crowd were mixed. Mullin once threatened to fight a representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during a Senate hearing.

“I know that is a good man,” Sen. Bernie Moreno said, pointing at Mullin. “I will vote for you. Our Republican colleagues will vote for you. You will get confirmed and you will make this country proud Markwayne, thank you and thank you for standing by a great American person.”

Sen. Rand Paul wasn’t sold. A neighbor assaulted Paul in 2017, breaking five of his ribs and causing an injury that necessitated lung surgery. At the time, Mullin sided with Paul’s attacker in interviews and called Paul a snake.

Paul used the confirmation hearing to grill Mullin about the comments and make a point about his character. “In the days after the fight, you did many interviews in which you justified the violence as historically justified by precedents, such as caning and dueling,” Paul said. “Is it today your opinion that the caning of Charles Sumner was not only justified, but argues still for resolving our political differences with violence?”

“What I would simply point out to some of the rules that still apply to this body,” Mullin said. “For instance, dueling with two consenting adults is still there. I was pointing out what is still—”

“It’s been illegal for 170 years. There’s no precedent for legal dueling,” Paul said, cutting him off. “Even then they fled the country. Do you realize that the man that beat Charles Sumner with a cane, he beat him till he was unconscious. You know why no Senators intervened? Because his friend held a gun on the other Senators, and he kept beating him and beating him until he crushed his skull. That’s what you’re insinuating as the precedent of the Senate and that’s what you live by. That is a very, very dangerous sentiment.”

Mullin sat in silence for a beat.

“After a half a dozen victory lap interviews where you pointed out that the Union guy was just lucky that fear kept him from standing up, Dana Bash asked you if you have any regrets about bringing violence to a Senate committee, and you replied that you have no regrets. Today you’ve said you have no regrets about being happy, being completely understanding, why I was attacked from behind. You had no regrets about instigating a brawl in a Senate committee hearing. Are those still your opinions?”

“Mr. Chairman, you’re going to have your opinion. I’m going to have mine. As the Secretary of Homeland Security, I’m going to bring peace of mind and security to this country, and I’m going to stay laser focused on that,” Mullin said.

3/19/26

Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House and made a Pearl Harbor joke while taking questions from the press. A Japanese reporter asked Trump why he hadn’t told America’s allies about the plan to attack Iran.

“Well one thing: you don’t wanna signal too much, y’know? When we go in, we went in very hard. And we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? OK?” Trump said, spreading his hands before him while people in the room laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right? He’s asking me, no—you believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us and we had to surprise ‘em. And we did. And because of that surprise, we knocked out, the first two days we probably knocked out 50% of what we—and much more than we anticipated. If I go and tell everybody about it, it’s no longer a surprise. Right?”

As a brief reprieve from the horror, we must remember that good things are still possible in America. The same day as Trump’s Pearl Harbor joke, Joseph “Afroman” Foreman won a free speech case against seven sheriff’s officers in Ohio. In 2022, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio raided his home. They found no evidence of a crime. Afroman used security footage from the raid to make music videos mocking the police. Seven of the officers sued Afroman for invading their privacy.

They lost. The entire trial is incredible. Highlights include retired deputy Shawn Cooley being forced to respond to being called “Lemon Pound Cake” and the ex-wife of a different deputy explaining that the music videos had nothing to do with her divorce.

3/20/26

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that some sanctions on Iranian oil would be lifted to help ease pressure on the oil market caused by America’s war on Iran.

“At present, sanctioned Iranian oil is being hoarded by China on the cheap. By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran,” Bessent said in a post on X. “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against Tehran to keep the price down as we continue Operation Epic Fury.”

The New York Times had a horrifying story about Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and Trump ally.

“Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent turned presidential special envoy, had learned that his Brazilian ex-girlfriend was in a Miami jail, arrested on charges of fraud at her workplace. They had been in a custody battle over their teenage son. Now he saw an opportunity.

He reached out to a top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, explaining that his ex was in the country illegally, according to records obtained by The New York Times and a person familiar with the communications. Could she be put in ICE detention? That could help him get his son back.

The official, David Venturella, promptly called the agency’s Miami office to ensure that ICE agents would pick up the woman from the jail before she was released on bail, according to the records and a person with knowledge of the conversation who requested anonymity to discuss it. During the call, Mr. Venturella noted that the case was important to someone close to the White House.”

