Stuff that drives me crazy

People who assume that Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, various Iraqi Shi'ite militant groups, etc., are just pawns of Iran and anything they do counts as Iran's actions.  You see it over and over again. Right now, it is used by war-mongers who want to justify Israel's current war of choice against Iran by spinning it into a defensive war rather than a blatant act of aggression. Attacking Iran out of the blue is just defensive, you see, because Iran is responsible for everything that its so-called "prxoies" do. So Israel's latest monstrous violation of international law can be viewed as legitimate self-defense.

That way of thinking is just stupid. It assumes that any group that Iran supports does not have any agency. It also is a kind of reasoning that is never used on any of the groups that the U.S. supports. Like Israel, for example. The U.S. is the main funder of the Israeli military. But I bet that most of the people who are now claiming that Iran is responsible for October 7 do not believe that Israeli leaders are pawns of the U.S., and that the Netanyahu government isn't making its own decisions.

In a sense this issue is just another manifestation of the Shiites have no agency unless they are Persian theory (I have obsessed about that theory for years!) Except Hamas are not Shiites (they are also not solely supported by Iran. It is funny how no one calls them "proxies" of Qatar and Turkey!) But it is the same basic idea. Iran is always the evil puppet master.

Anytime I see someone use that framing, I just assume they don't know anything about the conflict.

Finally, actual evidence of a lab leak

When she's not shooting puppies, getting banned from wide swaths of her own state, or taking glamour shots in concentration camps, ICE Barbie is getting mysterious illnesses after visiting a biohazard lab.

If Iranians didn't want to get killed maybe they should have considered being born somewhere richer

This is your periodic reminder that the world is divided into "bombable" and "not-bombable" places. Bombing, for example, Paris, or anywhere in Western Europe for that matter, or North America, Australia, and a handful of other places, is an atrocity. Bombing places like Tehran is, well, maybe will elicit some statement of mild regret. But the decision to kill Iranians is seen as legitimate even while it may be a little distasteful.

The only way to make sense of this is as a kind of bigotry. Iranian lives are simply not worth as much as the lives of "first world" people.

#NoKings day

Such a weird framing

NYT:

For 18 months, Hamas has pushed for a permanent truce while Israel has held out for a temporary one. That wide gap has stymied efforts to end the war.

Uh, a" temporary truce" does not end the war, a "permanent truce" does. So if Israel is refusing to agree to a permanent truce, that is what has stymied efforts to end the war. It is not the "gap" between the parties that is the problem. The problem is the express position of one of the parties that is absolutely against ending the war.

Please consider this as the standard "Hamas is bad" disclaimer. Because it is! But it is stupid how tipping your hat to Hamas badness is mandatory whenever you mention how much Israel is a terrible actor in this war.

We don't have a President

 The primary job of U.S. President is to "faithfully execute the laws of the United States." That's what the executive branch is for. The legislative branch creates laws and the judicial branch interprets laws. While our checks and balances system blurs the lines a bit on the margins and the President has this extra "commander in chief of the armed forces" role, that division is still the primary purpose of each branch.

I don't think there's any question that Donald Trump is not faithfully executing the laws of the United States. He is ignoring the laws he doesn't like. He is refusing to spend money that Congress has passed laws requiring those expenditures. Most of what Trump has done is really intruding on legislative or judicial functions as he issues executive orders that radically reinterpret the laws or the constitution (e.g. birthright citizenship, anti-discrimination laws) or claim to make new law.

I suspect that Trump doesn't actually know what his job is. He thinks President is just the "big boss," without any recognition that he has a specific, and limited, role in the system. He is probably too close minded and/or demented to ever learn what he is supposed to be doing. So really the fault is on the other two branches for not defending their own turf. The current Supreme Court only seems to think that "separation of powers" is when the legislative branch intrudes on an executive function. They have shown a lot less interest in Trump's absurdly unconstitutional claims that he can use executive orders to make laws by fiat.

The World's asshole

Marco Rubio: It's wrong for foreigners to police what Americans post online.

also Marco Rubio: We will police what foreigners post online.