personal account of the former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore. Follow @redwhitebluedot for official U.S. Embassy updates. views are my own.
Miami, FL
Joined September 2013
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This is outrageous and false. What a jackass.
Hegseth on Afghanistan:
I was a captain in Afghanistan, and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul, and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters.
It was a beautiful thing to see 50 different countries contributing to the NATO alliance and the ISAF mission there.
Except there were like maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that, by the end, were actually involved in kinetic operations.
In fact, the ISAF patch, we would joke that it meant "I Saw Americans Fighting."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Over 1100 non-American soldiers from 31 US-allied countries were killed fighting in Afghanistan, approximately 1/3 of the total combat deaths.
t.co/x4tGhxJiFG
Kirk Wagar retweeted
My entire adult life, I've listened to people explain what Miami isn't.
Not serious.
Not technical.
A party town. A punchline.
“The Miami thing is over."
Yesterday Ken Griffin committed $3 billion to bring @CarnegieMellon to Miami.
The largest individual gift in the history of American higher education. Not to Boston. Not to Palo Alto. To Wynwood.
Some history for the skeptics:
1873: Johns Hopkins leaves $7M to Baltimore. People shrug it off. It invents the American research university.
1891: The Stanfords plant $40M in orchard country. Fifty quiet years. Then Terman. Then HP. Then Fairchild. The Valley of Heart's Delight becomes Silicon Valley.
1900: Carnegie builds a school for millworkers' kids. Steel dies. The school doesn't. It gives Pittsburgh robotics, Google, a second century and America a place in the geopolitical fight for the frontier.
Those places which have driven American innovation didn’t just spring out of nowhere, it took visionary philanthropy and the long slow toil of faculty, students and communities.
Stanford waited half a century and two world wars before its national moment.
Miami and Florida’s moment is already here. AI. Defense. Energy. Hemispheric capital and so much more.
And we're not starting in orchards.
UM, FIU, MDC already produce talent and knowledge at scale.
CMU isn't replacing our home universities. It's pouring accelerant on our region.
The haters judged Miami on a news cycle.
Cities are judged in centuries.
Welcome to Miami's next hundred years.
We're just getting started.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
The sad fact about this story is that there are a lot of people in DC who will read this and simply shrug and say, “it’s just the way Washington has worked for decades.” And I’m sure senators (who should be quaking about a story like this) have instead convinced themselves that this isn’t even illegal and if it is, it will take years (or never) for law enforcement to build a case. The swamp is a real thing, this admin didn’t drain it, they monetized it. There’s an extra layer of rot in this town at the moment and everyone who has lived and worked here for a while knows it.
New: In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump was reelected and eviscerated the FBI and DOJ teams handling public corruption probes. propub.li/4yLLwaF
Kirk Wagar retweeted
As I said last week to @SandraSmithFox on #FoxNews
“what President Trump is doing. You could argue he is the most powerful socialist in the country today” and now Trump is slashing #beef product with government intervention
May we get 1 million views @Acyn 👇
Wolf: If Mamdani put price controls on product like pharmaceuticals, if he bailed out farms, if he took stakes in private companies, if he said the energy companies are making too much money, if he proposed credit card caps—you would all go apoplectic, as would your viewers.
That's what President Trump is doing. You could argue he is the most powerful socialist in the country today.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
On July 24th I missed the birth of my son.
I was in West Virginia with the president. Deirdre and I were fighting.
There was no way back to New York.
Then I get fired, my marriage is on the brink, I’ve missed the birth of my son, and the late night comedians are coming for me every night.
I went to a PR crisis manager. He told me to buy a villa in Italy and come back in 2022. You’re never recovering from this.
F*ck that, I went on Colbert, I went on Bill Maher, I faced Saturday Night Live, and I faced the music.
Nine years later my son turns nine on July 24th.
My marriage is intact, stronger than ever, honestly, because we refused to make it disposable.
The firing was the hardest thing that ever happened to me. It also made me more psychologically minded, more empathetic, more human.
And you probably wouldn’t know who I am if it hadn’t happened.
If you’re going through something hard right now, stay in it.
Don’t walk away. The thing that breaks you is often the thing that builds you.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
🚨BREAKING: Border Patrol agents were caught attempting to force an arrest inside a private home… without a warrant.
