Dead Armadillo

Episode in the Oval Office just now accelerates isolation of the US from Europe, and accelerates coalescence of independent European security. Europe need to plan continued military support of Ukraine without the US. NATO is dead.

I am a radical Federalist. A dead armadillo, legs upright in the middle of the road. I watch winner-take-all elections every 4 years: one tribe wins; one tribe loses. As greater resources are afforded to DC, the stakes escalate. Trump is the symptom, not the solution. Change the game.

"Rebuild Local News" by making local political agency relevant again. The nation ceded authority and "celebrity" to the federal government, rendering irrelevant who ran statehouses & city halls. Devolve the power and a thousand local journalists will flourish.

I am a radical Federalist. A dead armadillo, legs upright in the middle of the road. I watch winner-take-all elections every 4 years: one tribe wins; one tribe loses. As greater resources are afforded to DC, the stakes escalate. Trump is the symptom, not the solution. Change the game.

The apotheosis of DC Centralization: Zero resilience = Very bad. "Furthermore, it's possible that [David Lebryk] is the only person on earth that fully understands how all the many components of how these sprawling legacy IT systems — really a legacy IT 'network' — fits together and interacts."

I am a radical Federalist. A dead armadillo, legs upright in the middle of the road. I watch winner-take-all elections every 4 years: one tribe wins; one tribe loses. As greater resources are afforded to DC, the stakes escalate. Trump is the symptom, not the solution. Change the game.

Consider the observation by Mr. Bergstrom below. It captures our dilemma: the concentration of authority in DC has enfeebled our socio-political resilience: we are vulnerable & fragile. We need to expand choke-points as a longer term policy defense mechanism.

My 4-day-late New Year's resolution is to try to post something positive everyday from this account. Casual cynicism flows too easily. So instead, just one small thing. I'll sometime get busy and not have time. Be traveling. I'll sometimes forget. But Life isn't just good. It's simply great.

Wife returned early from a trip - that is always welcome! 25 years of marriage, and we still sleep together like kittens.

Reverse-sear & cast iron to feed teenage boys.

Reverse-sear & cast iron to feed teenage boys.

Reverse-sear & cast iron to feed teenage boys.

Reverse-sear & cast iron to feed teenage boys.

My 4-day-late New Year's resolution is to try to post something positive everyday from this account. Casual cynicism flows too easily. So instead, just one small thing. I'll sometime get busy and not have time. Be traveling. I'll sometimes forget. But Life isn't just good. It's simply great.

Kohlrabi is in season! Slice garlic thin, throw it in a skillet and make little chips. Set aside. Slice a shallot thing - repeat. With a knife, skin the kohlrabi, cube it, and throw it in the still-hot skillet. Cook until browned & done. Throw back in the garlic/shallot, salt & serve. Life is good.

I abandoned my unapologetic newsfast when I learned Trump was giving a press conference. A thread.

What does this mean for Taiwan? "Y’all are on your own.” China blockades, invades, Trump ignores, China absorbs, and Japan becomes a nuclear-armed neutral country. I’m not convinced all of this wasn’t quietly hashed out among Putin, his pal Xi, and their pal Trump.

I abandoned my unapologetic newsfast when I learned Trump was giving a press conference. A thread.

I expect this 5%/GDP demand abruptly to become Trump NATO policy - his invocation was deliberate and it isn’t designed to be met. It is designed instead, NOT to be met. In that way, Trump effectively suspends American Article V obligations.

I abandoned my unapologetic newsfast when I learned Trump was giving a press conference. A thread.

He also described at a NATO meeting in his first administration telling the assembled leaders in response to an inquiry that the United States would not defend any member that was not expending its 2%/GDP on defense (otherwise reported back in the day).

I abandoned my unapologetic newsfast when I learned Trump was giving a press conference. A thread.

Trump reiterated his designs on Panama and Greenland, and refused to rule out use of military force to achieve those goals. He did not make a similar declaration with regard to Canada - instead suggesting (for the moment) “only” to make recourse to “economic force” for it to become the 51st state.

My 4-day-late New Year's resolution is to try to post something positive everyday from this account. Casual cynicism flows too easily. So instead, just one small thing. I'll sometime get busy and not have time. Be traveling. I'll sometimes forget. But Life isn't just good. It's simply great.