Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta joined JVL today on the first edition of the pop-up series WTF 2.0. They talked about the looming constitutional crisis Trump seems intent on, Jim’s thoughts on if we’ll get through it and what some people might not know about cable news.
show notes: The Jim Acosta Show now on Substack at 4pm week days.
JVL will be joined by
on Thursday for the next edition of WTF 2.0. Tune it at 1pm ET on the site and the Substack app.
Jim Acosta’s comment about still believing some Rs will step up to the plate inspired me to action—I and some friends will send a copy of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s book, How We Learn to be Brave to every senator and representative. Naive action, perhaps, but we only need to change a few hearts and minds. We could use some support for our Go Fund Me, if anyone is interested. https://www.gofundme.com/f/brave-expectations-call-our-reps-to-courageous-action
Yes. Yes we are.
She does actually, the Voice of Palestine is a radio broadcast station in Ramallah, and she was defending the bombing of their headquarters, explaining that because their broadcasts were hostile to Israel they ought to be considered legitimate targets for attack.
I strongly disagree with the bottom line you take. The excuse "war is shitty" should not be the bottom line. This reminds me of a scene from The West Wing where one character learns another knowingly made him commit a war crime. "How could you make me do that?" The commanding officer sadly states "All war is a crime."
And, uh, no! As a Marine veteran, there are rules of war we follow. Some acts of war are worse than others! Killing journalists because you think their writing is bad is exactly what MbS did to that WP journalist Kashoggi, and Applebaum was rightly upset about that. I have no idea how she squares that circle.
Full on . Talk it up boys, interesting about your beginnings. Yin/Yang of sorts, also our history, (WBIR start Acosta! I lived there too, never would have guessed). Do another one!
Peace
how does Ukraine out last this? Be real Jim! What if Trump manages to turn off the Social Security payments? What about all the farmers that have lost their income because of USAID going away?
Like it. Do it again. Do it again (said the teletubby...)
You are way more hopeful than I am. I'm completely dispirited at this point.
Great conversations, thank you!!
Terrible sound volume; I had to strain to listen, but couldn't bother. True when I tried to listen in real time. I hoped this would be better, but it's not.
Same. I so wanted to hear this but could not spend 30 minutes with my ear next to my speakers.
At about 8 minute mark, re SCOTUS: what about an 'immunity' like ruling - something along the lines of what is allowable under the outer periphery of executive powers which means each individual act has to be brought into question and the ultimate arbiter in every case as to what that outer periphery is is, of course, SCOTUS. Frankly, post immunity ruling where they went far beyond what virtually anyone could imagine, I can't trust SCOTUS at this point.
Exact opposites, yet so much alike! Great duo and very interesting & fun.
I am writing this comment in as many Bulwark feeds as I can in hopes that it can find its way to Dems who can promote this message. We are in a government shut down. No one is using this term for what is happening, and yet, it is very, very unpopular with voters. Fact: This administration is shutting down the government, albeit in bits and pieces. The opposition should steadily and consistently refer to "the ongoing government shut down" in every interview. Most voters don't have any clue what that means anyway. But... when it comes time for the House to vote on the budget, or a spending bill (if they ever get that far), the Dems will be accused of shutting down the government and it will carry over into the 2026 mid-terms. If the current situation is called what it is-- a government shut down-- the Dems actions will simply be refusing to fund a government that is already shut down and an executive branch that refuses to spend the money that the legislature has appropriated.
Excellent interview. How about everybody doesn’t file their taxes as a protest.
Excellent discussion.
Loved it! Please keep it going!
Bulwark+ Takes - really great idea. Interesting to listen to Jim Acosta but also to listen to JVL’s answers at the end.
Good show, short show, eager to hear more (if Thursday’s really is Ben Wittes then definitely sign me up). Please fix the sound - Tim’s daily pod was right after this in my queue and the intro music was so loud in my dialed-up-to-11 earpods it knocked my socks off.
I, for one, will never surrender the "conservative" label to a bunch of dictator-loving traitors.
This was great! Jim Acosta is a national treasure.
