Trump's very bad weekend (in Hungary, Islamabad, London, and here at home too). slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Is on a Real Losing Streak
The president had a very bad weekend.
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Fred Kaplan
@fredmkaplan.bsky.social
Slate's War Stories columnist; author of The Bomb, Dark Territory, The Insurgents, 1959, Daydream Believers, The Wizards of Armageddon, and--most recently--A Capital Calamity (a novel); also jazz critic for Tracking Angle.
Someone should tell Trump what NATO is for. See Article 6: It's explicitly NOT to help allies fight wars, much less start unprovoked wars, outside of Europe or North America. slate.com/news-and-pol...
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The ceasefire: who backed down, who emerges in a stronger position than before the war began? The answers aren't pleasant. slate.com/news-and-pol...
There Are So Many Things Wrong With Trump’s Two-Week Deadline to Negotiate Peace With Iran
If little progress has been made after two weeks, what will Trump do?
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Trump's unhinged Easter tweets, his open threat to commit war crimes, and the big question--will anyone around him do anything about it? slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Is Just Openly Threatening War Crimes
What kind of person talks like this—let alone a president at war?
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Trump's self-inflicted trap in Iran: he now has to send in ground troops or withdraw. Either way, we're all worse off than before he started this war without a plan. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump’s Boxed Himself Into a Trap on Iran
Even if the president winds down the war now, he’ll leave the U.S. worse off than when it started.
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What Trump doesn't get about asymmetric war--why he's bashing Iran but not winning. slate.com/news-and-pol...
This Could Be the Real Decisive Factor in the War With Iran—and Hegseth Seems Oblivious to It
The U.S. and Iran are fighting different wars.
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How Trump has made the bombing of an Iran girls' school even worse. slate.com/news-and-pol...
The U.S. Bombed an Elementary School in Iran. Trump’s Response Makes It Worse.
It is possible—under previous presidents, it has been policy—to admit to making horrific mistakes in wartime.
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Why arming and the encouraging the Kurds to go fight in Iran is at best a cynical gesture and at worst a recipe for widening the war and turning Iran into a landscape of sectarian civil war.
Trump's new rationales for the war only make his case, and him, look worse. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Just Made a Shocking Admission About His Iran War
His explanations for why he went to war keep getting worse. His plans for the future aren’t looking any better.
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I'm on Brian Lehrer's show, at WNYC Radio, at 10am to talk about the Iran war.
The war widens, Trump widens it further, and still he has no strategy. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Is About to Send More U.S. Forces to Iran—and There’s Still No Clear Strategy
The president leapt into this war without first thinking through his goals or the criteria of success.
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War with Iran is on--then what? (It seems Trump hasn't thought that through.) slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Just Crossed a Line He Promised He Would Never Cross
This is different than his past strikes on Iran and Venezuela.
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Iran has put a pretty good deal on the table. Here's why Trump will probably reject it. slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Iranians Offered a Good Deal. Here’s Why Trump Might Not Take It.
There are only two possible reasons.
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Trump's top general warns of risks in Iran--and why this is a big deal. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Why This Iran Comment From Trump’s Top General Is a Big Deal
Trump still has a moment to shift course.
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Shocking report, by a disabled Iraq-war vet, of how a new VA rule will reduce his well-earned benefits. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Wants Veterans to Lose Benefits As Soon As Their PTSD Symptoms Are Treated. There’s One Problem With That.
The consequences of this shift are not abstract.
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My Tracking Angle review of the newly reissued 10-LP boxed set of Miles Davis' "The Complete Live At the Plugged Nickel 1965" (enthralling music, mixed sonics). trackingangle.com/music/the-mi...
The Miles Davis Quintet's Live 10-LP Masterpiece Gets A Second Release
A new vinyl reissue of "The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel"
trackingangle.com
The idiocy of Hegseth cutting DoD's ties with Harvard (and, by the way, does he know Gen Caine, the JCS chairman, went to Harvard's Kennedy School?) slate.com/news-and-pol...
Pete Hegseth Is Being Even Dumber Than Usual
The secretary of defense just revealed that he fundamentally misunderstands what war is.
slate.com
The real reason Trump let the New START nuclear arms treaty die--and the especially egregious lies he told while doing so. slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Real Reason Trump Wants to Rip Up Our Nuclear Weapons Treaty With Russia
The president's lies have gone nuclear.
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The last US-Russia nuclear arms treaty expires this week. Trump has done nothing about it. What he should do. slate.com/news-and-pol...
For the First Time in Half a Century, We Won’t Have a Nuclear Treaty With Russia. Trump Is Totally Unprepared.
And there's a new dimension to the possible arms race scenarios ahead of us.
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If US-Europe relations really do rupture, historians will look back on last week as the breaking point. Here's why. slate.com/news-and-pol...
NATO Is Doing Military Exercises—Without America. That Does Not Mean Anything Good.
The rupture deepens.
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Trump goes TACO on Greenland. Good news, sort of, but it doesn't end--in some ways, it worsens--the crisis for him, the Europeans, and us all. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Our European Allies Just Exposed Trump’s Core Weakness—and Also America’s
The Europeans did something that the president, with some reason, thought they would never do.
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Two speeches at Davos (Carney's and 'Trump's) and how they point the way to a turbulent new world. slate.com/news-and-pol...
At Davos, Trump’s Speech Stood Out—but Another One Mattered Much More
The Canadian prime minister started to outline what comes next.
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Canadian PM Carney's speech at Davos today is THE speech about international politics in our time. Watch! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg4r...
Canada engaging 'with open eyes' as great powers use economic integration as 'weapons,' PM says
YouTube video by CBC News
youtube.com
Trump's Greenland obsession marks a new level of madness. What to do about it? slate.com/news-and-pol...
It Might Have Seemed as if Trump Couldn’t Get More Irrational. Greenland Proves He’s Just Getting Started.
The Mad King era is upon us. Will the people with the power to do something about it do anything at all?
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It's time to dismantle the Dept of Homeland Security. slate.com/news-and-pol...
It’s Time to Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security
Even Republicans used to know that this was a mistake.
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Why Hegseth's crusade against Mark Kelly is even dumber than it seems. slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Defense Department’s Case Against Mark Kelly Is Even Dumber Than It Sounds
At the same time, it’s still having its intended effect.
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Why Trump is talking again about grabbing Greenland. Why the world is taking him seriously. Why it's still a daft idea. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Is Talking About Taking Over Greenland. The World Is Taking Him Seriously.
U.S. allies worldwide are alarmed by Trump’s unabashedly imperialist turn.
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