Daniel Larison

Senator Kelly valiantly served our country as an aviator in the U.S. Navy before later completing four space shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. To accuse him and other lawmakers of treason and sedition for rightfully pointing out that servicemembers can refuse illegal orders is reckless and flat-out wrong. The Department of Defense and FBI surely have more important priorities than this frivolous investigation.

Glad to see this from Senator Murkowski.

This should not be a partisan issue.

My latest article, from The Nation, on how--despite his anti-interventionist rhetoric--Trump is a dangerous militarist.
Please consider circulating.
www.thenation.com/article/worl...

But behind these undeniable social changes is the specter of economic failure rising from giant, doomed construction sites like Neom. For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but rather the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy—misallocating resources and investing state funds on white elephant development projects, so many of which are based on speculative, luxury real estate, rather than on social services, like education or public health, or needed public infrastructure that would serve most Saudis. Indeed, it is a trap that much of the Middle East has fallen into. MBS’ vaunted Vision 2030 development agenda was not just a plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It was a way to concentrate power in the crown prince’s hands and manufacture a personalist regime around him, something his father and previous Saudi kings, who vested their authority in the monarchy itself, never really constructed. But Vision 2030 was also a bet that Saudi Arabia could “transform itself into a real-estate empire,” as Colin Powers, a senior fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at Noria Research, has argued. This is what really underpins Neom and MBS’ other vanity projects: vast speculative real estate, modeled on Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates, which the Saudis see as both their partner and rival. When MBS talks of turning Riyadh into a new Dubai, this is what he means: A Saudi economy transitioned away from oil, according to Vision 2030, but with real estate as its new engine of growth.

"For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy."

Megaproject fiascos, an overdrawn sovereign wealth fund and speculative, crony real estate schemes won’t create MBS's “thriving economy.”

Venezuela and Trump's Throwback Imperialism Overthrowing the government of a much weaker country so that the U.S. can exploit that country’s resources is what he thinks the U.S. should have always been doing.

"Overthrowing the government of a much weaker country so that the U.S. can exploit that country’s resources is what he thinks the U.S. should have always been doing." daniellarison.substack.com/p/venezuela-...

"Trump said I should be executed, I should be hanged ... it says a lot more about him than it says about me. I'm not going to be silenced."

You get a designation, and you get a designation. Everybody gets a terrorist designation:

Again, every elected Democrat needs to put out a video stating exactly what Kelly and the others said. If ever there were a line to draw in the sand, it’s here. The military is not the president’s Praetorian Guard.

Absolutely. Trump is acting like a Stuart king. If Thune and Johnson cared about the constitutional power of the branch of government in which they serve -- and indeed about the preservation of small-r republican government -- they'd hit back hard. Not holding my breath, alas.

I agree with the response. As I said last week, "A world with more nuclear-armed states is an inherently less secure and less stable world."
daniellarison.substack.com/p/selective-...

The 2001 AUMF is extremely broad, but it isn't an all-purpose license to attack any and all "terrorists" wherever they may be.

No experts believe this. This is false and wildly misleading.

CBS News poll finds most would oppose U.S. military action in Venezuela, say Trump hasn't explained Those prioritizing economy say Trump is not spending enough time on it, as ratings of economy, his handling of inflation slip.

NEW: Americans overwhelmingly oppose attacking Venezuela

• 70% oppose military action

• 75% say Trump must get prior congressional approval, including most Republicans

• 63% say attacks would not change—or even increase—the flow of drugs into the United States

www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-ve...

The Chaos and Violence of Regime Change Interventionists always deny that there will be serious negative consequences from military action because otherwise they can’t sell an attack as something worth doing.

"When regime changers claim that a country won’t fall into chaos when the regime is brought down, this is akin to would-be arsonists promising that the fire they want to set isn’t going to burn anything." daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-chaos-...

Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump + Plaque: LOYALTY TO THE CONSTITUTION THE UNITED STATES BOLDLY BROKE WITH THE ANCIENT MILITARY CUSTOM OF SWEARING LOYALTY TO A LEADER. ARTICLE VI REQUIRED THAT AMERICAN OFFICERS THEREAFTER SWEAR LOYALTY TO OUR BASIC LAW, THE CONSTITUTION. WHILE MANY OTHER NATIONS HAVE SUFFERED MILITARY COUPS, THE UNITED STATES NEVER HAS. OUR AMERICAN CODE OF MILITARY OBEDIENCE REQUIRES THAT, SHOULD ORDERS AND THE LAW EVER CONFLICT, OUR OFFICERS MUST OBEY THE LAW. MANY OTHER NATIONS HAVE ADOPTED OUR PRINCIPLE OF LOYALTY TO THE BASIC LAW. THIS NATION MUST HAVE MILITARY LEADERS OF PRINCIPLE AND INTEGRITY SO STRONG THAT THEIR OATHS TO SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION WILL UNFAILINGLY GOVERN THEIR ACTIONS. THE PURPOSE OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY IS TO PROVIDE SUCH LEADERS OF CHARACTER. 1.23k ReTruths 3.93k Likes 11/23/25, 7:41 PM

Trump didn’t read before posting:

“OUR AMERICAN CODE OF MILITARY OBEDIENCE REQUIRES THAT, SHOULD ORDERS AND THE LAW EVER CONFLICT, OUR OFFICERS MUST OBEY THE LAW.”

Can Vance really be as stupid as he pretends to be?

“If you have to coerce, bomb, and invade countries in order preserve the international order of your choosing, then you aren’t really hegemonic. You’re just an asshole.” link below

At least 1004 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since US-backed Israeli forces & settlers began escalating violence after 10/7/2023, B’Tselem reports. 217 were children. Several were US citizens.

“In the 21 cases where settlers killed Palestinians, not a single perpetrator has been convicted”

Why grant anonymity to someone who is lying to you with the company line? This adds nothing but misinformation to the story and the person quoted isn't going to get in trouble for saying it.

Map of Venezuelan airspace

The US has issued a new NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) for the entire Venezuelan Flight Information Region, advising of a hazardous security environment amid worsening conditions and heightened military activity in and around Venezuela.

The Regime Change Temptation in Venezuela If past is prologue, a U.S. attempt to overthrow Maduro would not end well.

If only we had research that showed if regime change was likely to work. Oh wait, we have an overwhelming consensus in a field that rarely produces them. Read @profdownes.bsky.social & O’Rourke in @foreignaffairs.bsky.social

www.foreignaffairs.com/venezuela/re...

This ceasefire keeps getting "tested" by civilians being slaughtered by Israel. And yet it endures in journalistic convention. A marvel of the modern age. bsky.app/profile/apne...

There’s a moment in the classic film “Paths of Glory” in which an artillery officer, told to commit a war crime, asks for the order in writing.

That is happening right now, in real life, among US troops in the Carribbean.

Except in the movie, the demand kept the crime from happening.

White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats The Trump administration sidestepped skeptical lawyers across national security agencies as it pursued a military campaign against alleged narcotraffickers, officials say.

detailed WashPost account of how Trump and Stephen Miller sidelined serious lawyers so they could fabricate a justification for committing murder

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

U.S. Ran a War Game on Ousting Maduro. Venezuela Fell Into Chaos.

How can this be? Elliott Abrams and Bret Stephens told us it would be wonderful. They wouldn't lie about something like this, would they?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...

U.S. Ran a War Game on Ousting Maduro. Venezuela Fell Into Chaos.

“The idea that you’re going to be able to slot in a government and everything else will just fall into place, I think is just fantasy,” added Mr. Gunson, speaking from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

And citations to our recent @crisisgroup.org statement.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...

This is not a convincing message.

Opinion | I’m in Venezuela. This Is the True Cost of Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy.

From my @crisisgroup.org colleague Phil Gunson.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving man than this utter trash, hateful, racist genocide cheerleader. You reap what you sow, @johnfetterman.com

Notable development for Democrats' foreign policy: firmly pro-Israel Brad Sherman is now their top voice on the House panel for the Middle East

"It’s like they are trying to spotlight the deep division between D lawmakers & voters + alienate progressive activists," one unhappy advocate argued to me

Good news: “A majority of the world’s countries—99 states—have now signed, ratified, or acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” 👏