Was just watching something about Trump having his brownshirts purging references to Native American and black military heroes. This is a draft dodger who sells cards of himself looking like Rambo. What he should be doing is awarding posthumous Medals of Honor. Of course he would award himself one for valor in the Battle of Hue in 1968. Life taker and heart breaker Donny. What a guy!
Glenn, I saw the name and thought: "Oh no, is Instapundit paying us to troll in the comments?" Reminds me of the "Good Stephen Miller" who has written for us and hated being confused with the two bad ones.
Therefore, you are now "Good Glenn Reynolds" in my book ;)
Ha. Thank you. I used to get some hate mail. A guy at a store in Knoxville TN on Glenn Harlan’s turf (I was at a wedding) asked for my autograph at a store when he saw my credit card. Told him “I am a Democrat raised in the people’s Republic of Massachusetts.” He quickly withdrew his paper.” He did not smile. Classic.
That is probably nicer than what I would have done, which is sign something with a note like "STAY WOKE! IMPEACH TRUMP" and see how long it would take to go viral on the internet.
Ha it was pre-trump. I get meaner with age. I did get a fawning overture from a young female hedge fund manager. I said “I am the one that understands economics” I got no response.
IF (maybe a gargantuan IF) other NATO nations would follow orders, maybe a Polish general commanding NATO ground forces, a Swedish general commanding NATO air forces, and UK and France fighting over which would command NATO naval forces would work. Germany's the logistics hub.
Giving Trump the most credit possible, should there be a NEED for US Navy presence in the Med? Shouldn't Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and UK be sufficient to handle it?
The real question is WTF is NATO going to do about Russian missile subs if COMSUBLANT no longer details US attack subs to shadow them. Yes, that would mean Trump and Hegseth would be taking Putin at his word that his missile subs would never, ever target the US, perish the thought!
| but it began the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.
I suspect the Soviet Union, OK, Russia, might want to debate that.
Making Germany TRY, and fail, to fight a war on 3 fronts (France/Belgium/Netherlands, Italy/Greece/Yugoslavia, Soviet Union/Poland/points west) is what won the war in Europe. Just as the COMBINATION of the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki AND the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan when Japan had no chance of resupplying its Army/Air Force in Manchuria thanks to sacrificing what was left of its surface Navy during the Okinawa campaign led the Emperor to surrender.
This situation is the end result of Reagan's claim that government is a problem to be eliminated and accelerated by Newt Gingrich and his hate and denunciation of Democrats and obstruction in the name of conservatism and topped with the Trump cherry. MAGA is the enemy and must be destroyed.
For the past 80 years, American has been the world's military and economic supper power, the $ is the world's reserve currency, and despite all of our faults we are the shinning democracy for those who don't have one look up to.
We spent much in lives and dollars in the 1940's to achieve all of this, and it has paid great dividends, including our national security. It requires, what I call maintenance costs. These costs are small compared to the cost to achieve our status. Refusing to pay these maintenance costs, because we think that America is being ripped off, puts our position at risk. Making it much easier, and cheaper, for China to take over the economic superpower and reserve currency status.
Trump is too ignorant to understand any of this. If Trump had ever experienced a true friendship in his life, he might be able to understand some of this. A friendship isn't about "what's in it for me", rather it just is.
Removing every reference to the history and accomplishments of Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Asian people and women after centuries of suppression is pure DEI hysteria. What they are saying is that unless you are a white male Christian, you "diverge" from the norm. Of course, they insist all those men got their jobs or positions of power through sheer merit. Just look at our new Secretary of Defense as an example of the new meritocracy. A raging unrepentant alcoholic who sexually abuses and uses women and who was fired from two leadership positions he had at non-profits. Now that's the guy I want leading the one of the largest organizations in the world! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/02/pete-hegseth-non-profit-allegations
A subheading to Bill Kristol's and Andrew Egger's column could be "and loves hating". Sadly, much of Trump's support comes from people who are more motivated by their animus toward anyone, or any thing, they deem as "other".
