Blinken is calling for a U.S. foreign policy with "humility and confidence." Quite a departure in tone from Pompeo's call for "swagger"

If you are wondering about the Menendez-Graham proposal for returning to the Iran deal that Menendez is referring to, I've got you covered. Read this: https://t.co/ZonpUVpJjs
.@ABlinken: “President Elect Biden is committed to the proposition that Iran will not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon.” Says the Iran deal “was succeeding on its own terms.”

@SenateForeign
@ABlinken @SenateForeign Blinken on rejoining the Iran deal: "If Iran comes back into compliance, then we would too," using that as a platform for more negotiations. "Having said that, I think we are a long way from there."
Blinken on China: “There is no doubt it poses the most significant challenge of any nation state to the United States.”
.@SenRonJohnson is wrong, Obama never said the U.S. was "leading from behind" in Libya. That was a background quote attributed to a WH official. Blinken said the point was to stop a slaughter. Notes (correctly) Biden did not support that intervention.
@SenRonJohnson Blinken says, unprompted, that Trump largely "got it right" on China by focusing more attention on the threats and challenges there. Adds, “I have issues with the way he carried it out, in many ways."
Blinken says on balance, considering the outcomes, Trump’s decision to assassinate Qasem Soleimani “has left us less safe, not more safe.”
Blinken said Xi Jinping is now openly seeking world primacy for China and a Chinese-model for the world. “The hiding and biding has gone away and they are much more assertive in making clear that they seek to become in effect, the leading country in the world.”
I'm surprised Ron Johnson didn't bring up Hunter Biden with Blinken. That, as much as anything, shows how things are already changing on Capitol Hill post-Trump.
Blinken says it’s telling how scared Putin is of one man, Alexei Navalny. “Mr. Navalny's voice speaks for millions and millions of Russians, and that voice needs to be heard.”
Blinken agrees with Pompeo’s determination that China is committing “genocide” against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups: “That would be my judgment, as well.”

More from Government

Typically excellent piece from @dsquareddigest The exponential insight is especially neat. Think of it a little like fishing...today you can’t export oysters to the EU (because you simply aren’t allowed to), tomorrow you don’t have a fish exporting business (to the EU).


The extremely small minority of people who known anything about this who think that Brexit will be good for the City make a number of arguments which I shall address in turn...

1. They need us more than we need them. This is a variant of the German carmakers argument. And we know how that went...Business will follow the profit opportunity and if that has moved then so will the business...

And what do we mean by us / we. We’re not talking about massed ranks of Euro investing / trading etc blue blooded British institutions.

Au contraire. We’re talking about the London based subs of US, Asian and indeed European capital markets players...As soon as they think the profit opportunity has moved then so will they...it’s a market innit...

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First thread of the year because I have time during MCO. As requested, a thread on the gods and spirits of Malay folk religion. Some are indigenous, some are of Indian origin, some have Islamic


Before I begin, it might be worth explaining the Malay conception of the spirit world. At its deepest level, Malay religious belief is animist. All living beings and even certain objects are said to have a soul. Natural phenomena are either controlled by or personified as spirits

Although these beings had to be respected, not all of them were powerful enough to be considered gods. Offerings would be made to the spirits that had greater influence on human life. Spells and incantations would invoke their


Two known examples of such elemental spirits that had god-like status are Raja Angin (king of the wind) and Mambang Tali Arus (spirit of river currents). There were undoubtedly many more which have been lost to time

Contact with ancient India brought the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism to SEA. What we now call Hinduism similarly developed in India out of native animism and the more formal Vedic tradition. This can be seen in the multitude of sacred animals and location-specific Hindu gods