Sound needs help. I grabbed my ear pods to hear on my iPad but that didn’t even help. Other than that it was WONDERFUL hearing Jim’s career story. And I’m glad he left CNN.
I don’t want to give up on my fellow Americans who are currently in the Trump camp, but I feel like even if there are cracks in their obeisance it will be quickly patched over by the right wing media. Some will be strong enough (I think of the few that run away from cults) but most will not. That is my fear. I hope I’m wrong.
I have always known that it doesn’t take a majority of pro-right-wing fascists to win the fight against the side of society which wants civilization. The one side has all the thugs and psychopaths, the blood-lust and love of violence, as well as the willingness to get their way by any means, fair or foul. The rest of us have a tendency for greater compassion for human empathy and a sense of fairness. Obviously, it will take more of us with humanity in our souls to win a fight against the bullies. In normal times, most democracies absorb up to 10% of these nuts into society with no major problems. But what is the percentage of the population that the thugs require before they have enough to overturn society? I have always used as my marker on this to be the 37% who voted for the Nazi party in the last free election in the early ‘30s that Germany had before Hitler grabbed complete control. I am interested that JVL estimates the percentage of Americans who presently want the authoritarian fascism offered by Trump to be 35%. Hmmm…
"The one side has all the thugs and psychopaths, the blood-lust and love of violence, as well as the willingness to get their way by any means, fair or foul. The rest of us have a tendency for greater compassion for human empathy and a sense of fairness." Insert wailing tears emoji........
Jim is lucky to get The JVL who does a phenomenal job of pitching questions/making bold statements that set co-podcasters up to hit home runs.
Pat in the back, JVL, you’re really good at adding sassy questions, emotional stands, personal recollections and RANDOM recalls of information from all different directions/cultural phenomena/historical events… brilliant mind.
Also, you were referred to as a JVL, but I liked that you thought it was The JVL and Sarah and Tim let you believe it
Loved the discussion. Jim Acosta is great, I hope The Bulwark can have him contribute
more in the future.
Thank you for some positive thoughts. I may be able to sleep tonight. Nice to hear your history in journalism.
Agree, listening to them discuss their personal histories was my favorite part!
Great to have all this varied content. When are you going to have AOC on? I, too, am a pessimist. AOC is clear-eyed, and I think the oldies in the congressional democrats are muzzling her. Would love to hear her take. If anyone is going to fire up the base, it’s her. And Jasmine Crockett. And others like them. We’ve got to have the young members front and center at the podium — dead-eyes Hakeem Jeffries and not these old people.
Not dead-eyes Hakeem Jeffries, I meant.
FYI: apparently this doesn't work on all devices, but you should be able to click on the "..." to the right of any comment you post and choose "edit" to make corrections. (Ask me how I know. :-) )
JVL The fascist right has been around for a long time in this country. My father was one of them. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, yet he told me that he would have voted for Hitler if he had been an American politician. He treated my mother horribly and ignored me when I was lucky.
Rachel Maddow has done excellent work uncovering this movement. Henry Ford was perhaps its primary spokesman.
My father's letters to the editor and politicians resulted in the State Representative for Albany, Oregon, speaking at his funeral in 1995.
This trend was relegated to the Twilight Zone until right-wing radio, and Fox News made it respectable. Social media became the swamp that spread this virus.
Yess, this is interesting, do another one.
Someone needs to help Mr Acosta with his microphone, his metaphors which he badly mixes, and his memory. The last is the most pivotal because he's acting as though 49.5% of the voting electorate had no opportunity to understand that they were voting for a person that wanted to be a dictator. The rest of us did. So what makes you think anyone is going to suddenly have an epiphany and protest other than the 48% of the voting electorate that already knew what was happening? We are rightly and truly doomed unless the 49.5% of the voting electorate that put us in this position (along with McConnell and Biden) change their minds about what they want and rise up and protest with the rest of us. I normally don't join JVL in this pessimism but I'm there. Talk me off the ledge.
I didn't want to let myself believe that about my fellow Americans, either (even after the despair of 2016, etc.). Then November 2024 happened.