Yeah, agreed. I think we are going through a 'phase transition' between the bad old days of straight white prosperous Protestant Christian patriarchal dominance and the future when people of color and any number of formal and informal religious convictions, where women outnumber men, and the population is well balanced between young and old. This is already happening and by 2040, at least demographically, white men, and whites in general will be a minority population. This freaks them out and, sadly, when combined with massive offshoring of decent jobs, white men especially are confused, frightened and resentful, making them perfect tools for lying autocrats like Trump&Co. to manipulate. But the thing about phase transitions (like water boiling as it changes into a gas is that after the chaos comes a calm. I may not live to see it, but it will happen if we can only stave off disaster for a few more years.
Please change the heart emoji "liking" the post to a stick figure banging its bloody head against the wall. That feels more appropriate to appreciating the writing but what I feel reading about how f'cked up this regime is...and the ways they're taking the U.S. down piece by piece--which I'm pretty sure is their endgame.
Maga's hate the ideals in the constitution, that humans deserve liberty and freedom from tyranny. Maga's want tyranny - they ignorantly believe they will be OK and happy if the all powerful executive crushes immigrants, and women, and dark skinned people, and LGBTQ persons. Maga's need an enemy, however, so if the usual suspects are minimized or gone, then what?
Fpotus believe he deserves to get a Nobel Peace Prize for whatever he does in the Middle East, or Ukraine. He will cry and whine and rant and rave if he doesn't receive it. What a psychopathic immature baby he is. The US is a surreal, dysfunctional, nation now, thanks to him, MuskX’s power, Republicans, the Heritage Foundation, et al "think tanks", billionaire oligarchs, and cult worshippers of their orange god. Science fiction reality, misery for the 98% non-millionaires. We've got to fight back with all we can to stop this tyrannical coup.
"As part of a broader restructuring of the U.S. military’s combatant commands, an exercise driven by the desire to save costs and also to signal U.S. disengagement from Europe, the Trump administration is seriously considering no longer having an American general command NATO."
Do you really believe that this is even slightly about saving costs and not completely about disengaging from Europe? Isn't this move more likely about weakening Europe, to make it less likely that the US will step in if Putin starts to nibble at NATO members in Eastern Europe and the Baltic?
I don't think this is sanewashing on your part. I do think it speaks to a natural tendency to see a rational explanation for even the most inexplicable actions.
Trump has no policy except cruelty. Starving children, VOA losing funding, demeaning anyone who crosses him are just a way to make him look "strong". And Republicans do nothing.
You repeatedly wrote, "MAGA hates"; respectfully, I get the slogan but by animating MAGA, I think you make the movement seem more uniform and indomitable than perhaps it is. Both before and after the election it has become clear that Trump's support does not have one source; it comes from several overlapping subgroups having different ideologies, motives, and 'beefs.' Aside from anti-Dem voters and Trump's nationalist core and J6 fans, Trump's rally-goers loved his 'jokes,' his so-called authenticity and the gear. Others had no idea, really, what they were voting for, in part because the campaign was filled with lies and misinformation. We know where the Project 2025 crowd landed - in the Administration.
What if we all just dropped MAGA from our vocabulary and ghosted the "MAGA movement"? Instead, what if journalists placed greater emphasis on the destructiveness of specific actions and identified the officials who are doing and saying hateful things? It's not as catchy but it might move the country closer to holding some of the bad actors accountable.
The still-sentient parts of the press *are* placing a great deal of emphasis on specific actions and identifying the officials responsible. The problem is that all of it leads back to Trump. His office-holding lackeys and lickspittles do his bidding, or at least desperately seek his approval. Still, I get your point that labeling (or dismissing) people as “MAGA” makes them dig in more and calcifies positions. I propose “Trumpsuckers” as an alternative epithet. Who wants to be that?
I think we’re all still searching for the right formula.
Nickson, thanks for your reply. I certainly agree, it leads back to Trump and his inner circle (Musk, Miller etc).
To rephrase, the goal of ghosting MAGA would be to diminish its self-importance, calcification, and veneer of indomitability. (Just ghosting the term "MAGA" might help us get away from demonizing 30+% of the country.) Combined with the observation that MAGA is diverse, my hope is that factual and principled messaging to people across the political spectrum could possibly win some people over to our political side (which is to say, saving our country).
Will Selber's analysis of what is happening in Gaza is again unnecessarily kind to Israel.
