ANTHONY BLINKEN’S SOUNDTRACK TO FAILURE: “Antony Blinken, the secretary of state and first guitarist, has broken with the tired protocols of the past, faced the complexities of the multipolar twenty-first century world, and issued a Spotify playlist. This may be a better way of reaching new audiences than bombing them. But shouldn’t public figures be judged on their records, not their record collections?”

That’s not a good metric for this crowd. . .

Plus: “There is no faster way to fall out with a friend, antagonize the stranger and confirm your enemies’ contempt than asserting your taste in music — apart, that is, from doing really bold solos like flitting from Afghanistan without telling your allies, promising everything to Iranian negotiators before the negotiations begin, or threatening to fight Putin over Ukraine and then backing down. Blinken managed to accomplish all four. His playlist is the soundtrack to failure.”