Where's Congress? About where the German Reichstag was from the early 1930s through 1945 and for similar reasons. No, it's not exactly the same, but it's also not totally different. We need to stop labeling everything as Trump and start pointing out the responsibility of Republicans for our national disassembly.
Agree. I cannot believe the oversight committees led by democrats are not still in session. When is Bondi going to testify? Every congressional person who cares about us should be working while we are in crisis. So, TSA got paid. Good. Congress was/is getting paid the whole time. WTF? I wonder how often the government would shut down if Congressmen and women had their healthcare and paychecks suspended and they had to give back a percentage of their retirement pension every time it happened? Fairness is not a reasonable argument for them, given how they are letting others be treated. It must change.
No Democrats leads oversight committees in Congress because the Democrats are the minority party in Congress. All the committee chairs are Republicans.
They must not have the votes. The congress is not on vacation. They still work even if the congress is not in session. They either work in their district or in their Washington offices.
"If Iran did not reopen the strait, Trump said, “we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposely not yet ‘touched.’”"
Oh yes, the War Crime gambit. Trump is a weapons grade moron, but he's got a feral sense about when things aren't going well for him. He realizes he's fucked up good, which is why he's got tens of thousands of troops on their way to that region and he's puffing out his chest on social media in order to save face. Say what you will about Iran's clerics; they've taken Trump's measure, and they've concluded they're dealing with what Tom Nichols has called a little boy from Queens. Trump is dangerous, but he's weak.
Also, I'm not an expert like Bill on this stuff, but I imagine if Trump were to order such an attack on Iran's power plants and desalination plants, what's left of our frayed alliances throughout the world would be irrevocably severed. NATO allies wouldn't want to be associated with a rogue head of state like Trump, and our allies in the Pacific would start their nuclear programs tomorrow. All because the great and good American people couldn't deal with high prices after a 100 year pandemic.
Those same great and good American citizens are in large part still with Taco. Of coarse they may not be happy if their children start to die in his war, but compensation and distraction will continue to work. These people are stubborn and ignorant. I really believe that as long as the creature still draws breath the destruction continues.
A woman was upset but unrepentant after her young son contracted measles which attacked his brain causing encephalitis and coma . She proclaimed that had she known the consequences she still would not have permitted him to be vaccinated. If her son were a soldier and severely wounded in Trump's Epstein/Netanyahu/Mohammed bin Salman War in Iran, would she hold the same perspective? Perhaps. Some will pay any price, even the sacrifice of their children, to remain in the cult. Some will sacrifice themselves. The Jim Jones' People's Temple in Guyana comes to mind.
The sad truth is that none of this will get fundamentally better while Trump occupies the Oval Office. Whether he dies, resigns/retires, gets impeached, or is removed via the 25th Amendment remains to be seen, but I no longer have hope that Congressional Republicans or Trump’s solid 40+% base will EVER do the right thing.
It's ridiculous to refer to him by any other title. That is his "legal" title. Of course, we e could add adjectives, such as "worst of all time", to further define his place in history.
He's an insecure, bumptious man child, and every day he holds his position is a day when our risk of a major military debacle (Beirut 1983, USS Cole) increases to an unacceptable level.
Hegseth is a talk show host. Trump has appointed "yes" men who will do whatever he says. He sees his office as President as a big Game Show and he is the star and his advisors are supporting actors.
Quite a read, this is simplistic, however absent all the colonization that existed prior to WWI and WWII, feels like we've reverted to the way it was then. Alliances made and broken, remade with new players with no sense of any effort towards retaining what we had since WWII. Survival of the fittest
You could very well be right, wiredog. From their perspective, they don't really have a choice, and they're not going to trust the United States again in our lifetimes.
The French, read Macron, have made overtures to letting other EUROPEAN Nato members (yes, including Germany; he first publicly broached the idea with Chancellor Merz) be as protected as one can be under the French nuclear parasol (umbrella is too big a word) and the British are contemplating a similar idea, as far as the news I have been able to find goes.
Along with every minor fiefdom in the Gulf. Each sheikdom desperately needs a nuke . . . or they will be subjugated under The Law of The Jungle. The Rule of Law is no longer functioning and the Law of Unintended Consequences will now raise its ugly head.
Total nuclear escalation insanity. This is what we've tried to stop with American leadership over the past 50 years - until Trump. He is not only a moron, he is a war criminal on a scale with Putin. It is against international law to target civilian facilities like their electric grid and desalination plants, which could lead to millions of deaths - mostly women, children, and the elderly. Trump and his idiots are trying to make us believe that the Iranian people, who he claimed to want to save during their recent horrific protest violence, are all now worthy of death because Trump started a stupid war with no planning, no expert advice, and nothing but just blind fury that they are not doing what he wants and demands. I hope the United States and the rest of the world will stand up and say "NO" to this destructive megalomaniac's war crimes. Republicans are looking at a devastating loss in the polls for the next few decades if they do not find some courage, intelligence, integrity, and collective power to stop this numbskull.
You know, I think the pundits who claim that people voted for Trump because he promised to lower prices are stupidly trying to make Trump voters seem reasonable. As if voting for a vulgar, pussy-grabbing misogynist, a bully, a convicted felon, a fraud and conman, a racist bigot, a man who advocated injecting bleach to cure COVID, as if that were a sane choice, as long as you thought he would lower the cost of eggs. Seriously? There's just no excuse.
They voted for him because he was a racist and a misogynist like them. They saw him as a game show host where he played a shewed, smart businessman. They didnt realize he was a big spoiled trust fund baby and a loser.
Well, in Trump's case, you go on Truth Social, claim the island was obliterated, have right wing surrogates pick it up and proclaim it to be true, then move on to the latest thing. Rinse, lather, repeat.
The concerning part is that the danger rises with his fear. The fear he tries so hard to hide behind manly posturing. While dump is certainly a weak man, he controls a perilously strong military.
One of the speakers - a veteran - at our No Kings rally on Saturday pointed out that the Army has raised its enlistment age to 42 and that Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and Baron Trump are all eligible to serve in the Army. I think that they, and all MAGA supporters of this war who are 42 and under, should immediately enlist and volunteer to serve on the front lines of any ground invasion of Iraq. In fact, why not deploy entire units of ICE to lead the invasion, after all, they are our most manliest of men, aren't they?
I know, right? Especially guys who have "come and take it" stickers on their pickup trucks. Let's see how they fare against people who would relish the chance to kill Americans and will do so by any means necessary.
Particularly a people who are protecting their own nation. dump is going to put boots on the ground because he knows that will put us firmly in his war of choice. As our troops die, it will quickly become a war of necessity in most Americans' eyes.
Unfortunately, I believe they are planning escalation to cause the slaughter of American soldiers in order to rally American voters around the flag AND the war.
I was in ROTC when the draft ended in the 1970s (and enrollment dropped like a rock) but I have mixed feeling about a draft. While I am not for reinstating it, I do think the volunteer Army has come with some significant cost to our country. It has allowed Presidents to use the military as their own private Army, because it does not impact most Americans when the casualties start coming in. It is one reason why we can have forever wars, like Afghanistan. Congress should be a check on the President, but it has refused to play its Constitutional role, and is little more than Trump's rubber stamp right now. Part of me wishes that Trump would attempt to institute the draft, just because I would love to see how the MAGA "manosphere" would respond to being threatened with the possibility of actually having to be real soldiers, rather than the "safe" macho cosplay that they continuously engage in right now.
