This is not watching the war. This is watching his TV performances. That’s all Trump cares about, and the Press is echoing his priorities. Noem was a disaster for many months, but she got canned when she did poorly on TV.
And then, because he was clearly embarrassed by Rubio‘s ability and his own inability, Trump went out of his way to say “I’m not going to learn your damn language. I don’t have the time,“ passing it off as a joke. Hegseth then saw his opening, and said “I only speak American.“ Immature little boys.
Obama: "We are living in a time where it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law ... but this man - Rev. Jesse Jackson - inspires us to take a harder path ... bc if we don't step up, nobody else will"
The stupefying incompetence of this administration’s war on Iran has now reached the “arguing with yourself” phase.
Coincidentally, I just cited this book (by name) this morning in my class to try to explain to a puzzled student why anyone thought prohibition was a good idea.
Right. Getting Al Capone for tax evasion was still getting Al Capone.
Vance and Johnson are giggling like stupid little school boys when the class clown heckles the teacher. So pathetic.
I don't even know where to start with the illegal...The Executive does not have the constitutional power to raise revenue. The Executive does not have the constitutional power to make decisions about expenditures. The Executive does not have the power to privatize the functions of the US Treasury...
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Someone tell Brady he has now exceeded the maximum allowable uses of “twitchy” for one broadcast.
His fear of being booed is the most likely reason, but his stated reason may suggest that time zone travel is increasingly taxing for him physically. Or perhaps the timing isn’t good for whatever treatment he’s getting that causes those hand bruises.
It is just like dating—when the woman you want to date is not even remotely interested, is happily married, and your “argument” for why she needs to be with you is that you have more guns than her husband and you’ll die without her. Just your standard feel-good rom-com.
These people are idiots.
Trump‘s pre-World War II foreign policy notions take for granted that the US is playing “Uncle Sucker“ if it spends a dime defending territory over which it is not sovereign. Small-minded, and ultimately self-defeating and stupid. But that’s Trump in a nutshell.
I had the pleasure of spending one semester as his colleague when he was the Lewis P. Jones visiting professor of History at Wofford College. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone more kind and gracious than he was.
The evidence is really piling up that Trump has made an explicit spheres of influence deal with Putin and Xi.
Trump is turning Venezuela into a US protectorate. This is Theodore Roosevelt foreign policy.
A reminder that James K. Polk also offered to “buy” California from Mexico, and when Mexico refused to even meet his envoy, sent troops into disputed territory, provoked a war, took the territory, and then paid Mexico $15 million for the territory he stole so that he could say he bought it.
For Trump, apologizing is weakness. For these neo-Social Darwinists, any hint of weakness is fatal. Miller is effectively blaming every failure of US foreign policy for the last 80 years on this unnecessary weakness. Since he is advocating for innate US superiority, this is the only excuse.
Denmark has made clear that it will not voluntarily cede Greenland. Therefore, the only way the US takes possession of it is by the threat of military force. He may be right that there would not be a military response to such a US action. But it would destroy NATO, Putin‘s greatest strategic goal.
Trump is affecting an American withdrawal from its post World War II position of leadership. It is not yet entirely clear the extent of it, but the fact of it is, at this point, undeniable.
In 1940–41, that position, while historically rooted, was practically pro-Nazi, because it served Hitler’s interests. Trump’s position today is effectively pro-Putin, because it serves his interests.
The America First crowd in 1940-41 were talking about a “fortress America” position that focused on the western hemisphere. They wanted a return to a pre-World War I foreign policy centered on the Monroe Doctrine. That is what Trump is doing.
I think what Trump did in Venezuela was reckless and portends, an even more reckless larger foreign policy, but all of these people suggesting it is at odds with “America first” foreign policy simply don’t understand what “America first” has always meant.
The evidence for it has only grown since Saturday. This is exhibit A.
It’s stunning ignorance, rooted in the “we do everything and get nothing” mindset that goes back to the original America First in 1940-41.
US foreign policy is now an episode of The Apprentice.
I think that’s right. This is at least as much about Putin envy and wanting to make a statement about hemispheric dominance.
It probably is not at all imminent, but its eventuality seems to me more likely now that at any time since the end of the Cold War.
What Trump did today is much bigger than Venezuela. It shows he has really turned to a pre-World War II, spheres of influence version of America First foreign policy. byrnesms.blogspot.com/2026/01/trum...