3/21/26

Robert Mueller died on March 20. He was 81 years old and had lived with a Parkinson’s diagnosis since 2021. Trump gave his obituary for the man, such as it was, the following day.

“Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

3/22/26

The State Department issued a “Worldwide Caution” notice to Americans.

“The Department of State advises Americans worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate,” the notice said. “Periodic airspace closures may cause travel disruptions. U.S. diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted. Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.”

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Jake Paul appeared at a political rally with Trump in Hebron, Kentucky this week where the President gave Paul his full endorsement. Paul is not running for any political office. “I’m gonna make a prediction. You will be, in the not too distant future, running for political office. And you have my complete and total endorsement, OK?”

Paul is a longtime YouTuber who parlayed his success into a career selling low quality snacks to children. He boxed Mike Tyson, starred in a reality show that aired on HBO, and interviewed the President on YouTube. When I think about the future of American politics I see Paul.

The Oscars aired on Sunday and I have, on occasion, heard friends and critics moaning about a certain kind of movie typified by Oscar nominees F1 and Top Gun: Maverick. Both are directed by the same guy and feature an aging hero who steps up to show a young and cocky upstart how it’s done. In ages past, a similar movie would see the aging hero seeing his limitations and stepping aside. Think Bull Durham.

The success of Top Gun and F1, I’m told, is a sign that Baby Boomers have a chokehold on the culture. These films are metaphors for how the new generation can’t get ahead, a trend we see reflected in business and politics across the country. I think the real issue is more material. Hollywood knows how to market its films and young people aren’t going. They’re at home watching Jake Paul and Mr. Beast on Youtube.

The torch is getting passed in American entertainment. One showman has anointed another.

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3/9/26

While all eyes are on America’s war with Iran, the War on Drugs continued with increased intensity. Pentagon social media accounts spent Monday celebrating weekend attacks on boats in the Pacific. The Department of War said the strikes killed “six male narco-terrorists,” a number that brought the death toll of this phase of the War on Drugs to 157.

3/10/26

In what would become a theme of the US-Israel War in Iran this week, the Trump administration sent mixed signals about the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said it had begun to mine the Strait, especially grim news because the US Navy decommissioned its Middle East minesweepers last year.

Oil prices shot up and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright didn’t help. “The U.S. Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets,” he said on X. This wasn’t true and he immediately deleted it. Oil prices climbed went up as a result.

“If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY! If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before. If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction! Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait. They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE!” Trump said on Truth Social.

Iran mined it anyway.

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3/11/26

We got a glimpse of the cost of the Iran War today. During a closed door briefing with Congress, the administration said the first six days had cost an estimated $11.3 billion. During the first two days of strikes, the US spent $5.6 billion on munitions alone. Reporting on the briefing said that Trump planned to ask Congress for an additional $50 billion in funding for the war.

“Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilised,” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said in a statement to the world.

The Wall Street Journal had an illuminating article about America’s lack of a plan for the Strait of Hormuz going into the war. Trump wanted to sell insurance to ships in the Gulf as a way of easing the burden on the oil industry his war had caused. It’s not going well. “US officials called London insurers and brokers, trying to figure out how the market operates, industry insiders said,” the Journal reported. “Some have received calls asking for confidential data on the Lloyd’s market that participants have been reluctant to share.”

3/12/26

Palantir CEO Alex Karp spoke at AIPCon 9 and then gave an interview to CNBC where he talked about the Pentagon blacklisting Anthropic, the role AI is playing in war, and the disruption he sees coming to the American economy. “This technology disrupts humanity’s train, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less, and increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working class, often male voters. These disruptions are going to disrupt every aspect of our society,” Karp said.

In Iraq, a US Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed during a mission. Six airmen died.

3/13/26

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in the middle of a sit-down on camera interview with Wilfred Frost of Sky News when the President pulled him into a closed door meeting in the situation room.

When Bessent returned around 90 minutes later he sounded shaken. “The President is in great spirits. The Iranian mission is proceeding well ahead of schedule and, you know, I have to tell you, I have teenage—teenager who is considering military service and I can give this team my highest compliment…I would say I trust my child’s life in their hands.”

During a press conference that same day Pete Hegseth claimed the Strait of Hormuz was open for business. “The only thing prohibiting transit right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that,” Hegseth said.

3/14/26

On Truth Social, Trump attempted to will a coalition of allies into existence to help the US open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe. We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are. Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated. In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”

As of this writing, no allies have signed up to help though some have tepidly left the option open.

