Yesterday, Trump posted that he was ordering a reduction in our participation in a joint military exercise with South Korea – at the same time saying a few kind words about the dictator of North Korea. It seems to have passed without much a ripple in the MSM, but it has caused some consternation on the right. How could he? What is Trump thinking? South Korea is a close ally!
Yeah – a close ally which has refused to help us in our battle to secure the Straight of Hormuz, vital for South Korea’s energy needs. Trump did point that out in the post. This, my friends, is actual diplomacy. Everyone is a League of Nations man as long as someone else is the patsy.
Mark, just what the heck are you talking about? Glad you asked!
The concept of some sort of League of Nations showed up in the late 18th century – a sort of last gasp of the Enlightenment (so-called) which had asserted that private judgement would be great only to have it finish up in the September Massacres. What was needed, it was asserted, was a body of some sort where all the nations of the world could come together and compose their differences in a spirit honest give and take. Just about everyone agreed with the idea…but it didn’t get anywhere because while the theory was excellent, the pragmatic facts of life is that there had to be an enforcement mechanism. Someone who would be willing to underwrite the military defense of the agreement and the members of the League. For a long while, no takers – not even when the thing called a League of Nations was made in the aftermath of the First World War. It was only at the tail end of World War Two that the world found its sucker – more accurately, its Uncle Sucker.
There is absolutely nothing better than having a Protector who also isn’t a Ruler. In fact, this is the first time its ever happened – one nation, the most powerful on Earth, allowing itself to be financially bled white (and some times actually bled) so that everyone else can abdicate their responsibilities while still getting a say in how things are done. Don’t worry, guys, America will protect you! Vote against us in the UN! Trade with America’s enemies! Call American soldiers war criminals! It doesn’t matter – America will still be there for you! Paying for your defense. Heck, in some cases paying you for the privilege of defending you! You can massively expand your welfare state. Cut your defense to the point your military is a pathetic joke. Indulge in all sorts of crackpot social experiments which unman your own people so that a few foreign savages can take over…go ahead! Uncle Sucker will be there for you!
Until now. Trump has decided to end this farce – and it is way past time. An alliance must be a two way street. If I agree to send America’s sons and daughters to defend the 38th parallel, then Korea’s sons and daughters better be available at need. And it isn’t a big ask. We’re not asking Korea to send an army to occupy Tehran…but a bit of assist in securing the Straight. No, Korea, you don’t get to make back room deals with the Mullahs…trying to play both sides of the street. You picked a side. Ours. If you wish to switch sides, fine. We’re ok with that, too. But no more free ride. Trump is also doing in with our European “allies”. Put up or shut up.
And it will make for a far more rational world where US interests are advanced…as well the interests of those who are friends. After all, it might be a tough thing to swallow for South Korea. Their politicians get a lot of domestic political mileage out of denigrating the United States. But that isn’t in Korea’s interest. Korea really does face a hostile power to the north which is backed by the second most powerful nation in the world, China. Unless South Korea wants to become a conscript ally of China, they’d better decide to be America’s ally. That means helping us when we ask. Being on our side in global conflicts. A cessation of cheap shots at American honor. Be an ally. Or be an enemy. I don’t really care. But don’t be a two faced sack of…stuff.
So, too, all the rest of the nations of the world. Vietnam needs us as an ally against China. Poland needs us as an ally against Russia. Russia needs us as an ally against China. Israel needs us as an ally against the Islamists. Greece needs us as an ally against Turkey. There are lots of things the USA can do with other nations which are beneficial to both parties…but it can only be beneficial if it is honest and if both sides ante up their blood and treasure for the other. The world will be a safer and freer place if we insist upon real alliances – as Trump is doing.
Blogs For Victory 
There is absolutely nothing better than having a Protector who also isn’t a Ruler. In fact, this is the first time its ever happened – one nation, the most powerful on Earth, allowing itself to be financially bled white (and some times actually bled) so that everyone else can abdicate their responsibilities while still getting a say in how things are done.
I don’t think that can be stressed enough.
