So, Erdoğan says Turkey "...has been a part of Europe historically, geographically and culturally for centuries...." True enough, if one acknowledges that Turkey's presence in Europe was the result of conquest and vigorously opposed by the indigenous populations. Europeans still commemorate battles fought against the Turks, some triumphs (e.g. Vienna), many more unsuccessful (Kosovo, Mohacs, etc.). And most if not all the Balkan countries celebrate their independence from Ottoman Turkey as their national holiday.
The Turkish connection to Southeastern Europe was by janissaries and sipahi. I'm sure Erdoğan would dismiss this comment as a Gülenist lie.
Take a break from popping champagne corks! Yes, Labour made tremendous gains and the Tories significant losses. But remember: it was May who met with the queen and who will form a government. Her partner in the coalition will be DUP who appear even more odious the the Conservatives.
Congratulations to Corbyn and Labour for derailing May's expectation of a yuuuuge majority, but until he can form a government on his own I can't call it a win.
Lest one ever forget, Received Republican Scripture states that the 2007-08 financial crisis had two main causes:
1. Federal requirements in the Community Lending Act (1977) that forced lenders make unwise loans to [minority] borrowers who, as grateful owners of homes they couldn't afford, would vote Democratic, and
2. Imprudent [minority] borrowers who somehow collectively devised a scheme by which they could all take out cash AND live in a McMansion thanks to the miracle of refinancing.
The poor bankers were merely innocent victims in this massive conspiracy. One thing you can take to the bank - so to speak - is the failure of American business, especially in the financial sector, to ever assume responsibility for the problems they create.
I've thought of Trump in the context of other despots: Mussolini (not Hitler - Trump lacks the focus and ambition), Netanyahu, Erdoğan, as Sisi; but this casts him in a new light.
I'm starting to think of Michael Parenti's "The Assassination of Julius Caesar," with Trump leading the Optimates of the Republican party.
The republic is one or two breaths from being exclusively the agent (to use Roman context) of the landlords and grain sellers. Who will arise ex Popularibus to meet the challenge? Or is it - as I fear - too late already?
Economic texts say that capitalism must be amoral: Buyers and sellers, workers and employers, borrowers and lenders must all act in a mechanistic dance of "self-interest" with no thought of an external set of values. All peoples shall bow down and worship the invisible hand.
Reality tells us that amorality soon becomes immorality as the more powerful in all these transactions take increasing advantage. It must feel awfully good to impose their will, regardless of the costs to others, until they become an entire economic class of Rollo Tommasi's.
The perennial beggars from the former Confederacy - the same ones who rail against big government - will demand that Washington bail them out. States that have been net recipients of federal tax dollars since 1933: what is it, exactly, that we owe them?
Nixon could go to Beijing because he had shrewd intellect and mental flexibility to accompany the necessary credentials.
Trump has shown himself to be totally lacking in those qualities. The only way he knows to get anything done is bullying. Instead of thawing relations with Iran, there's talk of re-freezing relations with Cuba. Imbecile!!!
In anybody's wildest imagination (given history since 1871), could it ever be that the strong sword and shield of Western democracy would be the German Chancellor?
As a student mainly of European history and a non-Muslim I lack the credentials - and the credibility - of the author, but I believe he seriously understates a major point:
"Hussein was killed and his forces defeated. For the Shia community, Hussein became a martyr."
My understanding is that Imam Hussein was lured to his death under false pretenses and murdered, not killed in battle. This act of treachery, not merely martyrdom, has fueled much of the distrust and what I perceive as a Shiite compulsion to right wrongs. Most that I know are Ismaili, and they wear their dedication to justice on their sleeves.
I would add as an aside, as Hegel turned Feuerbach on his head, and Marx turned Hegel on his head, so too did Kkomeini turn on its head the traditional Shiite attitude toward earthly government.
I welcome any corrective comments if I have gone astray.
Trump has stretched his highwire between the poles of despot Salman and demagogue Bibi, and that is where he's chosen to walk. They seem a grotesque pairing, as they have only 2 intersections of interest: "stability" enforced with an armored fist, and hatred for Iran.
I believe the latter puts this trip and its consequences very much in the realm of missed opportunities for further detente with Iran.
Quick! Give us the name of the capon among the House Republicans who would lead the impeachment effort. And while you're at it a Republican Senator who will vote to convict.
If Trump tries to use his deal-making skills on the Palestinians and Israelis he will fail miserably, because:
1. He can't bully parties who don't fear him (I suspect both sides find him risible).
2. He can't outwit them; Trump is a parvenu to their ways of doing business.
3. His bull in the china shop approach will turn any chances for a Win-Win outcome to a Lose-Lose which will drive away the principals.
...If a negotiated or mediated settlement is even possible under the best of circumstances.
Sandy Hook was the culmination, but I believe the seminal moment was Columbine. What felt like mere minutes later (I know it was more), Charlton Heston led the NRA convention into Denver because the Holy Second Amendment commanded them to; and Heston 's speech at that convention delivered a nauseating thumb-in-the-eye to those grieving after the tragedy.
I would say that it's Erdoğan with one enormous difference:
Erdoğan sincerely believes the backward-looking, Islamist, neo-Ottoman program that he spouts. Trump, on the other hand, believes in nothing beyond himself and, following at a safe distance, his businesses and family. Otherwise he is a pure opportunist who will reverse course in a heartbeat if he sees it benefiting himself.
If there were anything remotely humorous about Trump's approach to deal-making, it would be the contract scene from the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera.
"I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States"
Thus spake somebody named for civilian, President Jefferson [Davis], and military, General Pierre Beauregard, leaders of the greatest mass treason against the United States.
152 years after the fact we ought to grant the unreconstructed secessionists their fondest wish - independence from the US. Just make sure that on the way out every molecule of US property, including that of corporations chartered in one of the United States, is removed or destroyed.
Erdoğan has certainly been shrewd, but I think it's pretty clear that his sensitivity has been trending down. Ongoing emergency decrees, with no end in sight, since the 15-16 July putsch seem to have eaten up much of his legitimacy. And his branding of almost everybody who opposes him as backing either Kurdish or Gülenist terrorism looks neither shrewd nor sensitive.
Since Abdullah Gul's departure, Erdoğan has become (and I wish I could recall the original quote) a bull who carries around his own china shop.
