Notices by Sean Casten (seancasten@mastodon.social), page 3

US soldiers are getting killed because Trump doesn't have a face saving way to end a war he didn't have to start and his cabinet doesn't care. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/18/world/iran-war-strikes-trump-hormuz

Dude's got nothing. No intelligence. No coherent theory of the case. No information that he has shared in a classified or non-classified setting. Just the slowly dawning realization that no one loves him. This is not the time for fear. Kick him while he's down. Cue the Mortal Kombat GIF.

In 2024, 362K people voted in IL-06 and 196K of them voted for me. In 2026, 215K people voted in the Maine Senate primary and 156K of them voted for Platner. Which is to say, let's not give him credit for inspiring some great movement that has now lost it's way.

This isn't a criticism of Platner per se, although there are plenty of other reasons to criticize him. It's just a caution not to assume that winners of low turnout primaries in small states - even if against a high profile incumbent - speak to something in the national zeitgeist.

"The Founders... planted secret escape hatches in every amendment, visible only through a powerful lens of resentment, perpetual grievance, and off-the-books Winnebago gifts loaded with all the extras." https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-us-constitution-is-for-simple-folk-still-burdened-by-the-belief-that-words-have-meaning

"One of the scrubbed issues... included text endorsing a bill that would “prevent the federal government from spending outside its means.” Last year, Huizenga voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to add $3.4T to the national debt." https://americanjournalnews.com/huizenga-scrubs-campaign-website-after-poll-shows-him-trailing-mccann/

"Another deleted section was headlined “Real Health Care Reform” and promised that Huizenga “is fighting to lower costs.” But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and failed to extend tax subsidies that lowered the cost of Obamacare plans. About 14 million Americans are expected to lose health insurance as a result."

Good. But the fact that 3 supreme court justices, who all swore to defend the Constitution really, really hate the 14th amendment shouldn't be ignored. They are not jurists. They are racist partisans in robes. https://apnews.com/live/birthright-citizenship-decision-supreme-court-updates-06-30-2026?taid=6a43d4b5c097b90001578efc&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

A good reminder that “originalism” means believing that America was better when only white male property holding Christians could vote and even they couldn’t be trusted to vote for Presidents and Senators. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2026/06/scott-perry-joins-push-to-revoke-17th-amendment-strip-voters-of-electing-senators.html

5 million Americans have lost their health insurance solely because of the Republican’s Big Ugly Bill. Don’t let them deny it. Hold everyone of them accountable. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/medicaid-aca-enrollment-falls-5-million-new-report-finds-rcna351157t

We knew that the Iranians have no love for the Emiratis, Qataris, Saudis or their other Sunni neighbors and had the leverage to disrupt their economy as an asymmetrical response to our bombs.

We knew that their nuclear material was still enriched but buried under rubble from the prior bombing campaign and would be hard to access. We knew that Iranian leadership remembers what we did in 1953, even if ours fails to acknowledge any history prior to 1979.

We knew before they went in that Hormuz was a choke point that Iran could control. That resistance to the Iranian regime wasn’t organized to respond on our time table. That Bibi is a “habitual line stepper” who would overplay his hand.

They started this war with no clear objective and therefore no plan how to achieve it, nor how to end it. In spite of having ample intel and access to people of common sense who understood this risk. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/21/trump-confronts-new-hurdles-bid-peace-deal-with-iran/

But it didn’t matter. Because Trump has a weird fetish for violence. Hegseth has a 12 year old’s impulse control in a fireworks store. Rubio was born without a spine, the better to slither his nose up into otherwise impossible-to-reach places.

We knew all of this and more. And “we” is all of us. Yes, our intel professionals. Yes the advisors to every recent POTUS. But also anyone who reads a modicum of history, or has taken the time to rotate their globe and study geography outside of the greater Mar-a-Lago region.

We knew - per General Miley - that every $1 cut from global diplomacy spending obligates us to spend another $10 on defense. We knew that China and Russia would be delighted to see us burn through munitions, observe how we use them and break the post-WWII consensus.

We knew that the JCPOA had worked to give us intel, slow their enrichment and stitch European and regional allies together against a shared foe. We knew that Pompeo’s “shock and awe” undid that success. We knew a country of 70 million people cannot be moved by bombs alone.

We may not have seen all the risks they posed in all the specific detail, but we collectively understood what they were capable of. Per Madison, our form of government cannot rely on the virtue of our leaders, so it must rely on the virtue of those who select them.

All of which is to say that as bad as this is for THEM, WE are the ones bearing the consequences. In higher energy costs, loss of life, a more volatile Middle East, a loss of global respect for the US. Who we place in positions of public service matters for the public at large.