The White House RR seems to follow Trump's own delusion of thinking the most recent "thing" said does not contradict the "opposite thing" previously stated. 🤔
My concern about the technique of writing you and Jon chose is that it places a huge burden on both of you to "crank it out." The advantage is you do keep your finger on the pulse yet the nature of the work begets, at times, fast, more trivial stories. Deep research and thought is displaced for a quick grab. This story fall into that category. Other stories you havrme produced are are magnificent, well researched, OSINT heavy. The political stuff is just dirty.
Ray, We are building a mosaic for readers. Sometimes many pieces will be added, other times, smaller ones. But they all are part of continuing finishing the bigger picture (which of course will never be done).
Also, one thing we’ve learned doing this together for four plus years now, we just have to trust our own voices and not be poll driven.
E.g., our last column at The Hill has some 17K total likes, hates, etc., across all syndicated outlets & 3K comments or more.
When I quickly scanned them, and then used Grok to read all of the comments, it essentially was what we thought it would be: those who were pro-Ukraine loved it. Those who were anti-Ukraine or isolationist hated it.
Point being, we just have to be true to ourselves and respectfully leave it up to readers to agree or disagree with us.
Ray, Sometimes you have to hear the song in a different language to understand why it is different.
One of the primary benefits we reap by doing so many Mideast interviews, is that they give us a chance to meet a lot of current & former existing officials from across the region (generals, ambassadors, senior cabinet ministers, etc.).
Quite a few of those, especially Pakistani ones, often seize on Vance’s comments to undermine Israel.
Vance certainly did the same thing in Ukraine & regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the VP’s domestic political beliefs, his lecturing of European allies proved divisive as well.
In fairness, we heavily criticized Harris for being inept too on the world stage, especially when her word salad was twisted into arguments used against Israel.
Plus, I’d add, Vance, on a geostrategic basis has just been wrong. He was wrong about Ukraine. He couldn’t read the room in Hungary. He is needlessly bashing his Israeli war ally. And, he’s repeating Obama’s claims that we have to try to trust the Iranians to give peace a chance. These are not trustworthy people.
IMO, and it is just a viewpoint, this song makes sense in any language.
I know this is probably sacrilegious for opinion writers, but I really don’t believe in trying to change people’s minds. At most, if I am doing it right IMO, it’s just to proffer a different angle into a discussion.
^ Probably because I just get so tired of hearing people tell others what they have to believe! I don’t want to be that person!
The amateurism of Trump and his team can only be compared to their moral mediocrity. We in Europe have leaders who are mostly talkative, whereas currently the USA has a incompetent thug in charge. Sad times.
The White House RR seems to follow Trump's own delusion of thinking the most recent "thing" said does not contradict the "opposite thing" previously stated. 🤔
My concern about the technique of writing you and Jon chose is that it places a huge burden on both of you to "crank it out." The advantage is you do keep your finger on the pulse yet the nature of the work begets, at times, fast, more trivial stories. Deep research and thought is displaced for a quick grab. This story fall into that category. Other stories you havrme produced are are magnificent, well researched, OSINT heavy. The political stuff is just dirty.
Ray, We are building a mosaic for readers. Sometimes many pieces will be added, other times, smaller ones. But they all are part of continuing finishing the bigger picture (which of course will never be done).
Also, one thing we’ve learned doing this together for four plus years now, we just have to trust our own voices and not be poll driven.
E.g., our last column at The Hill has some 17K total likes, hates, etc., across all syndicated outlets & 3K comments or more.
When I quickly scanned them, and then used Grok to read all of the comments, it essentially was what we thought it would be: those who were pro-Ukraine loved it. Those who were anti-Ukraine or isolationist hated it.
Point being, we just have to be true to ourselves and respectfully leave it up to readers to agree or disagree with us.
Mark
Sometimes its hard to just pluck a new song out of thin air.
Ray, Sometimes you have to hear the song in a different language to understand why it is different.
One of the primary benefits we reap by doing so many Mideast interviews, is that they give us a chance to meet a lot of current & former existing officials from across the region (generals, ambassadors, senior cabinet ministers, etc.).
Quite a few of those, especially Pakistani ones, often seize on Vance’s comments to undermine Israel.
Vance certainly did the same thing in Ukraine & regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the VP’s domestic political beliefs, his lecturing of European allies proved divisive as well.
In fairness, we heavily criticized Harris for being inept too on the world stage, especially when her word salad was twisted into arguments used against Israel.
Plus, I’d add, Vance, on a geostrategic basis has just been wrong. He was wrong about Ukraine. He couldn’t read the room in Hungary. He is needlessly bashing his Israeli war ally. And, he’s repeating Obama’s claims that we have to try to trust the Iranians to give peace a chance. These are not trustworthy people.
IMO, and it is just a viewpoint, this song makes sense in any language.
That said, I totally respect it if you disagree!
Mark
I will think about it some more, thanks for the response.
I know this is probably sacrilegious for opinion writers, but I really don’t believe in trying to change people’s minds. At most, if I am doing it right IMO, it’s just to proffer a different angle into a discussion.
^ Probably because I just get so tired of hearing people tell others what they have to believe! I don’t want to be that person!
I hope you are well!
Mark
The amateurism of Trump and his team can only be compared to their moral mediocrity. We in Europe have leaders who are mostly talkative, whereas currently the USA has a incompetent thug in charge. Sad times.