Given the uncertainties, one can say nothing more definite than that "something will happen"; where, when is unknown. The most important question to answer is what set of people we want in charge on the day. Or stated in the negative, who don't we want in charge?
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) May 24, 2024
The US has been in a state of cold civil war for some decades now. It can only end when one side or the other is defenestrated from the Overton window.
That means there is no “we” in “who do we (the entire US) want in charge.” Support for the preferred candidate of one side is literal treason to the other: Giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The question is whether the other side can be defenestrated without the cold civil war going hot.
So far there has been a commendable degree of calm on the part of those who should be hoppin’ mad. And probably are. I’m wondering this morning what form calm, resolute opposition will take? What symbols will it use? How quickly will say, a bunch of bananas be designated a Hate Symbol? It’s only 8am on The Morning After, I may be too late with that farcical suggestion already…
T
A thoughtful piece by Shaun Maguire, who supported Hillary in 2016, sat out 2020, and just made a large contribution to Donald Trump:
https://x.com/shaunmmaguire/status/1796293774794268747
I wonder how many have read Kurt Schlicter’s book, “The Attack”?
The Shaun McGuire thread was interesting and I agree with all except his 2016 argument. Seth Rich still must be explained.
You can trace a lot of a person’s political persona back through their past personal and professional experiences. Donald Trump is a brash, egotistical (I mean self-assured and fearless) property developer from Queens who not only brands himself as a decision-maker but who is known for cutting deals and understanding the art of the possible. He’s proven that as President
Joe Biden is a man who upon ascending to VP had spent 36 of his 68 years in the Senate; a place full of blowhards and where there is no executive responsibility. It was pretty clear that when the primary field was cleared out for him in March 2020 that deal was he could be president if his administration was bust-out for various interests. Leave aside that Biden has an inferiority complex, if you look up the word “mediocre” in a dictionary there is a big picture of him there. I think he’s flubbed every foreign policy decision out there; the decision-process re: the Gaza pier fiasco is the Biden Administration in microcosm.
I know who I prefer making decisions
Laughing Wolf has a post describing a situation that after yesterday we are going to be all too familiar with over the next several months. Sometime back the Left crossed the proverbial Rubicon with their TDS in that they could no longer afford to let him win; I’ll point to last year with the various indictments and the op-eds calling him a Caesar, Hitler, and a threat to democracy. Certainly that point was definitively crossed last night with Trump’s convictions. Now the Left has to win not as an emotional issue, but out of perceived self-survival
What makes this extremely dangerous is that for the past 2 years the Left has been on escalation ladder, but they are not competing against Trump the man so much as the possibility of Trump winning. Every step the Left takes to defeat him from the indictments to the branding him an existential threat to America to the convictions moves them past the point-of-no-return to where they will do anything in their power to prevent Trump taking office including false flags, assassination, and even civic unrest and threatened secession. That’s how escalations work.
My guess is that if the Trump convictions don’t budge the polls in Biden’s favor then the Left goes up the next step in the escalation ladder, rinse and repeat. Desperate people do stupid things, desperate people with a lot of power do catastrophic things
There is a surprising absence of reports about courtrooms being burned, the homes of judges & jurors being firebombed, and lots of help-yourself rioting in city centers. Presumably, the Lame Stream Media are deliberately not reporting on all that peaceful protesting?
If “Joe Biden” were smart, he (his handlers, actually) would let the situation bubble for a few days — and then issue a pardon for President Trump. In the interests of “democracy” of course, and to show the world what a big guy the “Big Guy” is, and how confident he is of victory when the Dominion machines report the “election” results. But “Joe Biden” is not smart.
1) The Republic has been gone in fact for a long time, but after the Volksgerichtshof Court verdict yesterday its absence can no longer be denied.
2) Who can, and on what basis, give credibility to any election results announced in November . . . assuming we even have something called an election?
3) Who can trust/believe that if they ever choose to run for office in this country without the permission of those in power that they will not receive the same Friesler-esque treatment as Trump has?
4) If such conditions obtain, what is the legitimacy under our past Social Contract of any government?
As a student of history, both Western and Asian, the transition between Social Contracts, regardless of whether the new one is an improvement or not, is a dangerous time to live in.
Subotai Bahadur
I used to think that the Republican who would finally defeat the demonrats would be someone who could beat the media at their own game.
That person turned out to be Donald Trump. We know what happened next.
Now I think the person who will defeat the regime is someone who will attack its legitimacy frontally, and not pretend we still live in a nation with anything resembling the rule of law.
That person may still yet be Trump. We’ll see.
Interesting to read that piece by Shaun McGuire. Perhaps enough people with enough influence are waking up to reality. We’ll also see about that.