First off, it's Israel that has violated the terms of the initial ceasefire. Hamas has abided by the original agreement. It's pretty sick that Netanyahu's excuse is that there isn't sufficient progress in the second stage of the ceasefire given that one of the violations of the agreement was that Israel wouldn't even initially send negotiators at all.
Second, how is Israel pressuring Hamas? By cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel to 2 million civilians. This isn't a guess, the official Israeli position is that this is necessary to pressure Hamas to release hostages outside of the ceasefire agreement. This is literally a war crime called "collective punishment."
Third, on Monday night, the IDF indiscriminately bombed Gaza, killing over 410 civilians Why do I say there are all civilians? Because Israel isn't even claiming that the bombing campaign was targeting Hamas, and Israel only claimed to have killed two members of Hamas.
All of this is occurring with the explicit consent of Trump and with American weapons paid for with your tax dollars.
I continue to find it astonishing that Selber, JVL, and Mona Charen in particular find it impossible to say a critical word about Israel while it is openly committing war crimes.
I suspect I'll get at least one Israeli apologist denying that Israel has EVERY committed a war crime and denying that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza. This isn't a factually debatable point. If you don't like the state of international law, that's one thing, but it's not a debatable factual point that Israel is openly committing war crimes international law as it is currently written.
Yep! This comports with Trump's declaration that Netanyahu do whatever he wants to finish the job. Get ready for those seaside Trump hotels! I wonder how it's going for all the Gaza protesters who thought Harris was a bad choice and sided with Trump?
I'm afraid that's exactly right. When IDF troops opened fire on unarmed civilians waiting in line for food rations, we could clearly see what the agenda was. The subsequent bombing of the World Central Kitchen trucks and a drone strike that killed a restauranteur who was providing food to the needy made it perfectly clear that none of these attacks was a mistake or an accident. The name of the game is to starve them if you can't bomb them, and let them die of disease if starvation isn't doing the job fast enough. In Trump's own words, "just clean the whole place out."
An important article, built on the history of Pax Americana, by Stephen Rand through London-based The Article. Share far and wide. Every American should read this… https://www.thearticle.com/america-the-empire-that-texted-itself-to-death
I understand that Elon Musk will be sitting in the Pentagon tomorrow viewing war plans. There is something wrong with this picture.
Musk does not have a security clearance for this. How can we srop this?
Was just watching something about Trump having his brownshirts purging references to Native American and black military heroes. This is a draft dodger who sells cards of himself looking like Rambo. What he should be doing is awarding posthumous Medals of Honor. Of course he would award himself one for valor in the Battle of Hue in 1968. Life taker and heart breaker Donny. What a guy!
Glenn, I saw the name and thought: "Oh no, is Instapundit paying us to troll in the comments?" Reminds me of the "Good Stephen Miller" who has written for us and hated being confused with the two bad ones.
Therefore, you are now "Good Glenn Reynolds" in my book ;)
Ha. Thank you. I used to get some hate mail. A guy at a store in Knoxville TN on Glenn Harlan’s turf (I was at a wedding) asked for my autograph at a store when he saw my credit card. Told him “I am a Democrat raised in the people’s Republic of Massachusetts.” He quickly withdrew his paper.” He did not smile. Classic.
That is probably nicer than what I would have done, which is sign something with a note like "STAY WOKE! IMPEACH TRUMP" and see how long it would take to go viral on the internet.
Ha it was pre-trump. I get meaner with age. I did get a fawning overture from a young female hedge fund manager. I said “I am the one that understands economics” I got no response.
IF (maybe a gargantuan IF) other NATO nations would follow orders, maybe a Polish general commanding NATO ground forces, a Swedish general commanding NATO air forces, and UK and France fighting over which would command NATO naval forces would work. Germany's the logistics hub.
Giving Trump the most credit possible, should there be a NEED for US Navy presence in the Med? Shouldn't Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and UK be sufficient to handle it?
The real question is WTF is NATO going to do about Russian missile subs if COMSUBLANT no longer details US attack subs to shadow them. Yes, that would mean Trump and Hegseth would be taking Putin at his word that his missile subs would never, ever target the US, perish the thought!
| but it began the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.
I suspect the Soviet Union, OK, Russia, might want to debate that.