Thank you!!
Great content. Thank you.
Auction off the trench coats for charity or visibility? 🤓
Yes I thought that as well! Could fetch a good price!
Fascinating interview. Thank you JVL and Jim!
Love you, Jim.
And…I can’t physically or financially outlast this even if it lasts only a few more months. I am willing to stand up if I can find a genuine way to do that.
A guy I know in Kansas told me the other day "Well, as long as no one kills me and I don't starve, I'll survive this" and I can't believe we have to talk this way in this country, about outlasting this and survival!
EXCELLENT! MORE!
I’m lowkey not afraid of Trump as a person. I thought I’d be. But there’s something about his cocaine levels of confidence that feel hollow. I found Putin alarming for 8 years, he was a chilling person to watch when I saw rare behind the scenes videos. But Trump is such a loser. And I’m not even an optimist, but I just cannot find it in myself to fear these cronies, so at least that’s something. Also on ig when it popped up on stories “We’re going back to plastic straws - POTUS” I felt like I had dropped acid. Especially after Biden’s normally curated POTUS content for so many years
The Bulwark is what American journalism should strive to be in this continuously changing media climate. The whole Bulwark is exceptional , but Tim, Jonathan and Sarah are diamonds in the rough.
Yes!
(we are!!!)
Production quality needs work - audio work.
This was good, but, I thought it was just me but it wasn’t, the audio was terrible
JVL was not using his usual Sennheiser microphone.
The audio was awful. I had the volume on my iPad turned all the way up, and it was still hard to hear. No clue what the problem was.
This was fantastic! Thank you both. Looking forward to seeing another soon.
This was a great, engaging discussion, thanks!
For two additional points of view that are closer to Jim’s than JVL’s, I highly recommend first, from The Contrarian yesterday,
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/norm-eisen-explains-to-jen-rubin?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
And second, from Antonia Scatton on February 6,
https://reframingamerica.substack.com/p/restoring-sanity
Finally, may I (respectfully, lovingly) point out that the darkness in JVL’s view of our country’s current state may be to some extent colored by bitterness arising from the betrayal delivered to him by republicans (about whom he once assumed normal human decency and integrity?). It would be hard for most people to trust or expect much from millions of strangers after such a blow from those once thought to be compadres.
I’m sunnier— whatever the future brings, I know I won’t be crushed under the burden of suddenly thinking poorly of the GOP.
Interesting discussion and great ot have Acosta as a guest, but Substack (and its App) really isn't suited well for this kind of live stream.
For starters, no option to stop/rewind the stream and/or making the chat section more visible/useful in any way.
Even Youtube does it better, sorry.
I wonder why you, JVL, didn’t ask him anything about his firing from CNN? Is there an NDA?
CNN sux now....Acosta doesn't need that spineless BS
I guess it wasn’t exactly a firing but didn’t they give him the skeleton shift?
Yes, that was the offer that he turned down. It was for midnight.
Who is this Jonathon? What happened to The JVL? I like Jonathon much better, just saying.
Thrilled to see @Jimacosta on the Bulwark!!
I had to turn the volume up to the max to hear this. Some audio issue going on .
Same!
It looked like JVL was not using his usual Sennheiser microphone.
Love it! Keep it going.
I don’t think Acosta has realized even if the American people “rise up”. Trump will order Hegseth to suppress it, violently. The issue is will the military obey that order? If they don’t what then? If they do it’s also bad? If/when Trump violates the Supreme Court orders there is no way this ends well. It ends in a coup d’tate, MAGA seizing total power or civil war.
People I know are buying ammo; I'm personally committed to nonviolence, even if the consequence is my own painful violent death, but I'm not at all happy about this moment in history in this gun filled country.........
I bought a gun. Unfortunately nonviolence is only effective when the threat of violence is accompanying it. Nonviolence without that threat is just annoying. Gandhi had Hindu nationalists movements like Anushilan Samiti and others as his cudgel. King famously had Malcom X. Nonviolence works when it represents and alternative to the cost of violence.
