c.g.

Academic nomad

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Ossoff: "Here's what's going to happen tonight: the world's most famous sore loser will deliver a prime-time presidential sour grapes address to pursue his 6-year-old grievances about the 2020 election, while his war in the Middle East spirals out of control and the cost of living continues to rise for Americans across the country. I expect the president to reheat debunked conspiracy theories about the repeatedly litigated and audited and confirmed 2020 presidential election in Georgia, an election that Donald Trump lost. And let me be very clear about this: if the President declares Georgia's election illegitimate, or if the President declares Georgia's sitting United States Senators illegitimate, he is declaring Georgia voters illegitimate. It's Donald Trump who tried to defraud Georgia voters in that election, Donald Trump who tried to commit election fraud when he called Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger -- and it was caught on tape, and you should play the tape to your viewers today -- and badgered and bullied Georgia's top election official to 'find him' the votes that he needed to win in a state where he had lost."

[Slava Malamud @SlavaMalamud]

Honestly, if I am Pochettino, I sit Balogun for this one.
The US team has been a feel-good story of this World Cup. Don't left the orange grifter turn it into a villain.

[c.g. @grubes_2]

Agreed. The only move is to not play him, thats the only way for the us team to have any credibility and integrity. Bench him yourself, otherwise people will be rightfully outraged.

[ettingermentum @ettingermentum]

There’s nothing existential about anything now. The reputation of this team and program is unfixably fucked. If we win we look dirty, if we lose we look pathetic. That’s the problem with getting special treatment from political pressure. The only answer is sitting Balogun.

[Amelia @amelia_tweetz]

Imagine if a woman president crashed the economy and started a war with no end in sight, and her biggest, seemingly ONLY concern was building a ballroom and redecorating the White House.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

If your initial thought after a shooting is:

“Our president needs a luxury ballroom funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from anonymous donors who are excluded from conflicts of interest oversight,”

and not:

“Dangerous people who are a threat to others shouldn’t be allowed to legally buy guns”

then you’ve lost the thread.

[Bill Johnson @Bill43111]

The unbelievable story about the missing pilot that was rescued disappeared faster than Trump’s ear injury.

[Secular Talk ([email protected]) @KyleKulinski]

BRO I’M FUCKING DEAD

[HealthRanger @HealthRanger]

Why did Trump capitulate? The answer lies in a disastrous covert mission that was his last desperate gamble. Reports indicate the White House was 'seriously considering a ground operation to seize Iran's enriched uranium stockpile'. This mission was an attempt to create an 'off-ramp'—to physically remove the nuclear pretext for the war and declare a victory. It failed spectacularly. Iran shot down U.S. fighter jets, including an F-35, and the operation left destroyed aircraft and dead soldiers. This failure stripped away Trump's last credible military option.

Domestic pressure then forced his hand. Over 100 U.S.-based legal experts declared the strikes on Iran 'possible war crimes'. Calls for impeachment grew louder. With no viable path to victory on the ground and political collapse at home, Trump had no choice but to seek a deal from a position of profound weakness. His extension of the deadline to April 6 was not a sign of progress, but a recognition of impending disaster. The myth of American military invincibility in the Persian Gulf has crumbled.

[c.g. @grubes_2]

So the move now is to walk away and pretend like you achieved something. Which would be an extreme stretch for any normal person, but i believe in trump! His powers of delusion are second to none, this is his moment.