The video shows agents were already in someone’s front yard trying to detain a man.
The homeowner comes out and tells them to leave, because they are on private property.
The man they’re trying to detain is saying the same thing… you’re on private property… get out.
Instead of backing off… an agent grabs him around the waist, trying to tackle the man.
The man breaks free, crawling to the door, and goes inside the house.
At that point, this should’ve been over.
Because under the Constitution, entering a home without a warrant is one of the clearest lines law enforcement are not allowed to cross.
But, they cross it anyway.
One agent grabs his foot as he’s going in… and then both agents follow him inside the home, while the homeowner is actively telling them to get out. Over and over.
This is exactly what the Supreme Court ruled against in Payton v. New York… law enforcement cannot enter a home to make an arrest without a warrant.
And in Lange v. California… they made it clear you don’t get to chase someone into their home, for a non-serious offense, and call it “hot pursuit.”
They were told to leave private property… and didn’t.
They attempted a detention without respecting that boundary.
And then forced their way into a home anyway.
All without a warrant.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
As a former U.S. Surgeon General who held an active medical license and practiced medicine while in the role (at Walter Reed and aboard the USS Comfort) it is incomprehensible that the Senate is even considering a nominee for this role who lacks any active license and has never practiced unsupervised. 🤯
Kirk Wagar retweeted
The real question you should be asking is, where is Jill Stein? You voted for her.
Put on your big boy pants and tell her to do something.
Completely agree. Regardless of the outcome, I despise the 3-3. It destroys the integrity of the game just as penalty kicks to end the game do in soccer. Play same game till you drop.
Canada played a stronger, more tenacious game much of the 60+. Far more top scoring chances. Celebrini a marvel. As is McDavid. But when you sign up for hockey, be it as fan or player, it means accepting outcomes can be as whimsical as the bounces of the puck itself. The joy/pain factor, while maddening, is essentially the game,
Kirk Wagar retweeted
There’s a new live cam on @GreaterMiamiCVB website showing MIA runways 08L-26R and 08R-26L ✈️
miamiandbeaches.com/plan-you…
Kirk Wagar retweeted
Moskowitz: These are the guys who created the weaponization committee so let’s talk about the present:
Under Investigation: Mark Kelly, Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Chris Christie, Jack Smith, Miles Taylor, Christopher Krebs
Indicted: James Comey, Letitia James, John Bolton.
Accused of crimes: Former President Joe Biden, Former President Barack Obama
Revoked or threatened with revocation of Secret Service protection: Kamala Harris, Hunter Biden, Ashley Biden, Mayorkas, Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, General Mark Milley, John Bolton, Doctor Anthony Fauci
Security clearance revoked: Joe Biden, Anthony Blinken, Jacob Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Andrew Weissman, Hillary Clinton, Liz Cheney, Kamala Harris, Adam Kinzinger, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, Miles Taylor
I can keep going
Kirk Wagar retweeted
There is this thing I call "Trump strategic retrofitting." Much of what is happening in American foreign policy is happening for one reason only - it springs from the mind of the President of the United States. But a huge swath of people who, frankly, should know better then "retrofit" it - they twist themselves into pretzels imputing strategic logic or ascribing Bismarckian genius to his ideas. Spoiler alert: The President is not, in fact, Otto von Bismarck and it really should behoove people to call some of this madness out for what it is.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
America is literally the most successful and prosperous country in the history of the world after leading 80 years of globalization but sure, let’s pretend that never happened and destroy that world order rather than update it. Superpower suicide.
Globalization has FAILED.
Secretary Lutnick at the World Economic Forum:
“The Trump Administration and I are here to make a very clear point—globalization has failed the West and the United States of America. It’s a failed policy… and it has left America behind.”
America is done exporting jobs and offshoring its future. We will no longer give in to globalization.
Check out my latest article: Why I Applaud CZ’s Presidential Pardon — Even as a Trump Critic
A Surprising Stance from a Trump Critic linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-app… via @LinkedIn
Kirk Wagar retweeted
Trump told cadets at West Point that he had to leave right away (and not stay to salute each one and shake their hands, as is customary, as Biden did last year) because he had to deal with China and Russia.
Here he is dealing with China and Russia.
Kirk Wagar retweeted
Harriet Tubman removed from National Parks webpage about the Underground Railroad
share.newsbreak.com/chnvxwnj…