I recall that the left was jubilant when Obamacare passed, because they figured it guaranteed them fresh generations of political dominance. It didn’t. They keep mashing down on all the buttons that used to give them victory, and then it goes sideways. That’s the real lather-rinse-repeat. The Harlem Globetrotters and Washington Generals used to be an apt analogy to American politics, but the problem is that when the people in the political cheap seats figured out the game is rigged, they walked away.
Hence, Trump- and his astonishing staying power. Tom Delay’s political career was ended by one charge from a corrupt demonrat prosecutor, and Trump just raised tens of millions after a conviction on dozens of phony charges.
I don’t think that’s a sign that the regime is winning its war against its opponents. It’s a sign that is has only succeeded in making more of them.
Interesting times, etc, and enough rambling from me.
“What makes this extremely dangerous is that for the past 2 years the Left has been on escalation ladder,”
The “escalation ladder” I’m watching is these m****f***rs are attacking Russia’s early warning ballistic radar sites. Not to mention what is going in the “Gaza ghetto”.
”If ‘Joe Biden’ were smart, he (his handlers, actually) would let the situation bubble for a few days — and then issue a pardon for President Trump.”
Joe Biden does not have the authority to pardon President Trump.
”The ‘escalation ladder’ I’m watching is these m****f***rs are attacking Russia’s early warning ballistic radar sites.”
Of course they are. Those radar sites monitor all air traffic over Ukraine and the Black Sea and are a key factor in preventing the Ukrainian Air Force from mounting successful air strikes. Once they are out of operation and the F-16s are delivered, expect Ukraine to accelerate the destruction of Russia’s air defense and electronic warfare systems. At that point offense operations against Russian armor and artillery will accelerate.
It’s attrition warfare, and some very important and very expensive Russian weapon systems are being attritted away.
mkent: “At that point offense operations against Russian armor and artillery will accelerate.”
We live in a world of action and reaction. If NATO’s proxies in the Ukraine succeed in increasing attacks on Russian civilians (more likely) and Russian military (less likely), then it is likely (certain!) that Russian attacks on NATO proxies in the Ukraine (and maybe outside the Ukraine) will increase — probably more than proportionately.
All this NATO-inspired bloodshed & misery for what? To support Zelensky — a dictator who clings to office even when his democratic mandate has expired; who jails opposition politicians; who imposes total control over media in the Ukraine; who shuts down churches.
Maybe there could be justifiable reasons for risking a thermonuclear World War that will kill hundreds of millions of Americans … but keeping Zelensky around ain’t one of them.
Auron MacIntyre has some interesting thoughts on how we got where we are and what is likely to happen next in his recently released “The Total State.” The book is an elaboration of the “managerial state” theories of men like James Burnham and Sam Francis. According to MacIntyre, the managerial elites that currently rule us achieved their hegemony via a secular religion most of us know as “Wokism.” I don’t agree with everything in the book, but there are some very interesting takes on such things as why corporate ad campaigns by the likes of Anheuser-Busch, Gillette, etc., are so transparently self-destructive, the immunity of the Woke to charges of hypocrisy, the reasons for the failure of classic conservatism, etc.
MacIntyre also notes that, as these elites become aware that their power is fading, they become ever more desperate in trying to assert it. As “Anonymous” notes, a classic case is the proxy war they are now conducting in Ukraine. It is far from improbable that they will stumble into a full-scale nuclear exchange, dragging the rest of us along with them. At this point it may be prudent to buy a Geiger counter and look at predictions of potential fallout spread. It is obvious that no settlement of the war that might have been achieved in 2022 could possibly have been worse than Ukraine’s loss of over half a million of her young men and counting, not to mention her material losses. Yet on we stumble.
”If ‘Joe Biden’ were smart, he (his handlers, actually) would let the situation bubble for a few days — and then issue a pardon for President Trump.”
We all know the answer to the first premise, they ain’t smart. and as mkent points out, the President lacks the power to pardon state charges. But, this brings up a couple of very interesting questions.
So far, all the charges pending against “best boy” Hunter are Federal, so why hasn’t daddy just short circuited the whole mess with a pardon and done so long enough ago that things would have died down by now, maybe? My answer: Hunter, and don’t forget Jim, cut a pretty wide swath. What are the odds that they managed to do so without violating any state laws, especially in those states that might be inclined to take notice? I’d be willing to bet that there are indictments sitting in Austin or Tallahassee, very possibly both and possibly other state capitals awaiting the outcome of the federal cases. What are the odds that the morning after the pardon or “not guilty” verdicts, extradition warrants are filed? All that evidence that’s now in the open and daddy powerless even if they are able to steal this election too.
hes never been right, Robert Gates told us so, then proceeded to vote for him, because Orange Man, when he was a Senator he was for he Nuclear Freeze, when he was Vice President he was cadjoling Karzai directly, and trying to topple him electorally,
yes fire ATACMs into the Steppes, and Putin may fire Khinshals, probably into Romania, Poland et al, and then the Party begins,
An interesting discussion between Tucker Carlson and one of the Trump sons. Both discuss possible assassination possibilities.