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Morally, legally, economically the war on Iran is disastrous and the disaster goes on for years no matter what happens now. But what cannot be overstated is that in pure national security terms it is also an unmitigated catastrophe.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

So, if I got that right, here's the narrative:

- A US F-15E fighter jet got shot down over Iran, despite Trump saying 2 days beforehand in his nationwide address that Iran has "no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated." (https://t.co/3pnVUGxHyV)

- The plane's weapons systems officer - a "highly respected Colonel," according to Trump - ejected from the plane and got "seriously wounded" (still according to Trump: https://t.co/jUbGiGk9uM)

- He still managed to "hike up a 7,000-foot [2.1km] mountain ridgeline and hide in a crevice" in the Zagros Mountains, despite his wounds (https://t.co/ECTqgUFOZ3)

- U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones started killing all "Iranian military-aged males believed to be a threat who got within three kilometers of [the American's location]" (https://t.co/86aZgrsXGT)

- To retrieve him the U.S. managed to seize an "abandoned airport," 200 miles deep inside Iran, near Isfahan (https://t.co/rOpRm3mqt9), which happens to be where Iran's largest atomic scientific center is located (https://t.co/jQfmg4zI8t)

- They landed two MC-130 military transport planes in that airport (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU) in an operation involving "hundreds of special forces troops and military personnel" (https://t.co/ECTqgUFOZ3)

- Both MC-130 planes got "stuck in the sand" and the U.S. destroyed them themselves "to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands" (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU)

- They deployed "three new aircraft to extract all the U.S. personnel" on the ground (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU)

- There are videos circulating online of "heavy clashes" with presumably Iranian missiles raining down in Kohgiluyeh County, in the Zagros Mountains during that night (https://t.co/VCeTzcC1vt)

- Iran sent pictures of the aftermath at the "abandoned airport" and it's a sight of utter destruction, with US plane and MH-6 helicopter parts scattered all over the ground, still smoking (https://t.co/mDpYT9qsKC). Iran claims they are the ones who in fact destroyed all the aircraft.

- Meanwhile a second U.S. plane, an A-10 Warthog, also crashed on Friday near the Strait of Hormuz according to two U.S. officials speaking to the NYT (https://t.co/lFs4zERw2t). In that instance too the lone pilot was apparently "safely rescued."

- In all this, after the multiple planes and helicopters destroyed or shot down, the documented heavy clashes, the "hundreds of special forces troops and military personnel" operating deep inside Iran, not a single US soldier was reported killed "or even wounded" (according to Trump: https://t.co/rCgrl6vMpT).

- And the 'highly respected Colonel' this was all for? No name. No photo. No interview. Nobody has spoken to him nor knows who he is.

So to sum up: anti-aircraft equipment that supposedly didn't exist shot down an F-15 (and, apparently, an A-10 Warthog the same day). A seriously wounded man climbed a 2.1km mountain. The US seized an airfield 200 miles inside a country it's at war with, next to one of its most strategic nuclear sites, and deployed hundreds of troops all apparently unimpeded. Lost two planes to "sand" and destroyed their own helicopters. Videos show heavy clashes, missiles raining down - but not a single person got "even wounded". And the man at the center of it all? Nobody knows who he is, completely anonymous, zero pictures, but Trump says he is "SAFE and SOUND." And so is the rescued A-10 Warthog pilot, who also remains anonymous.

Trump concludes this all proves the US has "achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies" (https://t.co/rCgrl6vMpT), despite the whole episode only happening because Iran shot his planes out of the sky.

Basically, the only thing that's "overwhelming" here is the audacity of the storytelling...

[Abier @abierkhatib]

Trump’s “victory timeline” claims.

Mar 3: "We won the war."
Mar 7: "We defeated Iran."
Mar 9: "We must attack Iran."
Mar 9: "The war is ending almost completely, and very beautifully."
Mar 11: “You never like to say too ⁠early you won. We won. In ​the first hour it was over.” Mar 12: "We did win, but we haven't won completely yet."
Mar 13: "We won the war."
Mar 14: "Please help us."
Mar 15: "If you don't help us, I will certainly remember it."
Mar 16: "Actually, we don't need any help at all."
Mar 16: "I was just testing to see who's listening to me."
Mar 16: "If NATO doesn't help, they will suffer something very bad."
Mar 17: "We neither need nor want NATO's help."
Mar 17: "I don't need Congressional approval to withdraw from NATO."
Mar 18: "Our allies must cooperate in reopening the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 19: "US allies need to get a grip - step up and help open the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 20: "NATO are cowards."
Mar 21: "The Strait of Hormuz must be protected by the countries that use it. We don't use it, we don't need to open it."
Mar 22: "This is the last time. I will give Iran 48 hours. Open the strait"
Mar 22: "Iran is Dead"

