The news was unremittingly gloomy tonight, from a woman fleeing home to get life-saving healthcare to the news from battleground states to Alexei Navalny's disappearance. I am going to binge watch multiple episodes of "Morse."

I am trying to remember the name of the Washington-based think tank that hosted a conference of Nazi sympathizers in 1940. Any help here?

Over that the other place it occurred to me to ask, did Elon come to the United States to burn down the foundation of the Republic?

Name one likable, and I'd willingly have a drink with him or her, Republican leader.

Christie drops a truth bomb on his three debate partners, GOP voters, and the American electorate. The moderators don't ask for responses or follow-ups. This is a master class on how to rig the game. The fix is effing in.

Strident advocates of using the American military to respond to a PRC attack on Taiwan justify American involvement as a defense of democracy. It doesn't occur to them that their preferred 2024 candidate intends to destroy American democracy from within.

It isn't comforting when Amazon sends it Best History Books of 2023 and it includes books about decades you lived through.

Sandra Day O'Connor may have broke the glass ceiling for SCOTUS but let's not discount Lara Trump's cover songs.

"I'd like to see you eaten feet first by pigs."

The problem with a basic understanding of Realism is that it conceives state action in terms of pursuing the national interest. The problem is that is also assumes that power, especially military power, is the way to achieve the national interest.

The moral lesson I learned today is about the importance of keeping a bottle of champagne in the fridge at the ready. I'll be prepared next time.

Only the good die young. That's all I have to say here, for now at least. #HenryKissinger

Kissinger's passing marks the end of several eras.

So if he is re-elected, Trump can use the Insurrection Act, but state governments cannot use Trump fomenting insurrection to disqualify him from being on the ballot. Got it.

Yet another example of Jared serving as a bag man for his father-in-law.

I wonder what project management app Trump used to keep track of his innumerable trials? I see an advertising opportunity for that app's company.

No fuss Christmas 😉

Just to be clear, all you Democrats and Independents who will either not turn out or vote for a third-party candidate rather than support Biden: You are all good with Trump's reelection and the damage that will wreak on the democratic republic?

One reason Biden's age resonates with voters is that everyone has a father or grandfather who should have the car keys taken away.

I love Dolly as much as anyone else, but no more half-time shows, please. And please don't cover any more Queen songs. It looked like a crypt-kicker.

I don't suppose all the GOP politicians and faux journalists who got the Rainbow Bridge incident wrong will issue apologies and retractions.

Next year, we plan to spend one whole day cooking per Thanksgiving guest.

It seems like tech geniuses suffer from almost (!) as many management pathologies as the rest of corporate America. Hi Elon, Hi Sam #1, Hi Sam #2.

Easily the funniest subgenre of racist well adjusted men

Biden campaign advertisement ideas for running against Trump, Part 1: (1) 90-second spot consisting of Trump's daily COVID pressers (2) 60-second spot, silent, showing photos of Trump's daily agendas while he was president.

The legal system is not going to save us from Trump 2.0. Cases started too late, the system is incapable of dealing with billionaires, and the judiciary is riddled with Trump appointees and judges sympathetic to the MAGA cause. The only choice is to turn out and vote. Despair.

While the courts decide on the parameters, or not, of the gag order, some crazy may be preparing to act violently on Trump's rhetoric against witnesses and court officials.

Jen Psaki has rapidly becoming a worthy successor to the very best cable news hosts of the last several decades.

I've concluded, again, that Red states, especially in the South, really don't like or care about their citizens. Poor healthcare, weak educational systems, failing infrastructure, fewer civil and human rights, and so on.

Saturday awareness @amhotflash.bsky.social @timlee57.bsky.social @michellespenc.bsky.social @sheilaharris.bsky.social @carlyja22.bsky.social @taratisch.bsky.social @crzyfkinworld.bsky.social @kitchen5203.bsky.social @drwineau.bsky.social @allan1.bsky.social @lmakowski3.bsky.social

Is X simply about its anti-semitic, fascist fellow traveler owner or is it also about the thousands of posters who resist? The owner has cost himself $billions with his nonsense and the losses mount. A part of me loves watching the dumpster fire.

“When we’re young, our souls are stirred, our spirits kindled, by a book or some other experience,” he once said, “and in time, when we’ve matured, we look to pay the debt, to pass the gift along.” -- George Scialabba

I continue to believe that the Greater Middle East remains an "economy of force" theater for the US military, including, most especially, the US Navy. 1/2

Report for the American people!

I am a life support system for two cats. It has come to this.

I have to up my posting game if I am going to be on Bluesky. There is far less snark and mean girl/boy commentary and more substance here, at least among the folks I follow.

Future historians are going to look at Oroginalism the way we look at, like, proof-by-dunking-in-water. “Wait, you based your laws on how 9 random lawyers with no formal training in history tried to parse sparse, contradictory ,200-plus yr old documents?”

Voters on one side aren't deterred from turning out or supporting, despite 91 indictments and innumerable scandals. Voters on the other side won't turn out much less vote for the candidate because of a call to support Israel, which was quickly walked back and clarified. Okay then.

"Food and music. The best people I know love both." Andrew Zimmern Truth

For those self-reported Biden voters who say they will not vote for the president in 2024: do you think ensuring Trump's victory will get the policy outcomes you desire and/or serve your own interests or those of your communities?

Most folks who decry people whom they define as "woke" cannot explain what "woke" means. When the can, woke sounds awfully like a synonym for a good person or someone most of us would hope our children grow up to be.

Very grateful to Harold James for his @HDiplo review of Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War, edited by me and Shifrinson networks.h-net.org/group/discus... also grateful more than 13k have accessed the book here link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

I finally watched on @chrislhayes.bsky.social Tuberville block unanimous consent for military confirmations. It might be me but he seemed to take particular joy each time he said, "I object."

If you are in the national security business, you can never go wrong by hyping a threat.

It is that time of year again: registration has opened up for the CDSN Year Ahead conference in Ottawa on Dec 7th. The topics: trying to avoid war w China, evacuation lessons, how to prepare for US election side effects, and the simmering Balkans www.cdsn-rcds.com/network-even... CaMilSky

I am starting to warm up to Blue Sky app-- while there may not be as much "fun" content (and, of course, far less of Elon's junk) the signal-to-noise ratio is very good. Some of my favorite posters are making Blue Sky great.

Political science editors, are you listening?

Just as Ben Carson ruined "brain surgeon" as the standard for brilliance, so too has Elon Musk destroyed "rocket scientist"