John Carl Baker

Pawa!

And here it is open.spotify.com/track/4b3QAt...

Did not have “Asha Puthli and Say She She release collaborative track for International Women’s Day” on my bingo card but…that is awesome.

I 100% understand that he will be replaced by someone equally bad (if not worse) - but I am going to be so, so happy when Lindsey Graham is no longer in Congress.

N. Korea cancels int'l marathon due to some reasons: tour agency | Yonhap News Agency SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has decided to cancel the 2026 Pyongyang Internatio...

Apparently North Korea has cancelled the 2026 Pyongyang International Marathon m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2026...

Opinion – Why the Liberal Rule-Based Order Failed Liberal thought has been traditionally quite sceptical of democracy, despite its frequent modern association with it.

My new piece in E- International Relations on why the liberal rule based int. order is dead (or comatose)- in brief its own design was fatally flawed from the start- liberal by flowery pronouncement and occasional policy, but not in its own structure
www.e-ir.info/2026/03/07/o...

Taking this at face value, imagine thinking a war over "baby steps" was somehow justified www.newsmax.com/world/global...

Exclusive: Trump’s Iran options include special operations raid on nuclear sites Former government sources and military experts say elite units have long prepared to land in Iran.

Essential for the nuclear threat reduction community to continue calling out this war as illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary - people may be tempted to embrace a narrow technocratic approach that focuses on securing nuclear materials and ignores the wider context www.semafor.com/article/03/0...

This is wild - it's just a regular daiquiri recipe but you also throw grapefruit peel into the shaker. Really good and super simple punchdrink.com/recipes/rega...

bsky.app/profile/john...

Seeing this a lot from various European leaders essentially trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be publicly very in favour of American actions without being identified as a person who is in favour of American actions and subject to questions about what that means they stand for

Also when I am benevolent dictator, I promise to ban ivy nationwide.

Tough on ivy. Tough on the causes of ivy.

Not only did I touch grass today, I spent 3.5 hours pulling up an old wire fence in our backyard. So yeah I’m basically a rugged outdoorsman.

How to Use Strega in Cocktails The best easy Strega liqueur cocktail recipes, from Manhattan riff made with Japanese whisky to a Penicillin, Margarita, Lemon Drop and more.

I respect putting this article out in March instead of October punchdrink.com/articles/str...

I think it’s gone up like 30 cents since Wednesday?

Oh wow they weren’t kidding about gas prices - I filled up our other car just a few days ago and it’s much worse now

portals//polarities

Their album is really good too open.spotify.com/album/3J8mi0...

Have those efforts actually disrupted someone’s candidacy or kept them from getting elected? Correct me if I’m wrong here but I don’t recall being pro-Ukraine messing up anyone’s campaign.

I do not think the Dem base has views akin to the DSA IC. That is a very odd thing to claim - look at Dem voter approval of support for Ukraine’s defense, for instance.

Selene

open.spotify.com/track/4npKDs...

honestly poasting your way into FP is pretty impressive

I think the problem is deeper. Foreign policy and national security are deeply insulated from democratic accountability or even scrutiny, more than any other policy domain. The elites this system produces reflect this. So do its failures.

Once heard a Dem natsec person talk about how they didn’t want Congress to get involved in a civil liberties/surveillance issue. They weren’t talking about Republicans.

Yes - was just going to bring this up! That’s what happens when someone with impeccable credentials but mildly divergent views ends up a position of power: they get canned.

I will own up to basically not buying that the stable is The Problem. It’s a problem, sure, but it’s more symptomatic than anything. There’s a reason people get these jobs and it’s not because they are Super Bureaucrats with elite specialized knowledge about how government works.

this is absolutely correct:i think a big challenge is that american unilateralism has been the default setting for the vast majority of conservatives and liberals in Congress and any attempt to dismantle it faces the challenge that a lot of people don't *want* to have multilaterialism

It’s all well and good to focus on getting someone halfway decent back in the presidency, in an administration hopefully staffed by better people, but that is years away. People need to scale back their ambitions and think about how a less hegemonic, less trusted US should relate to the world.

Remember that Biden ran on restoration—an easier goal then—and basically shot his (and Harris’) project in the foot by (1) backing genocide in Gaza and (2) not putting Trump in jail. Then Trump won and proceeded to destroy US soft power while using military power for blatantly imperial purposes.

I get the sense that some liberal natsec types just want those to their left to get on board with “US empire but good” and I’m sorry but that’s not going to happen.

And I don’t just mean that politically - I have serious doubts about whether restoration is even possible, let alone desirable.

but Kevin the TANKIES

Respectfully, I think natsec liberals should be doing some soul searching right now, and not just digging in on why they are right and why their chosen, mostly irrelevant foils on the left are wrong.