I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about Russia and the 2020 election, thoughts that are leading me to some chilling places. You may skip over this — “Oh, Allyn’s moaning about Russia again, and it’s all ‘Fake News’ anyway” — but that’s because you’ve never asked yourself the question: “What does Russia want?” … Continue reading Russia, the Primakov Doctrine, and Implications for the 2020 Election
Tag: Donald Trump
Reports surfaced today that President Donald Trump is considering Jim Webb, former Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia, to replace Jim Mattis as Secretary of Defense. Mattis, famously, resigned in protest a few days before Christmas due to the president’s abrupt announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria. Webb would be an … Continue reading The Next Secretary of Defense Will Be…?
Yesterday evening, scrolling through Facebook, I saw a former colleague of mine from EB Games, M, post the following meme image, without any commentary: I posted a quick reply: “Honestly, what do you think would have been different with Johnson?” I didn’t expect a reply, but one was soon forthcoming. In case that’s not entirely … Continue reading What If… Gary Johnson Had Won in 2016?
I didn’t go to the protest at BWI yesterday. If I’d found out about it two hours earlier, I might have; I didn’t have anything else happening yesterday. In the last twenty-four hours I’ve seen several writers note that the protests against Trump’s travel ban from seven Muslim countries are a feature, not a bug, … Continue reading The Travel Ban and the Steve Bannon Playbook
In the last week Twitter has exploded with “rogue” government Twitter accounts, accounts that purport to be “employees… disgruntled by moves the [Trump] administration has made to tamp down on these agency’s abilities to spread their messages… and have taken to Twitter to resist Trump’s authoritarianism.” There are even some (I know of three) that … Continue reading Thoughts on the “Rogue” Government Twitter Accounts
Today I attended the Women’s March sister march in Baltimore. There isn’t much of a narrative here, and I’d struggle to stitch one together. I’ll give some brief background, an account of what I did and witnessed, pictures of what I saw, and some final remarks. This is going behind a link, as there are … Continue reading Scenes from the Women’s March in Baltimore
A week ago I’d planned on going to Washington for Hillary Clinton’s inauguration in January. “It will be historic, and it will be fun!” I thought. I’m not going to the inauguration now, and not just because Clinton won’t be the forty-fifth president. The more I’ve thought about January’s inauguration, the more I see the … Continue reading Thoughts on the Inauguration
The Electoral College is not going to stand in Donald Trump’s way. I’ve seen chatter the last few days, both on political blogs and Facebook, that the voters of the Electoral College can, or even should, vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump. (For example, here.) It’s a nice idea — it’s the way … Continue reading The Electoral College Won’t Prevent President Trump
Last night on Twitter I saw Donald Trump, Jr.’s tweet about Syrian refugees and Skittles. This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first. #trump2016 pic.twitter.com/9fHwog7ssN — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 19, 2016 It struck me as a stupid and crass thing to say, and I watched … Continue reading Skittles, Syrians, and Accidental Genius
Let me ramble on for a few minutes about Ted Cruz’s speech last night at the Republican National Convention. For those coming in late, last night Ted Cruz delivered a speech — that was known in advance not to be an endorsement of Donald Trump — that was, surprisingly to pretty much everyone, an anti-Trump … Continue reading Ted Cruz and the Kick-Off of the 2020 Campaign
Last night, on the second night (of four) of the Republican National Convention, the Republican Party nominated Donald J. Trump as its standard bearer for this year’s presidential campaign. Presidential conventions in the last thirty years, since I was old enough to pay attention, are stage-managed, scripted pep rallies. Nothing unexpected happens. Nothing controversial happens. … Continue reading The Republican Convention and the Potential for Future Violence
There’s chatter among conservative thinkers, who are really annoyed that the Republican primary voters have selected Donald Trump to be their standard bearer in this fall’s election, about running a conservative third-party candidate. I can sort of understand the why — “Trump doesn’t represent us, he’ll be gone after this cycle and we’ll be back … Continue reading The 2016 Conservative Third Party Option