Chris Miller, the MAGA SecDef, Explains His Anger
Plus, Why Russian Energy Giant Gazprom Is Mustering a Private Army.
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AMANDA CARPENTER: Chris Miller, the MAGA SecDef, Explains His Anger.
Former Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller can list plenty of reasons to justify his reluctance to send troops to secure the Capitol on January 6, 2021—but, as he writes in his new book, Soldier Secretary, he is also self-aware enough to know when he is being “generally a dick.”
Which happens a lot.
Reading this memoir makes it easy to see why President Trump appointed him. Miller is a pissed-off MAGA-friendly former Green Beret eager to give the finger to the establishment, which he does with remarkable candor and callousness. So much so that he remains, even now, unapologetically unbothered by the danger that elected officials were in on January 6th.
In early 2021, both Kushner and Trump needed a game plan for making money. MBS — who both men had helped to consolidate power and literally get away with murder — came to the rescue with billions of dollars. Michael Kranish joins Charlie Sykes today.
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BENJAMIN PARKER: Why Russian Energy Giant Gazprom Is Mustering a Private Army.
You may have seen headlines in recent days suggesting that Gazprom, the Russian government–owned energy behemoth, is standing up its very own military outfit—a possibility that hints of an ominous, corporate-feudalistic future for Russia. But how new is this development, and how worrying is it?
Semi-private military organizations are all the rage in Russia right now. The most notable among them is PMC Wagner (the PMC stands for “private military company”), overseen by Yevgeny Prigozhin. (Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because his catering business took in a huge number of government contracts, became notorious in the West a few years ago because of his reported involvement in the Internet Research Agency that interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. By that point, Prigozhin had already founded PMC Wagner.) While private military companies are technically illegal in Russia, Wagner has proven useful enough to Vladimir Putin’s regime that it has been central to the Russian effort in Ukraine, has been active in multiple countries on multiple continents, and even has a swanky office building in St. Petersburg.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
You’re gonna be seeing more of Matt Gaetz… As the DOJ opted not to charge him in their sex trafficking investigation. Not being charged isn’t exactly exoneration, but staying low has never been Gaetz’s M.O.
The never ending resurrection… Of Eva Cassidy. The D.C.-area singer died in 1996, but thanks to the BBC, and now, new technology, she’s pleasing ears from beyond the grave.
Rejecting the Bronze Age Mindset… At National Review, Jack Butler follows up on his Daily Beast item about how an pseudonymous weird rad trad seduced the Claremonsters and their pals. (Like I said, it wasn’t hard.) Unlike many, who think nothing’s wrong in conservatism, Butler identifies a major problem: “To provide a superior alternative, however, one must admit that conservatism, as a whole, has seriously failed at doing so.”
Tik-Tok virality makes an author’s dream come true. As readers know, I am anti-Tik-Tok. It is bad. You should not download it. But alas, even while its use is beginning to wane, a Vermont man has it to thank for his novel becoming a bestseller a decade after being published.
Speaking of Tik-Tok… What do you do when you find out your 17 year old is getting paid to basically be Alex Jones by foreign agents?
Meanwhile, on Newsmax… They don’t seem to get the whole Valentine’s Day thing.
Welcome, SkyNet? Some people are having some, uh, interesting chats with the new Bing AI. (I maintain that, despite its bad ratings, Terminator 3 was good.)
Survey non-responses… Americans are increasingly ignoring government surveys, which is not a good thing!
An unwelcome endorsement… Ralph Norman, the Congressman who pushed for “Marshall Law” to keep Trump in office has endorsed… Nikki Haley. Will she accept the endorsement? Will she denounce it? This used to be a niche problem for Republicans. David Duke endorsed me? Now, a full 75%+ of prominent Republicans are nuts to the point of their endorsement bringing with it one of a handful of controversies or conspiracies.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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