I'm a Jesus freak, so I just don't do guns, and yes, I totally get the risks in that.
The audio for this video isn’t great.
I found Jim Acosta a very personable and nice man and would love to see more of him at the Bulwark. We need optimists. We need that injection of normalcy from time to time as it gets darker and darker.
But Jim not enough pushed back in the election. Boebert, Higgins etc all got re-elected.
JVL, this was a great interview. Point/Counterpoint. Great perspective on history and your own evolution as a journalist. I left MSNBC because of the hysteria. You and Bill and Sarah ground me.
Agree. I love some of the MSNBC exposes, but they need to dial down the hysterics. Which feels sometimes pandering-adjacent.
Pfft! American people rise up? Elected leaders respond? There's no power there. That comes under Wishful Thinking. Sometimes it's better to give up on the fantasy and accept the reality, and see where we go from there, but Jim needs to do his cope his way, as do we all need to do it our way, so I've whispered this comment very quietly. If I knew Jim in person, I'd be assuring him that he's probably right and patting his shoulder. And look at JVL's mouth keeping such control as Jim says these things. Good job, JVL! Good hosting.
SAME. There are complicated layers and players intersecting here to deliver this moment in history (death of the American republic). I'm in the acceptance phase myself. The power does not reside with the American people or elected leaders. It did, but they capitulated, and too many Americans want authoritarianism. It's a genuine shift.
Thank you @jvlast for WTF 2.0. I greatly appreciate how you and the Bukwark are bringing great value to your subscribers with fresh content and fresh contributors.
If the show lasts, and I hope it does, it would be awesome for you to have a follow up show with Jim Acosta.
I really, really hate time zones. I miss everything live.
Love this JVL. Looking forward to more!
Great show! I'm looking forward to the next one.
THANK-YOU. Yes, please do another one.
I found the sound a bit of a problem. If other people found the volume a little low (even with headphones and the volume up as high as it goes), would you mind fiddling with the sound a little?
JVL, I’m a big fan of this additional programming! Keep ‘em coming, let’s outlast the insanity by sticking all together!
The only qualified person Trump ever hired was Stormy Daniels.
Ok thanks for the laugh!
Sadly, as I went to type that, I remembered that she didn’t actually want to sleep with him. (He didn’t “hire her” either - not that he even pays the people he does hire.) She felt like she couldn’t get out of the situation safely and determined that being passive was her best option.
Melania’s under contract, though, so maybe she’s a better example of a good hire. 😎
Has she said that herself?
I'm completely ignorant about the details of their encounter, thankfully. Other people's sex lives are none of my business, and I don't have any opinion beyond sex work is just like any other job, and women should not be shamed for making money in the oldest, most honest profession that has ever existed.
If 2 bjs a week pays the same as 40 hours at McDonalds who is actually smarter?
Yes, it was her testimony in his NY trial. He had a bodyguard nearby. She said no a couple of times. It’s worth looking up on the internet. It was not what I expected.
Thank you for explaining. He really needs to be publicly humiliated.
Hi Mr Kendrick Lamar sir, we heard that DJT was talking real bad about you and your wife, even worse than Drake.
Sincerely,
America
A propos of Acosta's proposed that we just need to tell Republicans in power that we trust their better angels (paraphrasing), acknowledging that this might sound naive, Pollyanna-ish or raise questions about what he might be smoking, I suggest this article by the brilliant Katherine Stewart, leading authority on right-wing paramilitaries and the book Bringing the War Home.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/are-the-courts-up-to-the-situation?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
As a close student of Tim Snyder and Anne Applebaum, I would suggest that Acosta may have missed their point when interviewing them. Anne just said the other day that her threat level was nine or ten, and that the nature of what is going on is unprecedented (the bad kind).
My connection to the live-stream cut out as I was driving earlier, and that is right were I ended my listen -- need to go back and hear the rest, but could not resist the contrast between Acosta's sunny message of hope and Stewart's clear-eyed piece linked to above.
