NEW SERIES! By the People: How to reclaim the Constitution from an imperious Supreme Court and an imperial presidency. A primer on popular constitutionalism and a toolkit if you're as fed up as we are. The opening batch of essays, and the first podcast episode, are here: slate.com/news-and-pol...

By the People

As a thought experiment, we bring you popular constitutionalism—local, organic farm-to-table making of legal meaning.

slate.com

From a policy and epidemiology lens: this is an optics problem and a data governance problem. The Pentagon has every incentive to suppress the human cost of war. It also operates systems far less centralized & real time than the public imagines. Both can be true. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...

Pentagon Withheld Dozens of U.S. Military Injuries in Iran War (Gift Article)

Central Command is not required to release information about injured troops, especially when they quickly return to duty, a military official said.

nytimes.com

On which ocean is Perth, where the proposed nuclear submarine base is supposed to go, and what does this suggest about the submarines we will never get

Will Yale@wayale.bsky.social · 3mo ago

INDOPACOM is dead. Long live PACOM. This name change is symbolic, yet it signals the death knell for the Quad and the concept of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, at least in this administration. www.pacom.mil/Media/Press-...

My latest in the Los Angeles Times on Pete Hegseth’s meddling with military promotions. It undermines trust in leadership, puts every military leader under a cloud, and weakens the force Americans rely on to defend the country. PDF in the first reply. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Hegseth’s meddling with promotions tarnishes leadership and endangers the country

A visible pattern of removing women and minority officers from promotion lists sends a message to his military.

latimes.com

happy "hormuz can be opened within two months" to all who celebrate, buy yourself something nice cuz you might not be able to afford it again in another two months

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Two months ago today:

If you think the current inflation spike is making that omelette dreadfully expensive, wait until you hear what it’s doing to national security capacity, capability stability, recruitment & retention, adversary leverage, and operational readiness. Cat tax to salve the sting. 1/

I mean maybe we shouldn't have given them incentive to do exactly that while simultaneously proving that we have no stomach for the ground invasion that would be necessary to convince them to stop.

Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Sec Rubio on SoH: "They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it."

Advice needed: Should I ruin my summer with a hot mess AOR TDY or a dating app? (Please note I will grouse about both regularly and in detail.)

Expert analysis is conditional, admits uncertainty, changes with evidence. Frankly, it’s not good content. Natsec with integrity requires intellectual culture that tolerates ambiguity & friction. Demands for institutional rigor shouldn’t come from people rewarded for the mere performance of it.

David Alman@davidalman.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“Expert” is a term that gets thrown around too easily, especially in foreign policy / defense circles. So you’re 27 with a PhD in the evolution of U.S. Army doctrine from 1953 to 1964? You’re not an expert on defense issues, you’re an expert on U.S. Army doctrine from 1953 to 1964, maybe.

We need to talk about this. The prima facie case for unfettered, reactionary MAGA bigotry is obvious. But the virulently “anti-woke” fascist slop it produces isn’t just the regressive outcry of stunted racists. It’s a flexible, strategy with a weaponized psychology. We miss that at our peril. 1/

Jason D. Salvagni@salvagni.org · 5mo ago

I mean, you might also want to mention the glaring and ubiquitous demonization of people who aren't straight, white, male and Chris✝️ian, and the insidious stripping away of our basic human rights...

This is why we strategy. In reality, even partially achieved op/tactical objectives work favorably to limit a threat’s scope. But the grown up math asks what an adversary can & WILL do with remaining capability as you expend yours, and what that means for end game. Diminishing returns are the rule.

Leah McElrath@leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5mo ago

⚠️ No wonder Iran is acting like it’s in a strong position: • About half of Iran's stockpile of ballistic missiles and launch systems are still intact. • Roughly 60% of the naval arm of the IRGC is still in existence. • About two-thirds of Iran's air force is believed to be still operational.

