“Another $40 billion down the rathole,” Secretary of the Treasury Gordon Humphrey used to sigh, contemplating the Defense Department’s annual budget requests under the Eisenhower administration.1 But that was then. Now we’re up to $2 trillion! Well, on the one hand, that $2 trillion, to update our nuclear deterrent, will be spread out over 25…
Tag: Ukraine
Congressional Progressive Caucus speaks common sense to power: DC goes insane
If you live within 200 miles of our Nation’s Capital, you probably heard that enormous squeal of terror last week when, on October 22, 2022, the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to President Joe Biden making the not too remarkable suggestion—one would think—that the current bloody war in Ukraine can only be brought to…
Vladimir Putin is our creation
Vladimir Putin, it seems, hath no bottom. Like a man sinking in quicksand, the more frenzied his efforts to escape, the more deeply he sinks. The great problem is, of course, that he’s threatening to take us along with him. Putin’s moral culpability is so great, and both his complaints and actions so vicious and…
Yo, Francis Fukuyama! Righteous rage may be hazardous to your health! And mine too!
Francis Fukuyama, who is probably my most favorite living neo-Hegelian, has sadly gone off the rails more than a little with this ecstatic, triumphalist treatise, Why Ukraine Will Win, which sounds to me a lot like the late Charlie Krauthammer on steroids and scotch circa 2004, rejoicing over the new American empire, on which, he…
What if they gave a Cold War, and nobody came?
I spend a lot of time grasping at straws these days, and Politico has kindly sent a couple wafting my way of late, viz., The U.S. Can’t Force the Rest of the World to Support Ukraine. Here’s Why. and A Forecasting Model Used by the CIA Predicts a Surprising Turn in U.S.-China Relations, said surprising…
Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President
It is common wisdom that presidents tend to concentrate on domestic policy when first arriving in office and then pivot to foreign affairs, where they can act without having to worry, too much, about the reception their ideas will receive on Capitol. It can be said of Joe Biden that he’s making the switch in…
Yo, American media! Yacht stealing is a crime!
I used to think that, of all the reasons I might have for disliking the American media, the celebration of the theft of super yachts belonging to super dick Russian billionaires—even those not named “Boris”—was pretty far down on the list. Well, once again, I learn that it is impossible for me to overestimate my…
A confusion of neocons: Hey, Israel, where the f*ck art thou?
Yeah, Israel! Inquiring minds like the WashPost’s Max Boot (Israel can’t stay neutral in Ukraine’s battle between good and evil) and Josh Rogin (As Russian atrocities mount in Ukraine, Israel must take sides) want to know! How long, O Israel? How long? How long can you not take sides in the greatest moral issue of…
Ukrainians brave, Russians cowards! Ukraine good, Russia bad! Well, yeah, but couldn’t I get a little nuance on the side?
War, no matter what anyone wants to tell you, is not a morality play, where one side is ever brave and virtuous, and the other ever sneering and evil. And, to amplify that point a little, we shouldn’t end up fighting World War III just because the Russian invasion of Ukraine is deeply immoral. The…
War! What is it good for? Circulation!
Oh, yeah. There is nothing like a war—in particular, a good guys versus bad guys war—to pump up the circulation, to attract eyeballs—to cable talk shows, network news (OK, I haven’t actually seen one since, well, 2001, but I’m assured they still exist), websites, podcasts, videocasts, etc., etc. etc. I’m told they even have the…