Here's an appropriate quote from the movie A Bronx Tale: "It don't take much strength to pull a trigger. But try and get up every morning day after day, and work for a living. Let's see him try that."
OK, Donald, we know you have the little strength needed to pull the trigger. Now show us you have the big strength for the hard work of being a real president.
YES appears to have won. Atatürk weeps in his tomb. The map of voting results looks very much like the electoral map of Trump's win. The coastal urban centers, by and large voted NO along with the Kurdish regions mainly in the Southeast. The great conservative heartland supported Erdoğan's power grab. Much like Kansas and Alabama, they voted for their treasured superstitions and against their actual interests.
AKP leadership has already called for unity which equals uncritical acquiescence. Starting tomorrow, I'm sure more lights will be turned out in Turkey.
The attempted putsch of 15-16 July was Erdoğan's Reichstag fire, certainly in effect and I believe also at cause. His rule by emergency decree since then has been the real coup d'etat. If EVET (YES) prevails this weekend it will be little more than the formalization of the existing order.
Who will be there to incite those two stinkers? Stinker #3, Bibi Netanyahu. And if "Evet" wins in the upcoming referendum (we don't use "plebiscite" since it earned a bad reputation in 1938 Austria), who will mediate between the stinkers? None other than stinker #4, Elected-Despot-For-Life Erdoğan.
"Partly Trump’s moves are about ensuring that the military is on his side. Partly it’s about tilting government in general away from soft power and toward hard power."
Is this alternative view entirely too paranoid? The abandonment of soft power is less about other countries and more about the American people. A military establishment that sees Trump as on their side, law enforcement agencies given lots of resources & free reign to ignore constitutional limitations, plus the 25% of the population committed to Trump no matter what: those are the basic ingredients of a soft coup (or maybe not so soft if it comes to that).
Diversion? I wouldn't bet against Trump kicking sand in Cuba's face. What did Fidel ever do for him?
It comes with much lower risk than eyeball to eyeball with Kim, and if Trump is half the businessman that he claims to be (probably just about half) he can evaluate. risk.
Trump will repeat, parrotlike, "Fake news. Fake news." Meanwhile the deniers in Congress fall back on, "I'm not a scientist, but...." Nothing will improve for the next 4 years unless a Trump property is utterly demolished by what is undeniably climate-caused.
Until then, the working model is Louisiana where politicians kowtow to the oil & gas industry (job creators, ya know), ignoring the perils to health and wealth that they represent.
In the 9 years between visits to Turkey, the proportion of women wearing hicab appeared to dramatically increase. Konya, very conservative to start, seemed up by 1/3. İstanbul looked to be at least doubled. Nothing will persuade me that the increase is due to a sudden onrush of piety among urban women; rather more likely is the crushing of the "feminist perspective" under the weight of AKP-inspired patriarchalism. Erdoğanism is well on its way to supplanting Atatürk's vision of a secular and gender-equal Turkish state.
Their relationship is like a perverse Aesop's fable: Bibi, the small, agile wasp, has stung Donald, the fat grub, into paralysis and returns at will to nibble on his prey.
It's 8:00 Eastern time, and so far I haven't heard a single comment identifying Flynn's sin. Yes he was fired for embarrassing the VP, but his real sin was nothing more or less than getting caught.
Daily, if not hourly, we witness the damage that amateurs can do when they try to beat professionals at their own game.
Trump's military experience includes close-order drill, donning a spiffy military school uniform, and evading actual service, his diplomatic experience limited to "You're fired!" and "I never settle!"
He has no idea what he is up to. If he knew any history, he might be accused of thinking the South China Sea is a bigger version of the Gulf of Sirte (think 1981). More likely he's remembering playing with toy soldiers as a lad; his side always won.
If there is an actual confrontation, I'm reminded of The Hunt for Red October and what Admiral Painter (played by mediocre actor and senator Fred Thompson) said:
" This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
Nice thought, Juan, but who is there to investigate, charge and prosecute: I'm betting against a Justice Department headed by Jefferson [Davis] Beauregard Sessions.
AKP came into power promising economic growth which was somewhat fulfilled over about 12 years. Turkish voters now have to ask: "What have you done for me lately?" When I was there in 2007, the exchange rate was about 1USD = 1.3YTL, and the financial press was predicting parity possibly within 6 months (never achieved). Return trip last year, exchange rate 1USD = 3YTL. Now it approaches 1 to 4.
AKP promised clean government and a crackdown on corruption. All well until their corruption started to be exposed.
As they have waged a relentless internal, and now external, war against Kurdish organizations, they have been ineffective at preventing terrorist attacks from other directions.
Erdoğan and his minions have used last summer's failed putsch as an excuse to purge dissenters from every area of Turkish society expressing any independence. They are now in their 2nd (or is it 3rd?) emergency decree, giving the president almost police-state powers.
Erdoğan is showing himself to be almost as paranoid as Stalin when it comes to seeing conspirators under every bed. His former political ally, Fethullah Gülen, has become Erdoğan's Trotsky. Whatever goes wrong in the Turkish Republic, it won't be long before the president or somebody close to him blames it on Gülen and/or his "terror organization."
A YES vote in the spring will assure Erdoğan virtual plenipotentiary authority until 2029, unless he chooses to step away - not very likely.
There is no clear alternative to AKP ready to man the levers of government, but the fragments that are there will certainly create a better option than what a YES vote looks forward to.
If YES prevails, prepare to repeat after me:
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çik Yaşa!
What is it about bible-citing unreconstructed confederates that gives them such delusions of persecution? Dylann Roof is an outlier, and NOBODY claims otherwise. But he isn't unique, and that's the part that Junius tries to gloss over.
A few examples of homegrown non-Muslim terrorists:
Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, Benjamin Smith, Buford Furrow, Richard Baumhammers, Keith Luke. All of those lowlives were convicted of multiple murders. Then there are the hundreds more who were apprehended (lucky for everybody) before they were able to carry out their homicidal plans.
Whatever it means, "being on New England Government Yankee lists," it has nothing to do with being targeted for one's belief. Unless those beliefs are murderous or treasonous. Are yours, JD?
Netanyahu should abandon all this time wasting gradualism: Round up all the Palestinians, and in one move relocate them to... Oklahoma. What, this isn't 1838?