3/15/26

Tucker Carlson said the CIA is after him and has been reading his text messages. What’s his crime? According to Carlson, he spoke to people in Iran before America attacked.

This week on Angry Planet, journalist Aram Shabanian joins the program to talk about his first reactions to the Iran…

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This was inside a PragerU Freedom Truck, a White House backed traveling exhibition meant to teach kids about the birth of the United States during its 250th birthday. The main attraction is AI-generated founding fathers and AI slop George Washington was interesting, but the picture of Chambers is what stuck with me after I left.

Chambers was one of the central figures that kicked off the post World War II Red Scare that launched the political careers of Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy, and Joseph McCarthy. As the American public soured on the House Unamerican Activities Committee and the hunt for communists, the fight over Chambers legacy became a central grievance of the American right-wing. The picture of Chambers was on the bottom row of the heroes, about at the eye level of a kindergartner.

I thought again of Trump and others claiming that America’s war in Iran is simply the culmination of a 47 year long conflict. All the old grievances come around again, even and especially the ones we thought had been forgotten.

@404mediaco

404 Media on Instagram: "The AI slop founding father is part of…

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3/2/26

First Lady Melania Trump chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council where she called for peace and asked the world to think of the children.

“The US stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon—peace will be yours,” Melania said during remarks to the council. “Children raised in a culture rooted in ignorance are surrounded by disorder, and sometimes even conflict. These societies are filled with rigid thinkers who embrace prejudice and shun human dignity.”

Days earlier on February 28, air strikes in Minab, Iran leveled the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school and killed more than 175 people including many children. Neither the US or Israel has claimed responsibility for this specific attack, but analysis from the New York Times and others concluded that the school was destroyed at the exact same time America bombed a nearby Iranian naval base.

3/3/26

Not content with all the wars in front of it, the Trump administration teamed up with Ecuador to expand both country’s combat operations against the Los Choneros cartel. The Ecuadorian military has been fighting this war against organized crime since 2024 with the support of the US, but American combat operations in the region are new. US Southern Command announced the opening of a new front in America’s long running War on Drugs by posting footage of air strikes against alleged traffickers (which it called terrorists) on X.

3/4/26

Official propaganda out of the White House this week was thick with video game references. In the Call of Duty franchise, players who kill multiple opponents without dying in a multiplayer match are rewarded with a “killstreak” bonus. There’s different types of killstreak bonuses, but one of the most popular is an airstrike that drops cluster bombs on enemies.

A White House video posted to X merged footage of a Call of Duty killstreak with the destruction of targets in Iran. Electronic music throbbed over grainy footage of targets exploding. “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,” a voice chanted as aircraft and vehicles exploded. Every destroyed piece of equipment netted +100 points in this fictionalized version of the very real war.

3/5/26

Kristin Noem is out as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The cabinet and staff of the first Trump administration was unstable. People came and went so fast it was hard to keep track. Anthony Scaramucci famously served only ten days as White House communications director. Trump 2.0 has proved much more durable and resistant to scandal.

Noem’s antics, apparently, went too far. The breaking point was allegedly a $220 million tax-payer funded ad that featured Noem on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore. That’s about the cost of last year’s Superman film and the ad only runs 60 seconds, so about $3.6 million a second.

3/6/26

Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash that Cuba was next on the regime change list.

“Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too. They want to make a deal so badly. They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco (Rubio) over there and we’ll see how that works out. We’re really focused on this one right now. We’ve got plenty of time, but Cuba’s ready — after 50 years.”

Over on X, the White House continued playing to the gamers by posting footage from the Iran War against music from Grand Theft: Auto San Andreas. Cringe Meme Czar and White House director of communications Steven Cheung retweeted the video along with the San Andreas cheat code for infinite ammo.

3/7/26

At 4 AM, staff at the Capitol installed a plaque honoring the police who protected Congress on January 6, 2021. According to the Washington Post, the plaque sat in the basement of the Capitol uninstalled for years despite Congress passing a law saying it had to be displayed.

“Last summer, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and another officer who responded to the riot sued the Architect of the Capitol to have the congressional memorial installed and, according to federal court records, ‘to honor the women and men who saved the lives of those inside the building, and to ensure that the history of this attack on the Capitol — and on democracy — is not forgotten.’”

“I never thought honoring police officers would be this controversial,” Dunn told the Post.

