Indeed. And frankly, those who allowed the United States to get into such a position where we risk nuclear war because we allowed ourselves to hollow out our critical manufacturing capabilities--well, treason seems too weak a word to describe it. Whether Democrats or Republicans, they've weakened America far more than any other spy or traitor or terrorist in the last 50 years.
Rod writes with such nonchalance that, of course, RFK, Jr. doesn't have a chance. The one candidate in the race who seriously stands for most of what we stand for, and unlike Trump, would not only try to do something about our problems but has a strong vision of what a President might accomplish, hasn't got a chance, says the writer of Live Not By Lies.
The defeatism is disgusting.
Curiously, a poll of likely voters released early today shows Kennedy with 39%.
The Trump/Kennedy comparison isn't realistic. Kennedy doesn't approach this election with the loathing of much of the country on his back. Skepticism, sure, but not loathing. It's funny that so much time has passed since JFK was President that that original generation of Kennedy family haters is all but extinct.
It seems to me irrational for someone to think that if Trump could win the Republican nomination, Kennedy couldn't win the Democratic nomination. I think Kennedy has an advantage in Biden's being an incumbent. It's a great contrast for Kennedy to exploit, and he isn't going in to the campaign with the public sureness that it's personal animus which drives him. This was something his father wasn't able to shake when he ran in 1968.
Corporate media loathes him and will do everything if can to destroy him if they are unable to simply ignore him. Biden will stay in the basement and probably not debate. No way will the DNC allow him to compete fairly.
I like to think this doesn't apply in the Internet era. The mainstream media couldn't stop Trump in 2016. Hillary was The Anointed One in 2008, but Obama thought not.
I've always been convinced that whatever the professionals thought, then or since, his father would have won the nomination and the election in 1968. There are some years in which the voters have had enough, and want someone new. We may be in one of those times now.
For me the anti-vax stuff is a deal killer. A-OK to be opposed to vaccine mandates in the instance of Covid, but all the tinfoil hat stuff - No. Just No.
Anyone who has actually done some reading on the subject knows that the pharmaceutical companies are corrupt and the current childhood vaccine schedule is untested and unsafe.
Taurine byproduct. Vaccines are a major reason we do not see one third to one half of our children laid in the grave before they reach adulthood (yes, antibiotics and our sanitary reforms are a big part of that too).
And are they are a reason 50% of children suffer from chronic diseases? Or that one in 36 children currently have ASD which has increased exponentially from the 1970s when no one had ever even heard of it?
Well we don't know because no RCT with a saline placebo has ever been carried out, and no comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups has ever been carried out either.
And don't dare tarnish me as a tin foil hatter. I have a PhD and work in medical research. I have run RCTs for a living. I point these deficiencies in vaccine testing out because I know what science actually is supposed to look like.
Bret Stephen's is not a pro American patriot, he is objectively a pro Zelensky zealot. His approach to foreign policy has nothing to do with prudence or rationality, it is completely ideological. My moral stature is not at the mercy of such an obviously blinded ideologue, nor should anybody else's be.
The only possible dog with any practical bite the neocons have in this particular hunt is continuing fomentation of forever wars. Just in case. As I say, this is a family show.
The oil & gas industry controls the EPA? That's one of the nuttiest, most wrong headed things I've read in a long time. Bret Stephens is supposedly one of the "conservatives" at the NYT and does a weekly back and forth with Gail Collins where he is the "conservative" and she is the liberal. While her viewpoints are about as left wing as AOC, he is no conservative. Moderate at best, and more liberal than moderate at worst. Only in the hallowed echo chamber halls of the NYT could this gentleman be described as a "conservative". The establishment, both left and right, are very ready and willing to expend American blood and treasure in search of some vague geopolitical mission. Probably because none of them actually know anybody who is serving their country and in harm's way. It's easy to put American kids at risk when you don't know any of them and they're nameless and faceless. And of course less important than the hallowed opinion writers at the NYT. How can anyone be cavalier about US involvement around the world after Vietnam, Iraq & Afghanistan? I'm for funding the Ukranians, but the magnitude of the help, especially compared to other NATO members' contributions, is getting ridiculous.
