The 9/14/21 dispatch.
The 9/14/21 dispatch.
News broke (actually HUGE news) just prior to sending this out today that I’m sure will consume the news across the country for the next couple of days.
General Mark Milley worried that former President Trump might start a war with China in the last days and weeks of his presidency, so Milley called the top general in China to calm down any fears of such an event happening. He also told those involved in America’s nuclear program that no nukes could be launched without him being involved in the process.
You can read the full story below, though it’s bound to be across the news in the coming days. And the book that the reporting is based on was written by renowned journalist Bob Woodward, who’s been reporting and writing presidential books going back to Watergate in the 70s. In short, he’s usually dead-on in regards to the facts.
Look for this story to blow up even more in the coming days.
In other matters, The Washington Post recently wrote about how the CIA secretly assisted in the escape of Americans and Afghan allies from the war-torn country last month.
The story reads almost like a Vince Flynn thriller, with a car pulling up at the corner, an American stepping into it, and the car driving off in the opposite direction of the airport to throw off pursuers.
Link below:
I’m sure a lot more of this happened than we even know, and if I had to bet, I’d say it’s probably still happening.
I’d even go further with my bet, in fact. I’d even go so far as to say some Taliban members are assisting such efforts, for massive wads of cash: the fuel of most spy endeavors.
Give it some time and I’m confident we’ll read about some pretty crazy escapes someday.
Moving on, in Europe, a big thing (in the grand scheme of things) is happening. The Merkel era in Germany is about to end after 16 years. The Washington Post has a good summary of her time in office.
For more than 16 years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stood at the heart of European politics. As the country’s first female chancellor, she steered Europe’s largest economy — and, by extension, the rest of the continent — through cycles of crises, from the shock of the global recession to the risk of euro-zone collapse to the 2015 migration surge. She earned a reputation for serious work, stable leadership and having a gift for political compromise. When Donald Trump took presidential office, she was cast briefly as the great defender of the Western liberal order, a reputation burnished by an unforgettable 2018 picture of Merkel glaring across the table at Trump like a stern schoolmaster about to scold a truculent pupil.
But we are now in the deep twilight of the Merkel era. In less than two weeks, Germans will elect a new government and Merkel will have no part in it. Her political party, the center-right Christian Democrats, may for the first time in a generation find itself sitting in the opposition absent its talismanic leader. And for all the respect and admiration Merkel commanded at home and abroad, she is poised to exit the stage with a checkered record.
You can read more about it at the link above.
Finally, I saw the eye-popping story below. I only barely skimmed the highlights, but it’s just staggering to consider that we’ve spent $14 trillion. And that $7 trillion of that went to contractors.
Just seeing those numbers. They’re almost not real. And yet I know they are.
That’s it for this post. Stay safe and be kind. As always, please share this post if you enjoyed it.
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