Mar 23: "We had very good and productive talks with Iran."
Mar 24: "We’re making progress."
Mar 25: “They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.” Mar 26: "Make a deal, or we’ll just keep blowing them away."
Mar 27: "We don’t have to be there for NATO."
Mar 28: No major quote
Mar 29: Claimed talks were progressing
Mar 30: "Open the Strait of Hormuz immediately, or face devastating consequences."
Mar 31: Claimed a deal was "very close" and that Iran would "do the right thing"
Apr 1: "We’ll see what happens very soon."
Apr 2: Repeated that a deal was likely, while warning of continued strikes if not
Apr 3: "Something big is going to happen."
Apr 4: Said Iran must comply "immediately" or face further consequences.

Apr 5: "Open the fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."
😂

[Ruairí Ó Cléirigh 🇮🇪🇺🇸 @RedKingRuairi75]

Even the Lemon was speechless.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Moulton: I know active duty Marines who now refer to Pete Hegseth’s department as the department of war crimes. That's because they do things like this, destroy civilian infrastructure, which, just to be clear, is a war crime. It's meant to hurt civilians. 

This is the same stuff that we criticize Vladimir Putin for doing in Ukraine.

He doesn't know how to get out. So what is he doing? He's resorting to war crimes. It's an embarrassment.

[c.g. @grubes_2]

Quitting and walking away is prob the best the us can do at this point. But they will have attacked Iran for no reason, spiked oil prices which will remain high, and achieved nothing except a strengthened Iran. Congrats. Trump and Netanyahu both belong in the Hague.

[Anderson Cooper 360° @AC360]

"It seems as though they're preparing for a strategy where they simply leave": CNN's Fareed Zakaria reacts to Pres. Trump's comments that the US could end its war with Iran within two to three weeks.

[Anderson Cooper 360° @AC360]

"It seems as though they're preparing for a strategy where they simply leave": CNN's Fareed Zakaria reacts to Pres. Trump's comments that the US could end its war with Iran within two to three weeks.

[Seth @mikemcC2192990]

@AC360 This is so insane, Iran did nothing, the USA and Israel barely gave a coherent statement about why they attacked, they dropped 13,000 bombs and blew up several schools, now they’re just going to leave, how are these people not on trial in The Hague? Since when is this okay?

[Michael Spyker @ShaleTier7]

I am just a guy that likes making my maps but I do feel somewhat compelled to say that Iran has a particularly good power grid, and gas distribution network. Like nearly impossible to destroy.

I mean, I think Iran has a better gas transmission footprint than Canada. I know know who this tweet is for, but maybe these maps are helpful.

In 2017, Iran exported 7,871 GWh and imported ~4 kWh, mainly exporting to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Iran's 4.3MWh per capita of annual electricity consumption is actually in-line with the UK at 4.6MWh per capita, and ~25% ahead of countries like Brazil and South Africa.

Attacking a very hardened system like this, and opening the Gulf up to attacks on far more single-failure-point assets -- seems wildly, WILDLY stupid.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

Dear UN Member States,

As I prepare to deliver my 8th report to the UN, I reiterate: Israel poses a threat to international peace and security.

I have documented its most egregious crimes. Now the obligation to act, and stop it, sparing innocent lives, rests with you.

[c.g. @grubes_2]

I had this same experience when I visited Israel 15ish years ago. Only place I have ever been where I heard openly genocidal talk like this. Granted it was only 1 person but thats still 100% more than anywhere else, and im sure it's only gotten worse.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

"Israeli society has gone full fascist. It's like Berlin 1930." Abby Martin describes her horrifying experience in Jerusalem where every single person she spoke to espoused casual genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians. The footage speaks for itself.