The chutzpah of Bibi's Likudniks and their supporters in the Knesset is beyond breathtaking.
I feel compelled to change the subject. I hope nobody objects.
"...the family cattle ranch was sold because the older members of the family were dying (ranching is hard) and none of the kids in the extended family wanted to run the ranch."
For as far back as I can remember Republicans have promoted elimination of the estate tax, the "death tax" as they deceptively call it. Their justification is that families have to sell off productive farms (and other businesses) to pay the estate tax. Nothing could be more false. Family farms are sold off after principals' death because the next generation, for any number of reasons, would rather do something else. And sale of the family farm might just provide the capital to fulfill their dreams.
In case you haven't noticed I've twice accused the Republican Party of lying.
Muslims should be denied entry (most should probably be deported) because their mere presence promotes violence. "White" guys who are perfectly normal in every other way are driven to violence by the knowledge that other kinds of folks are living among them.
This Bissonnette fellowis just a sensitive young man driven to mass shooting by circumstances beyond his control, rather like Dylann Roof in South Carolina. Why if only all "those people" had been sent back to Africa long ago, he would never have felt compelled to murder nine of them. Poor, sensitive lad!
I wish there were an obvious solution to the problem of frightened little boys - Donald Trump included - lashing out against imagined threats to their world.
I have clear memories of inaugurations going back to 1956, and nothing prepared me for the US vs THEM tone of Trump's speech. I don't think I read too much into his words to recognize what I expect to be frontal attacks on the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments to say nothing of decades of legislation and court decisions broadening our civil rights.
And then there's his bluster (let's hope it's only bluster) toward the rest of the world.
Donald, if you're demanding that I stand with you in order to share in the American dream, screw you!
Juan, I apologize for my language. It was the most polite I could muster.
The reaction of Republican "moderate" Senator John McCain to the Manning pardon is an indicator of how quixotic would be any attempt at repealing that odious law.
The most frightening part of these "Christian-Zionists" is their literal belief in the Apocalypse. Of course, the State of Israel (Medinat Yisrael) is loved for being the front line against radical Islam, which in the C-Z's minds is ALL Islam. Then there is the Jewish people (Am Yisrael) who exist only to fulfill Christian prophesy by returning(?) to the land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) to be either converted to Christianity or slaughtered en masse in the final days.
Professor, I have nothing but respect for your credentials and your basic facts. However, I must ask: Which of those aspects of fascism would Trump eschew were he in a position to undertake it? One essential aspect of fascism you omit (oversight I'm sure) is Führerprinzip which is a major part of Trump's program as expressed during the campaign.
I fear that Trump and the I-love-Israel-more than-life-itself crowd in Congress will do severe damage to the UN during the next 4 years. There will be more "Christian Zionists" dancing in the streets over that than there were Muslims doing so in New Jersey (as witnessed by the Orange Pied Piper) on 9/11.
It was said in the French army, something to the effect of: "Dung is clean; oil is dirty," its sentiment preferring cavalry over mechanised soldiering. Dirty? Having seen the misbehavior of major oil companies over the last century, one is simply amazed at the generals' understatement.
Trump as Big Brother?
Trump as Juan Peron?
Trump as Mussolini?
Trump as Idi Amin?
The Donald hasn't the attention span to be an honest to goodness dictator. His comic-opera personality flaws emerge too quickly. Really he is no more than the arriviste in chief. Tell me if I'm on to something:
If it comes to pass, Erdoğan - Putin is a marriage possible only between two cynical, power-mad egotists. One can only imagine the sweet nothings Vladimir whispers in Sultan Recep Tayyip's ear.
Will a Russian battlecruiser be dispatched (how does one spell "Goeben" in Cyrillic)?
Yes to all of the above, but Gitlin ignores the (I hate this cliché) elephant in the room. The Democratic Party nominated an unlikable candidate. Let's never forget the millions of voters who made their choice in 2000 because they would rather have a beer with George W Bush than Al Gore. Hillary admitted she isn't the natural politician that Bill is. And just when high turnout was necessary to win, wasn't her inability to generate enthusiasm critical? Trump, the pied piper, convinced millions of people with whom he would never associate except to pick their pockets that he was their friend, that they could sit down and enjoy a brewski with the Donald.
Then there is the three-headed monstrosity Chuck Schumer, Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (they bring shame to American Jews) who conspired to select the maximum number of doomed down-ballot candidates while failing to back the ones with a real shot to win. Seriously, don't you think that Alan Grayson would have brought out voters in a way that Republican in sheep's clothing Murphy did not and could not? What about their pitiful lack of support for Russ Feingold? Similar situation with Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania. Kiss 3 critical states goodbye.
Not hardly the end of the story but enough for now, as Juan so clearly laid out a while ago the Democratic Party no longer stands for anything, least of all advocating for the broad interests of the 99%. Harry Truman said it best: "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time."
Absolutely correct. What intellectuals can do is to provide a unifying path for many of the disparate, centrifugal social forces now observed. There may be no common ground between Black Lives Matter and white people whose primary motivation is racial, but there certainly is between BLM, displaced industrial workers, maltreated service workers, Muslims, et al. Articulate intellectuals may be able to merge the many "my fight" into a larger "our fight."
Intellectuals in the mold of Eric Hoffer, Studs Terkel (yes, I think of him as one) would do us a world of good.
I can take "detached from reality" just so long as you don't say "utopian." ;-(
"Civil disobedience seems increasingly called for with regard to hydrocarbons."
It will have to be massive, sufficiently so that it can peacefully overwhelm police in riot gear, dogs, mace, tasers, armored vehicles, etc. Events in North Dakota demonstrate that police commitment to serve and protect is in service to and protective of property, not people. That will never change except in the face of sheer numbers. In a nation that sits glued to Kardashians and Duck Dynasty and having no intellectual leadership (Le Trahison des Clercs), such a mass movement is unimaginable.
Juan, as an admitted former communist I invoke that odious condemnation and accuse you of being utopian. I do, however, absolutely agree that the republic will not survive a Trump presidency.
Thomas Friedman, during the height of Bernard Lewis inspired orientalism, wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree. If I remember correctly the olive tree is a symbol of a past time which holds its harvesters back from their modern destiny as, for example, builders of Lexus cars.
