We Can Only Hope, Sir

This week Susanna Blume joins to tell us how the sausage is made on Capitol Hill - the defense budget, continuing resolutions, and other congressional hijinks. And Radha returns from maternity leave! Then we wade through the president's Jerusalem announcement and recent Brexit breakthroughs, before dissecting the new National Security Strategy. And of course we discuss Season 2 of "The Crown" - and our new gift guide!   Episode Reading: Susanna V. Blume and Lauren Fish, “A Brief History of Defense Budget Instability,” CNAS Susanna V. Blume and Lauren Fish, “Congress, cut the continuing resolutions so Defense can do its job,” CNAS Max Fisher, “The Jerusalem Issue, Explained,” New York Times Ishaan Tharoor, “The many casualties of Trump’s Jerusalem move,” Washington Post Tony Connelly, “Brexit and the Irish Border: How the deal was salvaged,” RTE BBC, “Theresa May says Brexit deal ‘good news’ for all voters,” BBC Alex Hunt and Brian Wheeler, “Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU,” BBC Kate Brannen, "Trump's National Security Strategy is Decidedly Non-Trumpian," The Atlantic Salman Ahmed and Alexander Bick, “Trump’s National Security Strategy: A New Brand of Mercantilism?,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Ilan Goldenberg, “The Selfish Motive Behind Trump’s Jerusalem Decision,” Slate Kori Schake, “The North Korea Debate Sounds Eerily Familiar,” Atlantic Mira Rapp-Hooper, “America Is Not Going to Denuclearize North Korea,” Atlantic