Paul Jankura

Reports of some kind of hit on the US embassy in Kuwait. Not sure by whom, could be Iraqi groups….
x.com/AlArabiya_Br...

I think this is also a good look into Trump's psyche because it's another example of how he clearly views governments as intrinsically personalist in a way that feels feudal.

"Mob boss" is probably more accurate but I don't think there's formal political theory for organized crime

If you look at what Trump did with Venezuela, he clearly believes that "regime change" is just swapping out the boss with someone he likes better whereas there's others with an otherwise more traditional view that "regime change" is completely dismantling the institutions

At this point I think I'm reasonably convinced that the definition of "regime change" is fundamentally different across various factions within the Trump administration

All these would inform the public infinitely better about *why* what's happening is happening, compared to op-eds outlining a policy rationale that can only be lies.

A national newspaper should try to explain the *absence* of any effort to justify the war. They might highlight the autocratic nature of the current regime, or its fundamental mendacity. They might recall its attacks on the free press, or its persecution of the political opposition.

When the people in power cannot be bothered to present anything like a plausible line of argument for their actions, it is emphatically NOT the job a national newspaper to make one up for them. Nor should they make space in their pages for freelance propagandists.

Lots of takes flying around about this. When you read it in normal times & with an ounce of charity, it's clearly true.

But those currently in power do not care about truth, or policy, or submitting their actions to the American people's judgment. It's a category error to engage them in that mode.

US F-15E has been shotdown over Kuwait in what was likely a friendly fire incident

that doesn't mean everybody there is transphobic, or that they don't also publish good stories and pieces on trans issues, sometimes even by trans people! it means that the decision-making leans toward the dismissal of trans voices and the acceptance of soft bigotry.

you should not take one article in a paper as evidence of its editorial position but you can absolutely look at decisions over time. the NYT, for instance, has a clear transphobia problem, one called out by its own staff and writers.

I can tell you from experience, for instance, that the most banal right-wing geopolitical takes are treated with an automatic 'seriousness' that, for instance, gender analysis of geopolitics is not granted.

this is also not incompatible with a range of opinions! exactly what that range *is* and what gets given the most prominence matters.

every time i mention freedom fries to my students when discussing the global war on terror era, they think i’m joking. and there will be the one older student nodding in agreement

you can go even simpler than this: you have to be the absolute stupidest motherfucker on the planet to believe that donald trump keeps his promises

why does he like Nazis?

he's really racist and Nazis are an important income stream for him at this point, are the two big reasons, I think.

though saying he's stupid is maybe overly kind.

Greenwald really likes Nazis and he opposes imperialism so he is super committed to the idea that Nazis fight imperialism.

and glenn continues to hold up tucker carlson as a great force for preventing war. like, he is still doing the exact same thing.

like, lots of people told glenn at the time that he was a stupid motherfucker, and his response was always something like, "well liz cheney criticizes donald trump so he must be a force for peace"

the thing about people like glenn greenwald saying that trump broke his promise to them is that you have to be the absolute stupidest motherfucker on the planet to believe that donald trump, violent racist bully, is a man dedicated to peace. 1

Will the people who circulated this farcical story face any consequences? Of course not.

Please endorse me in the South Carolina governor’s race, mr president, please please, please

That was the gem but the stripper guy who had a car accident was remarkable.

everything is content now

one fascinating thing about modern culture is that international militias now do promo trailers to announce their aims

Honestly in retrospect COVID was the final victory of the right wing alternative facts conspiracy-minded selfishness-enabling fear mongering hate-manufacturing reality distortion machine that had wormed in its way into most permutations of American life. Most people have been rancid ever since.

the plan, such as it is, appears to be “bomb a country of 90 million people that is already facing a water crisis into a failed state, walk away and declare victory”

this is a monstrous nightmare regardless of whether or not it “works”

I think that future generations of Israelis will have to deal with the fact that there is a growing, and soon to be dominant, faction in the Democratic Party who at their most charitable view America's alliance with Israel as purely dead weight.

where they got these (Su-22s) from is a fitting commentary on the last 40 years of US ME policy and adventures

Questions have been raised about whether Ronald Reagan was able to delay the release of the hostages in order to ensure he won the presidency