Not only are the settlers destroying an irreplaceable millennia-old tradition, if they were to erect a vehicle assembly plant, you can bet your last penny that the hiring sign would say: "No Palestinians Need Apply."
"...individuals pursuing their own idiosyncratic agendas rather than as a group. Think Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers...."
And think Peter Thiel who is willing to bankroll not only his financial/political interests but also his personal grudges. A speaker at Trump's convention, he's the perfect partner to the "short fingered vulgarian."
And all this wonderful writing without mention of Cicero. The silver-tongued devil who was the bane of Latin III students 50 years ago, he erased the line separating the interests of the optimates, especially landlords and grain merchants, and the interests of the Republic. One could argue that Cicero's rhetoric emboldened his faction, making Caesar not only possible but perhaps inevitable.
I fear the evolution of the Democratic Party from its pre-Democratic Leadership Council more proletarian orientation has paved the way for the rise of the Trump-demagogue. His large numbers of alienated heavily armed followers, unified by their sense of betrayal by the elites and devotion to their misunderstanding of the Second Amendment, are nothing short of frightening. All they lack is a real leader (not an empty-suit self promoter) capable of organizing them.
Has all Turkish foreign / domestic policy become the national extension of Erdoğan's obsessive pursuit of his twin "white whales": Kurdish nationalism and Fethulla Gulen?
Language will change “because there are so many foreigners who struggle to pronounce” certain sounds, such “th” as in thin or this.
What? I can't count the number of dyed-in-the-wool English people I've heard talk about "vis or vat" or who have an "Aunt Miwdred." "Wha'evah!" Pot, meet kettle.
"The Saudis have already said that they will take their investments elsewhere if JASTA passed."
And if the Saudis have half a brain, which they clearly do, they will put their money in a place unreachable by the long arm of American law. Is this the move that will finally make China the world's preeminent financial superpower?
I can't imagine any president pardoning Mr. Snowden. Where is the political advantage? On the other hand, Marc Rich....
Snowden remains in exile (I believe for the rest of his life) while those who erased the Fourth Amendment, and the war-criminals responsible for our wars of aggression walk free among us.
Thirteen years after the fact, those who have greatly enriched themselves by Bush's war continue to reap further benefits thanks to Bush's tax cuts. Malefactors of great wealth!
Would that clear thinking get in the way of Trumpism! Thank you, Juan, for the clear thinking. Let's hope it can sway a few people to abandon the hate-narrative.
The only change I perceive is in her rhetoric. I can't imagine her in any substantive way biting the hands that have fed her and Bill for all these years. Great corruption comes from rubbing shoulders with those folks, taking their money, and not seeing a problem.
While Daesh proclaims its phony caliphate and is slowly driven back from its gains, Tayyip Erdogan quietly creates a more serious looking caliphate on Europe's doorstep.
Add to the list Christie's saying he would allow US law enforcement agencies to operate inside Mexico without approval of the Mexican government. Maybe he can exhume General Pershing to show him how to organize it.
Missing entry in the glossary
Loser: n. 1. anybody who opposes Trump (see Stupid); 2. anybody who has been schlonged by Trump; 3. ultimately, anybody who is not Donald Trump.
Should Hillary prevail in the Democratic primaries, as now seems likely, I will once again be forced to hold my nose and vote for the Democrat for the sole reason that he/she isn't the other guy.
Seriously? That has to be the last straw. And how should the president respond? Since the ICC will most probably investigate some very high ranking Israelis for war crimes committed in Gaza, order the State Department to declare Bibi persona non grata and deny him entry to the US.
Israel appears to be the only country whose "manifest destiny" the US applauds. Everywhere else, e.g. Russia's reclaiming Crimea, it's conquest or expropriation and to be condemned.
"For the US, few dilemmas are more foreboding than a military conflict between its two most important Middle East allies." What I find most worrisome is that the United States government can't afford to do much of anything vis-a-vis either of these "allies" that would offend the petromonarchy in Saudi Arabia.
Nauseating! If Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the NRA leadership found themselves across the ocean, they would doubtless advocate for more gun ownership.
As long as there are "holy cities" and "holy sites" human beings will murder one another over their competing claims. No enlightenment since men worshiped standing stones only more efficient ways to kill.
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Yes, of course it made him nervous not having enough time to remember his previously uttered untruths ("lies" is such a negative word).
I have witnessed mafia bosses give less evasive answers than that unreconstructed Confederate weasel.
So, Erdoğan says Turkey "...has been a part of Europe historically, geographically and culturally for centuries...." True enough, if one acknowledges that Turkey's presence in Europe was the result of conquest and vigorously opposed by the indigenous populations. Europeans still commemorate battles fought against the Turks, some triumphs (e.g. Vienna), many more unsuccessful (Kosovo, Mohacs, etc.). And most if not all the Balkan countries celebrate their independence from Ottoman Turkey as their national holiday.
The Turkish connection to Southeastern Europe was by janissaries and sipahi. I'm sure Erdoğan would dismiss this comment as a Gülenist lie.
Sultan Recep Tayyip ÇOK YAŞA!
Take a break from popping champagne corks! Yes, Labour made tremendous gains and the Tories significant losses. But remember: it was May who met with the queen and who will form a government. Her partner in the coalition will be DUP who appear even more odious the the Conservatives.
Congratulations to Corbyn and Labour for derailing May's expectation of a yuuuuge majority, but until he can form a government on his own I can't call it a win.
Lest one ever forget, Received Republican Scripture states that the 2007-08 financial crisis had two main causes:
1. Federal requirements in the Community Lending Act (1977) that forced lenders make unwise loans to [minority] borrowers who, as grateful owners of homes they couldn't afford, would vote Democratic, and
2. Imprudent [minority] borrowers who somehow collectively devised a scheme by which they could all take out cash AND live in a McMansion thanks to the miracle of refinancing.
The poor bankers were merely innocent victims in this massive conspiracy. One thing you can take to the bank - so to speak - is the failure of American business, especially in the financial sector, to ever assume responsibility for the problems they create.
I've thought of Trump in the context of other despots: Mussolini (not Hitler - Trump lacks the focus and ambition), Netanyahu, Erdoğan, as Sisi; but this casts him in a new light.
Trump as Brezhnev, a not unworkable hypothesis.
I'm starting to think of Michael Parenti's "The Assassination of Julius Caesar," with Trump leading the Optimates of the Republican party.