I still think this is the final match to the fuse.
I’d be willing to bet that there are indictments sitting in Austin or Tallahassee, very possibly both and possibly other state capitals awaiting the outcome of the federal cases.
Your faith in the GOP touches my heart.
I’d bet there isn’t a single GOP indictment sitting anywhere relating to any Biden crime, or any other demonrat crime.
The only time the gopes go after the left is when they absolutely can’t avoid it- like during the endless Clinton scandals- and then somehow they still managed to turn that string of high crimes and misdemeanors into a trivial sex story.
The GOP will do nothing about Biden et al.
Period.
Once they are out of operation and the F-16s are delivered, expect Ukraine to accelerate the destruction of Russia’s air defense and electronic warfare systems.
This is awesome. I wish I could ignore reality this hard. I’d be much happier.
Anyway, back in reality, NATO’s Ukrainian hand puppet is shooting cruise missiles at Russia’s nuclear warning radars while promising to send nuclear capable F-16s to Ukraine next.
What could go wrong?
And- as an added bonus- all of NATO can’t produce enough 155mm shells to keep Ukraine supplied, has to hand-assemble cruise missiles, and has public opinion overwhelmingly against war with Russia.
But Ukraine also had public opinion overwhelmingly against war with Russia- that’s why they elected Zelensky- and we know how that turned out.
mkent, I love your comments. It would be wonderful if you would explain to us why the Trump conviction will lead the GOP base back into the fold allowing Jeb Bush to find his rightful place as leader of the party, at last.
Please do so before Russia detonates a nuke high above the country, destroying the electrical grid and most electronic devices, thus condemning us all to a slow lingering death from starvation.
“Please do so before Russia detonates a nuke high above the country, destroying the electrical grid and most electronic devices, thus condemning us all to a slow lingering death from starvation.”
I’m already seeing opinion pieces in the Russian media advocating a resumption of above-ground testing. As you say, “What could go wrong?”
While Biden cannot personally pardon Trump, he can certainly ask Hochul to do so, and as long as the request was public, I’m sure she would do so. One reason not to is to force the Supreme Court to intervene on a 6-3 basis, which would give a re-elected Biden a justification to pack the Court. If the appeals are likely to be less obviously partisan (say the NY courts are expected to reverse), then sure, pardon him and deny him that validation.
Not that I have any insight into what the various courts are likely to do, but I’d assume the administration has a better view of that than I do.
Regarding America’s current turmoil: ain’t nothing gonna happen, for three reasons — apathy, inertia, and entropy.
We’re in new territory, and, absent civil war/Second American Revolution, there’s no precedent for correcting the fall. Not enough people are really engaged, beyond reading some headlines, so beyond the keyboard commandos on both sides, there isn’t enough critical mass to do anything. Then, there’s the cycle of empire:
we are in the senescence stage, with our political structures decayed past the point of recovery.
Buckle up, because we’re gonna crash.
From what I have read, the book-keeping type of NY State crimes of which a “jury of his peers” found President Trump guilty are misdemeanors — punishment limited to a small fine. The “persecution” alleged that those crimes were committed in furtherance of some other bigger crime — which was never identified and of which President Trump has never been accused. It is that further aspect which turns the book-keeping errorfrom a misdemeanor into a felony punishable by over a century in prison (34 convictions times 4 years each, if served consecutively).
The only possible undefined “crime” was related to the Federal election. “Joe Biden” could certainly pre-emptively pardon President Trump for any possible related Federal charges — thus reducing the State charges to trivial misdemeanors. And, as Phwest points out, “Joe Biden” could certainly call on the governor of New York to grant clemency for the State crimes. But “Joe Biden” won’t do that — because his handlers are dumb, playing with fire.
I’m already seeing opinion pieces in the Russian media advocating a resumption of above-ground testing.
I gather from the various pro-Russian people I read on X that there are quite a few hardliners who want full-on war with NATO because they’re tired of the endless provocations, so I can’t say I’m surprised.
My guess is that the so-called leaders of the West keep poking at Russia because they want an excuse to war and then go full Zelensky on their own people- canceling elections, banning Christian churches, sending all the bad-thinkers to prisons, etc.
That Russia won’t give them such an excuse is terribly frustrating for them. I have to wonder if eventually they’ll just give up on Russia and decide to attempt to impose totalitarian rule just because, in which case they’ll push people to open defiance.
Shrug. We’ll find out, unless they get us nuked instead.
Not enough people are really engaged, beyond reading some headlines, so beyond the keyboard commandos on both sides, there isn’t enough critical mass to do anything.
I recall reading that funny people joked that “General Apathy” was on the ballot in 1852, so the more proper statement is that not enough people are really engaged yet.
I also recall that the English prime minister Lord North was terribly surprised by the outbreak of the American Revolution, and further also that there was a Confederate congressman who offered to use his handkerchief to soak up all the blood that would be spilled by secession.
