“People who follow the news often claim to be ‘surprised’ or even ‘shocked’ by current events. That’s almost never my reaction. Sure, I can’t predict the details of the latest happenings. But the broad outlines of the news are tiresomely familiar. Heinous domestic murders. War in the Middle East. Blatant violations of the plain English reading of the Constitution. Chaotic socialist tyrannies in Latin America. Pampered First Worlders blaming their horrible plight (?) on hapless refugees. Civil wars in Africa. And always, people screaming at each other. Yet over the years, current events have genuinely surprised or even shocked me a few times.” (09/08/25)
“When the Israeli political philosopher Yoram Hazony appeared on The Ezra Klein Show in August, he worked hard to distance himself and his National Conservatism Conferences from the din of racist and antisemitic voices on parts of the American right. … ‘Blood and soil is literally a Nazi term …. We are not interested in a nationalism of blood.’ Yet on the first day of this year’s National Conservatism Conference (‘NatCon 5’) in Washington, D.C., Hazony gave a speech that didn’t just fail to clarify which elements of the extreme right should not be counted as natcons in good standing; it seemed explicitly to carve out space within the movement for those with antisemitic views. ‘Nobody ever said that to be a good natcon you have to love Jews,’ Hazony, who is Jewish, said. ‘Go take a look at our statement of principles. It’s not a requirement.'” (09/08/25)
“Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, it’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who attracts the most vitriol, which is saying something. You could see just how much the Health and Human Services secretary is despised last week at a Senate committee hearing when Democrat after Democrat abused him with slurs like ‘charlatan’ and demanded he resign. There is an orchestrated campaign to force him out that includes the overplayed political ploy of ‘an open letter from nine former CDC leaders’ and another letter from 1,000 current and former HHS employees calling on him to step down. But why would he resign? He’s only just getting started on Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, which is popular with Americans of all stripes, especially Republicans, 73% of whom rated it favorably in the latest Insider Advantage poll.” (09/07/25)
“Foreign-policy realism today still adheres to a circumscribed definition of national interest with little regard for what it views as lesser (and dangerously messianic) moral concerns. It casts a jaundiced eye on a foreign policy influenced by the impulse to ‘remake the world in its own image.’ It bitterly regrets that so many Americans stubbornly regard their homeland not merely as a country but also a cause. … In more practical terms, the realist persuasion holds that America’s longstanding grand strategy has become at once profligate in the use of military force and self-defeating. To so-called realists today, not only does the United States have no vested interest in an extensive system of defence commitments and forward military deployments, but these accoutrements of its global posture also tempt imperial overstretch while eliciting adverse behaviour from allies and adversaries alike.” (09/08/25)
“While the validity of Pulte’s allegations will have to be determined by the courts, the real scandal is Pulte himself. He is supposed to be running the agency that oversees the processing of tens of millions of mortgages by two huge quasi-public agencies. We are not supposed to be paying him to rifle through mortgage documents to find and disclose dirt that Trump can use against his political opponents. … If Pulte helps Trump get his wish and a Trump-controlled Fed lowers interest rates, it would provide a big boost to the Pulte Group’s profits. That hope would give Pulte a strong motivation to try to hasten the day when Trump appointees dominate the Fed’s Open Market Committee that sets interest rates.” (09/08/25)
“In August 1981, US Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick traveled to Santiago to meet with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, eight years after he seized power in a military coup. Kirkpatrick cheeringly described their talk as ‘most pleasant’ and announced that the Reagan administration would fully normalize relations and resume arms sales — support that Pinochet quickly used to claim renewed legitimacy and crack down on opponents. The episode crystallized what became known as the Kirkpatrick Doctrine: the notion that the US government should embrace any autocrat who aligned with Washington’s anti-communist agenda while working to undermine, sanction, or topple any left-wing leader who refused to ‘play ball,’ even if they were democratically elected (and popular). Protecting American economic interests was the lodestar, and just about anything was permissible in service of that goal.” (09/08/25)
“It is particularly noteworthy that David Walsh’s The Growth of the Liberal Soul, originally published nearly thirty years ago and now released with a new introduction, anticipated virtually all the criticisms of the liberal tradition asserted by Alasdair MacIntyre, Patrick Deneen, and the many others who claim liberalism has failed. The difference is that Walsh, acknowledging the relevance of their critique, nevertheless reaffirms the virtues of the liberal tradition, showing that it has more grounding in the classical and Christian resources than is currently acknowledged. The liberal tradition produced achievements that are essential to preserve, even as it faces a crisis that must be recognized if the crisis is to be resolved.” (09/08/25)
“Multiple advocacy organizations representing military families, including the Sarah Stryder Initiative and the Chamberlain Network, have reported an influx of affected service members contacting them to express their disgust with Trump’s mission in the City of Angels. At least 105 members of this deployment have also sought counseling from behavioral health offices and at least one company commander and one battalion commander have been reassigned after expressing their objections to Trump’s orders. This is fertile soil for mutiny which anti-fascists would be wise to sow. History is rife with examples of disgruntled soldiers leading open revolts that ultimately led to the downfall of the very regimes they were tasked with fortifying.” (09/07/25)