3/8/26

Trump promised to strike Iran “very hard” over the weekend and on Sunday the IDF hit a fuel depot in Tehran that caused black smoke to billow into the air above the city. Iraq and Kuwait cut oil production, Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon announced the death of a seventh US service member in the Iran War. As early trading began on Sunday, the cost of a barrel skyrocketed and oil futures plummeted.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday night.

On r/WallStreetBets—a subreddit for financial shitposters—one user posted a picture of panicking wojaks hugging each other under the title “Lord help us tomorrow.”

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But is the buildout of LLMs and machine learning systems really as important as the development of the atom bomb? And what are the lessons from the atomic age that AI scientists should then learn? Do we need an AI Non Proliferation Treaty? An AI International Atomic Energy Agency?

On this episode of Angry Planet, Ankit Panda comes on to talk about the uses and limitations of the “AI as nuclear weapons” metaphor. Panda is an expert in nukes and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He’s been sharing his extended thoughts on the AI-nuclear connection at his Nukesletter Substack.

• Stanislav Petrov

• AI as nuclear weapons

• Why nuclear weapons resonate with people in the AI field

• The Strategic Air Command story

• That time we spilled nuclear material all over Greenland and Spain

• NNSA and Anthropic

• AI as the next Manhattan Project

• A massive infrastructure project

• Fissile material as silicon

• What’s the AI version of an NPT and IAEA?

• AI and nuclear are both dual use

• On AI winters

• What AI is actually being used for, what it might be used for

• The socialization around AI will change.

AI Arms and Influence: Frontier Models Exhibit Sophisticated Reasoning in Simulated Nuclear Crisis

Nukesletter

Does the AI/Nuclear Weapons Analogy Really Make Sense?

Editor’s Note: Today’s Nukesletter continues on the theme of AI from my last post, but is somewhat different. I was asked recently by the good folks at the Federation of American Scientists and the Future of Life Institute to write a short “think piece” with some broad thoughts on the often-analogized AI-nuclear relationship. That resulted in the piece …

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a month ago · 17 likes · Ankit Panda

Many of Trump 2.0’s actions speak to specific Boomer obsessions. He declassified many of the remaining JFK assassination files. He’s said he’ll do the same for UFOs. He brought some of that old, if diminished, Kennedy magic back to DC by appointing RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary.

Even his domestic policies feel like the kind of thing an angry and dying Boomer would recommend during a heated political fight with their family. “Crime would go down in the cities if you’d just send in the military,” they might say. Or “want to get rid of immigrants? Just unleash ICE to bust their heads.”

What we saw at the end of this week is the foreign policy version of that attitude playing. These are the dreams of a dying generation grasping the wheel of power one more time before it’s all over.

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2/23/26

On February 22, the Mexican Army killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC) leader El Mencho in an attack carried out with support from the United States. Over the next few days, JNGC hijacked trucks, killed people, and set things on fire across Mexico in retaliation.

A Costco in flames in Puerto Vallarta captured public attention. On Reddit, a poster earned international ire when they complained that Westin Puerto Vallarta wouldn’t honor their late checkout request.

“I am platinum elite, over 1,000 lifetime Marriott nights,” the person said in the now deleted post on r/Marriott. “PV is on fire due to the cartel setting cars and buses on fire all over the city. The airport is closed and Ubers and Taxies are not running. I asked for a 4pm checkout, which I’m entitled to based on availability. They won’t extend past 2pm and adi we would have to use the hospitality suite.”

2/24/26

Trump delivered a long and boring State of the Union. Clocking in around two hours, the speech played the hits. Of note for our purposes: the President bragged about ending a war between Israel and Iran just days before he’d partner with Israel to launch a war on Iran.

“My first 10 months I ended eight wars, including Cambodia. Isn’t it funny? Sick people,” he said. “Cambodia and Thailand. Pakistan and India. Would have been a nuclear war. 35 million people said the prime minister of Pakistan would have died if it were not for my involvement. Kosovo and Serbia. Israel and Iran. Egypt and Ethiopia. Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Congo and Rwanda. And, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level, it’s just about there.”

2/25/26

Ten people in a stolen speedboat traveled from Florida to Cuba where, according to Cuba’s Interior Ministry, the boat approached the coast and its occupants opened fire with assault rifles. The Cuban coast guard fired back, killing four and injuring the others. The six survivors are in custody. One of the dead is an American citizen. Cuba said they found handguns, assault rifles, bullet proof vests, and Molotov cocktails on the boat.

