China is weaker than we thought. Will we change our policies accordingly? reads the head for Fareed Zakaria’s latest column, which I found cogent in the extreme, Fareed noting that, way back in 1992, when he was, well, managing editor of Foreign Affairs—“my first full-time job,” he notes—so humble!—“everyone” thought that Japan was going to…
Tag: Military Intellectual Complex
Shorter Nancy Pelosi: I cans so be dumber than Joe Biden!
What is the deal with Nancy Pelosi? Is she thinking “Well, I’ve fucked up domestic policy, now I got foreign policy to deal with”? She’s already visited Ukraine (“They gave me a medal! That’s how important I am!”) and I guess maybe she’s expecting to get one from Taiwan, though, really, no one seems to…
Shorter Danielle Pletka: Murder is my business
Well, in case you were wondering, we now know why Danielle Pletka, distinguished senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, hasn’t been found in an alley with a bullet in her head: she isn’t important enough to kill! Because murder works! Okay, Danielle isn’t quite that brazen. In her recent, unfortunately (or not) paywalled article…
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…
The “Solar Winds” Fraud: Special Hot Air Edition
It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and the latest fake news regarding “Solar Winds”, the Russian super hack that wasn’t, is a good example. It’s just coincidence, I’m sure, that a sudden leak regarding Russian perfidy should emerge just as Joe Biden was taking office. The odds were already roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000 to 1…
This is why we can’t have nice things: Like peace
Over at the American Conservative, Barbara Boland fills us in on the sad news with her article Senate Hearing Farce: Venezuela Is A ‘Clear And Present Danger’. Yes, bipartisan ninnies agree, Venezuela, one of the saddest, weakest countries in the world, a country seemingly bent on starving itself to death, will bring down the mighty…
Daniel Drezner, you shall not escape my wrath!
Well, you won’t, Dan. Just because I’m painfully slow and stumbling off the mark, and not much better down the stretch, you thought you could slip a few fast ones by me, but nuh-uh. I’m onto your game, and you’ll pay the price. The first of Dan’s “curve balls” (to vary the metaphor) came a…
Fred Kaplan says it’s time to worry about war with North Korea “again”. Why?
Why indeed? But it’s not just Fred, though I think Freddie was first off the mark with “It’s time to worry about war with North Korea again.” (Dec, 17), but his shrill concerns have been ably amplified by none other than the totally unbiased New York Times “U.S. Braces for Major North Korean Weapons Test…
Shorter Admiral McRaven: Will invade foreign countries for food
Okay, that should be “Will invade foreign countries for rank and appropriations” but Literature R Us puts snark over accuracy every time. What is indisputable is that retired Admiral William McRaven is shit fit petrified that drunken Donald Trump might actually knock over the punchbowl that has, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, ladled…