The republic is one or two breaths from being exclusively the agent (to use Roman context) of the landlords and grain sellers. Who will arise ex Popularibus to meet the challenge? Or is it - as I fear - too late already?
Economic texts say that capitalism must be amoral: Buyers and sellers, workers and employers, borrowers and lenders must all act in a mechanistic dance of "self-interest" with no thought of an external set of values. All peoples shall bow down and worship the invisible hand.
Reality tells us that amorality soon becomes immorality as the more powerful in all these transactions take increasing advantage. It must feel awfully good to impose their will, regardless of the costs to others, until they become an entire economic class of Rollo Tommasi's.
The perennial beggars from the former Confederacy - the same ones who rail against big government - will demand that Washington bail them out. States that have been net recipients of federal tax dollars since 1933: what is it, exactly, that we owe them?
Nixon could go to Beijing because he had shrewd intellect and mental flexibility to accompany the necessary credentials.
Trump has shown himself to be totally lacking in those qualities. The only way he knows to get anything done is bullying. Instead of thawing relations with Iran, there's talk of re-freezing relations with Cuba. Imbecile!!!
In anybody's wildest imagination (given history since 1871), could it ever be that the strong sword and shield of Western democracy would be the German Chancellor?
The damage to be done when an [expletive deleted] IGNORAMUS thinks he is more knowledgeable and wiser than everybody else combined!
Imagine: Had this been a pro-Trump rally in the US, many of the demonstrators would have been armed. What is the real hellhole?
As a student mainly of European history and a non-Muslim I lack the credentials - and the credibility - of the author, but I believe he seriously understates a major point:
"Hussein was killed and his forces defeated. For the Shia community, Hussein became a martyr."
My understanding is that Imam Hussein was lured to his death under false pretenses and murdered, not killed in battle. This act of treachery, not merely martyrdom, has fueled much of the distrust and what I perceive as a Shiite compulsion to right wrongs. Most that I know are Ismaili, and they wear their dedication to justice on their sleeves.
I would add as an aside, as Hegel turned Feuerbach on his head, and Marx turned Hegel on his head, so too did Kkomeini turn on its head the traditional Shiite attitude toward earthly government.
I welcome any corrective comments if I have gone astray.
Trump has stretched his highwire between the poles of despot Salman and demagogue Bibi, and that is where he's chosen to walk. They seem a grotesque pairing, as they have only 2 intersections of interest: "stability" enforced with an armored fist, and hatred for Iran.
I believe the latter puts this trip and its consequences very much in the realm of missed opportunities for further detente with Iran.
Add despot Salman to Trump's list of birds-of-a-feather BFFs: Putin, Erdoğan, Bibi, Sisi, LePen, Duterte,...
How powerless the Palestinians!
They can expect little relief from Trump and nothing but more abuse from Netanyahu.
Quick! Give us the name of the capon among the House Republicans who would lead the impeachment effort. And while you're at it a Republican Senator who will vote to convict.
I didn't think so.
If Trump tries to use his deal-making skills on the Palestinians and Israelis he will fail miserably, because:
1. He can't bully parties who don't fear him (I suspect both sides find him risible).
2. He can't outwit them; Trump is a parvenu to their ways of doing business.
3. His bull in the china shop approach will turn any chances for a Win-Win outcome to a Lose-Lose which will drive away the principals.
...If a negotiated or mediated settlement is even possible under the best of circumstances.
Sandy Hook was the culmination, but I believe the seminal moment was Columbine. What felt like mere minutes later (I know it was more), Charlton Heston led the NRA convention into Denver because the Holy Second Amendment commanded them to; and Heston 's speech at that convention delivered a nauseating thumb-in-the-eye to those grieving after the tragedy.
I would say that it's Erdoğan with one enormous difference:
Erdoğan sincerely believes the backward-looking, Islamist, neo-Ottoman program that he spouts. Trump, on the other hand, believes in nothing beyond himself and, following at a safe distance, his businesses and family. Otherwise he is a pure opportunist who will reverse course in a heartbeat if he sees it benefiting himself.
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
If there were anything remotely humorous about Trump's approach to deal-making, it would be the contract scene from the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera.
http://ralphmag.org/CV/crying-frenchman500x368.gif
Thank you, Henri Cartier-Bresson
"I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States"
Thus spake somebody named for civilian, President Jefferson [Davis], and military, General Pierre Beauregard, leaders of the greatest mass treason against the United States.
152 years after the fact we ought to grant the unreconstructed secessionists their fondest wish - independence from the US. Just make sure that on the way out every molecule of US property, including that of corporations chartered in one of the United States, is removed or destroyed.
It isn't vindictive if it's justified!
Erdoğan has certainly been shrewd, but I think it's pretty clear that his sensitivity has been trending down. Ongoing emergency decrees, with no end in sight, since the 15-16 July putsch seem to have eaten up much of his legitimacy. And his branding of almost everybody who opposes him as backing either Kurdish or Gülenist terrorism looks neither shrewd nor sensitive.
Since Abdullah Gul's departure, Erdoğan has become (and I wish I could recall the original quote) a bull who carries around his own china shop.
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
Here's an appropriate quote from the movie A Bronx Tale: "It don't take much strength to pull a trigger. But try and get up every morning day after day, and work for a living. Let's see him try that."
OK, Donald, we know you have the little strength needed to pull the trigger. Now show us you have the big strength for the hard work of being a real president.
YES appears to have won. Atatürk weeps in his tomb. The map of voting results looks very much like the electoral map of Trump's win. The coastal urban centers, by and large voted NO along with the Kurdish regions mainly in the Southeast. The great conservative heartland supported Erdoğan's power grab. Much like Kansas and Alabama, they voted for their treasured superstitions and against their actual interests.
AKP leadership has already called for unity which equals uncritical acquiescence. Starting tomorrow, I'm sure more lights will be turned out in Turkey.
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
The attempted putsch of 15-16 July was Erdoğan's Reichstag fire, certainly in effect and I believe also at cause. His rule by emergency decree since then has been the real coup d'etat. If EVET (YES) prevails this weekend it will be little more than the formalization of the existing order.
