Stevenson’s army, November 29

A shift of only 3,340 votes in the five closest House races would have given the Democrats control of the House in the 18th Congress. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

CRS has a paper on electing the Speaker , which took 9 ballots a hundred years ago. The winner needs a majority of those voting, but that need not be a majority of the whole House.

A RUSI analyst discusses whether winter weather helps Russia or Ukraine.

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