Foreign Policy Dirigible There are times that I miss my old USG job. Those times are increasing in frequency. Holy shit, I'd be 5 years from a life-long pension and health care! Won't lie, that's a waking thought more often than I care to wake to. But
Blog She's so popular My mom and I share an inside joke. I can't remember how it started, and there's no sense trying to explain it. It just won't make any sense. But here's how it plays out. I listen to a lot of 70s and
Blog Chow Hall Eats: Eggs and a tortilla The other night I mentioned getting a burrito at Bimbo's (or is it Cha Cha?). Chuck replied, saying that he prefers tacos, so as to avoid the gluten. That reminded me that I would like to try cutting out gluten. Just want to give it a try. This
Blog Me again > It's nice in the sun, the shade's not fun. ~ Neighborhood mail carrier. It's been pretty chilly in Seattle. I overheard the mail carrier saying that to a neighbor. We all had a good laugh at the unintentional rhyme. I'm glad we
Blog Here comes the rain again It was a dark, windy, and rainy night. Sounds like we're going to get drenched here in the Pacific Northwest. Stay safe everyone! Let's hope it helps with western wildfires. I thought this was a pretty cool description from the National Weather Service [https://www.weather.
Foreign Policy Next time... I apologize for all the links of late. I'll get back to my stuff soon, but my mind has been on Afghanistan. Feel free to skip this one. I had a long talk with a friend about Afghanistan last night. We agreed that the situation was heartbreaking. We
Blog We'll keep doing it until we can't I think about this scene in the Dark Knight when I think about U.S. foreign policy. Credit: Nizzinny. I think most YouTubers are cool with having their work shared like this. If not, let me know and I'll delete it.Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. I'm
Blog Weekly Roundup There's really not a weekly roundup. Maybe I'll start one as a way of avoiding too many links. The situation in Afghanistan is scary. I feel terrible for the Afghan people, but I am glad that we are ending our military occupation. My foreign policy days
On the Streets How do you know a pandemic is ending? Salivating neocons can gratefully and unabashedly return to the (very distant) sidelines and cheer on the slaughter of Palestinians. Our tax dollars at work. There's probably a box somewhere on our tax forms that would allow us to waive our refunds to help send more bombs and ammunition
shoulda been a tweet Shoulda been a tweet: Ackerman as Obi-Wan Boy have I been wrong about Afghanistan the past 15 years. I thought it was part of the Forever Wars. A war that we happily allowed U.S. elected officials and DOD personnel to lie about. If you haven't read the Washington Post's Afghanistan Papers [https:
Azadeh Moaveni's opinion piece in New York Times Letters to the Editor (actually, comments) Do you ever comment on articles you read? For the most part I think it’s lunacy. If you want to slide into a deep depression about the state of humanity, read through the comments following a Fox News online article. Our only hope is that those comments represent a
Afghanistan The Afghanistan Papers For a long time now I’ve been experimenting with Substack to see if it fits into my flailing freelance efforts. I like writing, and sometimes I feel like I’ve got things to say that might be worth sharing. I’m hoping to do more writing in 2020. If
Andrew J Bacevich Spring Cleaning Have you read Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing”? I have, at least some of it. The idea appeals. If something in your home isn’t giving you joy, get rid of it. It’s easier said than done. I’
CNN Consuming Journalism: Raise the Bar CNN and LA Times President Trump is in the middle of a long, important, 12 day trip to Asia. He has a lot to cover. Addressing the North Korea challenge alone would warrant 12 days of meetings. But he’ll also be discussing economic issues and military cooperation and visiting U.S. facilities. Presumably,