"The oil & gas industry controls the EPA? That's one of the nuttiest, most wrong headed things I've read in a long time. "
Not so much.
I see this on the state level in my southern state. It's not that polluting industries "run" our state Department of Environmental Protection, not overtly. They just contribute huge sums to the elected officials who then write the regulations governing how the DEP enforces environmental law, or doesn't.
Bologna. We could not have a more hostile regulator to the oil & gas industry than the EPA. If you're talking about state regulators in whatever state you are in, that's a completely different matter and not relevant to Mr. Kennedy's comment.
So at the state level we have total regulatory capture - but at the federal level none at all?
Right.
What may be happening is *slightly* tougher rules or enforcement under a Democratic administration. But the idea that the poor, multibillion dollar oil & gas industry is just so unfairly treated by bureaucrats, I find slightly ludicrous.
My last comment on this - “ludicrous” is a strong unnecessary word for a complicated policy discussion. If you think the EPA isn’t viscerally hostile to the oil and gas industry you haven’t been following the events of the past few years. It’s impossible to get pipelines built (Mountain Valley), it takes 6 months or longer to get permits (if you can) to drill on federal land (versus 2 days on private land in Texas) so forth and so on. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. And I never said at the state level there was total regulatory capture. That may be your position but is not mine. The federal government’s preference for importing much dirtier Venezuelan, Saudi crude versus much cleaner US domestic supply defines both foolish and dysfunctional. Have a nice rest of the week.
Another day, another idiot Neocon trying to tell everyone else what a patriotic American should say and believe, which somehow always is how American citizens should just support the American empire without limitations, even if it hurts the American people and American interests. Bret should spend a single day working at something than being a Neocon pundit.
RFKJr " the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is effectively run by the oil industry, the coal industry and the pesticide industry." oh puhlease if true which it isn't then why has the EPA issued so many regulations that go against those industries.
as for the Monsanto/Roundup trial anyone with a 1/4 brain knows how bad that verdict was and how the tort lawyers can bamboozle a jury
I actually liked Bret Stephens, but it is clear that the Iraq-war neocons have run out of intellectual steam. Against my previous conceptions, I agree with Chris DeMuth in that the intellectual wellspring of conservatism these days are found in the NatCon conferences and the affiliated thinkers. To quote the Jon Favreau clown from a Seinfeld episode, Bret and co. are "living in the past, man!"
I think the government wants to turn Ukraine into another Israel--a foreign money laundering depot that receives all of America's best tech and military assets, at our own expense
The US Gov. (backed by the media) have gotten so much, so wrong, so often over the last 30 odd years that it is hard to impossible to trust them on any issues -- including Ukraine. Moreover, the country appears to be cracking up (physically, psychologically, spiritually, etc.), but all Uncle Sam can do is fiddle in foreign wars while the home country falls apart. Walk down any street in downtown America, and you will see the crime, rot & ruin, etc. staring you in the face. Yet the media types more or less ignore the collapse in favor of the Narrative they've got going. I call BS on all of it.
Quick comment as I have to drive a pig to get butchered. Inevitably, Ukraine and Taiwan are outside the needs of American national defense as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were. And think of Tibet. I support a free and independent Tibet as do most Americans who reflect upon such things. But Tibet is not going to be given its independence by the current Chinese government and it would be ridiculous for America to go to war with China over Tibet, one of the most obscure nations on Earth.
Because the semi-conductor industry is centered there, Taiwan is invaluable to America and the West. The failure to successfully defend Taiwan, if it is attacked by Communist China, would be catastrophic.
True for now. But why did the government- Republican and Democratic- allow this to happen? We need vital industries to be located in America and not in risky locations throughout the world.
