Hello Scott and the junkies.  Sorta new here so pardon my ignorance about stuff (what the hell is FDO?)

As an "international listener" who just found out today that Pandamic is gonna be slightly international (some guy on youtube calling himself scottsigler said so) I'm wondering... what kind of research are you going to do on the international level?  I know that when it comes to science, being accurate means a lot to you.  Now, I don't know anything about science, so I have no clue what's correct and what's not.  However, I find that many intelligent people get everything wrong when it comes to countries that are not their own.  That scares me, because I want to write about countries that aren't my own, and I see people with tons of money and resources fuck it up royally.  So... how will you research the countries you'll write about?  What are you gonna do not to fuck it up?

In "The West Wing" Leo once had a throwaway line about how someday someone from Hizbollah might detonate weapons of mass destruction on a donkey in downtown Tel Aviv.  Israel is a western country and Tel Aviv is the San Francisco of the region, but sure.  Hizbollah is mostly in the north and attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are more likely to be committed by palestinians, not Lebanese, but sure.

J.C. Hutchins... I love this guy, but when he writes about Doug Devlin taking down an Israeli soldier and a "palestinian mullah" on the same week...  Well, he probably killed the only palestinian mullah in the world, cos I never heard of one.  Maybe Hutchins did more research than most and I'm ignorant.  It could be, but I don't think that's the case.  I say it with respect, because even in a hundred years I won't reach the level of 7th Son.

Oh, and he wrote about how the Israelis in the UN are angry and loud about it when people talk about worldwide cooperation.  I don't know why he had Israel upset about it, but even if Israel was, they wouldn't be so stupid as to protest loudly.  I'm sure some of your listeners hate Israel, which is fine, but the diplomats aren't complete idiots, and the leadership sends people often on humanitarian missions when a crisis arises.  The so called "human rights violations" is another issue.

And let's not forget that CIA show which is just stupid all around in how they present every single country on the planet, including America. 

My point is this:  Every non-American you'll talk to can find dumb stuff in how his/her country is portrayed.  J.C Hutchins is smart and talented. He fucked up.  The writers of the West Wing are smart and talented.  They fucked up.  You're smart and talented.  But you still have to make sure you won't fuck it up.