Yes, the word is that Bill Kristol’s bawling, brawling neocon baby, the Weekly Standard is no more, mourned in predictably fatuous fashion by co-founder John Podhoretz, “The Murder of the Weekly Standard* and long-time contributor David Brooks, among others, for heroically refusing to swallow the Trumpian swill that is now de rigueur on the Right,1…
Tag: neocons
Meanwhile, the war continues
That’s the war to start war, you understand, because the Weekly Standard thinks we’re just not killing enough people. The “Editors”, meaning Bad Boy Billy Kristol, demand that we “Stop Calling Russia a Competitor”! You know what Russia does? “Putin’s government invades neighboring states, murders its opponents with impunity on foreign soil, undermines the elections…
Cat Fight! Cat Fight!
Whoa! This is intense! Emerald Robinson said mean things about Jonah Goldberg and Michael Doran1 said she was “brilliant” and Jonah said no she wasn’t and so Michael said mean things about Jonah and then Jonah said mean things back and there you are. Well, if you have the patience to wade through all of…
David Ignatius, inadvertently stepping on his own phallus
Writes Dave, “With Trump’s acquiescence, Russia’s successful military intervention to rescue Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made the Kremlin the new indispensable power in the region — simultaneously maintaining close relations with Israel, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.” Why, it’s almost as if none of these countries are really that…
Jonah Goldberg, not much pleased to be called an old man
“There’s always a trade-off,” announces the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg—sounding a bit, to my ears at least, like Jane Austin remarking on the marital inclinations of single men in possession of good fortunes1—“in calling attention to trollish, attention-seeking writers who don’t deserve a response on the merits.” Well, with a throat clearing like that, you…
Charles Krauthammer was a wonderful man and a shameless liar
If you want to read kind words about Charles Krauthammer, well, go ahead. By all accounts, in his private life Krauthammer was gracious and kind to everyone he met, regardless of their political convictions. But Charles isn’t famous for being a nice guy; he’s famous for being a political commentator, and as a political commentator…
The Wrath of Krauthammer
It is a truism among big-time journalists that you always sell the same piece three times. It is a fact of human nature that we enjoy pissing on our enemies. And it is thus a double pleasure for me to take another poke at one of my favorite hypocrites, Charles Krauthammer. Charles Krauthammer is not…
Neocons at the end of their tether
Over at the National Review, Jonah Goldberg has a second, and more anguished, cri de cœur—I discussed an earlier one here—remarking, not simply on the horror that is Donald Trump, but on the horror one feels when one observes one’s friends proudly embracing that horror—if one has such friends as Kevin Williamson, Charlie Cooke, or…
Robert Kagan, hoist on Fareed Zakaria’s bare bodkin
At the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria notes the long-time silence of “principled conservatives” regarding decades of Republican thuggery in the name of power. Zakaria seems to take particular pleasure in skewering Robert Kagan, whom I skewered earlier for his tardy recognition of Republican sins. Sure, Trump is terrible, says Fareed, but how and why is…
Debunking Myths or Creating Them?
The Washington Post has plenty of editorial space available, and it’s hardly unreasonable for the editors to offer its pages to “competing views.” But when offering space to outside opinion, one might expect, as a courtesy to its subscribers, that the Post would require these contributors to state their case honestly—opinion yes, propaganda no. But…