People are bad at predicting the future, and especially bad at predicting the future if it is especially bad.
One reason not to is to force the Supreme Court to intervene on a 6-3 basis, which would give a re-elected Biden a justification to pack the Court. If the appeals are likely to be less obviously partisan (say the NY courts are expected to reverse), then sure, pardon him and deny him that validation.
That has been anticipated with the Democrats’ war on the Conservative justices. I doubt Hochul would be smart enough to pardon him. Besides, as some pointed out, the underlying, never mentioned crime, is federal.
I’m surprised the Biden WH has been able to keep it together as long as it has both in its public face and its ability to actually function. Beyond all the corruption and decay, there’s a story waiting to be told about getting making a White House function where the President is the most-incapacitated occupant in 100+ years and the entire Administration has been parceled out to various interests. A book or perhaps a TV show on the lines of “The Office”
That’s the day-to-day stuff, what’s going to happen if a real national crisis hits or even multiple ones (like with all those strange people who came across the border)? That’s when it all falls apart as the pace of events outstrips the capacity of the organization to respond causing a collapse. You need not just an effective crisis team but given the primary dynamic of a crisis is to head toward entropy you need a single person to make decisions and the only one who has the legitimacy to do so is Biden and well… you know
You can run things for a while with a cabal but in an emergency the pace of events and lines of authority demand someone who is both sentient and can work more than a 4 hour day. There hasn’t been anything on par with what might happen over the next few months, say an attack on the homeland, but past history isn’t encouraging. The ability of the Biden Administration to cope with the collapse of Afghanistan in July/August 2021 or the first few days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was beyond poor.
There is also the inability to properly manage ongoing crisis; Biden (or whoever is pulling the strings) confuses an opening statement with a long-term strategy which means it gets pulled along by events. I’ve lost track of the number of self-imposed red lines the US has crossed in terms of types of military equipment shipped to Ukraine and changes in their terms of use. After Biden’s October trip to Israel, it’s not clear which is the stronger reason to stab Israel in the back, the appeasement of Iran or the need to win Michigan. Maybe the unifying theme for the Biden Administration’s strategy to manage crises is optics, to simply win the news cycle. That would certainly explains the Gaza pier and Bagram air base fiascoes
Sadly the one “crisis” Biden is prepared to address decisively is the crushing of the upcoming “MAGA Insurrection” That’s been planned for years.
There is also the inability to properly manage ongoing crisis; Biden (or whoever is pulling the strings) confuses an opening statement with a long-term strategy which means it gets pulled along by events.
John Robb makes a strong argument that Israel has lost its war against Hamas. Why do you think that might be? Imagine an alternate universe in which the US president told Netanyahu to do what he needed to do, and then got out of the way for a couple of weeks. (Of course, in an alternate universe with strong and competent US leaders Hamas probably wouldn’t have invaded Israel to begin with.)
We need to distinguish between immediate causes and underlying causes. The underlying cause for the sad state of the US are the decisions taken decades ago to de-industrialize, to financialize the economy, to give free reign to Big Law, to destroy the educational system, to create millions of overhead bureaucrats to police innumerable regulations — all while still playing at being the Global Policeman.
Result is that the US is now a hollowed-out shell economically, with unpayable debts and an unsustainable trade deficit. The immediate cause of coming US collapse could be anything from Guyana to Taiwan or any place in between. Even if we were suddenly gifted with a Congress not composed of human scum and a President who knew what day of the week it was, those underlying issues would remain — and would take decades to fix.
It would seem that Robb is a Clauswitizian in his views regarding centers of gravity. That seems to be the proper way to analyze the pro-Hamas campaign of the past 7 months
There’s going to be a long, hard look at the 4 weeks between the October 7th attacks and the November 4 pro-Palestinian protest in DC; this period marked the narrative shift from the worst anti-Jewish attacks since the Holocaust to the undermining of the Jewish state and the survival of Hamas.
In fact it was the last 2 weeks of the period that was critical; a period that started with the NY Times laundering the Hamas lies regarding the “Israeli bombing” of a Gaza hospital that supposedly killed hundreds of people.
The basic strategic approach by Hamas was centered on the critical center of gravity being in America, both in terms of popular opinion and the fractured nature of the Biden Administration, Hamas might not have expected the massive Israeli response but it calculated it could just, like every time before, force Israel to stop by pressuring the US. If it just cost alot more deaths and destruction, well so what, war is hell and Hamas shows that Israel is defenseless and friendless; Israel is now in a worse situation than anytime since 1948. Hamas also knew that the Biden White House is simply a coalition of factions and their war is no different than a lobbyist on K Street; however, the currency here isn’t money and fees but protests, media allies, and human shields.
