Folks,
Hopefully you’ve had a better week than the acting career of Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos.
We’re heading into a weekend, followed by a Christmas holiday. In other words, this is the perfect place for important people to dump important stories significantly timed to avoid the scrutiny of a hysterical, polarized and lazy public.
How important are these stories being dumped into the yawning chasm of public inattentiveness? The American pullout of Syria, brought on by the “defeat” (don’t laugh) of ISIS, the unveiling (finally) of US foreign policy in Africa, a significant drawdown in Afghanistan and the exposure of one of Turkey’s most high-profile American agents. And those stories were almost all dwarfed by the strongly-worded resignation letter of Jim Mattis. All of which indicates that this is a true pivot point in the Trump administration. The politics changed at the midterms, but now the personnel are changing, policies are changing, and, the effects will be significant for us — not to mention Iran, Russia and, literally, millions of others. So, in a year filled with important stories, this week offered perhaps the most important ones.
We’re about to enter a dangerous and chaotic time in US foreign policy.