In a nutshell, it happened because of Republican and Democratic greed. To the extent it is even possible, it will take a long time before we can successfully bring vital industries back to our shores. The Taiwanese semi-conductor industry is light years ahead of all competitors, including China, and we must maintain access to that invaluable source. We really cannot allow our weapons and munitions stockpiles to dwindle, because of the Ukraine, to the point where we cannot defend Taiwan.
Excellent post. Good information. I knew that a large percentage of certain chips were made in Taiwan, about 95 %. How stupid could a government be to allow that to happen. I would hope that the PRC is only engaging in sabrerattling. The PRC loses if it goes to war with Taiwan and America.
How are people going to cope when Russia secures the entire Black Sea coast including Odessa as well as Kharkov? I’ve met fairly intelligent people who were absolutely convinced Ukraine would defeat Russia and put Putin, Medvedev and Shoigu on trial for war crimes in Moscow followed by a Sadam-like public hanging.
So far the performance of the Russian army has been quite underwhelming. I would rank "Seizes the whole Black Sea coast" as only slightly more probable than "Ukraine puts Putin on trial for war crimes and hangs him."
I am tired of all this hand- wringing over Ukraine, let alone our absurd comparison of its drug- addled, Vogue posing, penile piano playing, and very wealthy president to George Washington, Winston Churchill, et al. Please.
I had to look up Bret Stephens' story on WIkipedia. Scion of international industry, Manhattan-bred, educated in a fancy boarding school, then the U. of Chicago, then the London School of Economics. Married twice to two New York media types. Has never done anything but write and opine.
And he certainly has never served in a war, nor has he moved in circles with people who have. Some members of my family are veterans of our late 20th and 21st century wars, with the PTSD to prove it, and a young member of my extended family is (ill-advisedly, in my opinion) entering the Army now.
As someone who is mildly but warily okay with the U.S. helping Ukraine against Russia, albeit with serious reservations, I have to wonder: Why should anyone listen to Bret Stephens?
Outstanding research. Why read Stephens? He's on the right wing of The New York Times with Douthat, Brooks and himself. Further right and you are part of the outer darkness according to The New York Times.
I'll tell you "why read Stephens". Because there was news in that screed, once you got past the neocon ick. (I well understand that your correspondent is opening himself up to the imputation of, erm, overthinking this, but bear with me: nobody who watched carefully the orchestrated effort to get us into Iraq II ought to be surprised by anything these guys get up to. Reading the wall posters can be informative.)
It was of the greatest interest that Stephens instanced as historical models for the supposedly traitorous right the Mosleys and Ezra Pound. Now IN A WAY this made sense, because Peter Hitchens et al. were being set up as butt boys for Orban, and through Orban Putin (Diana Mosley told Mark Steyn that meeting Hitler was one of the great events of her life, and Ezra's one face-to-face with the Duce made it into the Cantos, though I do think it's important to remember that among Mussolini's admirers in the '30s at least were Churchill, Bernard Shaw, and Sigmund Freud.)
But you have to ask yourself. Where was Father Coughlin?
Dreher's religious views are his calling card; Peter Hitchens is a devout Anglican; and Tucker got fired because he brought up God in that Heritage speech. I think Father Social Justice is missing from the list because Stephens needed to cover that flank. I think the Pope (or his Nunzio) may have gotten from Moscow what turn out to be halfway decent terms and Zelensky (personally to Stephens, probably through an intermediary to Frum, more on that below) has to stop that NOW because he still insanely has his eye on Crimea; at the very least terms would isolate his position in ways he might find hard to handle.
It would have been just a speculation, except David Frum, the downmarket Bret Stephens, takes a parallel line.
