Stevenson’s army, May 1

-WaPo says the administration is developing a package of anti-China measures, many extreme and unprecedented, like demanding reparations for pandemic costs and refusing to pay interest on Chinese-held US bonds.[As I said in class, I support vigorous US measures to thwart Chinese military expansion and to compete economically, especially in advanced technologies. But I resent Trump’s weaponizing these measures mainly for his political campaign and as a distraction from his delays and failures handling the pandemic.]
– Part of this effort, NYT reports, is pressuring the intelligence community to prove Chinese culpability for release of the coronavirus.
– And SecState Pompeo was already in a pissing contest with Beijing.

– WSJ profiles national security adviser O’Brien, who says NSC staff is now down to the 120s.
– Yes, the FISA court consists of Article III [life-tenured] federal judges.
– NYT reports that Zoom sessions can be bad for your health.
And while I’m in a grumpy mood, how about this:

Lawmakers Vote by Mail to Roll Back Vote by Mail

April 30, 2020 at 3:10 pm EDT

“An emergency plan for Louisiana’s delayed spring elections was approved by the state Legislature after Republican lawmakers rolled back an expansion of mail-in ballots for people concerned about the coronavirus,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.

“Lawmakers voted by mail on the emergency plan.”

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. 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).