Seth Bernstein

@Laymens_terms @McFaul OK, Bot.

@McFaul Do you actually believe this? Because anybody with an IQ of even room temperature can see you are wrong.

Ukraine is winning.

@gbrew24 Nothing Trump suggests here would stop Iran from continuing to kill its own people for protesting or any other reason. Internally, the terror would continue even without bridges or power plants.

A lot going on here, but upshot is that there will be no response to Iran attacking shipping, US will maintain the "blockade," and talks are still on track (though delayed somewhat).

@cossiom Democracy or kleptocracy? I guess we'll find out.

If the AXIOS report is true, and it seems to be, it means, in my opinion, that the Trump Administration has given Raúl Castro's regime a serious diplomatic warning: either you make real political and economic changes that lead to democracy, or you will face the (military) might of the US. In other words, pay attention. Seriously.

@DblNdann @brithume If you don't mind a missile or drone exploding your ship, you're welcome to head on through, per Hegseth.

@brithume So the strait is open?

Let's see: US and Israeli warplanes range freely over Iran, having hit thousands of targets, and are hitting more every day. The Iranian leadership has been taken out. Its new leader cannot or will not show his face. Its air defenses have been ineffective, destroyed or both. Its navy is largely gone. So It has now effectively blocked ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to its own economy. US media would have you believe Iran has turned the tide in the war because blocking the strait never occurred to US war planners. You can choose to believe this. I don't.

@shanaka86 From Chat GPT:

Trump just called Spain a “terrible ally” and told Treasury Secretary Bessent to cut off all trade. On camera. In the Oval Office. The reason: Spain refused to allow the US to use Rota and Moron air bases for operations against Iran. Whether this is bluster or policy is not the important question. The important question is what it reveals about the coalition architecture prosecuting this war. Spain hosts two of the most strategically critical US military installations in Europe. Rota is home to four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and serves as the primary logistical hub for US Naval Forces Europe. Moron has been the forward staging base for every US Africa Command operation and multiple Middle East deployments. These are not symbolic facilities. They are operational infrastructure. Spain said no. The UK also denied base use. No equivalent threat was made to London. Now map the coalition. The US is conducting the air campaign with assets deployed from carriers, Diego Garcia, and Gulf-based installations. Israel is striking from its own territory. Qatar, a country that hosted US Central Command’s forward headquarters at Al Udeid, has now been attacked by Iran and is striking back. The UAE, which hosts 3,500 US troops at Al Dhafra, is weighing its own strikes. Saudi Arabia may follow. The countries absorbing Iranian missiles are being pulled into the war. The countries that were supposed to provide staging infrastructure are refusing. The coalition is gaining reluctant belligerents while losing willing logistics partners. This is not a unified alliance prosecuting a coordinated campaign. This is a coalition assembling itself through Iranian aggression rather than strategic design, while its European support structure fractures over base access and international law. For the insurance timeline: reinsurers model coalition wars differently from unilateral campaigns. Coalition coherence is a variable in duration modelling. A coalition that is simultaneously expanding through involuntary belligerents and contracting through voluntary ally defections is a coalition whose war duration is unpredictable. And unpredictable duration is the one variable that makes reinstatement impossible. The war is getting bigger. The alliance prosecuting it is getting messier. Both extend the timeline the market has not priced. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

