Steve Saideman

@smsaideman.bsky.social

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#CivMil relations; Director, @CdsnRcds; saideman.blogspot.com; Co-host, Battle Rhythm podcast cdsn-rcds.com/battlerhythm, International Relations professor

Posts Replies Media

Reply to

Daniel Fienberg

was this season of it good?

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Steve Saideman

My contribution to the "Christ, what an asshole" coverage of J.D. Vance: How he reconciles his denunciation of divorce and running with a guy who on his third adulterous marriage. Hint: It's not divorced men Vance loathes. It's divorced women. www.salon.com/2024/07/16/s...

J.D. Vance decried folks who "shift spouses like they change their underwear" — but he loves Trumpwww.salon.com Donald's running mate denounced divorce for "even violent" marriages, but is mum on his boss's wives and mistresses

hey @thefienprint.bsky.social, is the Morning Show getting so many noms more of Emmys love of movie stars? I haven't watched, but it was not really part of the conversation this year, right?

Reply to

Dan Nexon

It pushes against Huntington, democratic leaders can & should manage their armed forces, using Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill to argue that yes, that military should provide blunt advice to the civs but the Unequal Dialogue favors the civs. Feaver goes further--civs have the right to be wrong

Sounds obvious, but not really. H dominated the civ-mil field, despite Janowitz's efforts, until the p-a types like Feaver and Avant and Brooks pushed back hard. Cohen helps in that. But yes, his role in the Iraq war and now this really ruins his rep.

This morning's reading for my fall US Foreign Policy class is the State Dept chapter of Project 2025. I am wondering which party has been more responsible for slowing down the Senate confirmation process. Hmmmm.

Then the chapter talks about freezing and reviewing all kind of decisions, allocations, quality over speed, which seems to be the opposite of the first part. Then the fun begins--no longer implementing agreements US has signed but not ratified. That list is long en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

"This Administration’s humanitarian crisis—which is arguably the greatest humanitarian crisis in the modern era, one which has harmed Americans and foreign nationals alike—will take many years and billions of dollars to fully address." What crisis? I am seriously confused.

"the next President must significantly reorient the U.S. government’s posture toward friends and adversaries alike—which will include much more honest assessments about who are friends and who are not." Let me guess: Russia now a friend?

I love the contradictions--we will reassess who our friends are, bullying them to pay more, but also we will need strong partnerships for dealing with China.

"The U.S. government needs an Article X for China, and it should be a presidential mandate." Kind of misses the point. Plus the author of the X article regretted American overreaction, militarization of containment. Ooops.

Speaking of contradictions, the part on Russia is a roller coaster--yes, Russia's aggression is bad, but it is not so important, we should help Ukraine, but someone else should pay for it.

Yet more contradictions--speaks of a sovereign Mexico yet wants to tell Mexico how to govern itself.

Not sure what State has to do with the fentanyl crisis--does State regulate big pharma in the US?

Back to Project 2025 chapter on State, another fun contradiction--US must prevent Iran from getting nukes but earlier was critical of Obama nuke deal that did exactly that.

What a surprise: US should continue to depend on the whims of Saudi Arabia. Always a good idea. Funny how tone deaf this is about how Gaza/Israel war has made it impossible for Egypt, for instance, to kowtow to US.

"The U.S. cannot neglect a concern for human rights and minority rights".... which means what? Oh, Middle Eastern Christians and other religious minorities. Hmmm.

More contradictions, Euro division, P2025 argues for reducing European dependence on trade with China while reviewing all agreements with the EU to promote US companies

One consistency is having the US depend more on mercurial autocratic types like Saudi Arabia and Modi.

Really an incredible bit of writing to have a big section on the Arctic and entirely omit .... Canada. Maybe this is subtweet Canada? "The U.S. should unapologetically pursue American interests in the Arctic by promoting economic freedom in the region" NORAD omitted as well.

Indeed, in the entire doc, Canada is mentioned only once in a throwaway line about hemispheric energy policy. Canada should be glad to be forgotten by Project 2025.

Yet more contradictions: WHO sucked, but Trump's pullout makes organizations work better. So, which is it?

Reply to

Dan Nexon

It is too bad, his book Supreme Command, made an important point that is misunderstood.

Reply to

Faine Greenwood

to put it in Texas terms, California is UT Austin, Texas is Texas Tech.

Reply to

Tahar 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 🇺🇳 🇪🇺

Cohen must forget how close we came to wars with North Korea and Iran.

Reposted by

Steve Saideman

Are we sure he wasn't talking about Mike Pence?

“women should stay in violent marriages - for the kids.” —JD Vance

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Steve Saideman

Media and political professionals who’ve been alive since Reagan or before: ah yes this NEW Trump GOP stressing the importance of MAIN st over WALL st and making appeals to the Working Class (citation needed), this sounds NEW to me, somehow

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Steve Saideman

If the United States loses its democracy, it’ll be the dumbest slide into authoritarianism in history. Others cases had mass unemployment, a major war, something. None have done it with low unemployment, rising real wages, declining crime, and no troops fighting in foreign wars.

Reply to

Cheryl Rofer

so far, it is pretty gross.

Reply to

Amy A

hey now, I used to..... oh wait, I was 9.