That 4 week period showed both the power of a discredited media and skill and technique of political mobilization even in the pursuit of the worst causes. If Hamas survives all of this, not just Hamas, wins by the the media as propaganda tool, mobilization of political support, the antisemetic campus protests by the unwashed and unserious.
When I walked through that protest on 11/4 I was very impressed by its sophistication but I could never imagine this. This is information warfare par excellence, Hamas and its allies knew what they were doing. Just remember that in the coming months that this information warfare model (along with the counter-terrorism state) can be used domestically for the election.
If they can do it here, they can do it anywhere
The trajectory of the Gaza War should remind us that there are no obvious game-changers, History is what you make. In many ways for the West, 10/7 parallels 9/11. An unimaginable atrocity, an initial wave of support, but then a slow and steady descent into the depths.
That point is factored in by our enemies. After 9/11 we counter-attacked throughout the Middle East, the Islamists (America has the watches but we have the time) absorbed the attack, and 20 years later we are exhausted and demoralized while our enemies claim victory. After 10/7 and the worst anti-Jewish attacks since the Holocaust, everyone rushed to support Israel after such an existential threat but the support lasted as long as Israel never did anything serious to resolve it.
Al Qaeda and Hamas both understood the essential of warfare in that the goal is not to so much defeat your enemy on the battlefield so much as to break your enemy’s will to continue fighting. While the military might of the West can be tremendous, it is also brittle. You don’t defeat the West on the battlefield, but rather by using the battlefield to target it politically.
David Goldman said that the West’s fatal weakness in relation to its enemies is that it cannot deal with the horror that its enemies are more than willing to supply. Putin’s response to his initial rebuff in Ukraine in Spring 2022 was obvious, he was going to go all “Grozny” by lining up his military and turn Ukraine into a depopulated wasteland, and then double dog dare the West to stop him.
The person you want making decisions is someone who understands not only our strengths and weaknesses but those of our enemies. Biden of course does not and his further compromised by his desire to maintain prestige and position. For Hamas watching Biden go to Israel made them smile because it would make their victory all the sweeter; Biden all swagger and bully, no substance. Biden makes speeches, Hamas uses the lives of its civilians as if they are rounds in a gun.
Trump for all his initial lack of foreign policy experience understands how these people function. He’s not going to send expeditionary forces to fight foreign wars, but if you come after Americans and our interests he’s going to go out and deliver pain in a way that is sharp, sustainable, and quite personal. He and Putin got along well in public but when Wagner was threatening an American outpost in Syria , Trump had no compunctions about killing hundreds of them over the course of a long afternoon. Kill Americans? Then you better never travel abroad, ask Solemani.
Hamas holding American hostages? Hamas makes a big deal about martyrdom but that’s for the schlubs on the front line not the guys living the high life in Qatar. Trump would have a different approach to this than Biden.
So what does Trump understand about the world that the rest of DC does not?
Trump understands results. Most of the rest of the pols, of both parties, are all about process and appearances. That’s why they don’t get Trump. Rush Limbaugh made this point many years ago.
Trump as president negotiated for results that would be beneficial to his country. If he couldn’t achieve a good outcome he was willing to walk away, as with N. Korea. Most pols want a deal for its own sake, for the appearance of success regardless of the realities. They get rolled by the first opponent who is more clearheaded and bloody minded than they are. Trump, the supposed narcissist and sociopath, has serious goals based on a clear understanding of US national interest, and sticks to them. Word gets around.
From Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt re: Joe Biden making decisions:
“One of those little moments in our recent political life that sticks in my craw was when a CNN report in August 2022 described Joe Biden as “famously indecisive.” Oh, really? Do you recall that label being applied to Biden at any point, by any major media organization, during the presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020? If a man has developed a reputation for being notoriously hesitant to make decisions, doesn’t that seem like the sort of thing that American voters ought to know before they choose to have him sit behind the Resolute Desk for four years?
But at some point during this presidency, it became safe to acknowledge that the man who’s been plotting to become president since at least 1987 hates doing what the job actually entails, which is making hard choices between two or more flawed and risky options when time is of the essence.
A Washington Post headline, February 2022: “Declassified Afghanistan reports back U.S. commanders who said Biden team was indecisive during crisis.”
In April 2023, Politico wrote, “Biden, who captured the presidency in his third bid for the White House, is famously indecisive, a habit exacerbated by decades in the über-deliberative Senate.”
Hey, considering that the job of the president is to make decisions all day, often under a tight deadline and with enormous consequences, maybe we don’t want someone “famously indecisive” sitting in the Oval Office?”
Jonathan,
I don’t see any evidence that the tempo of the war in Gaza is anything but exactly how Israel wants it. That tempo is the one thing in their absolute control. Hamas will be no better dug in or less surprised in a week or a month, than they are today. Nor is there any chance that they can escape.