The options should be military or some other form of national service. My father was in the Civilian Construction Corps during the Great Depression and helped build national park infrastructure out west. Saw parts of the US he would never have seen otherwise, gained skills that served him well throughout his life, met people from all over the country, and earned his bread through the sweat of his brow in those desperate times.
I see advantages to both. A universal draft spreads the risk more equitably, everyone has skin in the game. People are forced via close military quarters to get to know people from walks of life whom they might never have come to know otherwise. On the other hand, with all-volunteer, the most idealistic, perhaps the best of us, become the cannon fodder.
No worries for Eric or Barron about the draft if it were reinstated. While it's a known fact that bone spurs themselves are not *hereditary*, one can indeed inherit a *condition* that makes them much more likely to occur, one example of which would be inflammatory joint disease.
Another would be having a draft dodging father who's the ultimate head and commander of the military but whose inflammatory rhetoric is inversely proportional to his abilities as Commander in Chief.
C’mon Bukwark editors! “Wherefore art thou” means “why are you,” not “where are you.” It’s such a basic and common mistake I would think it wouldn’t slip by you. It’s a mistake that I’d expect to see on Fox but not from my literate Bukwark people!
Uh, isn't this a bit like semantic shift or semantic change? I mean, we can say "Wherefore art though, Romeo?" is originally best thought of as, "Why are you..." but enough people in 2026 understand "Wherefore" to mean "Where" that we all understood it -- i.e. even y'all, the Shakespearean pedants, had no trouble understanding the intended meaning.
Catachresis (from Greek katákhrēsis — "misuse") is specifically the rhetorical/linguistic term for the misapplication of a word or phrase. i.e., "wherefore" as "where" has a "wrongness" to folks in the know, and strictly speaking, "wherefore" --> "where" is incorrect, but the wrong version becomes normalized.
Etymological Fallacy is argument that hinges on a word's "true" meaning being its oldest one versus its popularly understood meaning. In reality, if enough people use a phrase a certain way, that is now its meaning, regardless of how it started!
It may now have entered the vernacular that way but you would never see, say, the New York Times use it. There is street vernacular that is understood by all “ain’t” for instance” but that is not considered acceptable in formal speech or in literary publications (which I consider the Bulwark to be). This is just a rookie headline writer’s mistake that a lot of folks in the comments are trying to rationalize as correct. I get it - it’s the Bulwark! We all love the Bulwark! Cut them some slack!” They can handle being called out on their obvious mistakes and we can all acknowledge that they’re great but sometimes make mistakes like we all do.
Sure, the meanings of words evolve. And you might have a point if people everywhere were using wherefore to mean where. But I don't see or hear wherefore being used in that sense at all, much less popularly so, except in this particular context.
It reminds me of a line from "Miracle on 34th Street" when it dawns on the hero lawyer that he actually defended the TRUE Santa. "Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing, after all." It lands oddly on younger ears as "wonderful" has become an adjective describing a positive thing, when it originally defined something amazing, unbelievable...filling one with wonder.
Why fits the headline perfectly. At this point why does Congress exist? Its only useful as a tool for the oligarchy to block legislative expressions of popular will they don't like. It has no ability to actually serve the needs of the country.
I logged in to say the same thing! “Why are you Congress, if you’re not going to do anything,” is a stretch,
especially because he didn’t make that point. Jeez, that vernacular is only 435 years olde…oh, right. And, where the hell is Congress. Watching Ken Burns’s American Revolution right now. If these clowns were alive back then we’d all be speaking English.
I think that still makes sense. After all, the thrust of the article was not only 'where is Congress?', but 'why do we have a Congress, if it won't work on this?'.
(Am I the only one here that doesn't know what/who "Bukwark" is? ) I assume the spelling is intentional since it appears in both the first and the last sentences, and because the poster is concerned with editing matters. ) Thanks all!
I agree so usually I’m not so keen to call out grammatical or stylistic mistakes in articles, but when it’s a headline it’s a different story because that likely was not written by the writer ( in this case Kristol) but by an editor, and it’s more glaring and misstates the thrust of the article.
yes of course --- but WHY are you congress surely fits the message better? (wherefore art thou Romeo.....why couldn't you be some other man..going to start saying wherefore art thou President - secretary of defense etc.etc. you cads!)
“we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposely not yet ‘touched.’”
Trump assuring that it won't just be religious fanatics chanting "Death to America" for a couple more generations.
Every day it seems more and more likely we will have en extended stay in Iran that won’t be lovely for anyone involved DJT included. I suspect Iran is becoming his new 4 letter word.
Contemplating the absolute abdication of Congress and the paralysis of our judicial system forced a terrifying realization. The domestic contagion of lawlessness has likely metastasized beyond containment. The republic we were taught to revere cannot be meaningfully restored absent a total, uncompromising legal reckoning for every official who violated their oath during these ruinous years. Yet, as we watch the architecture of accountability crumble, I think any reasonable one of us must concede that the probability of such systemic prosecution remains functionally zero.
I'm starting to worry about a more meaningful danger materializing. When our ingrained domestic impunity is exported to the geopolitical stage. When an unchecked Rotting Orange casually threatens the obliteration of civilian infrastructure in Iran, and the legislative branch answers by slipping out of town for the spring, the very concept of international law is reduced to a hollow fiction. If the conventions designed to prevent global catastrophe are discarded with the same cynical ease as our own constitutional guardrails, we are no longer merely presiding over the demise of the American experiment. We are facing the termination of the human experiment itself, accelerating blindly toward an era defined entirely by unrestrained force, and led by the least qualified, least competent people to our destruction.
It is certainly interesting that a species with so much capability has put itself here.
So true David. I think on an intellectual level, I always understood that we had the capability to destroy ourselves, but the bitter pill I’m swallowing now is the realization that we are being marched to that edge by people who are so clearly the worst and least capable among us. That latter part is something I don't think I psychologically prepared myself for.
Frankly, Patrick, I never contemplated it enough to get that far. I only thought of Nuclear Armaggedon in terms of someone attacking us (USSR/Russia) with nukes to which we had to respond.
I think you need to not just look "up and out", but rather "down and in". Take a look at what is happening in politics and personnel at the local level. There should be a spotlight put on mitigating the damage there also.
WHOA big shooter. Hot take coming in with "You need to do." You're making a pretty massive assumption without actually checking my work. I’ve written multiple articles doing exactly what you are demanding here. If you want to see that exact spotlight on local politics and personnel damage, go read the piece I published on February 1, 2025. ||||| Here is an approach that would be a bit more socially palatable: "This analysis of the national level is spot on. I also worry a lot about the local level, the 'down and in.' The damage to local politics and personnel is severe right now. I hope we can get more of a spotlight on mitigating that, too."
The International Criminal Court should issue an arrest warrant for Trump, as they did for Putin. It would limit his ability to travel and send a message that the rest of the world will not whitewash his war crimes, which destroying civilian infrastructure, bombing supposed "drug boats," and kidnapping leaders of sovereign countries like Venezuela obviously are. You are right, Patrick, there is grave danger in the rest of the world capitulating to Trump's insanity and then where are we? It will be like time warping back into the 1920s and '30s and all the progress we have made since WW2 will have evaporated. I do not want to live in that kind of a world. It is up to America to recognize the gravity of the situation and stop this insanity.