2/26/26

Pakistan is at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan. In an interview on state TV in Afghanistan, Taliban commander Hamid Khorasani told viewers that his forces would meet Pakistan’s ballistic missiles with suicide bombers. It’s further proof that Taliban bureaucrats hated working in an office and “missed the days of Jihad.”

2/27/26

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave AI company Anthropic an ultimatum this week: give us full access to Claude without safeguards or we’ll declare you a supply chain risk. At issue was Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s refusal to allow Claude to be used for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons systems. According to The Washington Post: Hegseth demanded to know if Claude would help America shoot down an incoming nuclear weapon.

Amodei’s response? “Call us and we’d work it out.” WaPo noted that Anthropic denied he’d said this.

Anthropic stuck to its guns. Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk which would blacklist it from all government work. Hours later, the Pentagon used Claude when it launched an air attack against Iran.

Today, Hegseth also picked a fight with the Boy Scouts over “woke” policies. The Boy Scouts bent the knee.

2/28/26

The vibe war turned kinetic. After bombing Iranian nuclear sites in June last year Trump claimed Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated.” A little less than a year later, Trump started a broader war against Iran. Why? “It’s a very simple message,” Trump said in a speech to the nation on Saturday. “They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

3/1/26

Iran confirmed that the US-led campaign against Iran killed the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The attacks also, apparently, killed quite a few other important people, including officials the US had identified as possible candidates to take over Iran.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump told Johathan Karl of ABC News. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

In a speech on Sunday, Trump acknowledged that several US troops had already died during the war. He thanked them for their service. “Sadly there will likely be more before it ends,” he said. “That’s the way it is. Likely be more.”

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Fishback is a Groyper running for governor in Florida and currently fighting to win the Republican primary. He’s one of the most avowedly “4Chan” candidates I’ve yet seen. He inveighed against junk food in a recent speech at the University of Central Florida, calling it “goyslop,” and has promised to bring back public executions.

@fishback2026

Fishback 2026 on Instagram: "It’s time for REAL LAW ENFORCEMENT…

The success or failure of Fishback in the primary will tell me how much appetite America has for the politics of weirdos spouting online bullshit. Sometimes my wife will catch me laughing at a post I see online and ask what I think is so funny. Startled, I’ll look up from my scroll and realize that explaining the joke will require a long conversation about stupid online bullshit that will, once it’s finished, destroy the joke and make me look completely insane.

And so it is with “goyslop” and any number of other Groyper idioms. Once it moves from the message board to the sidewalk, it’s obvious how deranged it’s always been.

February 16, 2026

It was President’s day. Here’s a picture Nicki Minaj posted of herself sitting next to a pastel festooned AI-generated President Trump.

Just to even out the left-right divide of cringe President’s Day Posts, here’s a picture Hillary Clinton posted of herself hanging out with a drone in Ukraine.

I can think of no better way to celebrate President’s Day in 2026.

AI company Anthropic got into a fight with the Pentagon this week. Anthropic’s Claude is the only LLM cleared for sensitive government data, the company has a close working relationship with the government, and the Pentagon used Claude during the Maduro raid. Anthropic wants to make sure its tech isn’t used for mass surveillance of autonomous weapons. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth won’t give Anthropic those assurances and threatened to cut the company off from government contracts.

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February 17, 2026

HHS posted a video of secretary RFK Jr. hanging out with Kid Rock. Set to the 27 year old Kid Rock song Bawitdaba, the video depicts the two men working out and drinking whole milk together in a pool. Kennedy submerges himself into water multiple times while wearing blue jeans.

February 18, 2026

CNBC aired an interview with Donald Jr. and Eric Trump where the brothers talked crypto and defended the Trump family against accusations of corruption. They didn’t deny the corruption so much as claim it was a necessary and inevitable reaction to being bullied by banks and social media companies.

“We were the most cancelled people in the world in 2020, 2021, and it’s really great to almost have this retribution where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda,” Eric said. Both talked about the shock of being pulled off Twitter and getting “cancelled” by major banks. The result was going into DeFi.

February 19, 2026

The Vibe War with Iran began.

The state of American military equipment in the Middle East looks an awful lot like it did ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As of this writing, the war is still vibes-based. Will America attack Iran? Only the President, constrained only by his own morality, knows.

