Ready Player GLP-1

War, huh, good God y’all, What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Edwin Starr’s anti-war song worked in part because of its simplicity. Limited combat operations, huh, good God Y’all just doesn’t hit the same way. Neither does, Hostilities, huh, good God Y’all. That doesn’t even have a good rhyme. But anti-war song composers will have to come up with something. Because whatever is happening in Iran, it’s not a war. “When President Trump gave reporters a brief update this week on the accelerating bombing campaign against Iran, he said, ‘We’re doing very well on the war front.’ That complicated matters for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have spent the days since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began engaging in semantic gymnastics to describe the widening conflict as a ‘major combat operation,’ a ‘mission,’ ‘hostilities’ or really just anything other than ‘war.'” NYT (Gift Article): Republicans Toil to Avoid Saying ‘War’ as Iran Conflict Widens. (What is this abject stupidity and wholly unserious response to this very serious moment good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again, y’all.)

+ “In announcing the goal of regime change through air power alone, President Trump is up against the weight of history. Not just Iran, but the weight of history. For over a century, states—including the United States, European states, Russia, and Israel—have tried to topple regimes with air power alone. It has never—and I’m choosing my words carefully—it has never worked.” Trump Cannot Achieve Iran Goals With Bombing Alone, Expert on Airpower Warns. Can the Kurds offer a ground war solution? Iranian Kurdish Forces Say They May Enter Iran. Who Are the Kurds?

+ Trump says he has to be involved in picking Iran’s next leader as war ripples across the region. (In fairness, this is Trump’s version of American democracy.)

+ Here’s the latest from NBC, Times of Israel, and the NYT.

In an administration that prides itself on hiring the worst possible people and gleefully celebrates their awful performances, it’s really something to be fired. Congrats to Kristi Noem for the achievement. Trump ousts DHS secretary Kristi Noem and replaces her with Republican senator. “Noem’s tenure was marked by killings of US citizens by federal agents, a rumored affair, and $220m spent on ads.” Noem will still be part of the administration in her new role as Envoy for The Shield of the Americas. (I can never remember if that role is DC or Marvel…)

+ Here’s the new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin saying of our Iran efforts that “this is war” before explaining that it is in fact, not war. (Think about it. If Mullin doesn’t oversee the murder and disparaging of American citizens, that alone will make him a major improvement.)

“The Philadelphia Inquirer hadn’t written much about suburbs like Lower Merion, Pa., and Cherry Hill, N.J. for years. Now it is revisiting those communities—with an assist from AI. Last year, the Inquirer launched newsletters in four locations, amassing more than 50,000 free subscriptions.” WSJ (Gift Article): Can AI Save Local News? (A new technology that can synthesize information from a variety of sources to produce a clear and cogent newsletter? There was a time when this would have threatened me. But given the 2026 news cycle, I’m willing to be replaced…)

Payback Time: “A federal judge ruled that the US government must begin paying out more than $130 billion in tariff refunds to US businesses in another setback for the Trump administration after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s wide-reaching ‘reciprocal’ tariffs.” (Wait, I thought other countries paid for the tariffs…)

+ The Claude Squad: Consumers have migrated to Anthropic in support of their stand when it comes to the Pentagon. Now, some defense experts have backed the company in a letter to Congress. Anthropic’s investors? Meh. Meanwhile, a leaked memo from Anthropic’s CEO suggests that the acrimony is due in part to the fact that “we haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump.” All this aside, Anthropic’s AI tool Claude has been central to U.S. campaign in Iran.

+ Vlad Handing: “Russia is one of the biggest winners in the early days of the largest U.S. military confrontation in decades, as Iranian missiles deplete stocks of Patriot interceptors that Ukraine needs for its defense.” Oh…

+ Hey Norm! “At least four of the companies awarded contracts so far are owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm founded by billionaire Steve Feinberg, who until last year ran the company and is now the deputy secretary of defense — the second-highest-ranking official in the Pentagon. Feinberg oversees the office in charge of the Golden Dome for America project.” There’s a word for this. The Norm. Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate.

+ Membership Has Its Untowards: “The group chat — verified by two people in the group — reveals the extent of racism and extremism within the highest ranks of campus Republican Party leadership in Miami at a time Florida’s Republicans are reckoning with an increasingly emboldened far right.” ‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat. (These guys should reserve this kind of commentary for X, where it belongs.)

+ If These Malls Could Talk: A London Shopping Mall Was Dying. Then Taylor Swift Put It in a Music Video.

“What I do is I take things that are perfectly fine, and I make them worse. More specifically, I make it shitty.”