Israel is a small country with limited man power and handicapped by both the need and desire to conserve it. The also have two other contentious borders to control. They can maintain a high tempo of operations for only so long while rotating the front line units, especially those with special skills, before they risk depleting them. At the same time, a slower ground tempo doesn’t mean that bombing of available targets stops and especially collection of intelligence to guide the next push continues and probably increases as the roaches scurry hither and yon, unimpeded, under continuous observation. Still lots of tunnel entrances and weapon caches to find.
At the same time, I don’t imagine anyone in Gaza is getting much sleep, especially those wondering if the next bomb will have their name on it.
After 10/7 hamasniks far and wide celebrated because surely the number of dead, the butchered babies and children, the rapes and hostages must surely enrage the Israelis to the point that they would storm Gaza immediately with the ambushes and traps ready to spring. Instead, while the reliably anti-Israel usual suspects called for “restraint”, not least Biden, The IDF stopped short at the “border”. Not the Air Force to be sure but the Army seemed to flinch and hold back. Maybe they would exercise restraint and be satisfied with a Clintonesque token bombing campaign. Then the IDF moved, devil take the hindmost, not. Restraint indeed, carefully coordinated attacks at carefully selected targets with carefully trained and rehearsed troops using special techniques developed over years of realizing just what a war in Gaza would entail. The tempo has been up and down several times since with the latest word being that this will go on the rest of the year. Why hurry, Hamas isn’t going anywhere and Israel has more time than people. Whatever urgency the hostages might inspire has been dissipated by the realization that all that’s left is recovering the bodies.
As for the Hamas “leadership”, they are reported to have fled Qatar in favor of couch surfing wherever in the Middle East and North Africa they feel safe for the moment. How well that will work once Israel gets tired of the pretense of palaver is something we’ll see.
Mike: If you seriously believe Joe Biden is making any sort of decision for the regime more important than when he changes his adult diaper I strenuously suggest you reconsider.
Biden is frequently caught on camera making a fool of himself. So is the current vice president.
That’s a tell. The United States is not ruled by people who have the best interests of country in mind. Otherwise, no one would let Biden be seen on camera anywhere- or rather no one would let him remain anywhere near any position of power or any public office more important than dog catcher in a town without dogs. And Biden is far too senile to win such power by his own efforts. No further comment about Kamasutra Harris.
During the second Bush administration Glenn Beck wondered about how long our globalist masters would let the US keep a president. That has obviously stuck in my head since then, as I’ve watched US stumble from disaster to disaster.
It seems to me that Ronald Reagan may have been the last. I note that there was a third candidate in the 1980 election- a no-hope Republican candidate named John Anderson- followed up by an assassination attempt by a stereotypical “lone gunman.” Before that, we had Nixon- taken out by a disgruntled FBI bureaucrat- and JFK, murdered by the Deep State, according to RFK jr.
Biden isn’t the real problem here. He’s just a sign of something much worse.
Now, according to “experts” and the AP, questioning a verdict is giving aid and comfort to Putin and other “despots”.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/02/us-news/trumps-attacks-on-us-justice-system-after-guilty-verdict-encourage-putin-other-autocrats-experts/
Verdict deniers are now right up there with climate deniers and election deniers as a danger to democracy.
Here’s a possible explanation about the hysteria about keeping Israel out of Rafah. Wonder how big the cut for the “big guy” was.
https://townhall.com/columnists/bonnie-glick/2024/06/01/what-is-hamas-hiding-in-rafah-and-why-doesnt-biden-want-the-idf-to-find-it-n2639836
Via: http://www.transterrestrial.com/2024/06/03/what-is-hamas-hiding-in-rafah/
verdict deniers, election deniers, climate deniers, … holocaust deniers?
Now, the feebs are suddenly concerned that jihadis might be planning something unpleasant.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/04/us-news/fbi-director-warns-of-jihadist-attack-in-us-similar-to-russian-concert-hall-heightened-terrorist-threat/
It’s not like they’ve kept anybody out that wanted to be here, for a better job or to blow up a shopping mall. So far, just rapes and murders every other day by their “refugees”, nothing serious. Do they really believe that people are stupid enough that they won’t know exactly where to put the blame for some sort of attack?
”All this NATO-inspired bloodshed & misery for what?”
Russia invaded Ukraine in a genocidal war of conquest. It has nothing to do with NATO.
”This is awesome. I wish I could ignore reality this hard. I’d be much happier.”
You’re pretty good at ignoring reality already. For instance, just this weekend Ukraine destroyed another two S400 air defense systems, and they took out another radar site just yesterday. Do you really think that these operations will slow down once the F-16s arrive, considering that F-16s can launch HARMs in anti-radiation mode and not just as high-speed cruise missiles?
”And- as an added bonus- all of NATO can’t produce enough 155mm shells to keep Ukraine supplied…”
Nobody uses just-in-time manufacturing for artillery shells. That’s why we have a stockpile, which enabled us to deliver a million shells to Ukraine within days of the latest aid package passing the Congress. Another million shells are on their way from the Czech initiative.
