going through IEP/504 renewal for one of my kids right now. we are probably in the top percentile of parents in terms of engagement, familiarity, and facility with this stuff; certainly top 5%. my wife is literally her school’s 504 coordinator.

and it’s still confusing as hell

Norwich terrier puppy with paws in food bowl

Norwich terrier puppy on hind legs so he can reach into elevated dog food bowl

Hard to believe it’s been five years since this little guy came into our lives. Here he was exploring his “big brother’s“ (our Lab/Coon Hound rescue) food dish.

I‘m just waiting to see if AI can bridge the gap in wargaming between logistics events and campaign effects. If a port gets taken out with cyber, how does that impact the GCC‘s campaign plan?

Picture of a small frog on a planter

Our favorite resident amphibian decided to join me as I was planting today. He got a bit dirty as I did not see him at first.

Don’t forget about the Lithuanians wanting to restore the Grand Duchy

Amen

Tracey Thorn is my favorite female vocalist….ever. Yep, I’m going to go with ever. A warmth to her voice that draws me in no matter what genre she’s in.

I’m going to blame being in Germany 1986-89 for why I became enthralled with music artists not necessarily big in the U.S. Visiting Seattle made me revisit the music I listened to on my PCS drive from Virginia to Ft. Lewis. Everything But The Girl, Lloyd Cole and everything Paul Weller touched.

I’ve just had to turn off the insanity and stop doomscrolling/news surfing. We had to postpone a planned trip this week so we went and bought plants for our deck and front yard.

Really looking forward to an extra chance I didn’t think I’d get to put my hands in the dirt.

“When I Go Away,” Levon Helm

This is so incoherent that it only makes sense as a billionaires reactionary brain farts. Eg: public employees are not “priests” and are over compensated. Reality: they are underpaid and have been serially abused. Next point, people engaging in public life (read: DOGE, Palantir) deserve our grace.

Just remember the Trump administration is killing mRNA vaccine research and production. As cholangiocarcinoma is a related biliary cancer I was hopeful there would be a similar vaccine trial . Nope. Ugh.

Holy shit, Carroll Quigley. Not a name I was expecting to see….

Too funny

If only Hannity would self deport

Self Excommunication

The question is the cost. We need dozens of them. Earlier capability development discussions were pointing to a highly capable/high cost solution. My personal view is we need to pivot to cheap, attributable platforms In this space.

Somewhere around my house I still have a 3x5 white flag with this logo in the middle of it.

You have clearly learned from my wife

and the concomitant budget discussions in the building beyond these wild “flavor du jour” discussions that seem to be dominating. End.

3. There should be a through line from strategy to budget. The high profile failure of various military programs I would argue stems, in part, from the strategy drift since 1989. A clear strategy, with a commitment to the capabilities required to fulfill it would clarify the DIB discussion 9/

of US power to bear. We can debate the validity or effectiveness of containment or rollback during the Cold War, but they gave a coherence to US diplomacy, economic policy, messaging and military budgets. (Maybe that’s integrated deterrence?). Which brings me to my final point.

China may in the future.

2. We don’t have a coherent strategy. This has been nagging me for a decade. Whether great power competition, or a pivot to Asia, I’ve yet to hear a coherent strategy for dealing with those “threats.” And here I’m talking about bringing all of the elements 7/

I’m not sure most Americans are unready for even the thought experiment of what it would mean to unilaterally disarm to become the equivalent of France, but that’s what they are asking for with the whole “US spends more than next 10 combined.” No other country has global commitments. 6/

been seriously questioned. So, despite the world changing, the underlying assumption of what the people, thru Congress wanted hasn‘t changed. Communism was replaced by terrorism replaced by “great power competition” but the global nature of those threats remained. That constrains the discourse 5/

deployed, a power projection capability to support all three objectives, and the capability to conduct LSCO on the ground if needed. A corollary was we had to have decisive capability. So while allies are nice, we weren’t going to outsource any of this. The “we have to be #1” mentality hasn’t 4/

Those objectives have been pretty constant. Defend the U.S., deter an existential nuclear conflict, and defeat a regional power(s) when needed. The sizing of the last one has varied significantly over time. That all translates to a significant nuclear enterprise, a large blue water Navy fwd 3/

1. “Nothing new to say” and the status quo. Since 1951 and NSC 68, the underlying premise of US strategy and defense budgets is the U.S. will be a global power capable of simultaneously meeting multiple strategic objectives. And despite the fact every NDS saying we are at an inflection point 2/

This @bafriedman.bsky.social thread has been living in my head rent free ever since he posted and I agree with him. There’s multiple things going on here that are all related that I’m going to break down for my own benefit and welcome thoughts from others. 1/

This is not civilian sabotage. Congress knows how it works, and for the moment Congress doesn’t seem content with the US having the same size military and role as say, France. They want a globally deployed blue water navy able to project power with state of the art gear all built in the US