Gromit Stevens @mdpollak

Uncommitted, but this time For genocide

Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI

2 days ago

Centrists in Congress (anonymously) threatening to leave this Democratic Party. James Carville calling for a schism. Pouty (also anonymous) pro-Israel donors in Michigan calling for a donor strike—I wrote about the emerging centrist Uncommitted Movement therealnews.com/a-new-centrist…

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Wild another organ of this multibillionaire arch zionist would want to attack Mamdani. Probably just organic free market wonks!

this glowing NYT profile of the Manhattan Institute desperately tries to paint them as cosmpolitan conservative urbanist wonks who Just Want NYC To Work. meanwhile their senior policy fellow Chris Rufo was telling the world that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating family pets

Nicholas Fandos @npfandos

a day ago

NEW w/@elizashapiro: They are wonky, conservative and obsessed with New York City. Can they stop the Mamdani agenda? “I vehemently believe that we are defenders of the beautiful mosaic. But it means that you need to not be an idiot.” nytimes.com/2026/07/29/nyr…

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IF IRAN COULDN'T FIGHT BACK, THE US WOULD'VE WON. x.com/MarioNawfal/st…

Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal

2 days ago

UNPOPULAR OPINION: THE U.S. WOULD HAVE WON THIS WAR IF NOT FOR IRAN'S ABILITY TO CLOSE THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ AND BOMB THE GULF

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Iran's latest ballistic missile attacks and the continued rejection of compromise solutions on the Strait of Hormuz might seem like indications that "hardline" thinking is dominating Iran's national security strategy. But my conversations with counterparts in Tehran suggest that something else is at play. Iranian decisionmaking is increasingly shaped by an intense pessimism about what diplomacy with the U.S. can achieve. Most senior figures, whether pragmatists or hardliners, simply do not believe a deal is possible. This pessimism has gotten worse since the MOU was signed. Part of this is about the repeated experience of U.S. escalation during the course of negotiations, but the pessimism is no longer confined to the question of "does Trump want a deal?" Increasingly the belief is that "Trump can't do a deal, even if he thinks he wants one." Policymakers in Tehran are looking at several things. At a technical level, the Trump administration was unable to execute even the most basic confidence building measures of the MOU. No assets were released and the oil waiver was never really operationalized. Iranian leaders are also looking to other contexts. Even in Venezuela, where the administration has complete political control and a full court press approach to economic reengagement, sanctions relief has floundered (eg. it took a whole month after the massive earthquake for FinCen to take proactive steps to try and provide banks comfort to support humanitarian transactions). At a political level, the Iranians have seen the overblown reaction to the MOU from the full range of politicians in Washington. Democrats eager to score political points attacked provisions in the MOU that would be fundamental to *any* viable agreement with Iran. The Iranians are also watching the growing rift between the Rubio and Vance camps and are concluding that the administration is inherently dysfunctional. During the Biden years, the issue was whether the president could defend his deal from political rivals in Congress. Now, the rivals are within the cabinet itself. At an individual level, there is also a growing sense that Trump is too erratic to stick by his own deals. Even Saudi Arabia, the country with perhaps the greatest influence in the White House after Israel, could not shield its own nuclear deal from Trump's excessive demands. This may be an unprecedented situation. The U.S. has started a war it does not know how to end. Meanwhile, the arguments for diplomacy in Tehran have been reduced to "this has a low chance of succeeding, but we have to still try." That's not a strong, positive case for diplomatic engagement and understandably the strategic thinking is tending towards the idea that U.S. dysfunction will continue to manifest in the form of economic pressure and kinetic action against Iran for a long time to come.

1. This @nypost cover: “Thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned from 25th-Anniversary” is a brazen lie. How do I know? I interviewed the organizer of the petition.

This is the best article on this by far, with all the details. You will leave sputtering with rage at just how low Neil Barofsky is

ellafanger @ellafanger

3 days ago

In the run-up to the UAW's presidential election, I wrote about the conflict that's quietly played out between union leadership and a federal monitor over the union's stance on Gaza for the past two years: thenation.com/article/econom…

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"The precinct where her opponent, Representative Adriano Espaillat, performed best consisted almost entirely of a senior center, with a median age of 78." nytimes.com/2026/07/12/nyr…

@_waleedshahid It's normal for a Murdoch paper, though. Being able to do it in a major outlet is why he spent all that money.

