Tiffany Bond  🦞 🇺🇸Verified account

What's your position on US involvement in the middle east & Afghanistan? Is any of it justified? If you alone held the power of the govt purse, what would be your spending priorities? Do you support Medicare for all (or something similar)?

The first is a heck of a question for twitter. It's so easy to rip things apart with the gift of hindsight. If I had been president at the time would I have pursued that war? Probably not. I don't know if those making the decision made a good one since I lack full information.

I do think we have a responsibility to try to help put the social structures we blew up back to a functional space, both to be responsible and because if we are trying not to create people with a vendetta, that seems the best path out. We've certainly done some of that.

Where we are feels stagnant here thousands of miles away and absent security briefings. I would need more information, some of which would likely require clearance, to give an informed opinion on the best path forward.

Generally I prefer diplomacy. It's cost-effective, consent based, has a broader range of outcomes than are possible with war, and more likely follow through since it has acquiescence by all parties. There are parallels with war my day job. I'm a family law attorney/mediator.

Often one (or both) people drop a bomb on a relationship. You cannot change what has happened and are usually at the point of no return when I come in. But you usually have to figure out how to work together to move forward and have an exit plan. You won't fix everything.

You can make sure everyone is in a sustainable place leaving and has a clear path out. I always have to plan for the possibility of a trial with an eye open to a range of acceptable solutions, some of which haven't likely been thought of yet.

Purse strings? There are too many budget lines to even attempt that on twitter. As an overall philosophy, I used to be financially conservative, I am now more fiscally efficient. We should be looking at both long and short term, winners and losers, and aiming for equity.