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
Who will be there to incite those two stinkers? Stinker #3, Bibi Netanyahu. And if "Evet" wins in the upcoming referendum (we don't use "plebiscite" since it earned a bad reputation in 1938 Austria), who will mediate between the stinkers? None other than stinker #4, Elected-Despot-For-Life Erdoğan.
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
"Partly Trump’s moves are about ensuring that the military is on his side. Partly it’s about tilting government in general away from soft power and toward hard power."
Is this alternative view entirely too paranoid? The abandonment of soft power is less about other countries and more about the American people. A military establishment that sees Trump as on their side, law enforcement agencies given lots of resources & free reign to ignore constitutional limitations, plus the 25% of the population committed to Trump no matter what: those are the basic ingredients of a soft coup (or maybe not so soft if it comes to that).
Juan, do you know - I can't find any information on the subject: Is the artist, Zehra Doğan, related to the Doğan media family?
Thanks!!
Erdoğan and his thugs dare to call Western Europe fascist!
Sultan Recep Tayyip ÇOK YAŞA!
Diversion? I wouldn't bet against Trump kicking sand in Cuba's face. What did Fidel ever do for him?
It comes with much lower risk than eyeball to eyeball with Kim, and if Trump is half the businessman that he claims to be (probably just about half) he can evaluate. risk.
Trump will repeat, parrotlike, "Fake news. Fake news." Meanwhile the deniers in Congress fall back on, "I'm not a scientist, but...." Nothing will improve for the next 4 years unless a Trump property is utterly demolished by what is undeniably climate-caused.
Until then, the working model is Louisiana where politicians kowtow to the oil & gas industry (job creators, ya know), ignoring the perils to health and wealth that they represent.
Rutte is far from the ideal solution, but at least he isn't Erdoğan's wet dream as Wilders would be.
In the 9 years between visits to Turkey, the proportion of women wearing hicab appeared to dramatically increase. Konya, very conservative to start, seemed up by 1/3. İstanbul looked to be at least doubled. Nothing will persuade me that the increase is due to a sudden onrush of piety among urban women; rather more likely is the crushing of the "feminist perspective" under the weight of AKP-inspired patriarchalism. Erdoğanism is well on its way to supplanting Atatürk's vision of a secular and gender-equal Turkish state.
SULTAN RECEP TAYYIP ÇOK YAŞA!
Their relationship is like a perverse Aesop's fable: Bibi, the small, agile wasp, has stung Donald, the fat grub, into paralysis and returns at will to nibble on his prey.
Was anybody else left speechless by this piece?
It's 8:00 Eastern time, and so far I haven't heard a single comment identifying Flynn's sin. Yes he was fired for embarrassing the VP, but his real sin was nothing more or less than getting caught.
I'm enjoying the art samples. Please let it be a frequent feature. As long as nobody objects, I will continue to post this link:
https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/
It's well worth the trip to Toronto.
Daily, if not hourly, we witness the damage that amateurs can do when they try to beat professionals at their own game.
Trump's military experience includes close-order drill, donning a spiffy military school uniform, and evading actual service, his diplomatic experience limited to "You're fired!" and "I never settle!"
He has no idea what he is up to. If he knew any history, he might be accused of thinking the South China Sea is a bigger version of the Gulf of Sirte (think 1981). More likely he's remembering playing with toy soldiers as a lad; his side always won.
If there is an actual confrontation, I'm reminded of The Hunt for Red October and what Admiral Painter (played by mediocre actor and senator Fred Thompson) said:
" This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
What a beautiful piece! To all who love Islamic Art and can get to Toronto:
https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/
Sorry, I can't resist.
"Saudi ties," are they available at Nordstrom?
Nice thought, Juan, but who is there to investigate, charge and prosecute: I'm betting against a Justice Department headed by Jefferson [Davis] Beauregard Sessions.
Why do I keep thinking of a cross between Svengali and Franz von Papen?
I can't believe I didn't catch the misspelling. Correction:
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çok Yaşa!
It gives me warm, fuzzy, Osmanlı feelings all over just to think those words.
AKP came into power promising economic growth which was somewhat fulfilled over about 12 years. Turkish voters now have to ask: "What have you done for me lately?" When I was there in 2007, the exchange rate was about 1USD = 1.3YTL, and the financial press was predicting parity possibly within 6 months (never achieved). Return trip last year, exchange rate 1USD = 3YTL. Now it approaches 1 to 4.
AKP promised clean government and a crackdown on corruption. All well until their corruption started to be exposed.
As they have waged a relentless internal, and now external, war against Kurdish organizations, they have been ineffective at preventing terrorist attacks from other directions.
Erdoğan and his minions have used last summer's failed putsch as an excuse to purge dissenters from every area of Turkish society expressing any independence. They are now in their 2nd (or is it 3rd?) emergency decree, giving the president almost police-state powers.
Erdoğan is showing himself to be almost as paranoid as Stalin when it comes to seeing conspirators under every bed. His former political ally, Fethullah Gülen, has become Erdoğan's Trotsky. Whatever goes wrong in the Turkish Republic, it won't be long before the president or somebody close to him blames it on Gülen and/or his "terror organization."
A YES vote in the spring will assure Erdoğan virtual plenipotentiary authority until 2029, unless he chooses to step away - not very likely.
There is no clear alternative to AKP ready to man the levers of government, but the fragments that are there will certainly create a better option than what a YES vote looks forward to.
If YES prevails, prepare to repeat after me:
Sultan Recep Tayyip Çik Yaşa!
Holy freak of nature, Batman!
Trump must have grown a new ear, because the original ones have exclusive services contracts with Bannon, Conway and Fox So-Called News.
What is it about bible-citing unreconstructed confederates that gives them such delusions of persecution? Dylann Roof is an outlier, and NOBODY claims otherwise. But he isn't unique, and that's the part that Junius tries to gloss over.
A few examples of homegrown non-Muslim terrorists:
Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, Benjamin Smith, Buford Furrow, Richard Baumhammers, Keith Luke. All of those lowlives were convicted of multiple murders. Then there are the hundreds more who were apprehended (lucky for everybody) before they were able to carry out their homicidal plans.
Whatever it means, "being on New England Government Yankee lists," it has nothing to do with being targeted for one's belief. Unless those beliefs are murderous or treasonous. Are yours, JD?
Netanyahu should abandon all this time wasting gradualism: Round up all the Palestinians, and in one move relocate them to... Oklahoma. What, this isn't 1838?