Foreign policy-wise, we’ve been living in the House that Wilson Built since 1919. Even though we rejected the League, the State Department apparatus has since 1919 geared itself towards a world where the USA must underwrite world peace. The purest essence of this was the Clinton and Obama foreign policies…a series of totally useless agreements (none of them ratified because they couldn’t be) which supposedly set the world to peace but which actually guaranteed war. All of it based upon a concept that you can just talk your way out of it – that someone who hates and wants to do wicked things will come to realize that its all a misunderstanding. Of course, it isn’t just State infected by this mindset…pretty much the whole Western world is, including the Vatican. I mean, sure: yes, we should try to talk…and, indeed, Trump is always willing to talk and to make a deal which is mutually beneficial to both sides. But what Trump has learned – while Vatican, et al has not – is that some people are just mean and nasty sons of bitches. Still might be able to make a deal with them! But it’ll take some violence to get them to the table (I’m thinking that Iran’s intransigence right now is probably based upon a hope that the Democrats will win in November…this is probably being back channel encouraged by Democrats because they perceive a dragged-out Iran conflict will harm GOPers at the ballot box).
Some times people really do ask for it – and if they do, the key is to make the response entirely disproportionate to the offense. Has to be – and I think it is morally right to do it that way. The force to be used is to be proportionate to need, right? Says so right there in the Catechism. This has been taken to mean that if they blow up a bomb on us, we can drop maybe three bombs on them…then it is time to talk with a promise that we’ll strike no more unless the other side does (which they will) and we’ll still hold back. That, to me, is the actually immoral choice – ensures no real peace agreement can be made and thus the conflict will go on costing untold lives and treasure. Better to just do a Trump on them – which we might as well call a LeMay on them (“if you bomb them enough, they’ll quit”). This isn’t bloodlust, nor anything cruel…it is seeking the fastest resolution to the conflict and the heading off of future wars. Think if we had really wrecked North Vietnam…I mean really done some Dresden-like actions on them. Totally wiped out every city in North Vietnam…turned them into rubble piles. You think they’d really have kept fighting? Linebacker II is considered a tornado of bombs and, to be sure, 20,000 tons of bombs is a lot…but no part of Vietnam looked like Hamburg, 1945 when it was over. Seems to me that we dropped a lot of ordnance on some very limited targets…which did probably get North Vietnam to agree to Kissinger’s deal…but that was a lousy deal which ensured South Vietnam’s collapse shortly after Congress cut off aid (which, in the event, is exactly what happened). Had we really launched a massive attack – first knocking out air defenses and then simply pulverizing Hanoi and Haiphong until the North agree to a complete withdrawal from the South, we would have got it.
Shrieks and screams from the Democrats, of course. Our allies would have tripped over themselves to condemn us. 1972’s version of the RINOs would have deplored it. But, once done, no fall of South Vietnam. No encouragement to all the Communist adventurism which followed in the wake of our defeat. A whole world now terrified of really pissing us off because we just showed that not only could we blow them all to heck with minimal US losses, but we had to the will to do it. The entire world in the past 50 years would be massively different.
But we had our allies to think of and we needed to treat North Vietnam as an equal partner and blah, blah, blah…piles of dead people.
I will never forget, or forgive, the way peopkle like myself were treated during Covid. And they all want us to forget what happened during that Twilight Zone period …. But don’t let them. They showed us who they were during that time, and they need to be held accountable. Those type of Americans are not our allies. Here’s a good article on the continued downfall of the Covid Theocrats.
Washington — A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from a scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under a deal reached with federal prosecutors in Maryland, David Morens, 78, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He faces up to five years in prison
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-morens-niaid-pleads-guilty-covid-records/
And speaking of allies, we don’t need many of them, nor should we. Just like personal friends … I have 4 or 5 really close friends and that’s allI want. I can rely on them and always know they have my back and that is how it should be. Any more would just serve to lessen the bond between our already close circle.
Mark … I always enjoy reading your take on events and the historical connections you make was wondering if there was anything you could do with the algorithm of the site to reach more commentators? It would be fun to read more comments. Just a thought.
It would be nice to see more people! I do put it up on X and such but not much traffic…
Do you have any sense that people stop by and read but don’t comment?
There are some lurkers! More when I cross post it on X.
It’s funny; I discovered the old Blogs for Bush back in early 2004 during the primaries. At the time I was reading about a half dozen different blogs, all of which I eventually abandoned. Then I started reading news and opinion sites like The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Town Hall, the Blaze, National Review, the Daily Signal, etc. I eventually gave up on all of those. The fact is, I just spend less time on the computer than I used to. During Covid I discovered Coffee & Covid substack, and I still read that and B4V every day, and occasionally Robert Malone’s substack. A mutual friend of mine and Amazona’s cued me onto a site called The Flyover, which is straight news, or at least as straight as you’re going to find today and arrives in my inbox every morning. The biggest difference is that when I gave up Dish Network about 3 years ago and started using streaming platforms, I stopped watching news programs altogether. Not getting that constant barrage of “news” heavily weighted with opinion as well as half truths and outright lies made a profound difference in my mental state.