Making Germany TRY, and fail, to fight a war on 3 fronts (France/Belgium/Netherlands, Italy/Greece/Yugoslavia, Soviet Union/Poland/points west) is what won the war in Europe. Just as the COMBINATION of the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki AND the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan when Japan had no chance of resupplying its Army/Air Force in Manchuria thanks to sacrificing what was left of its surface Navy during the Okinawa campaign led the Emperor to surrender.
This situation is the end result of Reagan's claim that government is a problem to be eliminated and accelerated by Newt Gingrich and his hate and denunciation of Democrats and obstruction in the name of conservatism and topped with the Trump cherry. MAGA is the enemy and must be destroyed.
For the past 80 years, American has been the world's military and economic supper power, the $ is the world's reserve currency, and despite all of our faults we are the shinning democracy for those who don't have one look up to.
We spent much in lives and dollars in the 1940's to achieve all of this, and it has paid great dividends, including our national security. It requires, what I call maintenance costs. These costs are small compared to the cost to achieve our status. Refusing to pay these maintenance costs, because we think that America is being ripped off, puts our position at risk. Making it much easier, and cheaper, for China to take over the economic superpower and reserve currency status.
Trump is too ignorant to understand any of this. If Trump had ever experienced a true friendship in his life, he might be able to understand some of this. A friendship isn't about "what's in it for me", rather it just is.
Removing every reference to the history and accomplishments of Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Asian people and women after centuries of suppression is pure DEI hysteria. What they are saying is that unless you are a white male Christian, you "diverge" from the norm. Of course, they insist all those men got their jobs or positions of power through sheer merit. Just look at our new Secretary of Defense as an example of the new meritocracy. A raging unrepentant alcoholic who sexually abuses and uses women and who was fired from two leadership positions he had at non-profits. Now that's the guy I want leading the one of the largest organizations in the world! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/02/pete-hegseth-non-profit-allegations
DT doesn't want to simply withdraw from NATO, he wants to destroy it altogether.
A subheading to Bill Kristol's and Andrew Egger's column could be "and loves hating". Sadly, much of Trump's support comes from people who are more motivated by their animus toward anyone, or any thing, they deem as "other".
Yeah, agreed. I think we are going through a 'phase transition' between the bad old days of straight white prosperous Protestant Christian patriarchal dominance and the future when people of color and any number of formal and informal religious convictions, where women outnumber men, and the population is well balanced between young and old. This is already happening and by 2040, at least demographically, white men, and whites in general will be a minority population. This freaks them out and, sadly, when combined with massive offshoring of decent jobs, white men especially are confused, frightened and resentful, making them perfect tools for lying autocrats like Trump&Co. to manipulate. But the thing about phase transitions (like water boiling as it changes into a gas is that after the chaos comes a calm. I may not live to see it, but it will happen if we can only stave off disaster for a few more years.
Please change the heart emoji "liking" the post to a stick figure banging its bloody head against the wall. That feels more appropriate to appreciating the writing but what I feel reading about how f'cked up this regime is...and the ways they're taking the U.S. down piece by piece--which I'm pretty sure is their endgame.
Maga's hate the ideals in the constitution, that humans deserve liberty and freedom from tyranny. Maga's want tyranny - they ignorantly believe they will be OK and happy if the all powerful executive crushes immigrants, and women, and dark skinned people, and LGBTQ persons. Maga's need an enemy, however, so if the usual suspects are minimized or gone, then what?
Fpotus believe he deserves to get a Nobel Peace Prize for whatever he does in the Middle East, or Ukraine. He will cry and whine and rant and rave if he doesn't receive it. What a psychopathic immature baby he is. The US is a surreal, dysfunctional, nation now, thanks to him, MuskX’s power, Republicans, the Heritage Foundation, et al "think tanks", billionaire oligarchs, and cult worshippers of their orange god. Science fiction reality, misery for the 98% non-millionaires. We've got to fight back with all we can to stop this tyrannical coup.
"As part of a broader restructuring of the U.S. military’s combatant commands, an exercise driven by the desire to save costs and also to signal U.S. disengagement from Europe, the Trump administration is seriously considering no longer having an American general command NATO."
Do you really believe that this is even slightly about saving costs and not completely about disengaging from Europe? Isn't this move more likely about weakening Europe, to make it less likely that the US will step in if Putin starts to nibble at NATO members in Eastern Europe and the Baltic?