And what is that line? First, some distinctions. The justice or injustice of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is irrelevant because, and Mr. Victoria Nuland cheerfully admits this, the U.S. has no national interest in who owns the Crimea, never mind the Donbass. So why are we bankrolling the olive drab tee-shirt bulldog? The only possible effect a Russian victory that affects our interest might have is put pressure on Poland, where we are committed (or have a moral hazard, see Yalta, sellout, Roosevelt), but then that's what we should be concentrating on--certainly not encouraging this clown to continue to fight a war he can't win and is already losing.
THAT is why Stephens (the upmarket David Frum) has his knickers in a twist. This is a family show, so I'll leave you to connect the dots as to why this is so important to the neocons.
Do I believe Zelensky called Stephens personally? Yes. Did he call Frum? Please.
If the Deep State (the de facto secret police bureaucracy and its sponsors and owned politicians) is not dismantled, at some point the threshold of declared war is reached. Then the declared objectives of enemy unconditional surrender are sought. As this approaches, opposition to war becomes a felony and complete censorship is imposed. We are very close. The escalation continues, but can never be settled except by attrition. Should one side or the other begin to lose, the nukes will fly.
Note that the reasons for war are mostly for economic subjugation of the entire world by one axis. Not against godless communism. However, this reason for war is against all the principles of Just War Theory. That is why we no longer hear discussion of that. So there is no justification except the seeking of power and money lust. That is essentially against Christian morality and ethics. Let's say it: the degradation of evil. Ideologically there is a favorable environment of Woke, compatible with evil, with its own attempted overthrow of the natural order and extreme hostility to Christianity, which preternaturally supports war with all its attendant compatible evils. This is why the money lust corporate world so neatly dovetails with Woke objectives, all Christian morals cast aside. The Long War against God is metastasizing towards a very bad end, humanity consumed in fire by our own Sin.
I saw RFK's Unheard interview yesterday. The more I listen to this guy the more impressed I've become. I haven't voted Democrat since Bill Clinton's 1st term (and have never voted Republican) but RFK could be the candidate that brings me back.
I’m thinking about switching my Party affiliation to D just to vote for him. And my family have been Midwestern R’s since the 1850’s. The thought of Trump winning the nomination sends a sense of absolute hopelessness thru my soul.
It’s so very obvious that the reason Tucker was fired has nothing to do with any of the trite theories being bandied about. It was simply his sometimes verbatim repetition of Kremlin talking points. Old man Murdoch lived through the Cold War, and those reflexes are still deeply ingrained on both side of the divide.
Well, accordingly to this link provided by Rod to Semafor, there was a recent Murdoch-Zelensky phone call that may have been the last straw, so to speak. I’ve always thought that it was only a matter of time before Carlson was silenced. The clock starting ticking with this war and not only his own war-related comments, but his guests’ (Tulsi and some former military guy whose name escapes me). It’s one thing in America to be right-wing, it’s a whole other beast to openly lobby for a “Soviet”, especially now with open warfare.
The guy became a prima dona, cost his employer an extravagant amount of money, and dissed his boss openly enough that it got back to him. Gee, I wonder why he was sent packing.
I lived through it like everyone else born before 89. So what? Any close look would reveal that our leaders should have taken a different tack from the beginning. Yellen is still hollering about the debt ceiling but in February she was over there with a load of cash to pay their pensions. Chinas done more damage than Russia yet we are borrowing money from them to pay for the war. It’s a clown show.
Computer chips. Taiwan makes about 95 % of certain kinds that America needs.
Indeed. And frankly, those who allowed the United States to get into such a position where we risk nuclear war because we allowed ourselves to hollow out our critical manufacturing capabilities--well, treason seems too weak a word to describe it. Whether Democrats or Republicans, they've weakened America far more than any other spy or traitor or terrorist in the last 50 years.
Rod writes with such nonchalance that, of course, RFK, Jr. doesn't have a chance. The one candidate in the race who seriously stands for most of what we stand for, and unlike Trump, would not only try to do something about our problems but has a strong vision of what a President might accomplish, hasn't got a chance, says the writer of Live Not By Lies.
