markames1969 🇵🇸

We should not be giving out grants or cash for summer block parties. Fiscal discipline requires us to immediately eliminate any program that is unnecessary during these challenging economic times. We must account for every dollar we receive and spend.

Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called 'blockade', Soon you'll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas. ΔO_BSOH>0 ⇒ f(f(O))>f(O)

I’m so glad I actually went to Israel. Because when you go there, you can see how every part of these leftist talking points are wrong. First, Israel does not want to “expand its borders.” There’s barely anything in northern Israel, and the IDF doesn’t need more territory to control. What they do want is to disrupt line of sight. It’s remarkable to stand on a mountain ridge and see Jordan, Gush Etzion and Tel Aviv with your naked eye. Imagine what someone could do with a rocket or sniper rifle standing on the mountain ridges of Syria. Secondly, Israel did not want to “destroy Gaza.” They did need to disrupt the tunnel system (paid for with US aid money) that Hamas had designed to hide in. The reason for this is Hamas told the world repeatedly they’d repeat October 7th. Thirdly, the thing Israelis want more than anything is to be left alone. It’s underappreciated here in America, but Israelis are tired of running to bomb shelters in the middle of the night. I had a conversation with a friend whose father lives in northern Israel last week. They decided as a family it was safer for him to stay in bed and risk being killed by a rocket than continue going down the stairs in the risk he could break his hip. Can you imagine having that conversation with your father? There is such a profound lack of understanding of the Israeli perspective in Democratic circles. Part of it is the fact that Israel is remarkably bad at putting out their point of view to the public, but the larger reality is the left inclined to believe the worst of Jews for some reason.

I have a PhD in political science from Oxford, focused on US foreign policy; worked as a State Dept. official in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East; and wrote a celebrated foreign policy book taught at universities like Princeton. That's why I get geopolitical questions.