Good turnout in DC, took a while for us to maneuver to even hear the speeches The tidal basin side off the monument grounds were standing room only. My favorite call and resolve today was "how many kings in a constitutional republic?" "Zero kings!"

A few photos from the rally making the third year of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. I'm left pondering how to persuade some of my more conservative extended family to encourage their friends and reps to reject the exclusion of Ukraine from the negotiating table.

Newton station from Ross's presentation. That's a pretty depot.

Ross Capon, president emeritus of the Rail Passengers Association and a key figure in the origin of the @purplelinemd.bsky.social Georgetown Branch right away purchase is zooming a presentation tonight at 8 pm on his life in railroads. Check it out! www.massbayrre.org/meetings.htm

Good write-up from @drfarls.bsky.social on the state of play in Ukraine. This has been a hard news week but despair is a mistake. Instead, it is time to keep working towards conditions that would allow Ukraine to rebuild.

www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/02/the-...

The expense isn't that it's better, it's restarting a production line on an obsolete system: breakingdefense.com/2022/04/no-e...
As of April 6, 2022 there was production for a single international customer, but U.S. hadn't bought for ourselves in decades.

Namely, in an environment of polarization w/ regular policy swings, a plausible outlook on the future is negative-sum political competition with victories being temporary and general institutional decline. As Dionne notes, the trouble is that there's an asymmetric incentive to keep it going.

Piece by my colleague Daniel Byman in Foreign Affairs after his recent trip to Israel: www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israe...
Setting aside norms and an estimated 20k dead civilians, the current Israeli strategy is not just highly costly but will fail by Israel's own objectives.