The defeatism is disgusting.
Curiously, a poll of likely voters released early today shows Kennedy with 39%.
"Disgusting defeatism"? Okay. You sound like the MAGA people who are certain that Trump can win again, and anybody who says otherwise is a turd.
Okay, it's only defeatism.
The Trump/Kennedy comparison isn't realistic. Kennedy doesn't approach this election with the loathing of much of the country on his back. Skepticism, sure, but not loathing. It's funny that so much time has passed since JFK was President that that original generation of Kennedy family haters is all but extinct.
It seems to me irrational for someone to think that if Trump could win the Republican nomination, Kennedy couldn't win the Democratic nomination. I think Kennedy has an advantage in Biden's being an incumbent. It's a great contrast for Kennedy to exploit, and he isn't going in to the campaign with the public sureness that it's personal animus which drives him. This was something his father wasn't able to shake when he ran in 1968.
But the fix is in. Deep State says RFKJ is a paranoid, dangerous nut.
You're right.
Please pardon the hyperbole, Rod. If there is such a phenomenon as Dreherbait, it shouldn't surprise you that Limebait exists, too.
Corporate media loathes him and will do everything if can to destroy him if they are unable to simply ignore him. Biden will stay in the basement and probably not debate. No way will the DNC allow him to compete fairly.
I like to think this doesn't apply in the Internet era. The mainstream media couldn't stop Trump in 2016. Hillary was The Anointed One in 2008, but Obama thought not.
I've always been convinced that whatever the professionals thought, then or since, his father would have won the nomination and the election in 1968. There are some years in which the voters have had enough, and want someone new. We may be in one of those times now.
For me the anti-vax stuff is a deal killer. A-OK to be opposed to vaccine mandates in the instance of Covid, but all the tinfoil hat stuff - No. Just No.
Anyone who has actually done some reading on the subject knows that the pharmaceutical companies are corrupt and the current childhood vaccine schedule is untested and unsafe.
The mating of pseudoscience and tinfoil hattery never produces attractive children.
Current 'vaccine science' is pure pseudoscience.
Taurine byproduct. Vaccines are a major reason we do not see one third to one half of our children laid in the grave before they reach adulthood (yes, antibiotics and our sanitary reforms are a big part of that too).
And are they are a reason 50% of children suffer from chronic diseases? Or that one in 36 children currently have ASD which has increased exponentially from the 1970s when no one had ever even heard of it?
Well we don't know because no RCT with a saline placebo has ever been carried out, and no comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups has ever been carried out either.
And don't dare tarnish me as a tin foil hatter. I have a PhD and work in medical research. I have run RCTs for a living. I point these deficiencies in vaccine testing out because I know what science actually is supposed to look like.
Listen to his interview with Megyn Kelly, she put it to him but he held his own.
Bret Stephen's is not a pro American patriot, he is objectively a pro Zelensky zealot. His approach to foreign policy has nothing to do with prudence or rationality, it is completely ideological. My moral stature is not at the mercy of such an obviously blinded ideologue, nor should anybody else's be.
The only possible dog with any practical bite the neocons have in this particular hunt is continuing fomentation of forever wars. Just in case. As I say, this is a family show.
The oil & gas industry controls the EPA? That's one of the nuttiest, most wrong headed things I've read in a long time. Bret Stephens is supposedly one of the "conservatives" at the NYT and does a weekly back and forth with Gail Collins where he is the "conservative" and she is the liberal. While her viewpoints are about as left wing as AOC, he is no conservative. Moderate at best, and more liberal than moderate at worst. Only in the hallowed echo chamber halls of the NYT could this gentleman be described as a "conservative". The establishment, both left and right, are very ready and willing to expend American blood and treasure in search of some vague geopolitical mission. Probably because none of them actually know anybody who is serving their country and in harm's way. It's easy to put American kids at risk when you don't know any of them and they're nameless and faceless. And of course less important than the hallowed opinion writers at the NYT. How can anyone be cavalier about US involvement around the world after Vietnam, Iraq & Afghanistan? I'm for funding the Ukranians, but the magnitude of the help, especially compared to other NATO members' contributions, is getting ridiculous.
