Wolji pond in Gyeongju, South Korea

Although I think the Yale report raises some important issues, my main take away was disappointment that a university would provide such a shallow and empirically unsound analysis.

Bet there isn’t an immersive VR experience on the north side of the DMZ. Capitalism ftw

The crazy route my flight just took from Warsaw to Seoul.

Remember the @pewresearch.org data on the decline in Israel's standing in the US published last week? We asked them for the crosstabs which they graciously shared with us, and we're publishing for the 1st time. Bottom line: total collapse of Israel's standing among young Americans across the board.

The Hungarian parliament building, soon under new management.

Magical view of Lake Lucerne from Stoos 📷

Cat statue wishing it were a real cat.

Real fall of the Roman empire vibes here

Competition between the United States and China is a defining feature of contemporary international politics, but not of US foreign policy. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

I knew it was bad but really didn’t appreciate it was quite this bad as.ft.com/r/db911dd6-f...

What’s killing NATO isn’t the European refusals to access to US bases, but Trump’s unilateral decision to redefining NATO as a US force-projection tool rather than a collective defense arrangement. That’s the constitutional coup against the alliance. Europe didn’t break NATO, Trump did.

Instead of criticizing young people for protesting too much or too little or for being wrong or for being right for the wrong reason or before it was popular, older generations should be apologizing profusely for the world we’re bequeathing them and working our butts off to make it better.

I can’t believe this needs to be said: Trump’s genocidal threat *weakened* his bargaining position. It boxed him into a corner from which he desperately needed to find a way out, thus ushering in the what’s probably the least favorable “cease fire” deal in U.S. history.

Can't say I find this characterization of the administration's decision making process very confidence inspiring.

Pivot to ecclesia

I see we’ve reached the “how many divisions does the pope have” stage of megalomania. 🙄

Are the lying liars who lie all the time about everything lying now, when they have every incentive to lie? Sadly, it is impossible to know.

I would be more cautious before making a causal claim about the effectiveness of a threat to commit genocide. Seems like the stakes are high enough.

If this holds (a big if), the major accomplishment will be cutting our losses weeks in rather than years in.

If threatening genocide didn’t cross Republicans’ red line, maybe this will.

Vance should ask President Humphrey how distancing yourself from your president’s unpopular war turns out.

It’s crazy that the vice president openly intervening in a foreign election for the candidate backed by Russia ranks a distant second in insane things happening today.

It is absolute demagoguery to say that a foreign student took anyone's spot. Foreign students have enriched and, bluntly, funded U.S. universities. Those universities will be less successful and less desirable as a result of this rank protectionism.

We are already in the middle of it, and since it started with our invasion of Iraq, 23 years ago (!!), we’ll be very lucky if it only lasts 30 years.

Some of the churches in Zurich have put roses in their fountains for Easter week. It’s a delightful tradition dating back to 2021 (hey, not all traditions have to be centuries old).

The Zürich Polybahn 📷

Steeling myself for when someone says this is a sign of Trump's brilliance. Pull off the band aid, throw them in the cold water -- a shock like this is the only way to get other countries to step up. But, of course, that wasn't the plan. None of this was planned.

Can’t sleep so I’m checking in on the president‘s speech and seeing “we have so much gas” and “it will open up naturally“ so I assume he was talking about something intestinal?

Time for me to reheat my TOSTADA theory: Trump Often Signs Then Abandons Deals Anyway

As someone who studies politicization of democratic militaries this statement on X is a five- alarm fire. It creates an undeniable permission structure for overt partisan behavior by mil. It's part of a concerted effort by civilian leaders to turn the U.S. military into a partisan aligned force.

By the way, in 2023, 18 Republican Senators voted in favor of the Kaine-Rubio (ahem) amendment barring the president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO. Names in next post.

Curious about whether Trump can legally withdraw from NATO? As always, the Congressional Research Service is invaluable: www.congress.gov/crs-product/... Bottom line: 🤷‍♂️

Doubt it will fracture the GOP when nothing else has. Ironically they might kick up a fuss because it's a treaty, but as @jimgoldgeier.bsky.social and I wrote during the 2024 election, as commander-in-chief he can withdraw US troops and gut NATO in all but name. www.brookings.edu/articles/nat...

1956: US resists British and French effort to seize a strategic waterway, demands Israel relinquish seized territory 2026: US demands Britain and France seize a strategic waterway, green lights Israeli territorial seizures

Hungary came up with a clever way to deal with statues from the period of Soviet occupation: they created park designed to exhibit and learn from them.

“The big grand staircase is a dead-end” is a delightfully apt metaphor, and I hope there is some way to preserve it when we tear the rest down.

Just watched a really dark movie with mass population displacement, murder and attempted murder, intellectual property theft, and corruption at the highest level of government. Zootopia 2.

How the Iran war will cement China's superpower status Check out the latest edition of my @financialtimes.com newsletter: as.ft.com/r/1f7ba68f-1...

If the US plans for just a few weeks of ground ops in Iran, they will definitely end in a few weeks because that's how war works.

Good illustration of the tension in US foreign policy between “being an ocean away keeps us safe so we don’t need allies” and “being an ocean away makes power projection hard so we need allies.”

Excellent - and so rare!! - overview of the role of Europe for US mil operations. “Europe remains the bedrock of U.S. force projection in the world and any action to cut those ties with Europe “would be a huge loss to the U.S.,” said Bence Nemeth. “It would cost time, money and resources.””

Zürich showing up for #NoKings

Bratislava 📷

This doesn’t make me feel old. It makes me feel experienced. My back makes me feel old.

The US-fled liberal order

Regime change, but not for the better

I see we're bringing back some greatest hits from the '60s.

Rheinfall 📷