While he weighed the possibilities, Trump stopped in at a fast food restaurant in Rome, Georgia for a photo-op. Trump is ever in his element when surrounded by cheeseburgers and he glowed behind the cash register at a chili dog place called The Varsity.

“THIS is what putting American workers first actually looks like. 🇺🇸🔥” Boasted the official White House X account. “The comeback is real.”

According to The Varsity’s website, starting level managers make around $33,000 a year.

@realdonaldtrump

President Donald J. Trump on Instagram

February 20, 2026

The Supreme Court told Trump he couldn’t just issue tariffs at-will and he didn’t take it well. We tend to consume Trump in soundbites: a post there, an excerpted piece of a speech here. Lately I’ve been trying, as much as I have the time for, to watch his remarks in full. Trump can sound cogent when edited down. He’s much less so when you listen to him at length. His speech racing to the SCOTUS ruling is a good one to watch if it’s been a while since you’ve listened to Trump at length.

“I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country. I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can embargo, I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge one dollar because that’s not what it says, and that’s not the way it even reads. I can do anything I want to do to them, but I can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee. I could give them a little two cent fee, but I cannot charge under any circumstances. I cannot charge them anything.”

February 21, 2026

The week closed out as it began: with Nicki Minaj posting cringe. The starstruck pop-star posted a picture of a Donald Trump branded Bible signed by the man himself on X. “One of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received in my entire life,” she said.

February 22, 2026

The US men’s hockey team defeated Canada in the Olympics and took home a gold medal, the first since 1980. Team member Dylan Larkin livestreamed the celebration from the locker room after the medal ceremony and caught FBI Director Kash Patel hanging out with the team. Video of Patel circulated on social media that showed the director pounding beers and chanting.

Earlier in the week, the FBI’s public affairs people insisted that Patel was flying to Milan for a previously planned work trip and wasn’t there to attend the Olympics. Footage of Patel chugging a beer with the Olympians seemed to run counter to the PR.

“For the very concerned media - yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys- Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth. 👊🏼🏒🇺🇸” Patel said in a post on X.

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Also like Trump, Cleveland couldn’t win his first re-election bid and sat out for four years before returning to the Presidency with a narrow margin in the popular vote. Public sentiment turned against Cleveland during his second term as he struggled to navigate tariffs, a financial crisis, and a rising tide of populism. He left the White House under a cloud.

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February 9, 2026

Dr. Oz—fulltime administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and part time anti-Armenian conspiracy theorist—begged the nation to get vaccinated. “Take the vaccine, please,” the doctor said on CNN.

I live in South Carolina near the epicenter of a measles outbreak. The number of confirmed cases is almost 1,000 and is expected to grow. A mix of medical freedom advocates, crunchy MAHA moms, and rural infrastructure created the perfect conditions in South Carolina to bring back a disease that was once a distant memory.

But there are no atheists in fox holes and no anti-vaxers during an outbreak. Vaccination rates surged 162% in Spartanburg where the outbreak is worst and a state Senator has proposed legislation that would end the state’s religious exemptions for vaccines and make MMR shots mandatory for kids attending public school.

Some still aren’t convinced. “This bill goes too far. Since 2020, we’ve seen a concerted push to curtail personal liberty in the name of health and safety,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement about the proposed legislation. “Eliminating religious exemptions and mandating medical decisions by force is not who we are as a state or country.”

I got a titer this week, a blood panel that let me know I was still immune to the disease. The nurse who checked me in thought it was bizarre. “Do you work with the public or something?” She asked.

February 10, 2026

Vice President JD Vance visited Armenia, a first for a sitting US executive. As part of the tour, press took a picture of Vance laying a wreath at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex which honors the dead of the Armenian Genocide. The picture ended up on the Vice President’s official Twitter account but was removed after Vance left Armenia. The post had called the Armenian Genocide a genocide, something American ally Turkey doesn’t love.

“Obviously, I’m the first vice president to ever visit Armenia. They asked us to visit the site. Obviously, it’s a very terrible thing that happened a little over 100 years ago, and something that was just very, very important to them culturally,” Vance told reporters when asked about it later.

February 11, 2026

The FAA shut down the air space above El Paso, saying all flights in the area would be grounded for 10 days. It opened the skies again a short time later. The Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration were, if not actively feuding, not adequately communicating.

The Pentagon claimed it was testing new high powers anti-drone lasers and felling cartel drones. It failed to alert the FAA that it was taking shots in the area and kicked off a panic.

