"No Reason This Can't Be Fun, You Know?'

Everything is horrible. But that does not mean one cannot laugh at certain absurdities.

Photo by OurWhisky Foundation on Unsplash

The title for today’s newsletter comes from a deadpan Philip Seymour Hoffman line in Charlie Wilson’s War. The point is that even as the world is beset with serious and tragic events — which the hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World will get to those in due course — one has to savor the moments when the appropriate response to the news of the day is laughter.

Consider two recent examples.

The first comes from a weekend tweet by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. In his ongoing, desperate quest to embody American masculinity, Hegseth tried to sound rough and tough in articulating the reach of U.S. military power and instead sounded like… something different.

Look, I’m sorry but there is no way anyone over the age of twelve can possibly read those operation names and resist making their own double entendres about the overcompensation on display.

I certainly couldn’t — as the Daily Beast’s Laura Esposito reported:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has once again found himself the subject of mockery after debuting the names of several U.S. military operations that turned some heads….

It wasn’t long before hundreds of ridicule-filled comments poured in—all sharing the same sentiment.

“If these were real mission names soldiers, sailors, airmens and marines are LAUGHING THEIR A**ES OFF,” wrote author and former United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Nance in part on a post on X that’s racked up 2.7 million views.

“I saw these names and initially thought it was a parody account,” added novelist Barry Eisler….

Some even offered their own name suggestions. “OPERATION HUSKY FARMBOY,” author Daniel Drezner wrote in one reply.

It’s true. Indeed, I ginned up additional alternatives in a tweet that went viral:

Coming soon:

OPERATION HUSKY FARMBOY

OPERATION THROBBING MEMBER

OPERATION STRAPPING MANSERVANT

OPERATION MORNING WOOD

Could the hard-working staff come up with some more names? It sure can!

• OPERATION BROAD SHOULDERS

• OPERATION DANGLING CODPIECE

• OPERATION LITTLE BLUE PILLS

• OPERATION POUNDING GAVEL

• OPERATION RIGID NOODLE¹

Readers are strongly encouraged to suggest their own operational names in the comments — they are almost as much fund as devising new doctrine names! And given the possibility of another ill-fated military operation in this hemisphere, the Trump administration is gonna need some good branding!

The second amusement this week comes from the hot mess surrounding Olivia Nuzzi’s efforts to publicize her new book American Canto.

For readers lucky enough not to know any of the backstory: Nuzzi was a politics reporter for New York magazine, profiling RFK Jr. among others during the 2024 election cycle. Until, that is, it was revealed that she’d had an intimate relationship with RFK Jr. while reporting on him — and all the while being engaged to fellow reporter Ryan Lizza.

Unsurprisingly, Nuzzi and New York parted ways — as did Nuzzi and Lizza. She spent the past year in California writing American Canto and then being the subject of a bizarre New York Times Magazine profile that did not illuminate much of anything.

Now there is a lot going on here. Nuzzi’s history could, and likely will, trigger a bevy of hot takes about ethics, incestuous power networks, gender politics, and the tawdry state of American journalism.

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World does not want to wade into any of those deep waters today. Instead, let’s talk about Nuzzi’s prose style.

What is American Canto about? Here’s a description from the book’s Amazon page:

Olivia Nuzzi spent a third of her life observing those in power. She became a reporter in 2014, when the political landscape began to recon­figure itself around a singular personality whom she was uniquely primed to understand. Over the next ten years, she used her access and eye for detail to chronicle his campaigns, trials, and government in blockbuster feature stories that drove the national conversation and propelled her to the heights of her profession.

Then, in 2024, her personal life collided with the public interest in a scandal that cost Nuzzi her job and reputation. Amid a full-blown tabloid frenzy, Nuzzi went quiet, drove west, and spent the next year in self-imposed exile at the edge of the country, where she wrote this searing and astonishingly clear-eyed account of what she—and we—have experienced over the last decade.

Nuzzi walked through hell and she took notes. The result is a brilliant and bracing reckoning with recent history from one of our sharpest political observers. Beginning in the present in California, and then turning her gaze back east and back in time, she crafts a dazzling mosaic of the Trump era: her many behind-the-scenes encounters with Trump himself, from their first meeting in Trump Tower to a wealth of revelatory conversations about his Hollywood aspirations, his dreams, his fears about being assassinated, and more; the life she led uneasily that skidded to a halt; the rise of digital surveillance and the decline of privacy; the normalization of political violence; and the collision of polarization with the democratization of information to sow doubt about every aspect of our reality.

Okay, sure. The thing is, if the excerpt that was published in Vanity Fair is any guide, Nuzzi’s book does not rise to the level of “searing and astonishingly clear-eyed account.”

Think that is a harsh assessment? RELEASE THE PROSE EXCERPTS!

To put it gently, there is no “brilliant and bracing reckoning with recent history” in any of this.

There is a not-inconsiderable part of me that feels guilty about enjoying the messiness of this drama. And then I remember three things:

1. Nuzzi is promoting a book — she does not want to be left alone.

2. If her ex is correct, RFK Jr. is not the first time Nuzzi has become intimate with a person she has covered as a reporter.

3. Dear God that is some bad prose.

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World will return to more sober subjects in the coming days. On this day, however, please let me have my fun.

1. Props to this commenter for suggesting one I am truly ashamed I missed: OPERATION HARD-WORKING STAFF. I’m embarrassed I didn’t think of it!