Stephen England

Why Has the United States Deployed Gunboats to Haiti? As a new UN-backed force prepares to deploy to Haiti, a political, security and humanitarian crisis deepens

All eyes are on Iran...but the US has also positioned gun boats off the coast of Haiti!

www.globaldispatches.org/p/why-has-th...

If you're an English teacher and you make your students diagram a single sentence from the president's formal remarks, you will be charged with felony assault and sent to prison for the rest of your natural life.

Trump to SCOTUS: ‘You better not take away my tariffs…’

SCOTUS:

I've been bingeing a fair bit of Apple TV lately, which given my tastes has led me to "Echo 3."

Four episodes in, I can't quite determine whether I'm watching sloppily written propaganda or marginally clever commentary on the hubris of Americans in general and American SOF in particular. Thoughts?

I don't have a firm opinion on this morning's Supreme Court ruling (believe it or not). But I can say this, on any morning: Vive Montesquieu. Long live James Madison and our Constitution, with its separation of powers. We all want "result." But "process" is key to our republic.

I actually have encountered the occasional stray conservative who will drop references to the perceived Chinese respect for "tradition" on various social issues, but you're right that it's nowhere as prevalent as similar perceptions of Russia.

This is a face that says, "I thought we weren't woke anymore."

/sarc

I've encountered the expression, but only rarely, and in books. Pretty sure they weren't American books, either.

That's the thing with Berenson--as post-9/11 American thriller authors go, his take on Islam was far more nuanced than most. Yet he's the one who takes a sharp turn for Cloud Cuckoo Land.

People are complicated, unpredictable creatures.

That's great to hear. It's one of my favorites of Martin's books, and I'm glad they didn't try to go GOT-lite with it.

I really wish Alex Berenson could have let me remember him as the prominent author who took the time to very kindly reply to the unsolicited email of a new arrival to the genre back when I had first published, instead of losing himself down the rabbit hole. But those are life's breaks.

Dear Lord, I see what you're doing for South Korea and for the United Kingdom, and I would ask the same for the United States of America, even if we don't deserve it. 🙏

The American president is more insulated from accountability than a British royal.

Our political system provides the elite with immunity. It has to change.

It's a very good book.

Worthwhile, I take it?

Ah, it's from the new show. Tracking. No, I'm waiting until the last episode drops so I can binge it.

I don't even remember what character that was, off the top of my head.

That doesn't even sound entertaining.

Pomfret's The Beautiful Country & The Middle Kingdom lays out the shared history and makes a strong case for what might have been, if not for a lot of missteps on the part of the US and obviously the post-Revolution Cold War animosities.

My hat is really off to people like Jemar Tisby who manage to call out the deeply flawed history of Christianity in America without turning their back on the faith. That takes an incredible moral strength.

I think a lot of the formulaic "write to market" crowd is going to take massive hits, because they've chosen to do something that AI can emulate. But work that truly speaks to the human experience will endure, even if getting traction--already hard--may become even more daunting.

I think this is spot-on. I think back on the 150 or so books I read in 2025, and yeah, a few of them could have been written, if not improved, by AI.

But of the books that stuck with me? 0. Because what made those books memorable and valuable was their uniquely human insight.

"Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked."

"Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked."

One of my favorite TV shows of all time.

Xi's anti-corruption drive has removed the PLA's safety valve Chinese leader has replaced 'rational pacifists' with 'terrified novices' who dare not say no

Interesting argument that joins the corruption/attack Taiwan reasons for Xi's removal of top leaders. The corruption is so pervasive it creates "rational pacifists" who know that war will kill their business. So the anti-corruption drive is aimed at Taiwan.
asia.nikkei.com/opinion/xi-s...

To the extent that you can ever summarize a place as complex as Afghanistan, the last couple hundred years have been a seesaw between urban liberalization and rural conservative backlash. Trying to impose liberalization on the mountains has never gone well.

One of my favorite quotes in recent years is Kim Stanley Robinson's observation in "The Years of Rice and Salt" that: "that was what history always was, a hallucinated pattern onto random events."

I always come back to the observation I read some time ago that when people look back at medieval society with nostalgia, they're believing they'd be on the top of the pile, even--or especially--if that's not true of their current lot in life.

The New Laser That Can Take Down Aircraft Russian strikes have forced Ukraine to build high-tech air defense on the cheap.

The Atlantic on the Ukrainian Sunray, laser weapon system used against drones.

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...