"The oil & gas industry controls the EPA? That's one of the nuttiest, most wrong headed things I've read in a long time. "
Not so much.
I see this on the state level in my southern state. It's not that polluting industries "run" our state Department of Environmental Protection, not overtly. They just contribute huge sums to the elected officials who then write the regulations governing how the DEP enforces environmental law, or doesn't.
Bologna. We could not have a more hostile regulator to the oil & gas industry than the EPA. If you're talking about state regulators in whatever state you are in, that's a completely different matter and not relevant to Mr. Kennedy's comment.
So at the state level we have total regulatory capture - but at the federal level none at all?
Right.
What may be happening is *slightly* tougher rules or enforcement under a Democratic administration. But the idea that the poor, multibillion dollar oil & gas industry is just so unfairly treated by bureaucrats, I find slightly ludicrous.
My last comment on this - “ludicrous” is a strong unnecessary word for a complicated policy discussion. If you think the EPA isn’t viscerally hostile to the oil and gas industry you haven’t been following the events of the past few years. It’s impossible to get pipelines built (Mountain Valley), it takes 6 months or longer to get permits (if you can) to drill on federal land (versus 2 days on private land in Texas) so forth and so on. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. And I never said at the state level there was total regulatory capture. That may be your position but is not mine. The federal government’s preference for importing much dirtier Venezuelan, Saudi crude versus much cleaner US domestic supply defines both foolish and dysfunctional. Have a nice rest of the week.
Another day, another idiot Neocon trying to tell everyone else what a patriotic American should say and believe, which somehow always is how American citizens should just support the American empire without limitations, even if it hurts the American people and American interests. Bret should spend a single day working at something than being a Neocon pundit.
RFKJr " the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is effectively run by the oil industry, the coal industry and the pesticide industry." oh puhlease if true which it isn't then why has the EPA issued so many regulations that go against those industries.
as for the Monsanto/Roundup trial anyone with a 1/4 brain knows how bad that verdict was and how the tort lawyers can bamboozle a jury
I actually liked Bret Stephens, but it is clear that the Iraq-war neocons have run out of intellectual steam. Against my previous conceptions, I agree with Chris DeMuth in that the intellectual wellspring of conservatism these days are found in the NatCon conferences and the affiliated thinkers. To quote the Jon Favreau clown from a Seinfeld episode, Bret and co. are "living in the past, man!"
Follow the money.
I think the government wants to turn Ukraine into another Israel--a foreign money laundering depot that receives all of America's best tech and military assets, at our own expense
The US Gov. (backed by the media) have gotten so much, so wrong, so often over the last 30 odd years that it is hard to impossible to trust them on any issues -- including Ukraine. Moreover, the country appears to be cracking up (physically, psychologically, spiritually, etc.), but all Uncle Sam can do is fiddle in foreign wars while the home country falls apart. Walk down any street in downtown America, and you will see the crime, rot & ruin, etc. staring you in the face. Yet the media types more or less ignore the collapse in favor of the Narrative they've got going. I call BS on all of it.
The media types will do nothing until the crime, rot, & ruin are in their sacred entryways.
Quick comment as I have to drive a pig to get butchered. Inevitably, Ukraine and Taiwan are outside the needs of American national defense as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were. And think of Tibet. I support a free and independent Tibet as do most Americans who reflect upon such things. But Tibet is not going to be given its independence by the current Chinese government and it would be ridiculous for America to go to war with China over Tibet, one of the most obscure nations on Earth.
Because the semi-conductor industry is centered there, Taiwan is invaluable to America and the West. The failure to successfully defend Taiwan, if it is attacked by Communist China, would be catastrophic.