Well, he did say something to the effect that it was going to be hell on wheels for the next few months, or even years, but that he thought we would come out it alive but battle scarred. My own prediction these past few weeks is that our situation has to get worse before it can get better. We have to hit a critical mass of pain before people wake up and force Congress to impeach and convict. The pain will not be fun. It may even have to take the military shooting people in the streets. Right now too many people think everything’s just fine because none of what’s happening is directly affecting them. But it will happen.
I agree with most of what he said, Ann. Also, I absolutely believe peaceful protestors will be clubbed, tear-gassed, shot. I was a little shocked by Acosta's suggestion that kindly exhortations to do the right thing would turn the trick.
oops I mixed up my right wing radical extremist experts. Katherine Stewart iauthor of The Power Worshippers and expert on the rise of white Christian nationalism and Kathleen Stewart is author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America and expert on extremism and paramilitaries. Both are superb authors, worth reading and have superb lectures and interviews online.
JVL's triad on constitutional crisis was excellent. Until the end where he left it as a question, and not just that, but one with an answer. If the courts try to rein in Trump, Congress will refuse to impeach him, so that's that. The voters are the only ones who can express enough displeasure, the right voters that is, to change Trump's course.
Do the voters even count? No matter how an election turns out, Trump always declares victory.
“the right voters”. Yep, when the right people get hurt, then things will change. Not before.
Man — I’d completely forgotten about the Panama Canal!
Very nice, loved it!
MORE! 🤩
PS The AMA was very informative, especially the background on the Bulwark.
Oh, they all used to be at The Weekly Standard. Bill Kristol never got on board with Trump, so they started to lose subscribers and eventually had to go out of business. Sarah Longwell had her own business , but teamed up with Kristol to start The Bulwark and hire the staff from The Weekly Standard. I think JVL was the digital editor for The Weekly Standard, if I’m not mistaken. They were all Republicans, but Never Trumpers. Now they’re Independents.
That's not quite right. The Weekly Standard did not fail. Rather, it was cannibalized by its new owner, which only bought TWS in order to acquire its subscriber list. Without advance notice, we TWS subscribers all found our subscriptions switched to the publisher's new magazine, The Washington Examiner. I'm glad I didn't renew my subscription early.
Thanks for the clarification. I had read that it was the severe drop off in subscribers that caused the collapse of TWS. It was the decision of the owner, but still based on the loss of subscribers. In any event, the staff all lost their jibs and were basically rescued by Sarah Longwell starting TB with Bill Kristol, for which we should all be grateful.
But why are you stopping with the supreme court as if he would abide by, their ruling? I don't think he will because who is going to enforce the supreme court ruling? DOJ? Impeachment? Not likely. I think all of this is exactly what he and Elon want so they can have clear sailing from here on out.
Whenever people wonder how America can be pro fascist or authoritarian, they need to think not about the white middle class changing, but the republic being racist and treating blacks this way from day one. I was reminded of this when I went to work for a major medical association in the 1990's and the black, mostly secretarial staff, welcomed me to what they called the plantation. The Reconstruction and the KKK, anti labor thugs under the FBI and the Palmer raids, Charles Lindbergh and Father Coughlan in the 1930's, Huey Long, the McCarthy explosions of the 1950s - all part of a fascist and authoritarian streak that never went away.
You are the man, Robert. Knocked that out of the park. Well said!
I believe you too, that there has been a growing undercurrent of supremacy getting released in this decade ( and longer)…this feeds a weird hunger for cultural hatred and violence when amplified on the internet. Jim explained this as being addictive. Here we are! The new human addiction in the population. And, these folks call themselves Christians and followers of Jesus!
I liked this JVL/ACOSTA chat and would appreciate more. This episode was yin-yang for me as far as the topics. Our demise vs maybe not….liked to learn more about these 2 hosts too.
Thanks Bulwark
Spot on truth.
All this calls on freedom loving Americans to work towards hardening our Constitution against fear-monger and hate-spewing politics and propaganda geared towards creating violent mob Extremism.
