Aaron H. Ellis

ICYMI:

It’s also why, when Trump first tried to do a deal with Russia above everyone’s heads, I felt us and the Europeans should’ve done a big outreach to China.

Not so much because it would’ve led to peace, but to show Trump and Putin that there are other dynamics at play and other options to choose

Contrary to the “axis of authoritarianism” talk, I’ve long believed that it’s in China’s interests to keep Moscow occupied on its western border with a militarily strong neighbour that is of Europe but not in Europe - and I imagine that’s why Zelensky has usually been very deferential to Beijing

Is this Olivia Nuzzi’s book?

ICYMI:

I can’t wait for the day there’s a proper weighty biography of Jan Marsalek

Spongebob Squarepants character looking at a sign that says 0 Days Without Nonsense

@stephenkb.bsky.social:

Harris doesn’t get the respect she deserves

Inconsiderate Woman On Bus Eating Live Tuna

Inconsiderate Woman On Bus Eating Live Tuna https://theonion.com/inconsiderate-woman-on-bus-eating-live-tuna-1819575933/

Here's PIRG researcher RJ Cross getting the Alilo Smart AI bunny to tell @savanahsellers.bsky.social about S&M, the FoloToy Sunflower Warmie telling me it is actually both a cactus and a teddy bear (???) and the Miiloo spouting the CCP line on Taiwan.

I’M LOSING MY SHIT THIS IS SO FUNNY

I made the mistake of starting The Terror mid-evening and bingeing it till nearly 5am. The show was burnt into my brain

Monochrome overload Why Keir Starmer needs to change the vibe

I wrote something at the time about how it wasn’t simply that the speech was ill-judged - it was also that spokespeople/outriders kept shutting down any potential pivot to optimism.

Optimism was Johnsonian “snakeoil”, etc

open.substack.com/pub/strategy...

It is crazy to me that there was a five minute fanfare over ID cards being the future of the government, coming from nowhere - then we’ve not heard a thing about it since

A New York Times headline that reads: "Calibri’s Run-In With Rubio Wasn’t Its First Controversy."

Can't say I ever expected to see a "That Font was No Angel" headline. But here we are.

"He put me in a chokehold.....that was very uncalled for" encapsulates perfectly the civilisational clash here. This gentleman doesn't even have the words to articulate the sheer despicableness of what he's been subjected to.

Someone with knowledge of candidate selection said they’re receiving a load of applications from doctors, lawyers etc and making a point of not selecting ex-MPs

Something deeply disorientating in the hours after Trump’s win was the small but significant number of gay porn stars who “came out” as MAGA.

But I think in their cases, it’s just meth.

She’s giving cum dumps a bad name

There's no way of comprehending the Trump admin's conflicted attitude to Europe apart from through its own racism.

In the Trump admin's view, Europe's "civilizational erasure" makes it worthy of abandonment. But Trump officials still want to push Europe to reclaim its past racist "greatness."

That’s been a good thing for my reading. Rather than jumping from one to another, like I did before, I now have to commit to finishing the book of a guest.

However, I’m now trying to space out guests with books so that I have little windows to read other things (been months since I read a novel 😭)

I definitely underestimated the work mine would be

Oh yeah!

For me, the real worry about Trump wasn’t that he’d pull the US out of NATO. It was that he’d so undermine American power and military readiness that we’d all be fucked.

Trump is going to war with Canada and/or Mexico and/or Panama and/or Venezuela and/or Nigeria and/or Colombia, seizing Greenland from Denmark, doing regime change in Europe - all while gutting the federal government, firing officers in FBI/CIA/Pentagon, at a time when US military is overstretched…

Unsurprisingly, given his business record, his mouth is writing cheques his government can’t cash

New ep!

I talk to Armen Sarkissian - former President of Armenia - about why the world seems so chaotic right now, how politicians should overcome it, and the surprising power of small states.

We also have a back’n’forth over Francis Fukuyama…

linktr.ee/strategyaaron

Getting older people back into education is a big part of Minouche Shafik's book, so will be interesting to see if there's a push from the government now that she's Starmer's economic advisor

At the time, I wanted Boris Johnson to win the leadership as I felt we were more likely to get a soft Brexit with him. The whole Nixon Goes to China thing.

Everything that’s happened since has just reinforced that (there would’ve been no Johnson outmaneuvering May in 2018/19, pushing for No Deal)