True for now. But why did the government- Republican and Democratic- allow this to happen? We need vital industries to be located in America and not in risky locations throughout the world.
In a nutshell, it happened because of Republican and Democratic greed. To the extent it is even possible, it will take a long time before we can successfully bring vital industries back to our shores. The Taiwanese semi-conductor industry is light years ahead of all competitors, including China, and we must maintain access to that invaluable source. We really cannot allow our weapons and munitions stockpiles to dwindle, because of the Ukraine, to the point where we cannot defend Taiwan.
Excellent post. Good information. I knew that a large percentage of certain chips were made in Taiwan, about 95 %. How stupid could a government be to allow that to happen. I would hope that the PRC is only engaging in sabrerattling. The PRC loses if it goes to war with Taiwan and America.
Because they sold us out.
How are people going to cope when Russia secures the entire Black Sea coast including Odessa as well as Kharkov? I’ve met fairly intelligent people who were absolutely convinced Ukraine would defeat Russia and put Putin, Medvedev and Shoigu on trial for war crimes in Moscow followed by a Sadam-like public hanging.
You can’t make this stuff up.
So far the performance of the Russian army has been quite underwhelming. I would rank "Seizes the whole Black Sea coast" as only slightly more probable than "Ukraine puts Putin on trial for war crimes and hangs him."
I am tired of all this hand- wringing over Ukraine, let alone our absurd comparison of its drug- addled, Vogue posing, penile piano playing, and very wealthy president to George Washington, Winston Churchill, et al. Please.
I had to look up Bret Stephens' story on WIkipedia. Scion of international industry, Manhattan-bred, educated in a fancy boarding school, then the U. of Chicago, then the London School of Economics. Married twice to two New York media types. Has never done anything but write and opine.
And he certainly has never served in a war, nor has he moved in circles with people who have. Some members of my family are veterans of our late 20th and 21st century wars, with the PTSD to prove it, and a young member of my extended family is (ill-advisedly, in my opinion) entering the Army now.
As someone who is mildly but warily okay with the U.S. helping Ukraine against Russia, albeit with serious reservations, I have to wonder: Why should anyone listen to Bret Stephens?
Outstanding research. Why read Stephens? He's on the right wing of The New York Times with Douthat, Brooks and himself. Further right and you are part of the outer darkness according to The New York Times.
Right, right, they're bloody well left.
I'll tell you "why read Stephens". Because there was news in that screed, once you got past the neocon ick. (I well understand that your correspondent is opening himself up to the imputation of, erm, overthinking this, but bear with me: nobody who watched carefully the orchestrated effort to get us into Iraq II ought to be surprised by anything these guys get up to. Reading the wall posters can be informative.)
It was of the greatest interest that Stephens instanced as historical models for the supposedly traitorous right the Mosleys and Ezra Pound. Now IN A WAY this made sense, because Peter Hitchens et al. were being set up as butt boys for Orban, and through Orban Putin (Diana Mosley told Mark Steyn that meeting Hitler was one of the great events of her life, and Ezra's one face-to-face with the Duce made it into the Cantos, though I do think it's important to remember that among Mussolini's admirers in the '30s at least were Churchill, Bernard Shaw, and Sigmund Freud.)
But you have to ask yourself. Where was Father Coughlin?
Dreher's religious views are his calling card; Peter Hitchens is a devout Anglican; and Tucker got fired because he brought up God in that Heritage speech. I think Father Social Justice is missing from the list because Stephens needed to cover that flank. I think the Pope (or his Nunzio) may have gotten from Moscow what turn out to be halfway decent terms and Zelensky (personally to Stephens, probably through an intermediary to Frum, more on that below) has to stop that NOW because he still insanely has his eye on Crimea; at the very least terms would isolate his position in ways he might find hard to handle.
It would have been just a speculation, except David Frum, the downmarket Bret Stephens, takes a parallel line.
