"This might be the worst lie of them all."
A war, a crazy president and the inexplicable lust for conflict.
I was DMing with a friend on Facebook earlier today. The topic was the war with Iran—and how awful it seems to be going.
He wrote this …
The words hit me, because they feel increasingly true.
On this website, the focus is politics. What’s working for the Democrats, what’s working for the Republicans, will our elections be fair, can this nation endure the hellscape that is the MAGA takeover. I read polls, I seek out opinions, I interview candidates and hope to walk away with a solid read on right v. left, conservative v. liberal, authoritarian v. democratic.
Sometimes, however, what gets lost in such efforts is the humanity. What I mean is, as we speak the Middle East is being torn apart. People are dying. Not merely American soldiers, but … average, day-to-day people. Men, women, children. Being blown to pieces. Being ripped up. And, usually, we at least have a defined reason. We might not like the defined reason, but it’s presented to us in an A+B=C manner. There’s a stated explanation.
This time … nothing. This is a war. No, this isn’t a war. Iran was ready to attack us. Iran couldn’t attack us. Oil! No oil! Liberation! We are not liberators! One day, the crazed president says something halfway reasonable, the next day he contradicts himself. We’re doing this for Israel. No, Israel is doing this for us. This will be a short conflict. Or, it might last months.
And the thing is—it’s increasingly clear nobody actually knows what’s going on. That’s sort of what happens when you fire all your credible military leaders and replace them with an alcoholic, unaccomplished Fox News host who lives and dies with TikTok clips. That’s sort of that happens when you fire accomplished Black generals for being Black and accomplished women generals for being women—and insert a motley crew of white frat bros who love to pump iron and blow shit up and tell the president how fuckin’ awesome (“Dude, you’re fuckin’ awesome!”) he is. That’s sort of what happens when your lazy-ass president ignores intelligence briefings in favor of masturbating to old photos of the “Facts of Life” cast.
We are in a war because … well, I’m not sure why we’re in a war.
But this does not end well.
Jeff, this isn’t only about replacing qualified leaders with unqualified loyalists. It’s about a Mike Johnson–led Congress failing to exercise its role as a coequal branch and uphold its constitutional responsibility to defend our democracy. And now, as tensions escalate into open conflict with Iran alongside Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, many Americans can’t help but question the timing — and whether political deflection, including from the Epstein fallout, is part of the calculus.
Sadly, true. Let's not forget the embassies with no ambassadors because trained ones were fired. Hello, Kushner dad in France. And, no seasoned diplomats because they were fired and replaced by his SIL who is focused on building resorts in Gaza and other self serving real estate deals.