In order to make the first amendment stand hallowed and unsullied, we have to make a clear delineation of what is freedom of speech. And what history has taught us to know by now –what is divisive,racist, misogynist, fascist war-mongering, what foments cult and conspiracy responses to feelings of helplessness, and the engendering of reactionary violence.
Babies aren't born naturally espousing the above abhorrent mindsets. Those social diseases are created.
And we can't continue to look down on those who have been tainted by these diseases. Like any cancer present within an organism, judging, condemnation, and ignoring the source of these ills will not bring about a healing of that cancer.
On a National level, we can only transcend these long-held diseases by overcoming our punitive ways. And instead, allowing access to the broader range of possibilities for having a better life for all people.
Including the enclaves of predominantly
white persons who are purposefully kept undereducated by the extant system-i.e. Trump's comment, "I love undereducated Americans."
Of course he does, those downtrodden people are cultivated for the purposes of war on all levels.
Through education, through more responsible media, through coming up with ways to curtail the poisonous effect of outlets like the so-called "Fox News" the propaganda machine which does not deliver news we can create a fully participatory nation where deep listening to one another can only make us stronger and stronger as a people commited to evolving above the quagmire that plagues us now.
It's time for all freedom, loving believers in the rule of law to make that law reflective of a society that loves the social mechanisms that create stability, a thriving populace, which gives rise to a thriving economy, where no group of persons are held back and cultivated to feed the war machine.
Our planet is suffering from the effects of a metastasized war
Industry that is serviced by fear. And we are seeing the shadow drawing longer and darker now.
Only light can continue to contain that darkness. With courage, and a willingness to dispel our fears, from this newly elevated place, we can create new definitions for a stronger and more resilient democracy.
To make this happen, we all have one question to ask ourselves— What gifts do I have to offer towards the imperative of building resilience? Fearlessly, with compassion, and a love for freedom.
Then the "Southern Strategy", then the "Welfare Queens", then Rush Limbaugh and Fox News ... the beat goes on.
I just can’t believe it when I hear smart people like Jim say “I have too much faith in the American people” after the American people elected A FELON AND A CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER AS PRESIDENT!!! Wake the fuck up man!
Yes. I stalk a fair amount of Trumper former friends on social media and they are in lock step with the felon. Multiply them by the millions and millions of other Trumpers out there in our vast messed up nation and I’m not feeling sunny at all.
Yes!!!!
But when will the Trumpers stop defending him? They’re still saying they love the idea of Elon’s boys “auditing” the federal government. When will the tide turn for them?
As long as they're in their bubble they'll never know the real world until one of his polices really bites them in the ass, even then it's doubtful as they'll blame the libs or the deep state anyway.
Yeah, these are the idiots who say, "Keep the government out of my Social Security!"
Yes, we are most definitely in a constitutional crisis. This will not end well for most Americans and our entire form of government. We’re in the Endgame now.
God is already punishing this country. Four deadly plane crashes in ten days, that's not a coincidence.
I’m not sure we can compare western media with what’s on the ground with Palestinians. Not at this juncture.
If there was a god, he'd have pushed Donald off that golden escalator right before he could announce running for president.
“When Bad Things Happen to Good People” (1981) by Rabbi Harold Kushner.
God doesn't usually punish crimes before they are committed. Or, perhaps, He does: there would be no way for us to know in this life. Perhaps some of our history's martyrs were otherwise destined to become tyrants.
"What next?"
Suggested ideas for starters —download "War Game" on YouTube, Prime, or other platforms.
Great historians to follow —Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum
Learn about more great pro-democracy voices on these pods— Politics Girl, and on MSNBC— Rachel Maddow's brilliant series, "Ultra". 2 seasons and on-going.
Read "The State and Revolution" by Vladimir Lenin to learn exactly what to do when an unelected gazillionaire madman Czar takes over your country, steals from regular people and brutally oppresses them, all to amass more wealth and power for himself and his cronies.
Here's a link to read it for free!
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/
Thanks! Sounds riveting. On it now!
Also, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and M. Ghessen (also under Masha Ghessen).
Anne Applebaum has advocated for the military killing journalists before. I can't in good conscience recommend her.