Every time Trump has massed U.S. forces off the coast of another country, he has used them. I think a U.S. ground operation is now likely, partly because Trump doesn't know what else to do.
Likely was two weeks ago. We are set for the biggest quagmire in world history. Because when 50K soldiers are slaughtered and burned as Iran has promised, Trump will drop a nuke and claim victory. When in reality, things have only started.
I hate this fucking timeline. I hate each and every voter who voted for Trump or couldn’t be bothered to vote at all. I hope they all find themselves destitute in a ditch.
It is so easy to feel this way because it is what Trump deserves, but don't forget that hatred is the fuel he uses to motivate his base. Do we really want to use hatred as a fuel for our side, too? I don't think that is the path we want to take. I understand how you feel, but I hope you have other ways to let off steam that will soothe your soul.
wiredog - stocks really seem to have become computer driven day trading. Long term value, chickens that will obviously have to come home to roost - no longer appear to figure into this morning’s trades. I guess the ‘smart’ money is in volatility. Very exciting casino to play in, not near boring enough for my tastes 😬
Not the Epstein files per se, but I completely believe that there is some incredibly nasty stuff someone has about him that he really, REALLY, is afraid will get out.
He is a bit creepy...I mean really, the Covenant Eyes app? Him and his son stalking each to see if they're porning. Isn't that just telling the world you're so weak that you have to be watched for something that is really no one's business? Unless minors are involved?
And I guess that's the thing in a nutshell. He may or may not prey on the young, but he's running interference for so many that do. What does the orange idiot have on him? It seems like there's a whole lot of kompromat doody on these folks to make them crime they way they're doing.
I suspect there is some sort of religious motivation at work with the Speaker. There are groups of people that seek domination of the government (and other things too) in the name of God.
Getting the bull into a china shop is not hard, but getting it out is a much harder task and that is discounting all the broken china — big things in small places tend to get stuck. I am pretty sure our troops will be in for an extended stay in Iran, but it won’t be lovely and likely won’t be short. Iran’s size and geography alone make any ground excursion difficult let alone one when we don’t know what we are doing and have no concrete goals.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, who is not Donald J. Trump becomes a pawn in Donald J. Trump's quest for power, wealth, and glory. Everyone in his family and everyone in his cabinet needs to constantly extol his virtues and never mention his faults. The more gold statues of honor, the better. Their lives are meaningless to him, except for that purpose. If 20,000 American soldiers die in order for Trump to look powerful, that's what they signed up for. 100,000 Iranian deaths mean he is tough. Trump only fights when he believes that his opposition has no defenses, such as small boats in the ocean, Venezuela, and Cuba. He was told Iran was defenseless, but they are proving to be even more fanatical than he is. Russia, China, even North Korea have leaders he admires.
Unless someone, Congress?, stops him, Trump will bankrupt the country as he has done with most of his businesses. He says he needs to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. I hope there are people who will stop Trump when he becomes frustrated enough that he reaches for the button. After all, what are those bombs for?
His view of Iran appears to be based on the 1979 taking of hostages. He's thought that country should be destroyed ever since then, I suspect, and he has no patience for the idea of containing a bad actor as Iran has been contained for many years, partly by the JCPOA.
That's because his brain is terminally wired for instant gratification. There is no interest or ability to think beyond instant gratification. He loses interest otherwise. My sister-in-law just became the legal guardian of a six year old boy with off-the-hook ADHD, and **he's** got more control of his impulses than Trump does.
At what point will Fox News understand that their goal of Republican dominance is being crushed by their Orange Savior? At what point will they realize that deep-sixing Trump will be their only hope of survival? If they have the intellectual capacity to understand this, then that will be the turning point and Trump's ratings will really crater and maybe THEN Republicans in Congress will see that they must act to stop this train wreck.
*How can members of Congress—yes, even Republican members of Congress—read that and not think: What the hell about us? This shouldn’t be the president’s decision alone.*
Have y'all seen the Republican members of Congress do anything, anything at all over the last ten years that didn't involve permission from the man whose boots they rush to willingly lick in public?
They're not even human beings anymore, just animated rubber stamps constantly in search of more ink to do Big Orange Daddy's bidding.
The only time any one of those talking parrots find the courage to stand in opposition to their master is when they decide to clean out the shit from the bottom of their cages and retire from office. Asking them to find and use the underlying principles and responsibilities of their elected position is a fever dream.
> " I’ve tried hard to find the best arguments for ground troops and to speak with knowledgeable experts about them, and they seem utterly unconvincing to me."
Uh, so, I'd split this: (1) should we continue the war in Iran and (2) if we continue, do we need to use ground forces to achieve the war's objectives at this point?
On (1), I think must Bulwarkers agree: this is an illegal war of choice that is disrupting the global economy and undermining agriculture, energy, and (as y'all point out later in quick hits) might pop that AI bubble we've all been eyeing cautiously. The administration seems to have miscalculated on how effective the decapitation strikes would be and now does not seem to have clear strategic goals. The war is already a loss, so far as we can see, and so we should cut our losses and fold now, rather than doubling down and betting the farm trying to win something back.
Unfortunately, the least intelligent and most bellicose people in the world are leading the war effort, and the most servile and spineless folks are running congress. So, who will not stop the stupid, pointless, illegal violence?
On (2), assuming there will be no TACO, and that the US has decided it must try to snatch a defeat from the hands of a worse defeat by risking an apocalyptic defeat, there isn't any way to open the Strait of Hormuz with only air strikes. They will need to secure ground positions to restore the free movement of ships through the Strait.
The problem is that Iran has demonstrated the range of its capabilities, so the actual size of the task is enormous. I read over the weekend that historically the Pentagon has estimated to occupy a country the size of Iran we'd need 1.3M troops, or basically the entire volunteer armed forces (assuming a draft is notwithstanding!). But if they don't occupy the whole country, Iran will just continue to launch missiles and drones from the parts of their country they do control, seeing as how they can hit targets up to 4000 KM away.
So really, sane people would answer question (1) and TACO and avoid dealing with (2) altogether. Try and spin it, whatever, but yes: it's time to pack up and go home and take the L. Iran will continue to run its Ayatollah Booth and charge ships for transit. The world will be expensive and worse and more dangerous, but that's maybe inevitable at this point.
Unfortunately, it looks like our leadership is doubling down on question (1), which means on question (2) they will need to send ground troops. But that then begs a new question (3): do we send enough ground forces to be successful, or do we set ourselves up for more failure by not committing enough resources for the enormity of the task?
This isn't a war of "choice," this is a war of "Vanity" ( and distraction). Trump couldn't let Bibi take the credit for disabling Iran, and Bibi needed the bigger weapons. Unfortunately, neither man thought about the use of smaller weapons in the hands of people who are just as mean and crazy as they are.
I don’t believe the US has enough resources to be successful in a ground invasion. Not to mention we have used up a lot of said resources already. This will be way worse than Afghanistan and Iraq. An unwinnable quagmire with no end. How can we be so appallingly stupid?!
Trump can’t TACO at this point. That is what makes this so fucked up. This is a moment where Trump has lost control. He cannot end this war if Iran doesn’t want to end it - short of glassing the country with nukes.
