“The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

This was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s line at the end of a rant about CNN in today’s Pentagon press conference. David Ellison, of course, is the failson progeny of Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who is now in the midst of building a private sector pro-Trump state media operation which brings together Paramount, CBS, (soon) CNN, HBO and much more. CNN is already a done deal, though the takeover itself is still in process. None of this is secret. But seldom do we see it spelled out quite so clearly as Hegseth did yesterday. And it brings home what we talk about here again and again: in the Trump universe, only independent media organizations can actually be … well, independent, not be puppeteered either by Trump and his stooges or big corporate owners who want to keep on Trump’s good side.

That’s where organization’s like TPM come in. We depend solely on you. More than 90% of our funding comes from TPM readers. That means that as long as you’re satisfied with us, we’re good. It doesn’t matter what Trump thinks or the CEO or Comcast or Proctor & Gamble or Paramount or anyone else. That’s why it’s so important that if you think what we do is important that you subscribe and become a TPM member. If you’re not a member please click right here and join us.

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From TPM Reader PT …

As I’ve thought about the suddenness with which this war started, and the abject lack of thought that went into it, I wonder the following:

Was it the irreproducible chance at a decapitation strike that triggered this whole mess?

My thinking is this:

The US and Israel aren’t actually prepared for the war in Iran, though they are getting there. At that moment, they get an unbelievable piece of intelligence: all the top people in the Iranian government are going to get together, in person, in a non-hardened location. Clearly none of these folks saw “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” or they would have known better. 

I’ve written a few posts now about a simple fact that is so apparent in news coverage that it is almost hiding in plain sight: the entire discussion of President Trump’s war with Iran right now is not how close he may be to achieving whatever his war aims might be. It’s the impact of the conflict on global energy prices and how this may impact the cost of gas in the U.S. and thus Trump’s electoral fortunes in November. We now have two closely reported articles which make clear that this wasn’t even a contingency that the White House planned for.

This passage is from a new CNN article which comes after a similar one in the Times ….