If that allegation about Anne Applebaum is accurate, I'd really like to get source material, links, publications, recordings.
No doubt anyone taking a position for the misuse of military against the press would seem an unforgivable, and dangerous fascist. I'm highly surprised by this mention, but if it's true, thank you for bringing it up.
It is hard to bring that particular bit of data together with any of the recordings that I've personally listened to.
But if it can be substantiated, one universal truth is that actual life is stranger than fiction.
You can read the article for yourself and decide if I'm mischaracterizing it. It is entitled "Kill the Messenger".
Relevant section at end: "Establishing a credible media will be, for the Palestinians, part of what it takes to establish a credible state. Until then, the Voice of Palestine will remain what it has become: a combatant—and therefore a legitimate target—in a painful, never-ending, low-intensity war."
Note that she never says this organization or its journalists ever actually engage in physical combat. She accuses them of bias and of fake news. For this, she calls them combatants and legitimate targets.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/01/targeting-radio-and-tv-stations.html
I find that hard to believe. What evidence?
You can read the article for yourself and decide if I'm mischaracterizing it. It is entitled "Kill the Messenger".
Relevant section at end: "Establishing a credible media will be, for the Palestinians, part of what it takes to establish a credible state. Until then, the Voice of Palestine will remain what it has become: a combatant—and therefore a legitimate target—in a painful, never-ending, low-intensity war."
Note that she never says this organization or its journalists ever actually engage in physical combat. She accuses them of bias and of fake news. For this, she calls them combatants and legitimate targets.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/01/targeting-radio-and-tv-stations.html
Thank you for the link. I'll give it a view and ponder this discussion.
For now, I might take her view from this point in time, as an accurate assessment of what has already happened.
Being that she doesn't state which journalists specifically *should* be targeted as combatants, I'm not sure that she is actually advocating such a position. It could be, that she is only making an observation on the state of affairs as it was at the time.
The bottom line on this subject is, "war is shitty". And sadly, inescapable at this juncture in human evolution. Slow learners, humankind is.
All that said, I find her contribution to the present moment with her latest, "Autocracy, Inc." provides valuable insights for the many who are still shocked, and still asking, "Why is this happening?"
Applebaum wrote that during the Second Intifada, when the Palestinian Authority was at war with Israel. Voice of Palestine is wholly owned by the PA, just as Voice of America is wholly owned by the US government. When a government is at war, any department that is not explicitly flying a white flag can be reasonably regarded as part of its war effort.
This implies that journalists from the BBC or NPR could be legitimately targeted as combatants, because they are part of a war effort. In fact, this implies that any civilian that could be implicated as part of a war effort are lawful combatants, despite them not actually being combatants.
Is this an accurate characterization of your view?
I call it karma, but yes, we are (finally?) paying for 400+ years of American carnage. America is not the “good guy“ and never has been. Our government now just reflects how bloodthirsty, corrupt, and greedy we have always been. The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
I mean, call it karma or God's ire, seems a distinction without a difference.
Unfortunately yes.
When does a constitutional crisis become a fascist state? We’re already there.
Of course we are. And it will get worse when Trump outwardly defies the Supreme Court. What then?
Love the pop ups!
It’s hard to actually change the Constitution, but it’s not hard to interpret the Constitution however you want to. It’s not hard for the USSC to overrule prior USSC decisions. All you need is for 5 of them to interpret the Constitution in such a way as to let Trump do whatever he wants to do. There was no real legal basis for them not to affirm the Colorado Supreme Court decision that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibited Trump from running for elected office again. But they found a very weak loophole that hinged on a specific interpretation of Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, and did it anyway. They could easily have interpreted Section 5 a different way and said that Congress did not have the exclusive power to enforce Section 3, and had they done that we wouldn’t be here. Another J6 mob would have attacked the Supreme Court building, and the Justices would have received death threats, and a series lawsuits to remove Biden from the ballot would have been filed immediately, but they still could have ruled that way had they wanted to. The Colorado and the amicus briefs were airtight. Lawyers are trained to argue both sides of any issue. So are Justices.