Trump can try and TACO all he wants, but he is not in control here. Trump is proving why our country’s government was setup the way it is. Let’s hope that Americans wake up.
And let's hope any soldier with control over a nuclear weapon launch has more sense, integrity, and courage than our leaders and refuses to do the unthinkable.
I don't understand how blind everybody is, including any military experts who are advising Hegseth and Trump. You can't just take Kharg island without landing troops on the main coast of Iran to try and neutralize the drones and missiles they would launch at Kharg if this were to happen. Iran has upwards of 93 million people who have been trained to hate America. Asides from drones and missiles, I'm sure they also have more traditional weapons of war such as rifles, machine guns, grenades, IEDs, etc. that would rain down on any American troops positioned on Iran's coasts. Americans would be hopelessly outnumbered and decimated. I'm just an old retired park ranger, I know nothing of warfare, but even this seems evident to me. WTF?
As for the Cheap Shots, we elected a real estate cheat, FOX News addict, and bankrupt lifelong debtor. There's nothing crazy about the result of this action - it was the election itself that was crazy. How anyone can be surprised by the Scam King of Trump Taj Mahal being the Scam King of Trump Taj Mahal is beyond me. We seem to have the object impermanence of toddlers.
Big manly fascist men don't worry about getting bogged down with "who killed who" and "rules of engagement" and "how many toddlers were bombed today while in school." But you gotta put big columns on things. And maybe build a pyramid that shoots fire and yells Remember ME!
It was wonderful of mainstream media to basically not cover the No Kings march. NBC's Kristen Welker allowed that their were 10's of thousands of people across America. That's like saying 100's of fans showed up for opening day at Dodger Stadium. Misleading in the extreme but also true.
Speaking of horrid coverage, we also have horrid coverage of the Iran war. It's mostly coverage of Pete Hegseth's lies. For example, he stated the AWACs plane hit on an airfield in Saudi Arabia suffered some damage but could easily be repaired. In reality it was cut in half right behind the wings and was destroyed. It was one of three AWACs planes we had in the area. We also lost another fuel tanker plane. Iran is strategically attacking our air combat ability with both missles and drones.
Back at home, Barksdale air force base in Louisiana, which has a large B52 bomber wing, has seen repeated drone flyovers since 3/9 that are not thought to be commercial drones. They have jamming capabilities amongst other high tech indicators not available in mass produced commercial drones. They appear to have come from off shore. So far no armaments have been detected. These are considered surveillance missions. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barksdale-louisiana-drones-lockdown-b2942878.html
What happens when the US mainland is attacked with drones? It's going to happen because we have no defense in place to stop such attacks, especially swarm attacks. This war is going to be an unmitigated disaster brought to us by an complete idiocracy.
Nobody expected the media to cover No Kings. But all that does is make people look around and say, "Something really large happened near my house and the news doesn't care and covers it up."
Kate - frustrating for sure. Just as there's so little mention of the president's declining health (physical & psychological), the bond market, etc ad nauseum.
One of the VERY significant benefits of No Kings is showing our neighbors they're not alone, and seeing that evidence ourselves. We're bigger than we often see here in my red state of Indiana - getting together is a tremendous boost! Stay strong ✊🩵
How did we get to this place? There is absolutely zero truthful coverage of this war. There are no journalists embedded with the troops, there are no truthful press conferences from Hegseth's department, there are nothing but farcical lies and grandiose brags coming from the president. Are Americans so stuck in their reality TV world that they no longer see that this is not normal? Have we really become THIS gullible and uninterested in what our leaders are doing? Can we not recognize incompetence and it's dangers when we see it? I am afraid of the answers to these questions.
Where's Congress? About where the German Reichstag was from the early 1930s through 1945 and for similar reasons. No, it's not exactly the same, but it's also not totally different. We need to stop labeling everything as Trump and start pointing out the responsibility of Republicans for our national disassembly.
This is the sound of history harmonizing.
I completely agree. Also, I want to say that Lake Superior Provincial Park puts Maine to shame. That is all.
Agree. I cannot believe the oversight committees led by democrats are not still in session. When is Bondi going to testify? Every congressional person who cares about us should be working while we are in crisis. So, TSA got paid. Good. Congress was/is getting paid the whole time. WTF? I wonder how often the government would shut down if Congressmen and women had their healthcare and paychecks suspended and they had to give back a percentage of their retirement pension every time it happened? Fairness is not a reasonable argument for them, given how they are letting others be treated. It must change.
No Democrats leads oversight committees in Congress because the Democrats are the minority party in Congress. All the committee chairs are Republicans.
They must not have the votes. The congress is not on vacation. They still work even if the congress is not in session. They either work in their district or in their Washington offices.
best sign from Saturday: "Thank God Congress isn't alive to see this!"
And their efforts to fix the elections is shocking. But they are stupid. A higher percentage of Democrats have proper IDs than Republicans.
"If Iran did not reopen the strait, Trump said, “we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposely not yet ‘touched.’”"
Oh yes, the War Crime gambit. Trump is a weapons grade moron, but he's got a feral sense about when things aren't going well for him. He realizes he's fucked up good, which is why he's got tens of thousands of troops on their way to that region and he's puffing out his chest on social media in order to save face. Say what you will about Iran's clerics; they've taken Trump's measure, and they've concluded they're dealing with what Tom Nichols has called a little boy from Queens. Trump is dangerous, but he's weak.
Also, I'm not an expert like Bill on this stuff, but I imagine if Trump were to order such an attack on Iran's power plants and desalination plants, what's left of our frayed alliances throughout the world would be irrevocably severed. NATO allies wouldn't want to be associated with a rogue head of state like Trump, and our allies in the Pacific would start their nuclear programs tomorrow. All because the great and good American people couldn't deal with high prices after a 100 year pandemic.
Those same great and good American citizens are in large part still with Taco. Of coarse they may not be happy if their children start to die in his war, but compensation and distraction will continue to work. These people are stubborn and ignorant. I really believe that as long as the creature still draws breath the destruction continues.
A woman was upset but unrepentant after her young son contracted measles which attacked his brain causing encephalitis and coma . She proclaimed that had she known the consequences she still would not have permitted him to be vaccinated. If her son were a soldier and severely wounded in Trump's Epstein/Netanyahu/Mohammed bin Salman War in Iran, would she hold the same perspective? Perhaps. Some will pay any price, even the sacrifice of their children, to remain in the cult. Some will sacrifice themselves. The Jim Jones' People's Temple in Guyana comes to mind.
"She proclaimed that had she known the consequences she still would not have permitted him to be vaccinated."
This is what happens when idiotic narcissists spawn.
I read that a father in Texas whose daughter died of measles said she didn’t die of measles, but because she was in the hospital.
Yeah, this is correct. They're ride or die, regardless of who is doing the dying.
The sad truth is that none of this will get fundamentally better while Trump occupies the Oval Office. Whether he dies, resigns/retires, gets impeached, or is removed via the 25th Amendment remains to be seen, but I no longer have hope that Congressional Republicans or Trump’s solid 40+% base will EVER do the right thing.
Robert Kagan has a new article in The Atlantic entitled, "America Is Now a Rogue Superpower" (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/03/trump-us-power-iran/686567/?gift=6ICK1NhO1tuSUNO7V_Ru-oZlGhP9p3ieSRndgbV2KbA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share).
