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Author: digby

What Happens Next?

Published by digby on February 28, 2026

Robin Wright has been writing about Iran for as long as I can remember. Here is her first take on the new war:

President Donald Trump has launched a capricious and personal war on Iran that is more ambitious, politically and militarily, than any past U.S. campaign in the perpetually volatile Middle East. In an eight-minute video released in the wee hours of Saturday morning, while most Americans were still asleep, he announced that his goals are the abolishment of the theocratic regime, total capitulation by its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—or else the death of its members at U.S. hands—and an end to the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Trump called for Iran’s ninety-two million people to rise up in popular resistance and form a new government. “For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it,” he told the Iranian people. “Now you have a President who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.” It is an audacious gambit, undertaken in coördination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Israel, that has no clear outcome. For a man who hungers for the Nobel Peace Prize, this war of choice borders on delusion.

They have apparently killed the Supreme Leader and we know that Trump will be bleating about this killing as if he did it with his own hands. So that will be tiresome. But that is not the end of the story. (BTW, the Ayatollah was 86, so he wasn’t going to be around much longer anyway.)

Most analysts seem to think that the regime will fight hard for its survival and they will not be like the Venezuelan leaders who are willing to make deals with the devil. Iran is not just a government, it’s a theocratic government that clings to power with religious zeal. And they have the ability to inflict a lot of damage throughout the region and yes, here is the United States. (I know I’m looking forward to another round of terrorist threats for which I’d like to thank Donald Trump.)

Maybe Trump will get lucky and the regime will give him a convenient off-ramp in order to take credit for bringing peace to he middle east —- again. He does have a way of wriggling out of trouble. But this move is the riskiest yet and despite his crowing about being the greatest military leader since Alexander the great, we have no way of knowing how this is going to play out. We just have to hope that massive numbers will not have to lose their lives before we find out.

War Powers For Dummies

Published by digby on February 28, 2026

In case you were wondering about the war powers act, this is from former congressman Justin Amash:

The paid grifters, partisan hacks, and bots are out in force—misleading people about the Constitution and the law—to defend Trump’s unconstitutional war.

Here’s an important Iran war PSA: Contrary to what you may have heard about the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. §§ 1541–1550), it does not allow the president to take military action for any reason for 60–90 days without congressional approval so long as the president notifies Congress within 48 hours.

Section 1541(c) of the War Powers Resolution states clearly: “The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.”

Of the three cited authorities, not one indicates a presidential power to take unilateral (without Congress’s approval) offensive military action. The first two authorities allow the president to take offensive military action but only with Congress’s express approval (Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power to declare war). The third authority allows the president to take defensive military action without Congress’s approval in the event of a specific type of national emergency, a sudden unforeseen attack on the United States (happening too quickly for Congress to meet) necessitating immediate action to protect Americans.

It’s for this last situation (or for situations in which the president introduces forces into hostilities unlawfully) that the War Powers Resolution provides for the oft-mentioned 48-hour report to Congress (§ 1543) and 60-day (up to 90-day) timeline (§ 1544). If there’s an attack in progress on the United States (i.e., currently happening), we expect the president to respond swiftly to neutralize the attack and protect Americans—and then we will hold the president to account.

The Framers of the Constitution agreed at the debates in the federal convention of 1787 that the president should have the “power to repel sudden attacks” but not the power to otherwise introduce forces into hostilities without congressional approval.

The War Powers Resolution does not confer any new authority on the president to take offensive military action without congressional approval—nor could it under our Constitution. It instead checks the president when, as the Framers contemplated, the president introduces our Armed Forces into hostilities to repel a sudden attack. The fact that previous presidents have violated both the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution does not—and cannot—change the law or make any present military action lawful.

Not that it matters anymore. He does what he wants and frankly, all presidents have been taking some form of unilateral actions for decades. Trump’s just not bothering to pretend otherwise.

Why Let A Little War Interfere With Your Golf Game?

Published by digby on February 28, 2026

Remember this?

Trump has just started a war in the middle east from Mar-a-lago. Apparently, he can’t even take on week-end away from his golf game. He made the announcement wearing a baseball cap.

