James Vizzard
@jwvizzard.bsky.social
Political science PhD candidate specializing in civ-mil. Husband, father, former gangster for capitalism. Opinions, jokes, hot takes, and other skeets are only mine and not any current or former employer’s.
Reposted by James Vizzard
Intervention in Venezuela epitomizes U.S. way of war since 9/11: stunningly effective at the tactical and operational levels, dangerously divorced from the achievement of strategic and political outcomes that actually make U.S. more secure.
January 4, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Intervention in Venezuela epitomizes U.S. way of war since 9/11: stunningly effective at the tactical and operational levels, dangerously divorced from the achievement of strategic and political outcomes that actually make U.S. more secure.
“He needed a win” is like the beginning of a Greek tragedy.
The odds this looks good in 10 months are no better than 50/50.
The odds this looks good in 10 months are no better than 50/50.
"Maduro was plucked out of Caracas, but the more shocking news was that the White House plans to run Venezuela.
Those close to Trump believe he needed “a win” to begin 2026 after several tough months"
Neo-Royalism @abenewman.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
bsky.app/profile/osbo...
Those close to Trump believe he needed “a win” to begin 2026 after several tough months"
Neo-Royalism @abenewman.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
bsky.app/profile/osbo...
And there ya have it…
Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”
Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”
January 4, 2026 at 2:44 PM
“He needed a win” is like the beginning of a Greek tragedy.
The odds this looks good in 10 months are no better than 50/50.
The odds this looks good in 10 months are no better than 50/50.
I, as a U.S. citizen, might exercise a little caution about traveling to Venezuela before things have settled. Anyone who thinks they know where this is going stands a good chance of being wrong.
And there ya have it…
Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”
Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”
Finance Industry Eyes Investment Opportunities in Venezuela
Some on Wall Street are already considering possible investment opportunities in Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, according to Charles Myers, chairman of consulting firm Signum Globa...
www.wsj.com
January 4, 2026 at 2:41 PM
I, as a U.S. citizen, might exercise a little caution about traveling to Venezuela before things have settled. Anyone who thinks they know where this is going stands a good chance of being wrong.
I think my grandfather wrote this.
When he died I gave 1/3 of my inheritance to the DSCC, 1/3 to Planned Parenthood, and 1/3 to our local homeless shelter.
When he died I gave 1/3 of my inheritance to the DSCC, 1/3 to Planned Parenthood, and 1/3 to our local homeless shelter.
"Look, I will give you the full balance of my Robinhood account. Money is no object. Unless, of course, that money will be added to a pool of community funds that would then be used to pay for the services I’m currently requesting." #McSweeneysTop25of2025
I Will Pay Any Amount to Not Pay My Taxes
Our 6th most-read article of 2025. - - -I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a jam. A series of natural disasters is barreling towards my home, and th...
buff.ly
January 4, 2026 at 2:31 PM
I think my grandfather wrote this.
When he died I gave 1/3 of my inheritance to the DSCC, 1/3 to Planned Parenthood, and 1/3 to our local homeless shelter.
When he died I gave 1/3 of my inheritance to the DSCC, 1/3 to Planned Parenthood, and 1/3 to our local homeless shelter.
I read Goddard and Newman’s paper while also reading Wolf Hall, which strongly reinforced—and made tangible—their argument. You can’t unsee it.
Key point is that Trump foreign policy is not about sovereign equality. It is about dominance and extraction for the ruling elite clique. To really understand what is going on we need to view not through Westphalian lens but of neo-royalist order. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
January 4, 2026 at 2:28 PM
I read Goddard and Newman’s paper while also reading Wolf Hall, which strongly reinforced—and made tangible—their argument. You can’t unsee it.
Exactly right. Too many people are looking for a bright line rule we can teach O1s, and we’re not going to find one. There is clearly a theoretical point where military officers should refuse orders but defining that point abstractly is impossible. 1/x
A problem is that if it's ok for Johnny Goodgeneral to overrule DOJ/POTUS on legality of orders, you also get Mike Flynn or Jerry Boykin rejecting orders on vaccines, allowing gay service, escorting kids in Little Rock, or saying Obama is Kenyan and not really President
January 4, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Exactly right. Too many people are looking for a bright line rule we can teach O1s, and we’re not going to find one. There is clearly a theoretical point where military officers should refuse orders but defining that point abstractly is impossible. 1/x
Reposted by James Vizzard
A problem is that if it's ok for Johnny Goodgeneral to overrule DOJ/POTUS on legality of orders, you also get Mike Flynn or Jerry Boykin rejecting orders on vaccines, allowing gay service, escorting kids in Little Rock, or saying Obama is Kenyan and not really President
January 4, 2026 at 1:53 PM
A problem is that if it's ok for Johnny Goodgeneral to overrule DOJ/POTUS on legality of orders, you also get Mike Flynn or Jerry Boykin rejecting orders on vaccines, allowing gay service, escorting kids in Little Rock, or saying Obama is Kenyan and not really President
Hey, was this guy in the military? I'm not sure. The indicators are very subtle and hard to read. #civmilsky
GOP Rep. Pat Harrigan: "There are members of Congress that they just cannot trust. And I understand that. We have folks that are Somali first and not America first."
January 3, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Hey, was this guy in the military? I'm not sure. The indicators are very subtle and hard to read. #civmilsky
Digital ads in Metro stations still just say “Kennedy Center.”
January 3, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Digital ads in Metro stations still just say “Kennedy Center.”