Small point, but I appreciate Kagan referring to Hegseth as the Secretary of Defense.
It's ridiculous to refer to him by any other title. That is his "legal" title. Of course, we e could add adjectives, such as "worst of all time", to further define his place in history.
He's an insecure, bumptious man child, and every day he holds his position is a day when our risk of a major military debacle (Beirut 1983, USS Cole) increases to an unacceptable level.
Hegseth is a talk show host. Trump has appointed "yes" men who will do whatever he says. He sees his office as President as a big Game Show and he is the star and his advisors are supporting actors.
Secretary of Military Excursions. Sign up to join and book your trip now at any military recruiting office.
Will read right now. Thanks, DD.
I finally signed up for a subscription to the Atlantic. Thanks
Quite a read, this is simplistic, however absent all the colonization that existed prior to WWI and WWII, feels like we've reverted to the way it was then. Alliances made and broken, remade with new players with no sense of any effort towards retaining what we had since WWII. Survival of the fittest
" our allies in the Pacific would start their nuclear programs tomorrow"
I strongly suspect they started those programs several months ago. As did our European allies.
You could very well be right, wiredog. From their perspective, they don't really have a choice, and they're not going to trust the United States again in our lifetimes.
The French, read Macron, have made overtures to letting other EUROPEAN Nato members (yes, including Germany; he first publicly broached the idea with Chancellor Merz) be as protected as one can be under the French nuclear parasol (umbrella is too big a word) and the British are contemplating a similar idea, as far as the news I have been able to find goes.
I've read that too, David.
Along with every minor fiefdom in the Gulf. Each sheikdom desperately needs a nuke . . . or they will be subjugated under The Law of The Jungle. The Rule of Law is no longer functioning and the Law of Unintended Consequences will now raise its ugly head.
Egypt's gonna get one, too
Just to use on you know who
So Israel's getting tense
Wants one in self defense
"The Lord's our shepherd", says the Psalm
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who's next?
"Who’s Next?" - Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer! Hooray for acerbic wit. An attribute all too lacking these days.
I just sang that as I read it. Are you ready for a verse of Pollution? Brush their teeth with industrial waste.
I loved that album as a teenager and have been remembering bits and pieces lately. It has been a long time since I’ve heard it—I turned 70 last month.
Total nuclear escalation insanity. This is what we've tried to stop with American leadership over the past 50 years - until Trump. He is not only a moron, he is a war criminal on a scale with Putin. It is against international law to target civilian facilities like their electric grid and desalination plants, which could lead to millions of deaths - mostly women, children, and the elderly. Trump and his idiots are trying to make us believe that the Iranian people, who he claimed to want to save during their recent horrific protest violence, are all now worthy of death because Trump started a stupid war with no planning, no expert advice, and nothing but just blind fury that they are not doing what he wants and demands. I hope the United States and the rest of the world will stand up and say "NO" to this destructive megalomaniac's war crimes. Republicans are looking at a devastating loss in the polls for the next few decades if they do not find some courage, intelligence, integrity, and collective power to stop this numbskull.
Came here to say this. Canada too
You know, I think the pundits who claim that people voted for Trump because he promised to lower prices are stupidly trying to make Trump voters seem reasonable. As if voting for a vulgar, pussy-grabbing misogynist, a bully, a convicted felon, a fraud and conman, a racist bigot, a man who advocated injecting bleach to cure COVID, as if that were a sane choice, as long as you thought he would lower the cost of eggs. Seriously? There's just no excuse.
After a decade of this shit... This 👆👆👆👆!!!!!!!!!!!
They voted for him because he was a racist and a misogynist like them. They saw him as a game show host where he played a shewed, smart businessman. They didnt realize he was a big spoiled trust fund baby and a loser.
How does one completely obliterate an island anyway, turn it into Atlantis and sink it under the waves? I'm more worried about Miami sinking myself.
Not to mention it would be counterproductive to the energy needs of the entire world. Who is advising this pathetic fool?
He's unadvisable. He's got the cabinet and advisors he wants, meaning they will never question him.
Hefseth!? Peter Theil?
Well, in Trump's case, you go on Truth Social, claim the island was obliterated, have right wing surrogates pick it up and proclaim it to be true, then move on to the latest thing. Rinse, lather, repeat.
"Trump is dangerous, but he's weak."
The concerning part is that the danger rises with his fear. The fear he tries so hard to hide behind manly posturing. While dump is certainly a weak man, he controls a perilously strong military.
I’m pretty sure our former allies have been preparing to cut ties with the United States for a while now.
Who could blame them. If I didn't have loved ones living here, I would try to move to Australia.
One of the speakers - a veteran - at our No Kings rally on Saturday pointed out that the Army has raised its enlistment age to 42 and that Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and Baron Trump are all eligible to serve in the Army. I think that they, and all MAGA supporters of this war who are 42 and under, should immediately enlist and volunteer to serve on the front lines of any ground invasion of Iraq. In fact, why not deploy entire units of ICE to lead the invasion, after all, they are our most manliest of men, aren't they?
I know, right? Especially guys who have "come and take it" stickers on their pickup trucks. Let's see how they fare against people who would relish the chance to kill Americans and will do so by any means necessary.
A throw-down between people who like to puff their chests out versus people who don't care if they die. And you can gamble on it.
The MAGAe would be risibly unprepared for such a confrontation.
Particularly a people who are protecting their own nation. dump is going to put boots on the ground because he knows that will put us firmly in his war of choice. As our troops die, it will quickly become a war of necessity in most Americans' eyes.
Unfortunately, I believe they are planning escalation to cause the slaughter of American soldiers in order to rally American voters around the flag AND the war.
That's what I was getting at. Sadly. dump is making sure Americans have "skin" in the game. And, make no mistake, that is how he sees our troops.
Unfortunately, they all suffer from debilitating bone spurs.
Not such great genes after all, eh?
Form having such a bonehead for a father, I suppose.
Like X 1000
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one
"Fortunate Son" - Creedence Clearwater Revival (John Cameron Fogerty)
One of the greatest songs ever written, as far as I am concerned. And it is just as relevant today as it was when it was released in 1969.
At least Eric and Baron being in the right age range will ensure this lunatic doesn’t reinstitute the draft.
I was in ROTC when the draft ended in the 1970s (and enrollment dropped like a rock) but I have mixed feeling about a draft. While I am not for reinstating it, I do think the volunteer Army has come with some significant cost to our country. It has allowed Presidents to use the military as their own private Army, because it does not impact most Americans when the casualties start coming in. It is one reason why we can have forever wars, like Afghanistan. Congress should be a check on the President, but it has refused to play its Constitutional role, and is little more than Trump's rubber stamp right now. Part of me wishes that Trump would attempt to institute the draft, just because I would love to see how the MAGA "manosphere" would respond to being threatened with the possibility of actually having to be real soldiers, rather than the "safe" macho cosplay that they continuously engage in right now.
The options should be military or some other form of national service. My father was in the Civilian Construction Corps during the Great Depression and helped build national park infrastructure out west. Saw parts of the US he would never have seen otherwise, gained skills that served him well throughout his life, met people from all over the country, and earned his bread through the sweat of his brow in those desperate times.