In fact, they’re running the whole war from his golf club:

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine are monitoring the U.S. operation in Iran from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Trump is currently located, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

It’s probably smart when you think about it. Gotta make sure our Dear Leader has his binky.

Imperial Monster

Published by digby on February 28, 2026

How many fell for that nonsense?

He’s so far gone that he isn’t even pretending that there’s an actual reason for going to war in the middle east. He’s doing it because he can and he loves to demonstrate that. No doubt he believes that he will once again come out on top because he always does so he needn’t bother to explain himself. He is omnipotent.

In a more than 100-minute State of the Union on Tuesday, just a few days ago, Trump didn’t bring up Iran until more than one hour and 20 minutes into the speech, and even then, he offered no explanation for why an attack was in America’s national interest.

Surreally, Trump said in June 2025, when the U.S. military first attacked Iran (also with no effort by Trump to explain his decision to Americans beforehand), it “obliterated” the country’s nuclear weapons program. If that were true, it would suggest that an attack on the same program nine months later makes little sense. Trump said, “They [Iran] want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” but offered no evidence or, if it is true, why there is an urgency to attack now. Indeed, even U.S. officials acknowledge that Iran has not actively resumed its uranium enrichment program after last year’s joint U.S. and Israeli attack.

The only argument that Trump could muster for why Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a threat to the United States is that Tehran has “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

So the threat to America is a nuclear bomb that doesn’t exist, perched on an intercontinental ballistic missile that isn’t close to being built?

Yeah, they’re said to be at least a decade away from that possibility.

Well, he did give one rationale for war. They haven’t said some magic words. Except they have:

Perhaps the most bizarre part of the approximately three minutes that Trump spent talking about Iran was the president’s claim that Tehran wants to make a deal, “but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’” Iranian officials have repeatedly said that they have no intention of building a nuclear weapon. After Trump’s speech, the country’s foreign minister said it again.

This is the new way. He uses the military the way he uses tariffs: to blackmail, threaten and punish anyone who doesn’t do his bidding exactly the way he wants them too, sometimes completely on a whim.

The age of the imperial presidency, which began after World War II and the advent of nuclear weapons, has led to a steady decline in national deliberation about the use of military force. But we’ve never had a situation like the one we have today with Iran. Trump isn’t even pretending to try to make the case for war. If anything, this is the imperial presidency on steroids — as Trump decides to go to war with zero input from Congress (no congressional hearings) and zero effort to rally public opinion. 

He knows the GOP will back him to the hilt and is so sure of his invincibility that he simply doesn’t think he needs to. He know he will be triumphant. In the end, he always is.

He’s even already getting a head start on the monuments he believes will be built to celebrate his greatness. The imperial presidency has its first real emperor.

Will his total immunity from all accountability extend to his henchmen? If history is any guide, no:

Friday Night Soother

Published by digby on February 27, 2026

The internet sensation: Punch!

A young, abandoned monkey named Punch went viral this month after he was filmed clinging to the stuffed toy that he had been given as a “surrogate mother.” Now, Punch is gradually building up his social skills. He’s been spotted climbing on another monkey’s back, and according to the Ichikawa Zoo and local media he has been embraced by an older monkey, a sign that he is on his way to social acceptance.

He is everywhere!

Oh Melania

Published by digby on February 27, 2026
Melania photographed on Trump’s plane

If they’re calling First Ladies to testify about Epstein…

For much of the 1990s, Antoine Verglas was one of fashion’s most sought-after photographers, celebrated for his raw, natural-light portraits of supermodels including Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell, and Stephanie Seymour. His work appeared in Elle, Vogue, GQ, Esquire, Maxim, and Sports Illustrated, helping define the era’s sensual, off-duty aesthetic.

Verglas also played a central role in launching Melania Trump’s modeling career after she arrived in the United States from Slovenia, photographing her roughly a dozen times—including capturing her most iconic nude images, among them the British GQ spread shot aboard Donald Trump’s private plane.