I don't think this is sanewashing on your part. I do think it speaks to a natural tendency to see a rational explanation for even the most inexplicable actions.
Trump has no policy except cruelty. Starving children, VOA losing funding, demeaning anyone who crosses him are just a way to make him look "strong". And Republicans do nothing.
You repeatedly wrote, "MAGA hates"; respectfully, I get the slogan but by animating MAGA, I think you make the movement seem more uniform and indomitable than perhaps it is. Both before and after the election it has become clear that Trump's support does not have one source; it comes from several overlapping subgroups having different ideologies, motives, and 'beefs.' Aside from anti-Dem voters and Trump's nationalist core and J6 fans, Trump's rally-goers loved his 'jokes,' his so-called authenticity and the gear. Others had no idea, really, what they were voting for, in part because the campaign was filled with lies and misinformation. We know where the Project 2025 crowd landed - in the Administration.
What if we all just dropped MAGA from our vocabulary and ghosted the "MAGA movement"? Instead, what if journalists placed greater emphasis on the destructiveness of specific actions and identified the officials who are doing and saying hateful things? It's not as catchy but it might move the country closer to holding some of the bad actors accountable.
The still-sentient parts of the press *are* placing a great deal of emphasis on specific actions and identifying the officials responsible. The problem is that all of it leads back to Trump. His office-holding lackeys and lickspittles do his bidding, or at least desperately seek his approval. Still, I get your point that labeling (or dismissing) people as “MAGA” makes them dig in more and calcifies positions. I propose “Trumpsuckers” as an alternative epithet. Who wants to be that?
I think we’re all still searching for the right formula.
Nickson, thanks for your reply. I certainly agree, it leads back to Trump and his inner circle (Musk, Miller etc).
To rephrase, the goal of ghosting MAGA would be to diminish its self-importance, calcification, and veneer of indomitability. (Just ghosting the term "MAGA" might help us get away from demonizing 30+% of the country.) Combined with the observation that MAGA is diverse, my hope is that factual and principled messaging to people across the political spectrum could possibly win some people over to our political side (which is to say, saving our country).
Will Selber's analysis of what is happening in Gaza is again unnecessarily kind to Israel.
First off, it's Israel that has violated the terms of the initial ceasefire. Hamas has abided by the original agreement. It's pretty sick that Netanyahu's excuse is that there isn't sufficient progress in the second stage of the ceasefire given that one of the violations of the agreement was that Israel wouldn't even initially send negotiators at all.
Second, how is Israel pressuring Hamas? By cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel to 2 million civilians. This isn't a guess, the official Israeli position is that this is necessary to pressure Hamas to release hostages outside of the ceasefire agreement. This is literally a war crime called "collective punishment."
Third, on Monday night, the IDF indiscriminately bombed Gaza, killing over 410 civilians Why do I say there are all civilians? Because Israel isn't even claiming that the bombing campaign was targeting Hamas, and Israel only claimed to have killed two members of Hamas.
All of this is occurring with the explicit consent of Trump and with American weapons paid for with your tax dollars.
I continue to find it astonishing that Selber, JVL, and Mona Charen in particular find it impossible to say a critical word about Israel while it is openly committing war crimes.
I suspect I'll get at least one Israeli apologist denying that Israel has EVERY committed a war crime and denying that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza. This isn't a factually debatable point. If you don't like the state of international law, that's one thing, but it's not a debatable factual point that Israel is openly committing war crimes international law as it is currently written.
What we're looking at is the Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem
Yep! This comports with Trump's declaration that Netanyahu do whatever he wants to finish the job. Get ready for those seaside Trump hotels! I wonder how it's going for all the Gaza protesters who thought Harris was a bad choice and sided with Trump?
I'm afraid that's exactly right. When IDF troops opened fire on unarmed civilians waiting in line for food rations, we could clearly see what the agenda was. The subsequent bombing of the World Central Kitchen trucks and a drone strike that killed a restauranteur who was providing food to the needy made it perfectly clear that none of these attacks was a mistake or an accident. The name of the game is to starve them if you can't bomb them, and let them die of disease if starvation isn't doing the job fast enough. In Trump's own words, "just clean the whole place out."