Brexit is a giant mess, a group of far-right hardliners getting called on their lies when basically no one expected that to happen. There’s a fair bit of evidence many of the people who voted for it in the initial referendum have changed their minds as the chaotic mess has been ongoing for awhile. If Labour wasn’t too…

I spent a few years doing freelance stuff in the production industry. Both my parents have worked in it off and on since before I was born, and my dad was pretty well known. I heard all the politics and financial executive bullshit as well as how bad it messed up gigs and was happy I was generally doing lower level…

I wish I was shocked by this. The perception that tech companies will be different than any other company really should be put to rest. 

Khalilzad is our negotiator, but otherwise you’re probably on the money. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Taliban’s ideology and goals. 

I’m fairly certain it was both, as both were referenced as making the US possible party to war crimes. But I could be remembering wrong. It was near the end of his presidency. 

Obama stopped US refueling and ammunition sales to the coalition in Yemen, far too late, but Trump began them again. Given Yemen is currently a core haven for surviving al-Qaeda, some of whom seem to be getting money from either the Saudis or the UAE as local militias, I wonder when Mattis will criticize that failure.…

He was aligned with the wildly deranged “we must have war with Iran” pseudo-intellectual industry as well as some ties to anti-Muslim groups as well. He’s been coasting on the generally uncritical portrayal of military leadership in civilian press and being the “adult” in Trump’s daycare.

Mattis is wildly oversimplifying what happened, which doesn’t suit his narrative as well as “they didn’t listen to the military”. It was the Obama administration’s diplomatic failures in Iraq, particularly with Sunni discontent, rather than the troop withdrawal that gave space for the Islamic State expansion. The…

The talks weren’t secret, the Camp David meeting talks were. What Trump did was, I think, a bad attempt to dangle legitimacy in front of the Taliban. But that’s not really what they care about, and cancelling creates no leverage I can see (nor can Afghan experts). With a state actor, a visit for a formal summit to…

Camp David is prestige. It’s leveraging his office. It’s traditional. He likes using those things as bludgeons to support his ego. Other presidents held peace talks and summits there. 

With dishonest actor on both sides it’s hard to say, but it does look like the Trump administration just cut things off. It’s not clear whether the stated reason, an American fatality, has anything to do with it though. Trump may think this is leverage, or it may be a purely political move.

Other reporting suggests that it was planned and discussed, with Bolton objecting and Pompeo approving. I’m surprised it wasn’t leaked before Trump’s comment, the meeting was reportedly on the 29th. There’s always risks with anonymous reporting, but there’s a Politico piece that has some of their best writers on it,…

I’m thinking this is embellishment he’s using to save face after talks broke down. That’s my personal guess. The Taliban didn’t change their behavior. We knew they’d keep attacking until a deal was signed while they have the advantage. Without the approval of the Afghan government it was always problematic regardless.

There’s no such thing as the “alt-left”, as said. The whole idea of “cancel culture” is vastly overstated. “Coherent moral frameworks” is a bad euphemism for Christianity, whatever the hell he intended with the phrasing that’s how it’ll be read. None of this is intelligent.

White people have a weird obsession with cutting off “abnormal” hair, however they define it, which is usually aimed at people of color (though they’ve got a smaller anger for men with long hair and women with non-normative colored hair). 

Tear gas is useless to fight terrorism. That’s comically bad even by American government standards. 

“Nonlethal” means “generally is not lethal”. Tear gas, in sufficient density, can kill. Not to mention the targeting protesters with canisters, which can kill, and even well-trained militaries like the IDF have a problem with firing the canisters the incorrect way, possibly on purpose, to harm targets. Rubber bullets…

He’s done a lot of the “media experts and pollsters just don’t understand the truth about my campaign” along with a fair bit of whitewashing of Trump voters. He claims his views are supported by evidence and jettisons evidence that doesn’t fit his claims. Especially on the “why Trump won” issue reducing it to…

You know, at one point he did some training with one of the D.C. United youth sides. Getting tall could be good for him. If he really wants to play soccer and get out of all the bullshit of the rest of his family the height won’t hurt him. I’m not gonna hold it against him that most of his family are awful human…

The Chavistas weren’t fringe, and there’s some elements under Corbyn in Labour with similar tendencies. I’m not sure the left is as distant from it as I’d like. Yang and Williamson in the primary, not to mention Gabbard, gives me pause. Obviously most cycles there’s hopeless weirdos in the primary but all of them have…