LetMyPeopleVote
LetMyPeopleVote's JournalGeology as warfare: Iran put its missiles where physics, not diplomacy, keeps them safe
CNN satellite analysis and Alma Research findings show Iran’s underground tunnel cities, with internal rail systems that move missiles to blast-door exits, have survived the bombing campaign largely intact. The geology, analysts say, is the real defense.
https://x.com/hissgoescobra/status/2037371734131954052
https://www.thestatesman.com/world/iran-underground-missile-railway-tunnel-us-israel-strikes-operation-epic-fury-1503573121.html
Iran’s underground missile programme is not a recent improvisation. Reports that emerged as far back as 2020 claimed an automated railway system running through cavernous tunnels, transporting ballistic missiles between assembly halls, storage vaults, and blast-door exits. What is becoming clearer now, as Operation Epic Fury enters its fourth week, is the scale of what was built and the limits of what air power alone can do against it.....
The central constraint is geological, and it has now been publicly stated by Iran itself. Former IRGC Aerospace Force commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran built its missile bases across provinces and cities at a depth of 500 metres.
The most powerful weapon the United States has for destroying hardened underground targets is the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator – a 30,000-pound bomb built specifically for this purpose. It can penetrate “approximately 60 metres of reinforced concrete or roughly 40 metres of moderate rock. Granite is harder than moderate rock. Five hundred metres is more than twelve times the weapon’s maximum penetration depth. The gap between the bomb and the tunnel is not a margin of error.”....
“IRGC did not prepare for this war by building rockets. It prepared by building railways inside mountains. The rockets are replaceable. The railways are permanent. And the granite that protects them was formed before mammals existed. The strait is 21 miles wide. The mountain is 500 metres deep. And the railway inside it is still delivering missiles to the surface,” he added.
https://x.com/shanaka86/status/2035868952870662627
Iran has continued to fire ballistic missiles throughout Operation Epic Fury, including the attempted strike on the joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia. Trump has said the operation is running weeks ahead of schedule and that Iran’s military is finished. The satellite imagery and the institutional assessments tell a more complicated story: one in which the visible war, fought above ground, has made genuine progress, and the invisible war, fought half a kilometre underground, has barely begun.
Iran has been preparing for these attacks for decades. Iran's missile facilities are beyond reach of bunker buster bombs and there is no practical way without a very large number of troops to take out these missies.
Kennedy's Vaccine Agenda Hits Roadblocks, Diminishing His Clout (NYT gift subscription)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is posing challenges for the Trump administration. Top health jobs are unfilled, and a court has blocked his vaccine schedule changes.
https://x.com/SherylNYT/status/2037348586703167887
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/us/politics/kennedy-vaccines-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.kFPo.AjJRUXOTHF9A&smid=nytcore-ios-share
A string of developments over the past several weeks have put Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda at risk. The confirmation of Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, is stalled on Capitol Hill, where three Republicans on the Senate Health Committee, including its chairman, have expressed concern about her views on vaccines.....
Last week, a federal judge blocked Mr. Kennedy’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. And on Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is running the C.D.C. even though his time as acting director has expired, made the new normal clear.....
But Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda — his insistence that vaccines are somehow linked to autism, despite a lack of evidence — has always been a bit of an Achilles’ heel.....
Polls now show that Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda is a dud, unpopular even with Republicans. And that has created discomfort inside the White House, which has made clear its desire for Mr. Kennedy to downplay talk of vaccines while emphasizing his more popular healthy-eating agenda.....
Six medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, sued. Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ruled last week that Mr. Kennedy and his appointees had made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Judge Murphy also deemed the majority of the new A.C.I.P members unqualified. The best-known of them, Dr. Robert Malone, abruptly quit earlier this week, saying that the judge had “slandered me” and that he had better things to do. In a text message, Dr. Malone said he was not pushed out.
Kennedy is a nut case and his vaccine agenda scares me. Measles are not far too common. I hope that trump gets rid of Kennedy at some point
Kennedy's Vaccine Agenda Hits Roadblocks, Diminishing His Clout (NYT gift subscription)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is posing challenges for the Trump administration. Top health jobs are unfilled, and a court has blocked his vaccine schedule changes.
https://x.com/SherylNYT/status/2037348586703167887
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/us/politics/kennedy-vaccines-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.kFPo.AjJRUXOTHF9A&smid=nytcore-ios-share
A string of developments over the past several weeks have put Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda at risk. The confirmation of Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, is stalled on Capitol Hill, where three Republicans on the Senate Health Committee, including its chairman, have expressed concern about her views on vaccines.....
Last week, a federal judge blocked Mr. Kennedy’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. And on Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is running the C.D.C. even though his time as acting director has expired, made the new normal clear.....
But Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda — his insistence that vaccines are somehow linked to autism, despite a lack of evidence — has always been a bit of an Achilles’ heel.....
Polls now show that Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda is a dud, unpopular even with Republicans. And that has created discomfort inside the White House, which has made clear its desire for Mr. Kennedy to downplay talk of vaccines while emphasizing his more popular healthy-eating agenda.....
