Day 933

Satisfice or optimize?

Zelenskyy’s consolidation of power weakens Ukraine’s resilience. The war has done nothing to still the president’s populist impatience with the complexities of governing, and it’s playing against the country’s strengths (Politico, September 12, 2024)

He is not just an ex-comic fighting for freedom. He is a world leader doing a job that matters to him. Part of that job means making shit up from time to time.

The slide to fanaticism became obvious in 2020 with the big lie about Operation Avenue¹. It marked our return to the place when “truth” became whatever the President’s Office said it was, when facts and evidence were covered up, making it impossible to have a democratic debate about anything.

This brings me directly to Rebecca, who in 2021 directed the Russia-Ukraine Tiger Team contingency planning process for Team USA’s National Security Council. She, of course, acquainted herself with the scuppered op, Z’s confusion about subjectiveness and sovereignty, his vacation in Oman and ot…