I see advantages to both. A universal draft spreads the risk more equitably, everyone has skin in the game. People are forced via close military quarters to get to know people from walks of life whom they might never have come to know otherwise. On the other hand, with all-volunteer, the most idealistic, perhaps the best of us, become the cannon fodder.
I'm sure the spiritual successors of the doctors who got Trump out of Vietnam are all lined up and ready.
Those disgraced Epstein doctors just found their next gig…
No worries for Eric or Barron about the draft if it were reinstated. While it's a known fact that bone spurs themselves are not *hereditary*, one can indeed inherit a *condition* that makes them much more likely to occur, one example of which would be inflammatory joint disease.
Another would be having a draft dodging father who's the ultimate head and commander of the military but whose inflammatory rhetoric is inversely proportional to his abilities as Commander in Chief.
I always laugh at the “bone spurs” claim. When asked which foot, he said he didn’t remember, but his doctor said “both”.
Trump will just use his Sharpie to give them bone spurs.
C’mon Bukwark editors! “Wherefore art thou” means “why are you,” not “where are you.” It’s such a basic and common mistake I would think it wouldn’t slip by you. It’s a mistake that I’d expect to see on Fox but not from my literate Bukwark people!
I wish it were a mistake but unfortunately it was just an "attempt" by our "editors" to be "cute."
Doesn’t “Wherefore Art Thou” work in this context - why does Congress exist if it exerts no will to serve its function as a check on executive power?
Well it could do, but the article also uses a straightforward "Where", so it's clearly a mistake.
It does if it was used that way but in the article he says “where” is Congress so the headline was off.
Someone needs to be punished severely for this mistake. It is an unforgivable sin. 🤣😂
Uh, isn't this a bit like semantic shift or semantic change? I mean, we can say "Wherefore art though, Romeo?" is originally best thought of as, "Why are you..." but enough people in 2026 understand "Wherefore" to mean "Where" that we all understood it -- i.e. even y'all, the Shakespearean pedants, had no trouble understanding the intended meaning.
Catachresis (from Greek katákhrēsis — "misuse") is specifically the rhetorical/linguistic term for the misapplication of a word or phrase. i.e., "wherefore" as "where" has a "wrongness" to folks in the know, and strictly speaking, "wherefore" --> "where" is incorrect, but the wrong version becomes normalized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catachresis
Etymological Fallacy is argument that hinges on a word's "true" meaning being its oldest one versus its popularly understood meaning. In reality, if enough people use a phrase a certain way, that is now its meaning, regardless of how it started!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy
Fuckin' A bubba!
That was fantastic. I am saving this.
It may now have entered the vernacular that way but you would never see, say, the New York Times use it. There is street vernacular that is understood by all “ain’t” for instance” but that is not considered acceptable in formal speech or in literary publications (which I consider the Bulwark to be). This is just a rookie headline writer’s mistake that a lot of folks in the comments are trying to rationalize as correct. I get it - it’s the Bulwark! We all love the Bulwark! Cut them some slack!” They can handle being called out on their obvious mistakes and we can all acknowledge that they’re great but sometimes make mistakes like we all do.
Agree to disagree. I say @williamkristol, @eggerdc, @jimswiftdc, stick to your guns!
Goodness, the things I learn here! I'm taking notes.
Sure, the meanings of words evolve. And you might have a point if people everywhere were using wherefore to mean where. But I don't see or hear wherefore being used in that sense at all, much less popularly so, except in this particular context.
It reminds me of a line from "Miracle on 34th Street" when it dawns on the hero lawyer that he actually defended the TRUE Santa. "Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing, after all." It lands oddly on younger ears as "wonderful" has become an adjective describing a positive thing, when it originally defined something amazing, unbelievable...filling one with wonder.
Why fits the headline perfectly. At this point why does Congress exist? Its only useful as a tool for the oligarchy to block legislative expressions of popular will they don't like. It has no ability to actually serve the needs of the country.
You could build an article around that premise but Bill uses the words “where is Congress” so the headline writer got it wrong.
We'd save a lot of money if we just dumped them. Cheaper to get potted plants.
Where's DOGE when you really need them?
I logged in to say the same thing! “Why are you Congress, if you’re not going to do anything,” is a stretch,
especially because he didn’t make that point. Jeez, that vernacular is only 435 years olde…oh, right. And, where the hell is Congress. Watching Ken Burns’s American Revolution right now. If these clowns were alive back then we’d all be speaking English.
We’re watching it too. George Washington must be spinning in his grave.
I think that still makes sense. After all, the thrust of the article was not only 'where is Congress?', but 'why do we have a Congress, if it won't work on this?'.
But Bill leads with the question “where is Congress?” So the headline writer decided to fancy it up but just got it wrong.
To be in congress is to be together. Wherefore is thy togetherness?
Gee, I really really enjoyed the title. I totally understand what you mean, but the title was fun and conveyed the content to come clearly.
It misstates what Bill says in the article so have to disagree.
Fine, but I still like it and I like the article, and the article deserves more discussion than the headline.
I agree that it was a rookie mistake. Egad.
I was getting ready to write the same to them!
I dislike it, but mainly because I dislike when people use archaic English to sound pretentious.
The Bulwark is a Substack about modern American politics, and it should use modern American English in its headlines.
If we all recognize it as well as its source, how "archaic" can it be?
(Am I the only one here that doesn't know what/who "Bukwark" is? ) I assume the spelling is intentional since it appears in both the first and the last sentences, and because the poster is concerned with editing matters. ) Thanks all!
Bulwark hasn't got that kind of editing. Each piece is as careful as the writer who wrote it.
I agree so usually I’m not so keen to call out grammatical or stylistic mistakes in articles, but when it’s a headline it’s a different story because that likely was not written by the writer ( in this case Kristol) but by an editor, and it’s more glaring and misstates the thrust of the article.
I'm dead at this whole conversation. You should have seen the fight over this headline we had in Slack.
At this point I don’t give a fuch!
yes of course --- but WHY are you congress surely fits the message better? (wherefore art thou Romeo.....why couldn't you be some other man..going to start saying wherefore art thou President - secretary of defense etc.etc. you cads!)
oops - didn't read replies - see I am superfluous - as usual.
My favorite sign from Saturday's protests: "I wish Congress were alive to see this."
“we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposely not yet ‘touched.’”
Trump assuring that it won't just be religious fanatics chanting "Death to America" for a couple more generations.
Every day it seems more and more likely we will have en extended stay in Iran that won’t be lovely for anyone involved DJT included. I suspect Iran is becoming his new 4 letter word.
He's already bored with it. Makes him look bad.
Keeps going to his happy place - that ballroom eyesore.
I only need three: WTF!!!
Ketchup on the wall.
Wars come and go but ballrooms are the stuff of ages.
Contemplating the absolute abdication of Congress and the paralysis of our judicial system forced a terrifying realization. The domestic contagion of lawlessness has likely metastasized beyond containment. The republic we were taught to revere cannot be meaningfully restored absent a total, uncompromising legal reckoning for every official who violated their oath during these ruinous years. Yet, as we watch the architecture of accountability crumble, I think any reasonable one of us must concede that the probability of such systemic prosecution remains functionally zero.
