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Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom
, 4 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
My (very limited) take on this Whelan thing: I've never thought dual-citizenship is (in general) a good idea. I understand why some people do it; I personally, would not. But *four* citizenships? That's just ridiculous. /1
I'm going to take a wild guess at this Whelan business and say - my PERSONAL view, duh - that he's not in any way a spy. More likely some kind of wannabe, or a guy who was trying to rack up Russia cred with private industry or consulting firms, and wasn't too smart about it. /2
Guy who gets a BCD from the Marines isn't exactly a prime recruit for that kind of work. More to the point, running around Russia with four passports is going to get you noticed. Russians probably had him on a list of "people who are easy to grab in case of a problem." /3
That doesn't excuse the Russians putting the bag on him as retaliation for Butina. I have no idea if there's more to this story, but I agree with @McFaul - I wouldn't advise any American to go to Russia these days - which breaks my heart, personally. /4x
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A more serious answer. I think what's happening is that elites like Carlson and VD Hanson, having traded in their intellectual bona fides for Trumpism, now have to pander to Rube Nation because they're left with no other constituency. This is the crackup of the right. /1
Trump forced a decision in 2016: do you go all-in on that "Flight 93" bullshit, or do you continue to be an actual *conservative*? I think people like Hanson and others went all in, thinking it wouldn't be so bad and the stench would be tolerable. They were, of course, wrong. /2
So they pretended to like what they were doing. They figured that after Trump was elected, bygones were bygones and the right would reunite, and they'd be shown to be right for going to the wall to stop Hillary. They figured Trump would calm down and adults would run things. /3
Read 11 tweets
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I’m going to call foul. This is up there with “Perot voters wouldn’t have gone for Bush.” Yes, if you run these numbers, Clinton (and Bush) lose. But that is the wrong way to look at it. /1
The problem is that you cannot re-run history without Jill Stein (or Perot) being on the ballot. Asking Stein voters if they feel like idiots isn't going to produce an answer that says "Boy, I was nuts to fall for her shtick, but I see it now." That's not how humans act. /2
What would the election have been had Stein *never* been an option is the way to look at it. We can't answer that, but it's not crazy to wonder if the anti-Trump vote might have coalesced earlier or more firmly. Knowing Stein was an option wrecks the hypothetical. /3
Read 5 tweets
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Look, I think it's time for some of you folks to get off the ledge about Patrick Shanahan. The man will be Acting SecDef, and it's not the end of the world that he's the one that will do it. Here's a couple of things to think about.
(Note: My personal opinion, obviously.) /1
First, there is no denying that Mattis's resignation is a disaster for the country. Period. I said so right here:
usatoday.com/story/opinion/…
So spare me any whining that I "don't get it." I get it. But Shanahan is the DepSec. His stepping in is, as far as anything can be, normal. /2
Second, remember that a four-star general running DoD is the exception, not the rule. It shows you how much we all came to rely on Mattis that we cannot imagine this administration without him, but there's a reason Congress had to grant a waiver. /3
Read 8 tweets

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.@badndns begins session on DNA and Elizabeth Warren with a land acknowledgement of the local Native communities. Introduces the panelists: @BettyRbl, @JeaniOBrien, @Doug_Kiel, @malindalowery, and Julie Reed.
.@BettyRbl Talk today focuses on a feminist issue: the marginalization of Native women within the gendered violence of a settler colonial system. Will focus on the use of the name Pocahontas as a slur, and its effect on Native women.
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#whelan is potentially what I was: an asset or source being run by a US intel agency. He is likely not a CIA officer. It shows how dangerous this work is and how key it is to providing actionable intelligence.
This is a game the USG plays, and it uses people who are outside its sphere to do things they can’t physically or legally do. This is exactly what I did.
This is where the “real” spying happens. It’s dangerous and the risks are extraordinarily high.
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I’ll preface this brief rant on #birthright #citizenship by saying that, for personal, political and religious reasons, I do not identify as a Republican or a Democrat. I believe that as a Christian and pastor I must remain engaged — but not aligned.
Over the past decade, I have become increasingly selective about which issues I will weigh in on in a public forum. As a rule, I’ll avoid almost all discussions of electoral politics in the U.S. or in any of the other five countries in which I serve.
I do, however, feel completely free to discuss and debate policies and perspectives that affect orphaned and vulnerable kids, and I have praised — and criticized — politicians and pundits Democrat and Republican when they help or harm at-risk children.
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45 Days Of @ElvisCostello: a twitter megathread in anticipation of the Oct 12 release date of LOOK NOW, the new LP by Elvis Costello & The Imposters

This is either a bright idea or a brilliant mistake, but this is only, this is only, this is only the beginning...
I did something similar to this 5 years ago, in anticipation of EC & @theroots' Wise Up Ghost LP, on tumblr.

(You can still find all those posts if you look, although a lot of the YouTube links etc are now dead ends. It was 40 Days Of EC then, so for 2018 I'm upping it to 45.)
Mostly I will be going chronologically from the early years right up to the present, but it feels right to start out with Costello's 2002 song, "45."

Music Video directed by @jessebdylan


(There's an alternate "diner" version I can't find anywhere online)
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YM AU || Kitten hybrid!Jimin enters the workforce under Seoul Games as the head of animation’s assistant. While Yoongi claims that he doesn’t need an assistant in the first place, Jimin doesn’t have any actual real world skills to service him with. That is, until one afternoon,
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Jimin darts out his tongue, wets his bottom lip, and opens the folder in his lap once more, examining his resume thoughtfully. If there are any typos, he wouldn’t actually know, hadn’t been the one to put the thing together, but, rather, received it from his career technical
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1. Okay #auspol, here comes the big #s44 #citizenship drop. Someone will have to bring this up, and actually someone who should know better already has. Let’s get some height first, survey the terrain and identify the targets.
2. On Sunday I listed the 15 lower house MPs I believe most likely to be headed out the door because they’re dual citizens. I could add about ten more, the tap never stops running, but for now this thread reviews the cases of one category of MP.
3. Either now, or later, you’ll ask yourself “who is this cassowary and how did he find out all this stuff?” Easy: I looked. I’ve spent nearly 100 hours on this. Also, I’m pretty good at patterns and analysis. I used to work as a journalist and in humanitarian relief.
Read 59 tweets

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