Jon Lovett

In the best case scenario, Trump struck a deal to reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started, with the IRGC demonstrating its control over the Strait and potentially extracting fees plus sanctions relief. Thousands of innocents - including hundreds of children - dead in Lebanon and Iran for no reason. U.S. troops killed and wounded. U.S. embassies and bases in the Middle East badly damaged. U.S. standing in the world obliterated. U.S. munitions badly depleted. Hundreds of billions spent. Prices up everywhere. More global economic fallout to come. Putin strengthened and enriched. Just a catastrophic situation even in the best of circumstances. A profoundly shameful episode in American history no matter what happens next.

Angelenos: LOLI favorite Joel Kim Booster is BACK with @jonlovett on Lovett or Leave It THIS THURSDAY. Get your tickets now: dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad…

Will we destroy a civilization in prime time? Let’s check in with Fox Oh no the wife, she is woke

I mostly avoid commenting on what President Trump says from day to day, while pulling no punches in my assessments, whether positive or negative, of his policy. His Iran ultimatums feel different. Making such threats is a policy. If he were to follow through on them, the consequences would be immediate, irreversible, and catastrophic on a world-historical scale. So while some will inevitably insist he should be “taken seriously rather than literally,” or that he is executing a sophisticated “madman” strategy in a complex game of 5-D chess, or that he needs everyone’s steadfast support to maximize his leverage, now rather than later seems the time to say that the actions that he is proposing would be a disaster for our country, both strategically and morally, which makes the remarks themselves a terrible mistake. Simply put, what’s the point of all this? If these are empty threats that we all know he will not carry out, then they are ineffective threats (the Iranians are on X too!), merely making the president and our nation look foolish. If they are not empty threats, then the president is asserting the American position that such actions are acceptable in this situation and ones we are willing to take. We are not living in some quantum thought experiment where he simultaneously is and is not serious. We cannot expect the Iranians, but only the Iranians, will believe him. Whether the threats are empty or not, we should be willing to say: This is wrong. We should not establish a pattern of threatening escalation from a blockaded strait to elimination of a civilization. We should not launch strikes intended to devastate the lives of millions of people and take our nation to total war without indisputable justification, or before the American people have deliberated upon and assented to the path with full understanding of what total war might mean for them. Those principles are vital to our Republic, independent of whether the strategy could “work.” But it’s also worth emphasizing that the strategy is a dead end. This war is actively weakening American power, increasing the danger to American citizens, and frustrating the president’s important efforts at addressing our many domestic challenges. It has closed a strait that was previously open, strengthened the incentive for other nations to pursue nuclear weapons, and in this most recent rhetoric made more plausible their use. Our choices for continuing the war appear to be catastrophic escalation of the air war or extensive deployment of ground troops, neither of which were planned or had support at the outset. Stepping back from these threats and admitting such actions do not offer a path to resolving the conflict may be unpalatable, but it is by far the least unpalatable option available. Let us all hope cooler heads prevail.

Trump threatens war crimes in Iran.

Trump’s press conference about the U.S. military rescuing an American airman shows how messed up their larger message is.

LA, are you free this Thursday?! Join @jonlovett for a fabulous Lovett or Leave It LIVE show with RuPaul's Drag Race winner Symone and comedian Joel Kim Booster. Get tickets now at dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad…

The traditional Passover Seder hash browns! Want to experience more moments like this? Join us for an upcoming Lovett or Leave It LIVE show. Get your tickets at crooked.com/events

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Bye Bye, Bondi! Watch more Pod Save America on YouTube!

"Trump is a short-term actor, who discounts the price of his words turning out to be lies." - Jon Lovett

In a surprise twist, the Epstein files released the attorney general.

"You have Noem on a plane with Corey Lewandowski doing glamor shots in front of prisoners at CECOT, and then meanwhile Bryon is at home putting in the big magnificent bazoombas to pay women to talk to him." @jonlovett and @Timodc on the secret life of Kristi Noem's husband.

Angelenos! Come out to Lovett or Leave It TOMORROW with special guests Ben Platt and—JUST ADDED—Jimmy Tatro (Theater Camp, Home Economics, American Vandal)! Get tickets now at dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad…

What Trump is doing to the White House is vandalism.

"It is infuriating to me how many people are kind of struggling to make a life here... it is an emergency, and they don't treat it like it—and it makes me fucking nuts." @jonlovett and @Timodc discuss the upcoming California gubernatorial race and its jungle primary.

LA, do your vocal warmups, because Lovett or Leave It is back at Dynasty Typewriter this Thursday with special guest Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner Ben Platt!!! Get tickets now at dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad…

Well, sometimes it takes compromise to pass legislation. Because we live in a democracy. Cities have leeway in how to implement SB79 as part of that give and take. Wanting cities to use that flexibility responsibly, and applying same perspective to city planning that inspired the statewide law - that we are in a housing emergency - is definitionally GOOD faith. Also worth saying: there is SOME good in what LA is doing, because it will lead to increased development in places that would have been exempted from SB79 altogether. But all in all, it is a shame that LA is doing less when it could be doing more. Given the scale of the crisis.

oompa/loompa

LA City Council just voted to delay implementing SB79 (more homes near transit), and chose a plan that allows for the least new housing possible - buildings only up to 4 stories. Some of the more progressive members on the council pushed for a compromise that STILL delays SB79 but allows 7 story buildings. Blocked. SB79 still will apply, eventually, and this just kicks the can down the road. But the complacency and lack of urgency is astounding.