I'm starting to worry about a more meaningful danger materializing. When our ingrained domestic impunity is exported to the geopolitical stage. When an unchecked Rotting Orange casually threatens the obliteration of civilian infrastructure in Iran, and the legislative branch answers by slipping out of town for the spring, the very concept of international law is reduced to a hollow fiction. If the conventions designed to prevent global catastrophe are discarded with the same cynical ease as our own constitutional guardrails, we are no longer merely presiding over the demise of the American experiment. We are facing the termination of the human experiment itself, accelerating blindly toward an era defined entirely by unrestrained force, and led by the least qualified, least competent people to our destruction.
It is certainly interesting that a species with so much capability has put itself here.
"...a species with so much capability" can put itself anywhere, including into extinction.
So true David. I think on an intellectual level, I always understood that we had the capability to destroy ourselves, but the bitter pill I’m swallowing now is the realization that we are being marched to that edge by people who are so clearly the worst and least capable among us. That latter part is something I don't think I psychologically prepared myself for.
Frankly, Patrick, I never contemplated it enough to get that far. I only thought of Nuclear Armaggedon in terms of someone attacking us (USSR/Russia) with nukes to which we had to respond.
I think you need to not just look "up and out", but rather "down and in". Take a look at what is happening in politics and personnel at the local level. There should be a spotlight put on mitigating the damage there also.
WHOA big shooter. Hot take coming in with "You need to do." You're making a pretty massive assumption without actually checking my work. I’ve written multiple articles doing exactly what you are demanding here. If you want to see that exact spotlight on local politics and personnel damage, go read the piece I published on February 1, 2025. ||||| Here is an approach that would be a bit more socially palatable: "This analysis of the national level is spot on. I also worry a lot about the local level, the 'down and in.' The damage to local politics and personnel is severe right now. I hope we can get more of a spotlight on mitigating that, too."
The International Criminal Court should issue an arrest warrant for Trump, as they did for Putin. It would limit his ability to travel and send a message that the rest of the world will not whitewash his war crimes, which destroying civilian infrastructure, bombing supposed "drug boats," and kidnapping leaders of sovereign countries like Venezuela obviously are. You are right, Patrick, there is grave danger in the rest of the world capitulating to Trump's insanity and then where are we? It will be like time warping back into the 1920s and '30s and all the progress we have made since WW2 will have evaporated. I do not want to live in that kind of a world. It is up to America to recognize the gravity of the situation and stop this insanity.
Why haven’t they already issued the warrant?
Every time Trump has massed U.S. forces off the coast of another country, he has used them. I think a U.S. ground operation is now likely, partly because Trump doesn't know what else to do.
Likely was two weeks ago. We are set for the biggest quagmire in world history. Because when 50K soldiers are slaughtered and burned as Iran has promised, Trump will drop a nuke and claim victory. When in reality, things have only started.
I hate this fucking timeline. I hate each and every voter who voted for Trump or couldn’t be bothered to vote at all. I hope they all find themselves destitute in a ditch.
Along with their sons and daughters who were sent to die in the Iranian sand by their hero, the Felon?
I foresee Trump definitely threatening a nuke but whether or not he is able to actually push the button is the question in my mind.
This constitutional crisis will make the others seem like child’s play.
It is so easy to feel this way because it is what Trump deserves, but don't forget that hatred is the fuel he uses to motivate his base. Do we really want to use hatred as a fuel for our side, too? I don't think that is the path we want to take. I understand how you feel, but I hope you have other ways to let off steam that will soothe your soul.
I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive them for destroying the world.
And he's got Hegseth egging him on, too.
I'm amazed that Republicans running for re-election to Congress aren't looking at the polls 7 months out and publicly melting down.
I wonder what's in the Epstein Files that has Speaker Johnson so spooked...
Also surprised that the stock market isn't having more of a freakout. Bouncing back up again today.
wiredog - stocks really seem to have become computer driven day trading. Long term value, chickens that will obviously have to come home to roost - no longer appear to figure into this morning’s trades. I guess the ‘smart’ money is in volatility. Very exciting casino to play in, not near boring enough for my tastes 😬
They are, that’s why more of them than ever are retiring. They know they’re cooked.
Absolutely true.
There are days I wonder if Johnson himself is literally in the Epstein files.
Not the Epstein files per se, but I completely believe that there is some incredibly nasty stuff someone has about him that he really, REALLY, is afraid will get out.
He is a bit creepy...I mean really, the Covenant Eyes app? Him and his son stalking each to see if they're porning. Isn't that just telling the world you're so weak that you have to be watched for something that is really no one's business? Unless minors are involved?
And I guess that's the thing in a nutshell. He may or may not prey on the young, but he's running interference for so many that do. What does the orange idiot have on him? It seems like there's a whole lot of kompromat doody on these folks to make them crime they way they're doing.
Only if JE found him an ersatz mother to coddle him.
I suspect there is some sort of religious motivation at work with the Speaker. There are groups of people that seek domination of the government (and other things too) in the name of God.
Getting the bull into a china shop is not hard, but getting it out is a much harder task and that is discounting all the broken china — big things in small places tend to get stuck. I am pretty sure our troops will be in for an extended stay in Iran, but it won’t be lovely and likely won’t be short. Iran’s size and geography alone make any ground excursion difficult let alone one when we don’t know what we are doing and have no concrete goals.
Lethality something something...
Oh, I am sure it will be lethal for very many.
Can't like, but can't refute, either.
Including our troops.
I love everyone’s new use of excursion! Going on an excursion is definitely not as pleasant as it once sounded to me.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, who is not Donald J. Trump becomes a pawn in Donald J. Trump's quest for power, wealth, and glory. Everyone in his family and everyone in his cabinet needs to constantly extol his virtues and never mention his faults. The more gold statues of honor, the better. Their lives are meaningless to him, except for that purpose. If 20,000 American soldiers die in order for Trump to look powerful, that's what they signed up for. 100,000 Iranian deaths mean he is tough. Trump only fights when he believes that his opposition has no defenses, such as small boats in the ocean, Venezuela, and Cuba. He was told Iran was defenseless, but they are proving to be even more fanatical than he is. Russia, China, even North Korea have leaders he admires.
Unless someone, Congress?, stops him, Trump will bankrupt the country as he has done with most of his businesses. He says he needs to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. I hope there are people who will stop Trump when he becomes frustrated enough that he reaches for the button. After all, what are those bombs for?
Trump doesn't care about Iran building a nuclear weapon. If he did, he wouldn't have torn up the JCPOA.
Disagree. It was something Obama did. It had to go. Period. Full stop.
It had to go because of Obama, but also Trump doesn't care.
Kate, doesn't care about what? Anything except himself? Bingo.
His view of Iran appears to be based on the 1979 taking of hostages. He's thought that country should be destroyed ever since then, I suspect, and he has no patience for the idea of containing a bad actor as Iran has been contained for many years, partly by the JCPOA.
That's because his brain is terminally wired for instant gratification. There is no interest or ability to think beyond instant gratification. He loses interest otherwise. My sister-in-law just became the legal guardian of a six year old boy with off-the-hook ADHD, and **he's** got more control of his impulses than Trump does.
At what point will Fox News understand that their goal of Republican dominance is being crushed by their Orange Savior? At what point will they realize that deep-sixing Trump will be their only hope of survival? If they have the intellectual capacity to understand this, then that will be the turning point and Trump's ratings will really crater and maybe THEN Republicans in Congress will see that they must act to stop this train wreck.