And what is that line? First, some distinctions. The justice or injustice of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is irrelevant because, and Mr. Victoria Nuland cheerfully admits this, the U.S. has no national interest in who owns the Crimea, never mind the Donbass. So why are we bankrolling the olive drab tee-shirt bulldog? The only possible effect a Russian victory that affects our interest might have is put pressure on Poland, where we are committed (or have a moral hazard, see Yalta, sellout, Roosevelt), but then that's what we should be concentrating on--certainly not encouraging this clown to continue to fight a war he can't win and is already losing.
THAT is why Stephens (the upmarket David Frum) has his knickers in a twist. This is a family show, so I'll leave you to connect the dots as to why this is so important to the neocons.
Do I believe Zelensky called Stephens personally? Yes. Did he call Frum? Please.
Sounds like Bret has partied with Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken. Birds of a feather...
If the Deep State (the de facto secret police bureaucracy and its sponsors and owned politicians) is not dismantled, at some point the threshold of declared war is reached. Then the declared objectives of enemy unconditional surrender are sought. As this approaches, opposition to war becomes a felony and complete censorship is imposed. We are very close. The escalation continues, but can never be settled except by attrition. Should one side or the other begin to lose, the nukes will fly.
Note that the reasons for war are mostly for economic subjugation of the entire world by one axis. Not against godless communism. However, this reason for war is against all the principles of Just War Theory. That is why we no longer hear discussion of that. So there is no justification except the seeking of power and money lust. That is essentially against Christian morality and ethics. Let's say it: the degradation of evil. Ideologically there is a favorable environment of Woke, compatible with evil, with its own attempted overthrow of the natural order and extreme hostility to Christianity, which preternaturally supports war with all its attendant compatible evils. This is why the money lust corporate world so neatly dovetails with Woke objectives, all Christian morals cast aside. The Long War against God is metastasizing towards a very bad end, humanity consumed in fire by our own Sin.
I saw RFK's Unheard interview yesterday. The more I listen to this guy the more impressed I've become. I haven't voted Democrat since Bill Clinton's 1st term (and have never voted Republican) but RFK could be the candidate that brings me back.
There's another election in 2028.
If there is a 2028
I’m thinking about switching my Party affiliation to D just to vote for him. And my family have been Midwestern R’s since the 1850’s. The thought of Trump winning the nomination sends a sense of absolute hopelessness thru my soul.
I like DeSantis.
War Party is uniparty duopoly, owned by war profiteers and their Deep State. Woke and War Crazy hand in hand.
Oh, and then there is Elensky and his Varangian guard of NaziQ who are dismantling the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
It’s so very obvious that the reason Tucker was fired has nothing to do with any of the trite theories being bandied about. It was simply his sometimes verbatim repetition of Kremlin talking points. Old man Murdoch lived through the Cold War, and those reflexes are still deeply ingrained on both side of the divide.
Was there something that Tucker recently said that sounded more Putinesque that previous things he said? Why didn't Murdock fire him a year ago?
Well, accordingly to this link provided by Rod to Semafor, there was a recent Murdoch-Zelensky phone call that may have been the last straw, so to speak. I’ve always thought that it was only a matter of time before Carlson was silenced. The clock starting ticking with this war and not only his own war-related comments, but his guests’ (Tulsi and some former military guy whose name escapes me). It’s one thing in America to be right-wing, it’s a whole other beast to openly lobby for a “Soviet”, especially now with open warfare.
The guy became a prima dona, cost his employer an extravagant amount of money, and dissed his boss openly enough that it got back to him. Gee, I wonder why he was sent packing.
I lived through it like everyone else born before 89. So what? Any close look would reveal that our leaders should have taken a different tack from the beginning. Yellen is still hollering about the debt ceiling but in February she was over there with a load of cash to pay their pensions. Chinas done more damage than Russia yet we are borrowing money from them to pay for the war. It’s a clown show.