Stevenson’s army, August 19

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes an almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, follow the instructions below:

– AP says US is in secret talks with the head of the Venezuelan socialist party.
-Axios says Trump has frequently been telling aides he wants a naval blockade of Venezuela.
– New Yorker has a long profile of SecState Pompeo, emphasizing his determination to stay close to Trump.
– Speaker Pelosi says administration efforts to cut foreign aid could jeopardize budget deal. She got a ruling by GAO that the administration cuts were illegal under the budget act.  [Some of you may remember that,years ago, I got Sen. Bentsen to get a similar ruling on the V-22 that blocked a Cheney effort to kill the program. The magic word is rescission.]
– A think tank says Afghans are preparing for civil war.
– Somebody leaked a worst-case analysis of a no-deal Brexit to the Sunday Times. The Guardian summarizes.
– I urge you to read the 1619 Project articles in the NYT Sunday magazine. They have several stories showing how central slavery has been in US history.

To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).