Back to Cluster’s question; I kind of enjoy having our own little 4 or 5 person discussion forum. We mostly agree with each other, but not always, and we don’t call each other names, or impugn each other’s integrity, religion, morals, etc., and the more people involved in any discussion, the more likely you’re going to have someone who does those things. That said, we DID have some pretty good discussions back in the day.
I too have been here since 2004 and we had 10+ commentators at one time whose comments were all worth a read, some others were not lol. I agree, the blog vandals should not reside here, but I like to attract some moderate Dems if possible, who I have to believe are looking at their current party with sheer disgust. This is a great time to grow the movement.
True – but we also know that most Lefties just mindlessly repeat whatever they heard on MSNOW…they pretend they don’t. They claim they arrived at the conclusion all by themselves…but you know they’re just parroting because when challenged they simply have no fall back position. Nothing to bring to the debate beyond what they heard. Every now and again on X I’ll give it a shot – actually respond to some Commie making a comment. Never ends well. The most recent was arguing with me that the Nazis were vastly worse than the Communists. To avoid the obvious course of the argument, I started out by pointing out the Nazis were loathsome in every respect – he was straining to call me a Nazi but I never gave him that chance. After that, I just kept repeating that the Commies committed more murders than the Nazis – in the end, the man simply flat denied the Commie murders. He had to. It was that or cease being a Commie. His worldview was that Communism is good but has had some flaws in execution…I showed that any sort of Communism was going to lead to slavery and executions. He gave up; denied the crimes and went away. Perhaps some day those seeds will sprout – he did seem a young man.
On the plus side, he wasn’t just repeating MSNOW talking points.
I too have been here since 2004 and we had 10+ commentators at one time whose comments were all worth a read
The guy I miss is Count de Haricots (counter of beans), who in real life, if I recall correctly, was a bean counter at UC Riverside. He went back to the beginning as well, although his original screen name was, I believe, Bane of Liberals’ existence. He had a sharp wit and a dry sense of humor that added a unique element to the blog. I’m sure there were others, but he kind of stood out.
“I will never forget, or forgive, the way peopkle like myself were treated during Covid.”
It was a rare moment when the authoritarian Left said the quiet part out loud. “Unvaccinated should be (fill in the blank: ostracized, shot, put in camps, lose their job, face travel restrictions, be subject to daily testing, etc.)” If they ever get complete power we’ll see attempts at concentration camps, gulags, and re-education camps. I say attempts because there will likely be a little pushback.
If this current Democrat Party ever regains control, things could get messy.
And you know they eventually will. Republicans have always been skilled at shooting themselves in the foot, although I sense that the MAGA movement has made that less likely as attrition seems to be gradually eliminating the RINOs. I don’t think most Conservatives realized just how destructive establishment Republicans have been until they started dying off and voluntarily or involuntarily retiring. If the GOP can figure out how to make the majority of Americans happy and prosperous, and then get them to vote in sufficient numbers, it may be a cold day in hell before the Jackasses get back in power.
I had never heard of Marc Jacobs until this morning but he was reported in TMZ to have offered to dress Luigi Mangione for his trial…Jacobs being, I gather, a major American fashion designer.
We really need to start taking stern measures here. Marc should have his wealth confiscated, his citizenship stripped and be exiled to Zimbabwe. Not at all kidding. We need to start instructing the privileged that they are entirely dependent upon the non-privileged and if they offend us, things will go bad for them.
This is infuriating … the national debt has crossed the $40 trillion mark !!! Remember back in 2005, we are all raising concerns about being $5 trillion in debt. The irresponsibility of DC politicians is off the charts.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/the-treasury-markets-coveted-status-as-a-safe-haven-is-fading-c68fed93?st=uTxviG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Here’s the problem …. Our nations M2 money supply has increased nearly 10 fold in the last 20 years. In fact, 20% of our current national money supply was printed in 2020. 20%!!!!! And commodities have not kept pace, ie; housing. This is why everything is expensive. There are just too many dollars chasing too few commodities. We will need to build ourselves out of this mess. The good news is that Bessent said yesterday that the US will begin to retire some of the treasury bond debt which will help, but a lot more is needed.
I’ve been saying it a lot lately that our current political landscape is not R vs D, rather Parent vs Children. And I just saw this in the NYT LOL
The Parents Are MAGA. The Kids Are Liberal. Can YouTube Help?
https://archive.ph/C2ZQ2#selection-3965.0-3965.61