Our man @ConradforHarlem is the real deal

“We’re telling them we’re ready to do this for a week, for a month, if it means each one of our colleagues can live with dignity,” said Conrad Blackburn, the Bronx Defenders attorney who returned to the firm after losing an Assembly seat primary in June. amny.com/law/bronx-defe…

🗣️Zohran to @rolandsmartin: “When we talk about taxing rich we hear about fear of capital flight, but the flight of Black New Yorkers who can’t afford it has happened for years… Dems were branded as ‘SoCiALisT’ for as long as I can remember — Obama was called one daily…”

Discount will cover all produce & all meat, plus 20 pantry essentials. Prices set monthly. The stores will not sell cigarettes, alcohol, lotto tickets, or hot foods—per Mamdani, major sources of revenue for bodegas—so that the stores don’t threaten local businesses.

Josie Stratman @JosieStratman

3 days ago

Mayor Mamdani is in East New York to announce his city-run grocery stores will provide a 30% discount on essential foods like produce, eggs & milk. Prices will be set monthly. "No exceptions, no gimmicks," he says. The first store is expected to open next yr

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One of the most evil things imaginable to me

Hedgie @HedgieMarkets

4 days ago

🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because they're

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In the comments, people point out this is basically a Mountain Dew or a Cuban cafe negro. So many of us are doing this now. Which maybe explains some things.

Nate @natelawrence_

5 days ago

Thinking about the fact Kierkegaard filled his coffee cup to above the rim with sugar and then poured in coffee

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As reporting is circulating this morning about potential discussions for a new deal between the United States and Iran, I want to discuss one of the core problems to what I am seeing. Trump isn’t being realistic… at all… Based at least on the initial reporting, President Trump is trying to essentially strike a deal that reverts back to the terms of the original Memorandum of Understanding. Put nicely… that’s ridiculous. Unfortunately for Trump, unfortunately for everyone, the Trump Administration took guidance from the Lobby and Hawks that called for Washington to revoke the oil sanction waivers (General License X) that were issued under the MOU. Even worse, during the 10-day wind down period, Treasury added an escrow account mechanism. This means that any oil sold during this window would be controlled by the United States. Of course, Iran would never willingly do that, so it was essentially torched without notice. This is significant because the oil waivers were the only real concession that Iran received up front in the original MOU. Because the Trump Administration revoked them without notice, they cannot simply “reissue them” again in a future MOU. This is because countries that MIGHT have purchased Iranian oil under the original deal know that the US is willing to revoke them without notice. Therefore, there is no durability anymore, and they effectively lose all value as a future concession. On top of this, the United States also never released any of Iran’s frozen assets during the 27 days the MOU was in effect, and this only further degraded any trust that the United States will hold up their end of the bargain in any deal. To take it a step further, before the MOU was “officially” destroyed, the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran, which explicitly breaches Article 9 of the MOU. President Trump putting forth an “offer” that essentially reverts back to the prior terms of the original MOU… that’s simply delusional. He knows it. Iran knows it. It’s not a serious offer. The problem with this though, is it fundamentally guarantees that if Iran holds the cards, which I think most everyone understands that they do, President Trump WILL be forced to agree to far worse terms under a future deal than he received in the original MOU. As much as I hate to say this… the odds the Iranians accept these terms are zero. Nada. Zilch. It’s an entirely unrealistic set of terms from Trump, and this will only signal to Iran that the United States is not serious, and not willing to make a real deal to end this war.

We’re finding out we can’t have healthcare AND we can’t have a military that can fight against people who fight back. The purpose of Pentagon procurement is enriching the rich. The whole country is a series of expensive violent scams, led by the greatest con artist of them all

Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel

7 days ago

U.S. Army Is Buying Older PAC-2 Patriot Missiles For The First Time In Decades PAC-2 GEM-T missiles are not generally as capable as their PAC-3 counterparts, but the Army needs all the Patriots it can get. twz.com/land/u-s-army-…

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Deeply disturbing story. Survivors of US boat strikes allege they were kidnapped and tortured for days by the US military. The prosecutor investigating the claims was just assassinated.

Camila Lourdes Galarza @sovietwithsazon

7 days ago

The prosecutor investigating US boat strikes and torture allegations in Ecuador was assassinated. We uncovered NASA images and videos of the US Coast Guard that corroborates the victims’ testimonies. Then, the prosecutor working the case was shot and killed in broad daylight.

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If you're Homer-curious from The Odyssey mania, do yourself a favor and buy The War Nerd Iliad, a much better retelling of the better of Homer's works.