Six medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, sued. Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ruled last week that Mr. Kennedy and his appointees had made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Judge Murphy also deemed the majority of the new A.C.I.P members unqualified. The best-known of them, Dr. Robert Malone, abruptly quit earlier this week, saying that the judge had “slandered me” and that he had better things to do. In a text message, Dr. Malone said he was not pushed out.
Kennedy is a nut case and his vaccine agenda scares me. Measles are not far too common. I hope that trump gets rid of Kennedy at some point
Trump plays Texas hold 'em (trump may not endorse Cornyn or Paxton before runoff)
Paxton is running ads in Mar-a-Lago and really wants trump's endorsement. trump needs Cornyn's vote in the voter suppression bill fight. It seems that trump is NOT going to endorse either Cornyn or Paxton which means that a ton of money is going to be used up in this runoff and there will be some fun negative ads that will help Talarico. trump not endorsing Cornyn is being viewed as a victory for Paxton and the MAGA assholes
https://x.com/CarolineWren/status/2037513970442019182
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/03/27/trump-plays-texas-hold-em-00847954
If Cornyn loses due to a lack of a trump endorsement, Cornyn will be a free agent and does not have to blindly follow trump's orders.
The bad news is that I am going to see a ton of negative ads on TV until the runoff is over.
Trump plays Texas hold 'em (trump may not endorse Cornyn or Paxton before runoff)
Paxton is running ads in Mar-a-Lago and really wants trump's endorsement. trump needs Cornyn's vote in the voter suppression bill fight. It seems that trump is NOT going to endorse either Cornyn or Paxton which means that a ton of money is going to be used up in this runoff and there will be some fun negative ads that will help Talarico. trump not endorsing Cornyn is being viewed as a victory for Paxton and the MAGA assholes
https://x.com/CarolineWren/status/2037513970442019182
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/03/27/trump-plays-texas-hold-em-00847954
If Cornyn loses due to a lack of a trump endorsement, Cornyn will be a free agent and does not have to blindly follow trump's orders.
The bad news is that I am going to see a ton of negative ads on TV until the runoff is over.
Pentagon staffer stuns with demand: 'Trump wouldn't want to stand next to a Black female'
Who is surprised by this? trump and Hegseth are both racist assholes.
Senior military officials are concerned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotions of four Army officers because of their race or gender, according to a new report.
— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-03-27T16:30:11Z
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676628425
President Donald Trump's defense secretary has been pushing Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and other senior Army leaders to remove the names of the officers, two of whom are Black and another two women, from a promotion list of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials told the New York Times.
"Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so," the Times reported. "The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval. A few female and Black officers remain on the list, military officials said."....
"Mr. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington," the Times reported, based on accounts from three current and former defense and administration officials. "The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery."
"Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events," the report added, based on the officials' account.
Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List (NYT Gift link)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove officers from a one-star promotion list has spurred allegations of racial and gender bias.
https://x.com/FPWellman/status/2037539221787791536
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/hegseth-promotion-list.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.SaDY.StFgsp8N823Y&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.
Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.....
The frustrations with Mr. Hegseth’s approach came to a boil last summer during a heated exchange between Ricky Buria, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff, and Mr. Driscoll about a separate promotion.
Mr. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington, said three current and former defense and administration officials familiar with the exchange. The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.
Judge blocks Pentagon order branding Anthropic a national security risk
Judge blocks Pentagon order branding Anthropic a national security risk
https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2037323723015877012
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/26/pentagon-anthropic-national-security-risk-order-blocked
“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” District Court Judge Rita F. Lin wrote.
The immediate practical implications of the ruling are unclear, but it represents a clear victory for the AI lab, which has been involved in a bitter power struggle with the Defense Department over the use of its Claude system by the military. Defense officials pushed the company to allow for the technology to be used for any lawful purpose, but Anthropic wanted a bar on it being used in mass domestic surveillance and to power fully autonomous weapons.....
Lin wrote that her order does not prevent the Pentagon from choosing to stop doing business with Anthropic, but she barred the Trump administration from taking broader steps against the company. Her ruling is not the final say because a separate case related to a different law is playing out in another federal court in Washington. A panel of judges handling that case has yet to issue a ruling.
Judge blocks Pentagon order branding Anthropic a national security risk
Source: Washington Post
A federal judge in San Francisco blocked a Pentagon order Thursday labeling the artificial intelligence company Anthropic a national security risk, saying officials had likely violated the law and retaliated against the firm for speaking publicly about how it wanted its technology to be used.
“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” District Court Judge Rita F. Lin wrote.
The immediate practical implications of the ruling are unclear, but it represents a clear victory for the AI lab, which has been involved in a bitter power struggle with the Defense Department over the use of its Claude system by the military. Defense officials pushed the company to allow for the technology to be used for any lawful purpose, but Anthropic wanted a bar on it being used in mass domestic surveillance and to power fully autonomous weapons.....
Lin wrote that her order does not prevent the Pentagon from choosing to stop doing business with Anthropic, but she barred the Trump administration from taking broader steps against the company. Her ruling is not the final say because a separate case related to a different law is playing out in another federal court in Washington. A panel of judges handling that case has yet to issue a ruling.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/26/pentagon-anthropic-national-security-risk-order-blocked/
https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2037323723015877012
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