The chutzpah of Bibi's Likudniks and their supporters in the Knesset is beyond breathtaking.
I feel compelled to change the subject. I hope nobody objects.
"...the family cattle ranch was sold because the older members of the family were dying (ranching is hard) and none of the kids in the extended family wanted to run the ranch."
For as far back as I can remember Republicans have promoted elimination of the estate tax, the "death tax" as they deceptively call it. Their justification is that families have to sell off productive farms (and other businesses) to pay the estate tax. Nothing could be more false. Family farms are sold off after principals' death because the next generation, for any number of reasons, would rather do something else. And sale of the family farm might just provide the capital to fulfill their dreams.
In case you haven't noticed I've twice accused the Republican Party of lying.
Yup, right (actually ironic).
PRECISELY!
Muslims should be denied entry (most should probably be deported) because their mere presence promotes violence. "White" guys who are perfectly normal in every other way are driven to violence by the knowledge that other kinds of folks are living among them.
This Bissonnette fellowis just a sensitive young man driven to mass shooting by circumstances beyond his control, rather like Dylann Roof in South Carolina. Why if only all "those people" had been sent back to Africa long ago, he would never have felt compelled to murder nine of them. Poor, sensitive lad!
I wish there were an obvious solution to the problem of frightened little boys - Donald Trump included - lashing out against imagined threats to their world.
Welcome to America's first Potemkin presidency.
The only reality behind the façade is Trump's monumental egoism - which, in the end, is no reality at all.
I have clear memories of inaugurations going back to 1956, and nothing prepared me for the US vs THEM tone of Trump's speech. I don't think I read too much into his words to recognize what I expect to be frontal attacks on the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments to say nothing of decades of legislation and court decisions broadening our civil rights.
And then there's his bluster (let's hope it's only bluster) toward the rest of the world.
Donald, if you're demanding that I stand with you in order to share in the American dream, screw you!
Juan, I apologize for my language. It was the most polite I could muster.
A truly noble sentiment, but....
The reaction of Republican "moderate" Senator John McCain to the Manning pardon is an indicator of how quixotic would be any attempt at repealing that odious law.
Re: the headline
There is no such thing as an EX-Nazi, unless it's somebody who has definitively renounced his past.
Precisely! Trump IS a tin-pot dictator. All he lacks is the comic opera military uniform.
The most frightening part of these "Christian-Zionists" is their literal belief in the Apocalypse. Of course, the State of Israel (Medinat Yisrael) is loved for being the front line against radical Islam, which in the C-Z's minds is ALL Islam. Then there is the Jewish people (Am Yisrael) who exist only to fulfill Christian prophesy by returning(?) to the land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) to be either converted to Christianity or slaughtered en masse in the final days.
With friends like that....
Professor, I have nothing but respect for your credentials and your basic facts. However, I must ask: Which of those aspects of fascism would Trump eschew were he in a position to undertake it? One essential aspect of fascism you omit (oversight I'm sure) is Führerprinzip which is a major part of Trump's program as expressed during the campaign.
I fear that Trump and the I-love-Israel-more than-life-itself crowd in Congress will do severe damage to the UN during the next 4 years. There will be more "Christian Zionists" dancing in the streets over that than there were Muslims doing so in New Jersey (as witnessed by the Orange Pied Piper) on 9/11.
If idiot savant President-elect doesn't stir up enough trouble over there the hypernationalist megalomaniac in Ankara surely will.
Çok yaşa Sultan Recep Tayyip!
Listening to Trump is like listening to an idiot savant... without the savant part.
Donald, why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?
How long before the Netanyahu Gang officially declares a designated area in the occupied territories the Palestinian "Pale of Settlement"?
It was said in the French army, something to the effect of: "Dung is clean; oil is dirty," its sentiment preferring cavalry over mechanised soldiering. Dirty? Having seen the misbehavior of major oil companies over the last century, one is simply amazed at the generals' understatement.
To say nothing of the decades-long meddling (polite word) in Nicaragua, on both sides of Hispaniola....
Let's hope they do boycott the opening. It will leave that many seats available for fans who don't have that particular personality disorder.
Who really wants to sit next to a neo-Nazi anyway?
The greater question is how much damage the Trump Gang causes along the way - here at home AND across the Muslim world.
Trump as Big Brother?
Trump as Juan Peron?
Trump as Mussolini?
Trump as Idi Amin?
The Donald hasn't the attention span to be an honest to goodness dictator. His comic-opera personality flaws emerge too quickly. Really he is no more than the arriviste in chief. Tell me if I'm on to something:
Donald J Trump as Rufus T Firefly!
Hail Hail Fredonia....
And all this time I thought he was only saying those things out of political expediency....
Çok yaşa FATİH Sultan Recep Tayyip!
If it comes to pass, Erdoğan - Putin is a marriage possible only between two cynical, power-mad egotists. One can only imagine the sweet nothings Vladimir whispers in Sultan Recep Tayyip's ear.
Will a Russian battlecruiser be dispatched (how does one spell "Goeben" in Cyrillic)?
Yes to all of the above, but Gitlin ignores the (I hate this cliché) elephant in the room. The Democratic Party nominated an unlikable candidate. Let's never forget the millions of voters who made their choice in 2000 because they would rather have a beer with George W Bush than Al Gore. Hillary admitted she isn't the natural politician that Bill is. And just when high turnout was necessary to win, wasn't her inability to generate enthusiasm critical? Trump, the pied piper, convinced millions of people with whom he would never associate except to pick their pockets that he was their friend, that they could sit down and enjoy a brewski with the Donald.
Then there is the three-headed monstrosity Chuck Schumer, Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (they bring shame to American Jews) who conspired to select the maximum number of doomed down-ballot candidates while failing to back the ones with a real shot to win. Seriously, don't you think that Alan Grayson would have brought out voters in a way that Republican in sheep's clothing Murphy did not and could not? What about their pitiful lack of support for Russ Feingold? Similar situation with Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania. Kiss 3 critical states goodbye.
Not hardly the end of the story but enough for now, as Juan so clearly laid out a while ago the Democratic Party no longer stands for anything, least of all advocating for the broad interests of the 99%. Harry Truman said it best: "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time."