Later, it turned out that all the Department of War managed to destroy with its lasers was a party balloon. The Pentagon loves to shoot down balloons above the United States.

February 12, 2026

War is big business on Polymarket.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had arrested soldiers and civilians for using classified information to make money on the gambling site.

“Last year, a user who went by the name ricosuave666 correctly predicted the timeline around the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. The bets drew attention from other traders who suspected the account holder had access to nonpublic information.

The account in question raked in more than $150,000 in winnings before going dormant for six months. It resumed trading last month, betting on when Israel would strike Iran, Polymarket data shows.”

This keeps happening. Another Polymarket user made $400,000 betting on the ousting of Nicolás Maduro just hours before the US announced his capture. In December, someone at a thinktank that tracks the frontlines of the War in Ukraine was fired after manipulating the map to win bets on Polymarket.

February 13, 2026

A pair of speeches and a bit of overt bigotry closed out the week.

On Friday Trump spoke at Fort Bragg where he played the hits. He talked to the troops and their families about Melania’s documentary, said he’d saved the economy, and rambled about the Dow Jones and 401ks. Then he told the attendees that they had to vote for Republicans if they wanted to keep the name of their beloved base.

Fort Bragg is an American institution and, among the US military, an iconic symbol. It was originally named for Confederate general Braxton Bragg and the Biden administration renamed the place “Fort Liberty” seeing as the Confederacy is finally out of fashion in much of the country. Many of the rank and file in the military didn’t love the change. Not because they hated liberty and loved the Confederacy, but because Bragg had always been Bragg. Trump’s Department of War re-christened “Fort Bragg” in honor of WWII era paratrooper Roland L. Bragg, cutting out the Confederacy and retaining the name. A tidy solution for a mostly untidy administration.

According to Trump, changing Fort Bragg’s name again is at the top of the Democrat’s to-do list. “We have your name back. We got your name back from the radical left. The radical left is not happy about it,” Trump said. “It’s another reason you have to vote for us, because they’ll change it back to whatever it might be.”

Later he brought out Republican Senate candidate Michael Whately and endorsed him in front of the gathered troops. Then he made it clear what might happen should Whately not win. “I heard they were taking the name Fort Bragg off, I said no, no, no, they’re kidding,” Trump said. “They’re not going to do-they did-they took the name off. We got it back very quickly, but they took it off. And if we don’t win the midterms, they’ll take it off again. They’ll take it off again. You can’t let that happen.”

February 14, 2026

On Valentine’s Day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech in Munich that tried to have it all ways. Speaking at a security conference, Rubio invoked the history of Western civilization, decried open borders, and asked Europe to stick it out with America for old time’s sake.

“We do not need to abandon the system of international cooperation we authored, and we don’t need to dismantle the global institutions of the old order that together we built. But these must be reformed. These must be rebuilt,” Rubio said.

He outlined a world where America takes the lead and solves its problems aggressively without anyone telling it what to do but with the full support of Europe. “It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on,” Rubio said. “It is a path we have walked together before and hope to walk together again. For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding—its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe.”

The speech, it seemed, didn’t go over well with Europeans.

February 15, 2026

Political life during Trumptime is defined by extremely online grievance politics and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) spent his Sunday on Twitter reminding me of that.

It began when Fine posted a bigoted tweet about Muslims. “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” the post said, referring to a recurring fear among some conservatives that America’s Muslims will usher in anti-dog Sharia-based laws.Fine then spent the next few hours posting AI-generated pictures of dogs on the Gadsden Flag.

The truth, of course, doesn’t matter to Fine. The content and attention was too good to pass up.

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The pace of the news is relentless and it’s not going to let up. Everyday I see a story, a video clip, or a post on social media that makes me feel tired, overwhelmed, or horrified. Often all three at once. I’m going to save one thing everyday that makes me feel that way then share it in a list after the week has passed.

Why? To purge it, to catalog it so I have it to look back on so that I know it’s real, so that I know it happened, and also because of something a friend said to me.

I’ve known this guy for 30 years. I grew up with him. He lives near the spot where US Customs and Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti. He heard the gunshots and mistook them for the sounds of his children banging around on a metal shelf, a common noise in his home. When he figured out what had happened, he bundled up his family—including a newborn—and drove them to a nearby relative’s home to shelter from the chaos.

