History Repeats

just here to vent political frustrations since my husband is sick of hearing me tell it to him.#resist #loveeveryone (except Tucker Carlson. That’s a hard pass.

[History Repeats @chagenlo]

@Just_Eleanora Knit purl the whole way?

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Putin is helping Iran.

Zelenskyy is helping us.

Trump does not seem to understand or is ignoring these basic facts.

Hope someone on his team will help the president correct this policy position and...

Thank Zelenskyy.
Arm Ukraine.
Sanction Putin.

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Every member of the house and senate needs to tweet about the fact that Russia is helping Iran target American troops…. And call for action from POTUS

In this case silence is unacceptable

[Jon Favreau @jonfavs]

Dead Americans, $100/barrel oil, billions of dollars a day on a massive war that's so far replaced an 86-year-old tyrant with his son.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am Derek Langan. I am the Director of Strategic Communications at the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Public Affairs.

My job is to tell the American public what the Department does. In fiscal year 2025, we received a budget of $220 million for this purpose. I managed the budget. I produced the content. The content was television advertisements.

The advertisements featured the Secretary.

The Secretary was in every advertisement. Standing at the border. Walking through a detention facility. Addressing the camera directly. This was a creative decision made early in pre-production. I supported it. The Secretary has a strong screen presence. The focus groups confirmed this.

The production contracts were awarded to a firm connected to the Secretary's former spokesperson's husband. I did not select the firm. The contracts were routed through an unpaid advisor named Corey Lewandowski. He was classified as a "special government employee." The Secretary told Congress, under oath, that Mr. Lewandowski had "no role" in approving contracts. ProPublica obtained the internal routing sheets. His signature was on every one.

I do not manage routing sheets. I manage campaigns.

One hundred and forty-three million dollars in additional contracts were awarded on a no-bid basis. This is separate from the advertising budget. The advertising budget was two hundred and twenty million dollars. These are different budgets for different purposes. Both purposes involved the Secretary.

The Department also purchased two Gulfstream G700 luxury jets and leased a Boeing 737. The Boeing has a private cabin with a bedroom. The stated purpose was deportation operations. In approximately 13 months, 700 people were deported. The aircraft cost approximately $70 million. I did not calculate the cost per deportation. That is not a metric we track.

While we were filming the third round of advertisements, a flood hit Texas. One hundred and thirty-five people died. The Department has search-and-rescue teams. They were available. The Secretary withheld them for seventy-two hours.

I do not manage search and rescue. I manage communications.

The advertisements continued to air during the flood coverage. Media buys are scheduled months in advance. The advertisement that aired most frequently during the flood week was the one where the Secretary stands at the border and says, "We protect Americans."

I flagged this for my deputy. My deputy said the media buy could not be pulled without a contract penalty. The penalty was $400,000. The advertising budget was two hundred and twenty million dollars. We paid the penalty.

I mention this because it is the only time the Department chose to spend less.

In Minneapolis, ICE agents killed two American citizens. Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The Secretary called them "domestic terrorists." The bystander video showed Mr. Pretti never reached for his weapon and was disarmed before he was shot. My team prepared talking points. The talking points used the phrase "domestic terrorists." This was the approved language.

A Coast Guard pilot was fired for leaving the Secretary's blanket on a different aircraft. He was rehired four hours later. No one else could fly the plane.

The Department's Inspector General documented 10 instances in which investigations were blocked or redirected by the Secretary's staff. I was aware of three of them. The other seven were not routed through my office. I manage communications, not investigations. These are different functions.

Senator Thom Tillis, of the Secretary's own party, called her tenure "a disaster."

Secretary Noem was fired today. First Cabinet termination of the second term.

I produced $220 million in television content explaining what the Department of Homeland Security does. In thirteen months, the Department's most documented actions were: television advertisements, luxury aircraft, a blanket, and the word "disaster" spoken by an ally.

I am Derek Langan. My job is to tell the American public what the Department does.

I told them.

[History Repeats @chagenlo]

Thanks for the joy! Drawing by my daughter, your biggest fan. #AlysaLiu #WinterOlympics #goldmedalist

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

American troops are dead and Trump is on TV talking about the drapes…

[Warren Gunnels @GunnelsWarren]

If Bernie's 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires had been enacted in 2012, Elon Musk would be worth less than $365 billion instead of the $834 billion that he's worth today. He'd still be the wealthiest man alive & every senior would have dental, vision & hearing under Medicare.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

DOJ's recent 6th Circuit filing misspelled:

Voters as “Votors”
Emergency as "Emeregency"
United States as "United Staes"

And, it included a non-party in the caption.

These are the people who want access to your voting records and who my team fights in court every day.

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

Trump is riffing on White House renovations during a Medal of Honor ceremony that doubles as his first live remarks about the insane war with Iran he launched over the weekend. This is truly fucking insane.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

It appears that a Polymarket account called "Magamyman" made $515,000 in a single day betting on last night's U.S. strike on Iran, with the first trade placed 71 minutes before the news broke publicly.

When this person bought in, the market had this at a 17% probability. They turned roughly $87,000 into over half a million dollars overnight.

Reminder that Donald Trump Jr. sits on Polymarket's advisory board and his firm invested double-digit millions into the platform last year. The DOJ and CFTC both had active investigations into Polymarket that were dropped after Trump took office.

Prediction markets cannot be a vehicle for profiting off advance knowledge of military action.

We need answers, transparency, and oversight.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Canada Hates Trump @AntiTrumpCanada]

Dear Iran:
26.6771° N
80.0370° W

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

ARE THERE EVER GOING TO BE ANY FUCKING CONSEQUENCES??

[African @ali_naka]

OPERATION JEFFREY EPSTEIN

[Monie | Chilling With Monie.🌹 @chillwithmonie]

Send all them ICE agents, first! Since they so bad ass.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

There is always a tweet.

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

Trump's second term has been the worst case scenario.

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

Presidents should not start wars to distract from allegations that they molested 13-year old girls.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

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