Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

The second season of President Gong Show is going to be great. What could go wrong?

[iam416]

The screeching from the Left about what they think Trump MIGHT do vs. what he actually does/did is hyperbolic nonsense. The Reality TV show aspect of his presidency was a clown show and provided fodder for many but his actual performance in a number of areas was pretty damn good, as Geezer points out. I particularly liked his foreign policy and that might have been my biggest concern with him going in. If he was a dictator, he was the worst dictator ever.

Yeah, the Progs and Left really can't deal w/ him.

I'm not a heavy lean like you, but I'm unequivocal on The Chairman.

[Jeff Buchanan]

We have a lot more to fear from the Democrat statists who keep their power through violating voting law than we do from Trump.

I can agree with this. While you think of Trump as a "prick," a one word description of him doesn't adequately describe him like Edsall, who I quoted in my post above, does. To repeat, Trump is an 'authoritarian nationalist' and I don't think there is a lot of distance between that and Kagan's characterization of him as a "dictator."

I also agree with you on the danger to America posed by liberal statists but "violating voting law" to keep their power, while a problem, isn't, IMO the main one as it pertains to the risks to the America that we knew and grew up within. That would be the infiltration of liberal thought into key American institutions such as education and state government. America has become what the idiocy in Chicago, Portland and throughout the state of CA represent. Shameful shit.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump's too incompetent and cowardly to be a dictator. But he does have the impulse in him. He clearly admires them and envies their 'strength'.

[Tom W]

Yeah, the Progs and Left really can't deal w/ him..

But, they pretty much didn't need to when they succeeded in weaponizing COVID against him. Then, it was the INSURRECTION!!! Now it's FELONIES!

They knew which buttons to push that set him off. But that's politics and it's okay- if (a) You do it with the best interests of the country and its citizens in mind, and (b) You've got something better to offer. I don't really see (a) and that's only confirmed by how laughable it is to think that they feel that the Chairman and Giggles represent (b).

[Mike]

It's "What About Bob?" with the Left playing the role of Richard Dreyfus.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The TikTok bill in Congress seems to have bipartisan support (Scalise was just bragging about it) and Biden has said he’ll sign it. So why is Trump suddenly against it???

Well…the name Jeff Yass has been popping up a lot lately…

[Dr. Strangelove]

For reference...the bill passed out of committee by a 50-0 vote

TikTok ban: Furious Congress plows forward with China bill after user revolt (axios.com)

[Da Geezer]

Facebook is "overwhelmingly conservative"? This guy Solana must live in an alternative universe.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Facebook is "overwhelmingly conservative"? This guy Solana must live in an alternative universe.

He’s talking about the people who use it, not the management. It’s mainly older people who are still highly active on Facebook.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Another take. Apparently Rand Paul has taken over $10M from Jeff Yass too and is one of the more outspoken opponents of the bill.

[iam416]

Wait a minute....if you're suggesting DJT's words and actions: (a) don't always line up; (b) don't fit into a consistent idelogical framework; and (c) change from minute to minute -- then, well -- that CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!!

[Jeff Buchanan]

An opinion piece appeared in the NYT that piqued my interest this morning. This is a piece of it:

.......... Europeans, like Americans, are tiring of the war. They are increasingly skeptical that Ukraine can win it. But perhaps most important, they distrust the United States, which has done little in this war to dispel skepticism about its motives and its competence that arose during the Iraq war two decades ago. Unique though Americans sometimes believe their polarization to be, all Western societies have a version of it. As Europe’s “elites” see it, NATO is fighting a war to beat back a Russian invasion. But as “populists” see it, American elites are leading a war to beat back a challenge to their own hegemony — no matter what the collateral damage.

The context of that statement is in response to the author's quote of a part of Biden's SOUA where Biden says," I remain determined that American soldiers will not be necessary to defend Europe." As a White House spokesman put it last week, it is “crystal clear” that the use of ground troops is off the table. The author conflates the circumstances of the Russo-Ukraine war with The NATO Alliance's Article 5. Pretty sure Biden was saying US Troops will not be committed to defend Ukraine. He's not saying the US won't abide by Article 5. The important point the author is trying to make though is that the US, the ostensible leader of the battle to preserve the current world order, is failing in that role. I would agree with that assessment.

That intro leads to a discussion of a new book written by Emmanuel Todd. It is called “La Défaite de l’Occident” (“The Defeat of the West”). Its author, Todd, is a celebrated historian and anthropologist who in 1976, in a book called “The Final Fall,” predicted that the Soviet Union was headed for collapse. Of course it did less than 15 years later. So, in Europe, he has some chops. This "Fall of the West" concept interested me because I've spent a good deal of time thinking and writing about the threat to the current western dominated world order with its liberal democratic ideologies. That world order has preserved the peace since 1945. It is threatened by the formation of an Axis of authoritarian states that seeks to undermine western global influence and ultimately to replace it with the authoritarian ideologies of these Axis states - China, Iran, NK and Russia. I've argued that a Russian victory in Ukraine would go a long way in furthering the goals of the Axis powers and threaten western Europe. IMO, it remains a battle that can't be lost by the west, although I'm favoring a greater role of the European NATO nations to win that battle with the US in more of a supporting role..

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Dr. Strangelove]