He described watching his baby’s eyes water from the fumes in the air. “When I was loading the car you could smell the cordite propellant and your eyes would water from the CS,” he said. “But we got out and if it happens again we’ll be faster.”

That last bit has haunted me since he said it and it’s the main reason I’m doing this. Everyday we see some wild thing in the news that’s hard to parse and impossible to ignore. I just need to put them all down somewhere as they come up; keep a catalog of them. America will survive this, but not unchanged and I want some kind of record to look back at once it’s done.

My hope is that “if it happens again we’ll be faster.”

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Life During Trumptime — 2/2/26 to 2/8/26

February 2, 2026

A US intelligence official filed a whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard eight months ago. Congress has not yet seen the complaint and its contents are said to be so salacious that the complaint itself is locked in a safe.

“A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Disclosure of its contents could cause ‘grave damage to national security,’ one official said. It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said.”

February 3, 2026

Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize elections.” Talking to reporters, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson backed Trump and stoked fear about the integrity of the system.

“We had three Republicans who were ahead on election day in the last cycle and every time a new tranche of ballots came in they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost,” Johnson said. “It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove it? No.”

Also on February 3, Assistant United States Attorney Julie Le broke down during a court hearing in Minnesota. The Judge was dressing Le down for failing to comply with lawful orders. “What do you want me to do?” Le said. “The system sucks. This job sucks…sometimes I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.”

February 4, 2026

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt delivered his final state address and compared Indian tribal sovereignty to a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative.

“Many of us have decried the DEI programs of the Biden administration, yet stand quietly by when some say an Indian should be subject to a different set of laws. We either believe in equal rights for all or we don’t. And it’s time to choose,” Stitt said.

About half of Oklahoma is tribal land.

February 5, 2026

The CIA shuttered The World Factbook, a publication of information about the world as the Agency saw it. The CIA first put out the Factbook in 1962 and began producing a public version in 1971. Officers donated some of their personal travel photos to The World Factbook, which hosted more than 5,000 photographs that were copyright-free for anyone to access and use,” said a blogpost about the end of the Factbook.

The CIA didn’t just stop making the Factbook, it also pulled the archive offline though several independent projects are working to archive what was abandoned.

February 6, 2026

Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The video, posted just before midnight, was up for 12 hours before someone deleted it. Trump refused to apologize for the video, claimed he wasn’t the one who posted it and said he “didn’t do anything wrong.”

February 7, 2026

The Epstein files revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. went hunting for dinosaur fossils with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell. “We took my kids fossil hunting in Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. That was the extent of anything that I had to do with Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane,” RFK Jr told NewsNation.

February 8, 2026

The Super Bowl halftime show aired and was, predictably, a frontline in the culture war. Bad Bunny performed in Spanish and delivered a message of love. Turning Point USA ran an alternate halftime show headlined by Kid Rock.

“Like most Americans, I’ve enjoyed watching the Super Bowl. But the halftime shows began pushing moral boundaries and have become more and more sexualized. This year, they’re having Bad Bunny perform. The @NFL leadership is pushing this sexualized agenda. Thank you, @TPUSA and @MrsErikaKirk for providing an alternative—’The All-American Halftime Show’ with the agenda of celebrating family, faith, and freedom!” Franklin Graham, son of evangelical powerhouse Billy Graham, said in a post on X.

“Yes, like so many Christians who feel besieged by a wicked culture, I’m grateful to @TPUSA

for platforming the God-fearing paragon who brought us hits like ‘Balls in Your Mouth,’ ‘Wax the Booty’ and ‘Cadillac Pussy,’” replied journalist Tim Alberta.

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On today’s Angry Planet, we host journalist Kenneth R. Rosen who just published the book Polar War. He’s spent t…

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We focused on geopolitics and the American military and our hit rate for predictions was about fifty percent. Domestically, it’s been much worse than I expected…

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Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay wrote about all this in a piece at The New York Times and he’s here with us today to talk through it.

• “It’s too easy to condemn.”

• The project is spectacles of cruelty

• “You’re not supposed to be joining a gang of thugs.”

• What is this doing to us as a nation?

• The lust for cruelty and domination

• Klay’s review of Hegseth’s first year

• War vs. Defense

• “Read long things.”

• Living in the Hell of opinions

• Ending on a high note

What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes

Trump Admin’s Racist Halo Memes Are ‘A New Level of Dehumanization of Immigrants’

Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced

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