State Dept. Layoffs Hit Russia and Ukraine Analysts foolishness

please watch this it will give you hope we can fight back and we will win

my great friend James Osyf launched his Congressional campaign today and what a great story he has. Watch the video at jamesosyf.com

Then let us pray that come it may,    (As come it will for a’ that,) That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth,    Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that. For a’ that, an’ a’ that,    It’s coming yet for a’ that, That Man to Man, the world o’er,    Shall brothers be for a’ that.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; A-chasing the wild-deer, and followingthe roe, My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

Its Robbie Burns Night

I recently spoke with Michael Smerconish on CNN about the national security considerations of a TikTok ban. I discussed the hypocrisy of Congress targeting TikTok while neglecting regulations to secure phone companies, and raised concerns about data collection and covert manipulation of news.

It’s alarming that Speaker Johnson is letting the GOP’s isolationist wing cashier one of his best committee chairs.

how lovely

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has joined Elon Musk in allowing disinformation to flourish on his platforms in order to gain Donald Trump's favor. It’s about to get very ugly on Facebook.

Hegseth’s snarly dismissal of JAGs as people who place their promotions above our warfighters is really disgusting.

Ideal gift for anyone in nukes, the defense biz or any sort of consultant: my novel A CAPITAL CALAMITY, which has been likened to Dr Strangelove, Catch-22, Veep, Thank You for Smoking. “A joyful romp…brilliant and irresistible,”’says Joe Weisberg, creator of The Americans. #NukeSky fredkaplan.info

Can confirm.

Dan Byman sat down with Charles Lister to explain what is going on in Syria, who the major players are, and more on today's @lawfare.bsky.social Daily. Watch their conversation here:

Armagnac: the secret bargain of the spirit world

@MiddleEastEye: Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, says the explosion of hundreds of pagers commonly used by Hezbollah was an attack that “would seem to suggest that Israel was either baiting Hezbollah into forcing the issue, or into starting it itself”. https://t.co/bwYMKJ9

What sort of grades does the Biden administration deserve for the way it’s dealt with the Middle East? Brian Katulis at the Middle East Institute gives a less than rosy assessment, to say the least. www.mei.edu/publications...

How Donald Trump might tackle the Middle East in 2025 ->Middle East Institute | #Fascist #ConvictedFelon | More info from EcoSearch

Listening to Ian Moss(former State CT), Shiraz Maher (ICSR) @icsr.bsky.social and Charles Lister at an Middle East Institute event in San Francisco on ISIS repatriation

Apple Books: "What if the scariest political thriller you ever read were a true story? ...Unger brings a stunning amount of research to the table, but he constructs his narrative like an expert thriller." www.harpercollins.com/products/den...

Jeffrey Lewis (@armscontrolwonk.bsky.social) calls my new novel A CAPITAL CALAMITY "a Jane-Austen-meets-Dr-Strangelove comedy of DC manners... It's very very funny--and serious." www.amazon.com/Capital-Cala...

"Democrats said Gabbard's visit with Assad, the Syrian dictator, helped legitimize a leader accused of war crimes who has served as a proxy and host for Russia and Iran..." apnews.com/article/gabb...

No vetting at all, no background checks, and then blanket security clearances for all. Agencies holding national security sensitive material are presumably thinking very hard right now about what material they're going to leave behind in the files on Jan 20... www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The Alabuga Drone Plant: A Case Study of Key Relationships Enabling Iranian Support for Russian Military Production On 8 November, Iran Watch published this case study about the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), an industrial campus in Russia’s Tatarstan region www.iranwatch.org/our-publicat...

Palo Alto tops revenue and profit estimates on steady cybersecurity demand - https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/palo-alto-tops-revenue-and-profit-estimates-steady-cybersecurity-demand-4760901