We drink your districts, Eli. We drink your districts right up.

a movie clip from movieclips.com shows a man pointing at another man 's head

ALT: a movie clip from movieclips.com shows a man pointing at another man 's head

media.tenor.com

@collie.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Exhibit A

To be fair, some of us lean a little “chaotic”, but the sweet revenge vibes were pretty immaculate today in NoVA.

Guy Wire@kbuts.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Voters in the state where everyone is "Lawful" in the alignment chart just passed a partisan retaliatory gerrymander, we are going to win.

Cats Against TDY (CAT). A photo essay.

Are you implying the girlies are NOT so inclined? 😏🎀💅🏻

Dead Carl@deadcarl.bsky.social · 5mo ago

That but we also need to get the girls on the Clausewitz grindset

Annual pilgrimage to Philadelphia Brigade Park at Antietam after The World’s Most Miserable TDY™️ in the Buckeye State.

Ever find a picture of yourself from the 90s that made you want to apologize to your hair, your eyebrows, and your mother all at once?

Since today is First Contact Day (the day in Star Trek when humans meet their first aliens, Vulcans) it’s worth talking about that story a bit and how it can inform our analysis of Artemis. This involves a lot of spoilers from the film Star Trek: First Contact 🖖🏽 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Tr...

Star Trek: First Contact - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 6mo ago

The fact that NONE of the reporting on Artemis II has mentioned and analyzed the Trump 1 space directives that are governing why and how Artemis is happening and to what purpose is an extraordinary #scicomm failure and a sign of how bad journalism about policy and science has gotten

I wonder if it would be helpful if we lose our incredulity at this point. To what extent does our collective shock & awe at his lack of empathy create inertia? We know he’s evil. What are we going to actually do about it?

Goddamn it. This is enraging. I need to close this app now for a while. Please look after each other.

Rachel Maddow@maddow.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Trump and Hegseth halted funding for research to get blood to wounded U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors: "When someone is wounded and survival depends on the availability of blood, this software would have made that survival more likely. Now it will not." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/s...

An extra cold pillow tonight to the MD statey who pulled me over at Annapolis this afternoon and saw my accelerator enthusiasm was the result of Taylor Swift and an open sunroof, and did not sully my perf driving record. 💖🖖✨🌈

What moon songs do you sing your babies? What sunshine do you bring? Who belongs, who decides what’s cray? Who rights wrongs where others cling? Goodnight, Artemis. Goodnight, Ms. Wang. Goodnight, Bluesky. And goodnight, my sweetest, wherever amongst the stars you are. ✨

Luna by The Smashing Pumpkins on Apple Music

Song · 1993 · Duration 3:20

music.apple.com

No, but I’ve been hella worried about ours for a hot minute.

Daniel Drezner@dandrezner.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Honest question: were U.S. natsec experts concerned about Iran’s navy or Air Force prior to Operation Epic Fury?

RIP to the livers of those who had “nuclear” as their do a shot word tonight. Although being slightly pickled for this evening’s indignities probably wasn’t the worst call.

I can't believe Katherine Johnson used to do these sorts of calculations and simulations BY HAND. I'm flabbergasted.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 6mo ago

If all goes according to plan, in a few hours, a crew of astronauts will begin a journey that will take them on a loop around the moon. Here's a video that NASA put together to help people visualize the journey through space, first orbiting the earth before looping around the moon and flying home 🔭

Putting my bet in now. ☢️🥗

Command & Couture@burnafterbriefing.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My money is on bailing, shifting to uranium something something, and SoH is a NATO problem now. And also some other word salad, ad infinitum.

this account is closed to jaded replies about going to the moon. i will never be jaded about going to the moon

YOU GUISE I have a good friend who is a NASA aerospace engineer & PM, and we always talk space nerd stuff. I finally locked in my invite to Goddard in exchange for a batch of my chocolate chip cookies. Time to watch Contact for the 10000th time and start baking.

And for them today, too. ❤️🚀

Today was strange. I was deposed, and I’m exhausted. But I have such gratitude: a warm thunderstorm through open windows, a spaceflight, a little hope. And your wonder & joy, BlueSky friends. Love you nerds to the moon and back. 🌛