Categories: Daniel Serwer

Stevenson’s army, January 24

-WaPo notes that the Senate is still stymied by a failure to agree on new organizing resolution.
-NPR interviewed former Senate staffer Adam Jentleson about his new book condemning the filibuster.  [Many of you know that I support the filibuster for strategic and tactical reasons, but I want to keep it safe, legal, and rare — by making it harder to start and prolong. I suggest filibuster opponents, now mostly Democrats, consider that the loss of just one Democratic Senator could, overnight, permit majoritarian rule by the GOP.]
WSJ now confirms what NYT and WaPo also learned — that Trump was narrowly stopped from using Justice to overturn the election results.
Vanity Fair reports Trump’s pressure on the acting SecDef in the final days.
TR does a FONOP.
I’ve long viewed Sen. Tom Cotton [R-Ark.] as Dean Acheson did Sen. Robert Taft [GOP leader in early 1950s]: “He has a brilliant mind,  until he makes it up.”  It seems that Cotton gilded his military resume.
NYT notes we have a serious GPS vulnerability problem.
Good read: I’ve just finished Peter Westwick’s fascinating study of the history of stealth technology.  Like Paul Kennedy’s book on the problem-solving engineers of WW2, Westwick shows how middle-level technicians brainstormed, bargained, and compromised over  issues and largely succeeded. I’ve also never seen a better case for funding alternate R&D programs instead of settling on a sole source.

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).

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

Saying “no” to Trump is vital

Zelensky needs to do everything he can with Ukraine's other friends in Europe and Asia.…

2 days ago

The worst of the MBS visit was Trump

Trump has ordered the murder of we know not whom on boats he claims are…

5 days ago

America should wish al-Sharaa well

America should wish Al-Sharaa well. Even if I would prefer it were an America still…

2 weeks ago

What difference does a by-election make?

There is a long way from Tuesday's victories to that happy scenario. Best not to…

3 weeks ago

Be afraid of what Trump proposes for Bosnia

An enterprising journalist needs to discover what Trump got to convince him to do something…

3 weeks ago

Trump finds more criminals to befriend

Lots more criminals are looking for Trump favors. If this decision betokens support to unbridled…

4 weeks ago