Whenever someone seriously important dies, there is a rush by everyone with even the slightest connection to the deceased to file a “My [Insert VIP Name Here] story”. I usually get a hearty snicker, or even a sneer, out of these, because the hapless hanger-on/spiritual remora involved almost invariably inflates an utterly trivial encounter into…
Tag: Blob
F*ck yeah I’m a Wikipedia-surfin’ Kissinger wannabe! Ugottaproblemwitdat?
My old buddy/bête noir Dan Drezner brings me this message, Are "Wikipedia-Surfing Kissinger Wannabes" Killing the Political Risk Field?, jumping off a fulminatin’ post by one Tina Fordham, a serious, totally non-amateur political risk chick who now runs her own company, Fordham Global Foresight. Writing in the Financial Times, Tina ripped a new one for…
Joe Biden’s foreign policy: regressin’ to meaninglessness and following the path of greatest stupidity
Gee whiz but I wish I wasn’t so prescient. A whole six months ago I wrote a post Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President, moaning a bit theatrically about Uncle Joe’s “senile swagger.” Well, it seems like Joe was just getting warmed up. United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With…
Yo, Blobists! If we “have” to learn how to get along with Saudi Arabia, shouldn’t we “have” to learn how to get along with Russia and China too?
Yeah, Blobists! Or Establishmentarians, or whatever you like to call yourselves these days! What is the deal with this hardnosiosity, or perhaps rhinosaurusism, that is coming to the fore with regard to Saudi Arabia? I first noticed, and bewailed, this unfortunate “trend” last March, when I faulted Atlantic editor Jeff Goldberg for pushing the line…
Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President
It is common wisdom that presidents tend to concentrate on domestic policy when first arriving in office and then pivot to foreign affairs, where they can act without having to worry, too much, about the reception their ideas will receive on Capitol. It can be said of Joe Biden that he’s making the switch in…
Thank God for the National Review!
I’m generally not a huge fan of the National Review, but, well, I’m in an excitable mood these days, ready to let out a mighty cheer of affirmation at the drop of a hat, really, and the folks at NR dropped a lot more than that when they published an absolutely sensational piece by one…
Dan Drezner does my job for me. And does it better! Sometimes!
Yeah, that’s right. “Terrible Dan Drezner”, as I often call him—or, sometimes, illiterate Daniel Drezner—has been doing my job—bashing “the Blob” on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and trashing the hawks/neocons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Okay, neither my nor Dan’s schedule has been that tight, but, still, he has been working hard. One of my principal…
America’s latest “Forever War” not finding too many recruits
I have frequently—frequently—and loudly—loudly—complained about the compulsion of America’s foreign policy “Blob” to find a replacement for everyone’s favorite multi-trillion-dollar arms race, the late great Cold War, centering, of course, on China, but eagerly tossing in Iran, Russia, and even Venezuela, for good measure. The problem is, not everyone seems to be as afraid of…
Terrible Dan Drezner. Terrible Dan Drezner!
Hey, I promised, and a blogger always keeps his word—well, within the limits of reason, of course. And, anyway, Dan is at his terrible worst in this one—his terribleist, one might say—in an abysmal missive abysmally titled The progressive case against NATO is weird. When a pundit, particularly a scholarly one such as Dan, uses…
The screwing of Matt Gaetz: A Fuller Perspective
A couple of weeks ago I raised the interesting question of whether Rep. Matt Gaetz, who comes across as a walking parody of “Florida Man”, complete with nudie pics on the cellphone, is being framed as a sex trafficking pedophile, when in fact his only “crime” is, well, being a “Florida man”. Well, the sometimes…