Enjoying the view from Limbo
The populists of the world today, eager above all causes to bury Ukraine, though sometimes euphemizing the death they are willing as “fiscal responsibility” or “not getting mired in others’ problems” or “an end to endless wars” — whose interests do these populists seek to serve? It is not their own to be sure. For in abandoning a large and courageous nation to...
No war strategy is rational which does not include a sober accounting for how you will live next to your former enemy after the fighting has ended. How will relations be normalized? How will past conflicts be put aside under the new post-war conditions? How can some measure of good faith and good will be achieved in the aftermath of the extreme measures...
You can completely and vociferously sympathize with Israel’s position, and unequivocally condemn the ends and methods of Hamas and its radical Islamic allies, without necessarily believing that it is your country’s official duty to give material support to Israel’s self-defense. To take this position, one merely has to have the intellectual subtlety to grasp the distinction between the moral and the political, private...
American interest pretzels.– The case for denying new military funding to Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack of October 8th is far stronger, and far less morally dubious, than the case for cutting off funds for Ukraine, although so many American politicians are taking exactly the reverse position. In all matters involving Israel, the double stench of virtue signalling and...
Here is a new social media post from the leading candidate for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (and also for Chief Toilet Brush at Mar-a-Lago), in response to current events in Israel: Rockets are raining down on Israeli towns right now. We need to immediately help replenish Israel’s stockpile of Iron Dome missiles to protect more innocent civilians from getting killed....
America Descending / Liberty's Labors Lost
by Daren Jonescu · Published October 7, 2023 · Last modified October 8, 2023
Jim Jordan, a careerist boob who would sell his soul (or rather has already sold it) to help Donald Trump win the presidency and Vladimir Putin win the war — two sides of the same coin — is vowing, as his primary pledge in seeking the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives, to support no further financial aid for Ukraine. Rand Paul,...
Sincerity — if you can fake that, you’ve got it made. Rand Paul gave the world a master class in the practical application of George Burns’ famous joke about the entertainment industry. A consummate libertarian of the performer class, Paul spoke in the U.S. Senate last week about his unwillingness to support any more military aid to Ukraine. His speech was passionate but...
Liberty's Labors Lost / What is The Establishment? / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published September 19, 2023
The American government’s old guard establishment in both parties wants Ukraine to lose the war, but slowly. The establishment’s upstart wing, comprised mainly of populists of the right, including the farcically-named House Freedom Caucus, wants Russia to win, and quickly. Neither side is quite willing to state its genuine position directly, at least so far, although the loonier puppets of the populist faction,...
It is fairly obvious now that President Biden’s administration (not Biden himself, who of course has no idea what is happening or why) wishes to help Ukraine stave off Vladimir Putin’s unjustified invasion just well enough to inflict severe damage to Putin’s military, but not well enough to defeat him outright or restore all of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. In other words, the goal...
Matt Gaetz, U.S. congressman and living proof that Trump-level strategic thinking is alive and well in American government, has responded to a media question about Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership by suggesting that he would prefer to see Russia rather than Ukraine joining NATO, in order for the alliance to be more effective against China. So that would mean a globally aggressive, West-subverting...
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