What has received far less scrutiny is how Verglas remained embedded in Jeffrey Epstein’s world—long after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution of a minor and his registration as a sex offender.

Verglas reveals just one degree of separation between Epstein and Melania and offers a window into the elite modeling ecosystem Epstein repeatedly exploited, where introductions became access points, visas became leverage, and young women moved through a world he had already learned how to control.

There really aren’t any degrees of separation between Epstein and Melania. She’s pictured with him dozens of times. They clearly knew each other. And she was close with their mutual friend:

Verglas didn’t just photograph Melania—he helped create the imagery that propelled her career: the 2000 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot with an inflatable orca; Maximum Golf, where she reclines in a bathtub covered in golf balls. Verglas has said he heard about Melania from Paolo Zampolli, a longtime associate of both Epstein’s and Trump’s who was running ID Models in 1999, shortly before Melania began seeking to secure her permanent residency in the US and at the height of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. Verglas said he did not know Epstein at the time.

According to The Washington Post, Melania ultimately obtained an EB-1 “Einstein visa,” reserved for individuals with extraordinary ability. Verglas photographed her again in 2011 for Haute Living.

Just as a reminder, Donald Trump also had a “modeling agency” during that period. (This story in The Guardian tells the sordid tale. ) Here he is with some of his models. To coin a phrase, “they’re on the younger side.”

Whiskey Pete’s Latest Atrocity

Published by digby on February 27, 2026


Erin In The Morning, an excellent Substack about trans issues had this today:

Nine years ago, the Boy Scouts of America announced that it would begin accepting transgender youth into the program. In 2018, it opened its doors to girls, and in 2024, it rebranded as Scouting America. Transgender scouts were welcomed to participate alongside peers matching their gender identity, and the organization built out initiatives to be inclusive to people of all identities and creeds. That all came to a crashing halt today, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the organization would be dropping all diversity initiatives, putting more emphasis on faith, and forcibly outing and segregating transgender scouts from their peers—forcing them to only be acknowledged by their assigned sex at birth and segregating them from peers of their gender.

“After 2012, however, the Boy Scouts lost their way and a once great organization became gravely wounded. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, crept in. The name was changed to Scouting America. Girls were accepted. The focus on God as the ruler of the universe was watered down to include openness to humanism and earth-centered pagan religions… They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership,” Hegseth said in a video posted to Twitter.

He then announced major changes at the organization, including new anti-transgender policies. “Scouting America has agreed to comply immediately with the provisions of executive order 14173. This includes reviewing and replacing politicized, divisive, and discriminatory language throughout the organization, programs, and all publications. No more DEI. Zero,” Hegseth said. “The Citizen in Society merit badge that encouraged scouts to explore diversity, equity, inclusion, and identity… that badge has been discontinued. Third, Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity. That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate. Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together, toilets, showers, tents, anywhere like that.”

He ended by saying that he wanted them to ban girls in the organization as well so that they will go back to turning boys into men.

I don’t know why Scouts are any of Hegseth’s business in the first place. Who the fuck does he think he is? And why in the world are they capitulating to him in a process that is going to hurt vulnerable, young kids? If I had a child of scouting age I would be forced to conclude that they are mean, nasty people and I wouldn’t want my kids involved with them.

I hope that everyone realizes that we are living through a period of rank, appalling bigotry that it will go down in history as one of the cruelest assaults on a small minority of powerless human beings who are hurting absolutely no one. It is utterly appalling.

Goodbye To The Tiffany Network

Published by digby on February 27, 2026

This is a letter from a long time CBS producer:

“We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.”

Says it all.

Dear Leader Watch

Published by digby on February 27, 2026

BARTIROMO: Patriotism is spreading to on air broadcasts. Mr Chairman, you announced your Pledge America Campaign, encouraging broadcasters to air more pro-America content, such as starting each day with the Star Spangled Banner or Pledge of Allegiance. Tell us more

FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR: We’re in the midst of a great revival. President Trump is truly the political colossus of our time

He has a 36% approval rating and is loathed by virtually everyone in the world.

Yes he a colossus. A colossal abomination.