”But Ukraine also had public opinion overwhelmingly against war with Russia- that’s why they elected Zelensky- and we know how that turned out.”
Of course the Ukrainians didn’t want war with Russia. Nobody does. But Russia invaded Ukraine anyway. So the Ukrainians fight. People tend to fight genocidal conquerors when those conquerors invade. Even people who don’t want war. Maybe especially people who don’t want war. Is this some kind of surprise to you?
”It would be wonderful if you would explain to us why the Trump conviction will lead the GOP base back into the fold allowing Jeb Bush to find his rightful place as leader of the party, at last.”
Huh? What does Jeb Bush have to do with Ukraine? Seriously — huh???
”Please do so before Russia detonates a nuke high above the country, destroying the electrical grid and most electronic devices, thus condemning us all to a slow lingering death from starvation.”
That’s highly unlikely to happen, since, unlike the Iranian leadership, the Russian leadership is not suicidal. Oh, they’ll send Russian conscripts to pointless deaths by the hundreds of thousands, but they hold their own lives most dear. They know that if they did what you suggest then Russia would cease to exist.
So, are there any other bits of reality you need help with?
mkent: “It has nothing to do with NATO.”
Come on, mr kent! Don’t be so obtuse!
There is room for different interpretations about the motivations of the various players in the US/NATO proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine — but it is absolutely obvious that the tragic war has everything to do with NATO.
After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the threat which justified NATO, it was NATO that behaved aggressively, expanding towards Russia, rejecting efforts from Russia to cooperate in NATO, and then aggressively attacking countries far outside NATO’s region. US/NATO supported the Kiev junta’s long war against its own (Russian-speaking) citizens in the Donbas, and undermined the diplomatic efforts of the Minsk Agreements to stop the violence. All those dead Ukrainians and Russians are NATO’s fault.
The people whom we should really feel for are all those Ukrainians who voted for Zelensky because he promised peace … and instead has brought them destructive war. But we might feel sorry for ourselves, too. No politician in the supposedly “democratic” West has ever sought a democratic mandate from the citizenry to launch a war in Europe. Why not?
Russia invaded Ukraine in a genocidal war of conquest. It has nothing to do with NATO.
Nice to see you’re still working hard to ignore reality. Russia invaded Ukraine because NATO ignored endless warnings that Ukraine joining NATO would result in war. And if anyone is being genocidal, it’s bloodthirsty maniacs like Lindsey Graham who are thrilled that Russians are dying and indifferent to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian dead.
For instance, just this weekend Ukraine destroyed another two S400 air defense systems…
It’s war. Things get blown up. Like the Ukrainian power grid.
Do you really think that these operations will slow down once the F-16s arrive…?
I expect these F-16s- apparently elderly castoffs from various minor NATO satrapies- will be functionally irrelevant, as will their AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles, not least because those weapons have been in use since 2022 by Ukrainian MIG-29s. Somehow that has not enabled Ukraine to win the war, perhaps because 1980s-era weapons aren’t magic.
Nobody uses just-in-time manufacturing for artillery shells.
Especially NATO, which uses the not-in-time system, which is one reason why Russia has been able to destroy three Ukrainian armies in succession and why Ukraine is now reduced to using press-gangs to drag unwilling “recruits” off to the frontline. Sure would have been nice if NATO had sufficient stockpiles or a sufficient industrial base to produce enough artillery shells before that happened, right?
Of course the Ukrainians didn’t want war with Russia. Nobody does.
Hogwash. NATO plainly wanted war. All NATO had to do to avoid war was to agree with Russia that NATO membership was off the table for Ukraine. Failing that, not send Boris Johnson to Keeeev to convince Zelensky to reject an agreement to end the war early on.
People tend to fight genocidal conquerors when those conquerors invade.
Does this also apply to when Ukraine invaded the Donbass regions after the 2014 coup that overthrew the elected Ukrainian government?
What does Jeb Bush have to do with Ukraine?
I find I am completely unsurprised that you failed to understand.
Oh, they’ll send Russian conscripts to pointless deaths by the hundreds of thousands…
It’s Ukrainians who are being sent to pointless deaths by the hundreds of thousands. This war could have been easily avoided, except NATO wanted and still wants to destroy Russia, because reasons.
Evil reasons, but yeah, reasons.
mkent-
Without prejudice to your other remarks or positions, please stop abusing the terms ‘genocide’ or ‘genocidal’.
We have enough of that in today’s world as it is. I understand the metaphorical value of all sorts of modified terms like ‘cultural genocide’ and so forth, but they are not actual genocide. I understand the rhetorical value of applying the term for political gains. Even so. War is also not genocide.
A genocide should earn the name by being a deliberate attempt to physically wipe out a people by those intending to commit that act and able to do so, and whose attempt could plausibly achieve that end.