Now that the second-most-unlikely event has occurred, let's wait and see whether the most unlikely follows:
Will Democratic/Clinton establishment, the ones who ran the party to last night's epic failure, wake up to a "The fault, dear Brutus...." realization?
ÇOK YAŞA Sultan Recep Tayyip!
Isn't that what he really wants?
Absolutely correct. What intellectuals can do is to provide a unifying path for many of the disparate, centrifugal social forces now observed. There may be no common ground between Black Lives Matter and white people whose primary motivation is racial, but there certainly is between BLM, displaced industrial workers, maltreated service workers, Muslims, et al. Articulate intellectuals may be able to merge the many "my fight" into a larger "our fight."
Intellectuals in the mold of Eric Hoffer, Studs Terkel (yes, I think of him as one) would do us a world of good.
I can take "detached from reality" just so long as you don't say "utopian." ;-(
"Civil disobedience seems increasingly called for with regard to hydrocarbons."
It will have to be massive, sufficiently so that it can peacefully overwhelm police in riot gear, dogs, mace, tasers, armored vehicles, etc. Events in North Dakota demonstrate that police commitment to serve and protect is in service to and protective of property, not people. That will never change except in the face of sheer numbers. In a nation that sits glued to Kardashians and Duck Dynasty and having no intellectual leadership (Le Trahison des Clercs), such a mass movement is unimaginable.
Juan, as an admitted former communist I invoke that odious condemnation and accuse you of being utopian. I do, however, absolutely agree that the republic will not survive a Trump presidency.
Thomas Friedman, during the height of Bernard Lewis inspired orientalism, wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree. If I remember correctly the olive tree is a symbol of a past time which holds its harvesters back from their modern destiny as, for example, builders of Lexus cars.
Not only are the settlers destroying an irreplaceable millennia-old tradition, if they were to erect a vehicle assembly plant, you can bet your last penny that the hiring sign would say: "No Palestinians Need Apply."
"...individuals pursuing their own idiosyncratic agendas rather than as a group. Think Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers...."
And think Peter Thiel who is willing to bankroll not only his financial/political interests but also his personal grudges. A speaker at Trump's convention, he's the perfect partner to the "short fingered vulgarian."
And all this wonderful writing without mention of Cicero. The silver-tongued devil who was the bane of Latin III students 50 years ago, he erased the line separating the interests of the optimates, especially landlords and grain merchants, and the interests of the Republic. One could argue that Cicero's rhetoric emboldened his faction, making Caesar not only possible but perhaps inevitable.
I fear the evolution of the Democratic Party from its pre-Democratic Leadership Council more proletarian orientation has paved the way for the rise of the Trump-demagogue. His large numbers of alienated heavily armed followers, unified by their sense of betrayal by the elites and devotion to their misunderstanding of the Second Amendment, are nothing short of frightening. All they lack is a real leader (not an empty-suit self promoter) capable of organizing them.
Has all Turkish foreign / domestic policy become the national extension of Erdoğan's obsessive pursuit of his twin "white whales": Kurdish nationalism and Fethulla Gulen?
And look at those chairs!
Çok yaşa Sultan Recep Tayyip.
Language will change “because there are so many foreigners who struggle to pronounce” certain sounds, such “th” as in thin or this.
What? I can't count the number of dyed-in-the-wool English people I've heard talk about "vis or vat" or who have an "Aunt Miwdred." "Wha'evah!" Pot, meet kettle.
"The Saudis have already said that they will take their investments elsewhere if JASTA passed."
And if the Saudis have half a brain, which they clearly do, they will put their money in a place unreachable by the long arm of American law. Is this the move that will finally make China the world's preeminent financial superpower?
-It's just pinin' away for the fjords.
--Beautiful plumage, the Norwegian Blue.
I apologize if I didn't quote precisely.
I can't imagine any president pardoning Mr. Snowden. Where is the political advantage? On the other hand, Marc Rich....
Snowden remains in exile (I believe for the rest of his life) while those who erased the Fourth Amendment, and the war-criminals responsible for our wars of aggression walk free among us.
Thirteen years after the fact, those who have greatly enriched themselves by Bush's war continue to reap further benefits thanks to Bush's tax cuts. Malefactors of great wealth!
Would that clear thinking get in the way of Trumpism! Thank you, Juan, for the clear thinking. Let's hope it can sway a few people to abandon the hate-narrative.
The only change I perceive is in her rhetoric. I can't imagine her in any substantive way biting the hands that have fed her and Bill for all these years. Great corruption comes from rubbing shoulders with those folks, taking their money, and not seeing a problem.
How much longer until Kemal's vision and the republic he created from it are only a memory? Ave atque vale!
While Daesh proclaims its phony caliphate and is slowly driven back from its gains, Tayyip Erdogan quietly creates a more serious looking caliphate on Europe's doorstep.
Add to the list Christie's saying he would allow US law enforcement agencies to operate inside Mexico without approval of the Mexican government. Maybe he can exhume General Pershing to show him how to organize it.
Missing entry in the glossary
Loser: n. 1. anybody who opposes Trump (see Stupid); 2. anybody who has been schlonged by Trump; 3. ultimately, anybody who is not Donald Trump.
Don't feel bad. Even Samuel Johnson missed some.
Should Hillary prevail in the Democratic primaries, as now seems likely, I will once again be forced to hold my nose and vote for the Democrat for the sole reason that he/she isn't the other guy.
Seriously? That has to be the last straw. And how should the president respond? Since the ICC will most probably investigate some very high ranking Israelis for war crimes committed in Gaza, order the State Department to declare Bibi persona non grata and deny him entry to the US.
Israel appears to be the only country whose "manifest destiny" the US applauds. Everywhere else, e.g. Russia's reclaiming Crimea, it's conquest or expropriation and to be condemned.
"For the US, few dilemmas are more foreboding than a military conflict between its two most important Middle East allies." What I find most worrisome is that the United States government can't afford to do much of anything vis-a-vis either of these "allies" that would offend the petromonarchy in Saudi Arabia.
Nauseating! If Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the NRA leadership found themselves across the ocean, they would doubtless advocate for more gun ownership.
As long as there are "holy cities" and "holy sites" human beings will murder one another over their competing claims. No enlightenment since men worshiped standing stones only more efficient ways to kill.
I have not believed in god for over 50 years, but I think I've just heard her voice.