INSANE: British grandmother BEGS people not to go America, after being imprisoned for six weeks -- for committing no crime, and holding a valid visa. Karen Newton was on the trip of a lifetime. Yellowstone. Old Faithful. A bison beside the car. She had a British passport and a valid tourist visa. No criminal record. No overstays. No charges. “I don’t even have parking tickets,” she said. “I am not a dangerous criminal.” When she and her husband tried to leave the US for Canada, border officials flagged his expired visa and turned them back. Hers was valid. It did not matter. She was handcuffed, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, and locked in a cell. She slept on the floor under foil blankets. Then she was driven 12 hours overnight to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. She was detained for 42 days -- again, she committed NO CRIME. But Newton’s reality was six weeks in what she calls a prison. “It’s called a detention facility, but it’s really a prison,” she said. “Locking doors, guards everywhere, cells, everything clamped to the floor.” She slept on the floor for a month because she could not climb to a top bunk. “You only really appreciate your freedom when you’ve had it taken away.” She believes the pressure to produce detention figures is driving it. “I think it’s Trump insisting they generate figures on how many people they are detaining. I can’t think of any other reason.” She warned other tourists, “Don’t go – not with Trump in charge. It’s totally out of control over there. There’s no accountability.” Like and Share if you support telling tourists to stay away from America, until we've made it safe enough for them.

@billy_batzzz @stanfballupdate @brodytmckenna My guess is 10 wins in three seasons, etc.

@stanfballupdate @brodytmckenna What’s your guess as to why they didn’t want to come? I was told Tavita was the best recruiter Stanford ever had. I’m so confused.

You understand that the transfer portal is open until March right? The portal entry window closes on the 16th. This is an extremely premature statement to make.

@lexlanham @mrsdobbins_ That's what we do. Enjoy while you have us around 😊

@mrsdobbins_ I invited my dad to a show with my kids and me & he drove & paid for parking & then he tried to pay me back for his ticket & I said no way & he STUFFED CASH INTO MY PURSE

I sent my dad a reel a while back that said “every vacation can be all inclusive if you take your dad!” and he thought that was hilarious. Anyway, he drove me to my appointment today so I didn’t have to go alone and then took me out to eat afterwards and when he dropped me off, he hollered out the car window that he hoped I enjoyed my “all inclusive chauffeur” 😂😂😂

@PeterSchorschFL Creative

Mindful

Taken just a few minutes ago outside the ICE facility in Portland that Trump claims is under siege. My message to Donald Trump is this: we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.

@cwebbonline The Mass Deportation signs at the Republican national convention just might have been a clue.

If only we had warned folks before the election that the real plan wasn’t border security…it was mass deportation in the interior, federalizing the National Guard, ripping people out of homes, families, jobs, and schools. Oh wait…we did. This segment with the author of 2025 aired one year ago.

@RightOpinionCo @CalltoActivism It's almost like working for the government is public service. Crocodile tears.

This is why you don’t appoint reality Tv stars in positions of government

@AllysonOtten @BaddCompani If we dip into recession territory they will continue to blame President Biden. They will own nothing negative. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Nice try JD 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

@TaylorMadeBride @ennui365 Can we spell c-o-v-e-r u-p?

Thank you!

@SpencerHakimian "We have agreed on a framework of a concept of a conceptual framework of a concept."

White House website now saying a trade deal has been reached with China.

@zaqud1967 @grok @Aurkayne @TheMaineWonk @Reuters @AskPerplexity He's crowd-sourcing his tariff strategy, so, he might just be in a tad over his head. That's on the hills of stabbing the US auto industry in the back.

@grok @Aurkayne @TheMaineWonk @Reuters @AskPerplexity Translation - Trump is out of his depth in these negotiations, and getting his ass handed to him.

🚨BREAKING: CHINESE DELEGATION WALKS OUT OF TRADE NEGOTIATIONS. - @Reuters

Did she say thank you once?

@Independent I thought it got lots of coverage. NYT was obsessed with it.

Top D.C. journalist calls out colleagues for missing ‘cover-up’ of Biden’s frailty #Echobox=1745771600" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">independent.co.uk/news/world/ame…

@axios When you practice not listening to someone for decades, it has consequences.

Unmarried older adults in the U.S. were less likely to develop dementia than those who were married, according to a new study of 24,000 Americans. trib.al/2UZ274m

@BaddCompani "The cruelty is the point." It's been said many times. And it rings true every time. 😥

UNCONSTITUTIONAL!