Hamas, though they explicitly have a mandate for genocide and believe in it, did not commit genocide on 10/7 if only because they would have to replicate it 6000 times in short order to wipe out the Jews of Israel. A massacre is a massacre, it may be a crime against humanity and/or a war crime, and it may be committed by people who favour a genocide and would like to commit one, but it is not itself a genocide until it looks like the definition above.
Israel is also not committing a genocide in Gaza. War in an urban setting kills civilians. Israeli air strikes are well within the modern, relatively high precision model favoured by the US and others. They are no more genocide than any American air war of modern times. They are far less like genocide than the far less discriminate Allied bombing of Germany or US bombing of Japan. Similarly, I appreciate that for some insane reason everyone including the UK and US signed on after 1945 to the idea that blockade is a war crime. The Royal Navy and US Navy of old must have at least balked for a second. I deny the validity of the idea that it is a war crime at the conceptual level, but concede that Israel is likely guilty of this war crime on a malum prohibitum basis. Still, it is not genocide either, any more than the British blockades of Europe from the 18th century, the British blockades of Germany in the World Wars, or the US submarine campaign against Japan [or the German one against Britain].
Attrition warfare is also not genocide. It was not genocide when the Germans set out to kill as many French soldiers as possible at Verdun. I can well see how genocide is a possible long term effect- France never quite recovered. Still the setting itself was not genocide.
Random Observer: “… please stop abusing the terms ‘genocide’ or ‘genocidal’.”
That is a good point. Literal genocide has probably been very rare in history — although our ancestors apparently did a good job of eliminating the Neanderthals … something about which the Usual Suspects ought to feel very guilty indeed.
Victor Davis Hansen has a relevant recent book: “The End of Everything: How wars descend into annihilation”. It is one of the relatively few books written in the 21st Century which is actually worth reading.
Hansen focuses on 4 instances of the obliteration of a culture:
– Macedonian destruction of Thebes (335 BC).
– Roman destruction of Carthage (146 BC).
– Ottoman destruction of Byzantium (1453 AD).
– Spanish destruction of the Aztecs (1521 AD).
it is arguable whether any of these instances were literal genocide. While many of the defeated populations died, many survived as slaves — but their languages and cultures were effectively eliminated.
Relevant to today’s world — it seems that all of the eliminated civilizations thought of themselves as the Big Kid on the Block, with genuine proud histories and assumed great current strengths. But they all ignored that their former strength had become flaccid, the quality of their leadership had generally declined, and their former allies had grown to despise them. Plus, they all underestimated the strength of the opposing forces which ultimately destroyed them. Any of that sound familiar?
While Hamas’ 10/7 attacks were not in of themselves genocidal, they were essential tactical operations of an overall genocidal strategy. This gets to what I think is a larger truth about what the term “genocide” has become 2024
Genocide has become a term that like many others that have a deep resonance in the West (democracy, fascism, racism…) but has had its original definition gutted and worn as David Burgian skinsuit for political effect. Classification of and opposition to genocide and ethic cleansing have in the post-WW II world relative to political whims and needs of the time. The Soviets in 1944-45 destroyed the German communities of East Prussia, which existed for centuries, in the most brutal way possible but The Four Lads never wrote the song “Kaliningrad (Not Konigsberg)” Similarily the Czechs wiped out the Bohemian German communities in 1946, some which had existed for 700 years, expelling nearly 2 million survivors. History’s answer to those lost German communities was FAFO.
Genocide in 2024 isn’t the same as it was in the 1940s or even in the 1990s with mass expulsions, concentration camps, and rivers choked with the dead. In Xinjiang and Nagorno-Karabakh there is the slow and gradual strangulation, as opposed to singular decisive action, until that target collapses. I would argue that Hamas has brought Israel closer to destruction than anytime its history and therefore also closer to its genocidal dreams by isolating it internationally and weakening its resolve. By the time you recognize genocide in its traditional, historical sense it’s too late; what you see is merely the final, inevitable act. I find it… ironic… that South Africa brought a case of genocide against Israel given the growing demand in that country for wiping out the Boer farmers, a group that has been there for centuries
Going back to the changing definition of genocide and fast-forwarding a few years in the future. Who wants to take the bet that the populist backlash in Europe and US both against mass immigration and for the assimilation of existing immigrants will generate calls by our social betters that this is all just genocidal. I mean the Establishment already calls populists the “far-right” and think Trump is a Nazi…..
Who wants to take the bet that the populist backlash in Europe and US both against mass immigration and for the assimilation of existing immigrants will generate calls by our social betters that this is all just genocidal.
This is already happening. The same people rioting in favor of the palestinians are calling Americans settler-colonists in the same sense they attack Israelis and no doubt with the same ultimate goal.
Make no mistake. These people are winding themselves up for mass murder because they hate America and Americans and want everything American destroyed.
And just in case it wasn’t obvious, these sort of people control the US government.
Good luck. We’re all going to need it.