*How can members of Congress—yes, even Republican members of Congress—read that and not think: What the hell about us? This shouldn’t be the president’s decision alone.*
Have y'all seen the Republican members of Congress do anything, anything at all over the last ten years that didn't involve permission from the man whose boots they rush to willingly lick in public?
They're not even human beings anymore, just animated rubber stamps constantly in search of more ink to do Big Orange Daddy's bidding.
The only time any one of those talking parrots find the courage to stand in opposition to their master is when they decide to clean out the shit from the bottom of their cages and retire from office. Asking them to find and use the underlying principles and responsibilities of their elected position is a fever dream.
> " I’ve tried hard to find the best arguments for ground troops and to speak with knowledgeable experts about them, and they seem utterly unconvincing to me."
Uh, so, I'd split this: (1) should we continue the war in Iran and (2) if we continue, do we need to use ground forces to achieve the war's objectives at this point?
On (1), I think must Bulwarkers agree: this is an illegal war of choice that is disrupting the global economy and undermining agriculture, energy, and (as y'all point out later in quick hits) might pop that AI bubble we've all been eyeing cautiously. The administration seems to have miscalculated on how effective the decapitation strikes would be and now does not seem to have clear strategic goals. The war is already a loss, so far as we can see, and so we should cut our losses and fold now, rather than doubling down and betting the farm trying to win something back.
Unfortunately, the least intelligent and most bellicose people in the world are leading the war effort, and the most servile and spineless folks are running congress. So, who will not stop the stupid, pointless, illegal violence?
On (2), assuming there will be no TACO, and that the US has decided it must try to snatch a defeat from the hands of a worse defeat by risking an apocalyptic defeat, there isn't any way to open the Strait of Hormuz with only air strikes. They will need to secure ground positions to restore the free movement of ships through the Strait.
The problem is that Iran has demonstrated the range of its capabilities, so the actual size of the task is enormous. I read over the weekend that historically the Pentagon has estimated to occupy a country the size of Iran we'd need 1.3M troops, or basically the entire volunteer armed forces (assuming a draft is notwithstanding!). But if they don't occupy the whole country, Iran will just continue to launch missiles and drones from the parts of their country they do control, seeing as how they can hit targets up to 4000 KM away.
So really, sane people would answer question (1) and TACO and avoid dealing with (2) altogether. Try and spin it, whatever, but yes: it's time to pack up and go home and take the L. Iran will continue to run its Ayatollah Booth and charge ships for transit. The world will be expensive and worse and more dangerous, but that's maybe inevitable at this point.
Unfortunately, it looks like our leadership is doubling down on question (1), which means on question (2) they will need to send ground troops. But that then begs a new question (3): do we send enough ground forces to be successful, or do we set ourselves up for more failure by not committing enough resources for the enormity of the task?
This isn't a war of "choice," this is a war of "Vanity" ( and distraction). Trump couldn't let Bibi take the credit for disabling Iran, and Bibi needed the bigger weapons. Unfortunately, neither man thought about the use of smaller weapons in the hands of people who are just as mean and crazy as they are.
Extra LIKE for "Ayatollah Booth."
I don’t believe the US has enough resources to be successful in a ground invasion. Not to mention we have used up a lot of said resources already. This will be way worse than Afghanistan and Iraq. An unwinnable quagmire with no end. How can we be so appallingly stupid?!
Trump can’t TACO at this point. That is what makes this so fucked up. This is a moment where Trump has lost control. He cannot end this war if Iran doesn’t want to end it - short of glassing the country with nukes.
Trump can try and TACO all he wants, but he is not in control here. Trump is proving why our country’s government was setup the way it is. Let’s hope that Americans wake up.
He can’t taco; he can’t lose face. That’s why he didn’t lose the election, he was cheated.
And just think, we didn't have this problem a month ago. We had Epstein.
And let's hope any soldier with control over a nuclear weapon launch has more sense, integrity, and courage than our leaders and refuses to do the unthinkable.
I don't understand how blind everybody is, including any military experts who are advising Hegseth and Trump. You can't just take Kharg island without landing troops on the main coast of Iran to try and neutralize the drones and missiles they would launch at Kharg if this were to happen. Iran has upwards of 93 million people who have been trained to hate America. Asides from drones and missiles, I'm sure they also have more traditional weapons of war such as rifles, machine guns, grenades, IEDs, etc. that would rain down on any American troops positioned on Iran's coasts. Americans would be hopelessly outnumbered and decimated. I'm just an old retired park ranger, I know nothing of warfare, but even this seems evident to me. WTF?
As for the Cheap Shots, we elected a real estate cheat, FOX News addict, and bankrupt lifelong debtor. There's nothing crazy about the result of this action - it was the election itself that was crazy. How anyone can be surprised by the Scam King of Trump Taj Mahal being the Scam King of Trump Taj Mahal is beyond me. We seem to have the object impermanence of toddlers.
Big manly fascist men don't worry about getting bogged down with "who killed who" and "rules of engagement" and "how many toddlers were bombed today while in school." But you gotta put big columns on things. And maybe build a pyramid that shoots fire and yells Remember ME!
Truly the Scammiest President we have ever had. "Scum" King is also applicable.
It was wonderful of mainstream media to basically not cover the No Kings march. NBC's Kristen Welker allowed that their were 10's of thousands of people across America. That's like saying 100's of fans showed up for opening day at Dodger Stadium. Misleading in the extreme but also true.
Speaking of horrid coverage, we also have horrid coverage of the Iran war. It's mostly coverage of Pete Hegseth's lies. For example, he stated the AWACs plane hit on an airfield in Saudi Arabia suffered some damage but could easily be repaired. In reality it was cut in half right behind the wings and was destroyed. It was one of three AWACs planes we had in the area. We also lost another fuel tanker plane. Iran is strategically attacking our air combat ability with both missles and drones.
Back at home, Barksdale air force base in Louisiana, which has a large B52 bomber wing, has seen repeated drone flyovers since 3/9 that are not thought to be commercial drones. They have jamming capabilities amongst other high tech indicators not available in mass produced commercial drones. They appear to have come from off shore. So far no armaments have been detected. These are considered surveillance missions. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barksdale-louisiana-drones-lockdown-b2942878.html
What happens when the US mainland is attacked with drones? It's going to happen because we have no defense in place to stop such attacks, especially swarm attacks. This war is going to be an unmitigated disaster brought to us by an complete idiocracy.
Nobody expected the media to cover No Kings. But all that does is make people look around and say, "Something really large happened near my house and the news doesn't care and covers it up."
Kate - frustrating for sure. Just as there's so little mention of the president's declining health (physical & psychological), the bond market, etc ad nauseum.
One of the VERY significant benefits of No Kings is showing our neighbors they're not alone, and seeing that evidence ourselves. We're bigger than we often see here in my red state of Indiana - getting together is a tremendous boost! Stay strong ✊🩵
How did we get to this place? There is absolutely zero truthful coverage of this war. There are no journalists embedded with the troops, there are no truthful press conferences from Hegseth's department, there are nothing but farcical lies and grandiose brags coming from the president. Are Americans so stuck in their reality TV world that they no longer see that this is not normal? Have we really become THIS gullible and uninterested in what our leaders are doing? Can we not recognize incompetence and it's dangers when we see it? I am afraid of the answers to these questions.