Sean Michael Ragan

Yeah I'ma let you have that argument with somebody else

India-Pakistan jets clash in one of the largest dogfights in recent history Fighting between the two nuclear rivals has intensified amid international concerns and calls for cooling off

Is this the second Battle of Britain or just a huge wasteful jerk-off? www.newsweek.com/india-pakist...

You do not care for Bridge Colby?

Deterring China by adequately provisioning our forces and our allies in the South Pacific.

It mostly means our limited stocks of weapons go to the Pacific theater rather than the European theater. Jake Sullivan himself recently admitted that Biden's miserable "slow walk" strategy was a function of US supply limitations rather than escalation management.

You have just described a settlement.

Everyone needs to stop freaking out about Trump and face the fact that WWIII is here, and it's only going to escalate during his term. However much you hate him, he's the only President we've got now.

I voted for Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020, and Harris in 2024. In each case, I was voting *against* Trump rather than for his opponent. But he's won now, and handily, and though I have grave concerns about his fitness, I do not think he is the biggest threat we face.

I despise what Russia is doing to Ukraine as much as anyone but Elbridge Colby is probably right that China has to be our priority. It is entirely possible that Russia and China have been planning a squeeze play from the beginning.

We could do worse than Bridge Colby.

That's a stretch. I don't think Trump is responsible for this.

You're quite right.

It has astonished me to see a small but vocal minority of Americans seriously advocating for monarchy. As I see it, there can be no more fundamental betrayal of what it means to be an American. Even segregationists and communists are more authentically American than monarchists.

It's in your enemy's interest that you underestimate him.

Also, how is it a mistake to overestimate them?

They won the election.

What about 14 fronts? Asking for a friend in Beijing...

Correct.

But it is textbook Musk/techbro etc. Used to work for Apple. You know what their internal motto is? "Burn the boats."

Cruel, certainly. I'm unpersuaded on incompetent. In any case it's a mistake to underestimate them.

I don't think that follows. Issuing a blanket freeze followed by a bunch of waivers strikes me as a pretty efficient means of filtering for programs that actually matter to people and leaving the pork behind.

So not a physics student, I take it.

You think DeepFold is shitty?

Commentary in #theatlantic today to the effect that there's "zero national security reason" for the US to resume control of the Panama Canal is naive. If we control the canal, we can weaponize it: our friends get through, our enemies can go another 8000 miles and try their luck in the Drake Passage.

Even though they're obviously cutting your checks?

Apparently they did. But then, appearances aren't everything.

I assume you are referring to Russians?

Nah

I am begging otherwise-smart people to realize that often the answer to “I just saw something enraging on social media, why have I never heard about it before” is “because it’s not true.”

Help me understand what you mean, please. I don't see what TFG has to do with this.