Reposted by James Vizzard
People talk about distraction, but diffusion is a better way to think about it. When there are ten horrors a day, marshalling critical mass to overturn any one is difficult.
January 3, 2026 at 6:17 PM
People talk about distraction, but diffusion is a better way to think about it. When there are ten horrors a day, marshalling critical mass to overturn any one is difficult.
We are not, in fact, ready to stage a second and much larger attack. Not even close.
Trump: "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country. And we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so."
January 3, 2026 at 5:19 PM
We are not, in fact, ready to stage a second and much larger attack. Not even close.
Reposted by James Vizzard
Looks like the United States is going to celebrate its 250th birthday as a ruler of other nations. That's some heavy-duty irony.
January 3, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Looks like the United States is going to celebrate its 250th birthday as a ruler of other nations. That's some heavy-duty irony.
How are we running the country? No way we have troops on the ground in any numbers.
Trump: "We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition."
January 3, 2026 at 5:08 PM
How are we running the country? No way we have troops on the ground in any numbers.
Reposted by James Vizzard
Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.
January 3, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.
Reposted by James Vizzard
you cannot blockade a country and bomb its capital cities and capture its leader without being at war with it, is the thing
Are we at war with Venezuela?!?
I don't know. You don't know either.
It sure would be nice to have a legitimate Pentagon press corps right about now.
I don't know. You don't know either.
It sure would be nice to have a legitimate Pentagon press corps right about now.
January 3, 2026 at 10:23 AM
you cannot blockade a country and bomb its capital cities and capture its leader without being at war with it, is the thing
It’s clearly an act of war—the question is whether and how Venezuela decides to treat it as one.
you cannot blockade a country and bomb its capital cities and capture its leader without being at war with it, is the thing
Are we at war with Venezuela?!?
I don't know. You don't know either.
It sure would be nice to have a legitimate Pentagon press corps right about now.
I don't know. You don't know either.
It sure would be nice to have a legitimate Pentagon press corps right about now.
January 3, 2026 at 1:40 PM
It’s clearly an act of war—the question is whether and how Venezuela decides to treat it as one.
What happened to the 9th Circuit, and how did I miss it?
9th Cir., 2-1, holds that open carry is protected by the Second Amendment even where a state allows concealed carry, strikes California's law banning urban open carry and its licensing law for open carry in rural counties.
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
January 2, 2026 at 10:36 PM
What happened to the 9th Circuit, and how did I miss it?
Late in my Army career I was informed I was ineligible for a fellowship because my undergraduate GPA was too low. This was 18 years after I graduated, and I’d earned 2 masters degrees in between.
This article advocates for the “Faculty Merit Act” that would — get this — require all faculty applicants to submit their *SAT* scores. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Holy shirts that’s hilarious.
January 2, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Late in my Army career I was informed I was ineligible for a fellowship because my undergraduate GPA was too low. This was 18 years after I graduated, and I’d earned 2 masters degrees in between.
Mamdani really is the second coming of Barack Obama in that his mere existence drives a lot of people to set aside their coded racism and dig their robes and hoods out of the closet.
Here is the editor of Tablet agreeably reposting someone calling nonwhite NYC immigrants "worthless biotrash." It's astonishing how quickly this stuff has escaped containment
January 2, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Mamdani really is the second coming of Barack Obama in that his mere existence drives a lot of people to set aside their coded racism and dig their robes and hoods out of the closet.
The Irish Times is $5/mo, and I subscribe to it b/c it’s increasingly difficult to get decent news coverage from U.S. sources. Ironically, WSJ News coverage is above average—you just have to scroll past their editorial section.
Why do I have to read an Irish paper for a feature about this?
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life
Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary
www.irishtimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:34 PM
The Irish Times is $5/mo, and I subscribe to it b/c it’s increasingly difficult to get decent news coverage from U.S. sources. Ironically, WSJ News coverage is above average—you just have to scroll past their editorial section.
So what we do is, we jack up healthcare costs for millions and then we gut childcare so 2-income families lose 1 income. Also jack up the cost of construction with deportations and tariffs to keep housing unaffordable. Then the president tweets about his new ballroom—the base will love it.
so basically our rich oligarchs launched a racist propaganda media campaign to demonize taxpayer-funded childcare, our garbage oligarch press parroted the attack, and now they're going to steal that money to put into their assorted cryptocurrency grifts
‘Scorched-Earth Attack’: Trump Admin Cuts Off Childcare Funds to All States | Common Dreams
"My team and I are exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ell...
www.commondreams.org
January 2, 2026 at 3:27 PM
So what we do is, we jack up healthcare costs for millions and then we gut childcare so 2-income families lose 1 income. Also jack up the cost of construction with deportations and tariffs to keep housing unaffordable. Then the president tweets about his new ballroom—the base will love it.
Reposted by James Vizzard
Jan 1: this is the year of new Me
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
January 1, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Jan 1: this is the year of new Me
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Reposted by James Vizzard
I started reading these to my wife and she now feels bad for Rob Schneider.
Yeah, man, the only difference between your career and Mark Rufallo’s career is the political stuff.
January 2, 2026 at 12:57 AM
I started reading these to my wife and she now feels bad for Rob Schneider.
The Constitution of the United States. I’ve sworn an oath to it 8 times, so why not swear the oath on it.
Ok, everyone, what book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?
Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.
January 2, 2026 at 12:33 AM
The Constitution of the United States. I’ve sworn an oath to it 8 times, so why not swear the oath on it.