"It is often said that the fact that Trump was not seen to have won in 2020 was a blessing in disguise."

"Why? Because had he been allowed to take office in January 2021, he would have still been surrounded by swamp creatures. His great liability when he first took office was that he did not understand how Washington worked. ... how deeply embedded... the self-serving, globalist, neo-con mentality really was. It took his rustication in 2020 and the unhinged, unremitting tsunami of lawfare that washed over him for four years to school him in the ways of official Washington.... Impeachments, indictments, subpoenas, trials, convictions, and fines.... When none of that worked and he was on course to seal the GOP nomination, they tried to kill him—literally.... He learned how the octopus moved. He got to know what made the swamp habitable. He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons.... My main question at this point is when a large-scale Gestalt shift will take place.... I predict he will end his days as one of the most celebrated presidents in American history."

Writes Roger Kimball, in "Trump in Riyadh: A Rejection of the Globalist Gospel/Trump’s Riyadh speech rejected nation-building and globalist dogma, marking him as a bold champion of sovereignty over interventionism."

"Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past..."

"... and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together — not bombing each other out of existence. (Watch) This great transformation has not come from Western interventionists… giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neo-cons,’ or ‘liberal non-profits,’ like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves … developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies. (Watch) In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. (Watch)..."

From President Trump's speech in Riyadh.

Here's how the NYT covered the tremendously important speech: "Trump’s Pledge to the Middle East: No More ‘Lectures on How to Live’/In Saudi Arabia, the president denounced Western intervention and nation-building, garnering both praise and eye rolls." (Yes, the speech garnered.) Excerpt:

"In Haley’s eyes, everyone else was a squish...."

"What advice, she was asked, would she give Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in his war with Hamas? She said that she had already offered it to him: 'Finish them. Finish them.' This wasn’t exactly a surgical performance. Haley is a bludgeon. She is a practiced enough politician that she will often begin with some statement of empathy—'as the wife of a combat veteran'; 'as a mom'—but she is often quickly on the attack. ... Haley’s martial posture was so constant and omnidirectional that it somewhat masked the fact that she is fighting for things (a straightforwardly neoconservative approach overseas, gestures toward entitlement cuts) that Republicans in the Trump era were supposed to have set aside.... Politically, Haley is a loner—that has always been one of her limitations.... She doesn’t really belong to the Christian right or the libertarian extreme, but she isn’t a moderate, either. When I’ve seen her on the trail, she has tended to leave audiences cold—who, they seem to wonder, is this all for?..."

Writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells, in "Nikki Haley Takes On the Scum at the Third Republican Debate/Donald Trump has dominated the primary season, but his former U.N. Ambassador is the best debater in the field—and she would probably be the G.O.P.’s most effective candidate against Joe Biden" (The New Yorker).

"The more time Vivek spends around the GOP establishment, the more contempt he harbors for them, and rightfully so."

The more time Vivek spends around the GOP establishment, the more contempt he harbors for them, and rightfully so.

The neocon GOP of 2002 never went away. They just pretended to under Trump. You see that now as they're partying as if it's Sept 12, 2001:https://t.co/zCSgizB63R

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 9, 2023

Ha ha... "two of them." One is Haley. The other is DeSantis in his elevator boots. I thought it was a cheap joke when I heard it last night and started yelling. It's only this morning that I noticed the "two of them" swipe at DeSantis. That's absurd and subtle enough to lift the joke to a new plane and get my respect. 

"Early in his career, he was a co-author of two seminal works on American society, 'The Lonely Crowd'... in 1950 and 'Beyond the Melting Pot'... in 1963."

"Later volumes included 'We Are All Multiculturalists Now' in 1997 and 'From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City' in 2007.... A child of Jewish immigrants from Warsaw, Nathan Glazer was born on Feb. 25, 1923, in New York City and spent his early years in East Harlem. His father, Louis, was a garment worker, and his mother, Tilly, was a homemaker. Nathan was the youngest of seven children, and when he was 10, the family, which was crammed into a four-room apartment, moved to the wider spaces of the East Bronx. Mr. Glazer’s interest in urban affairs stemmed directly from personal experience, and his upbringing had an impact on his later ideas. His East Harlem tenement block, dominated by the iron structures of elevated trains, had no trees or green strips. It was, Mr. Glazer once said, a 'bad place to live.' Only a few blocks away was Central Park, where a boy could lose himself in the meadows and woodlands, enjoying a respite from the city’s noise and grime. For Mr. Glazer, the park was a 'wonder' of childhood, and in years to come, when some urban planners challenged Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision of a pastoral retreat within a crowded city, he spoke out in Olmsted’s defense.... Mr. Glazer’s turn to neoconservatism followed an almost paradigmatic path. Throughout the 1950s, and even after he went to work for the Kennedy administration’s Housing and Home Finance Agency in 1962-63, he continued to consider himself a radical. But if, as his longtime friend Irving Kristol put it, a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality, then Mr. Glazer got hit over the head...."

From "Nathan Glazer, Urban Sociologist and Outspoken Intellectual, Dies at 95" (NYT).

"Jeb, or '45,' as he is already being called, hasn’t even announced, and we’re already trapped in the byzantine psyche of Bushworld."

Writes Maureen Dowd.

[H]e’s being yanked in a tug of war between his father’s side, which insists privately that Jeb is a realist who surely must have disapproved of the Iraq invasion, and his brother’s side, which publicly demands that Jeb go full-hawk, becoming the third Bush to use the military in Iraq....
Though Jeb is more apt to do his homework, he’s unformed on foreign policy, like his brother — except that his brother was elected before 9/11. Now the neocons who treated W. like a host body for their own agenda are swirling around Jeb, ready to inhabit another President Bush....

Cowgirls emailing cowgirls.

Neo-Neocon — a propos of my post showing me in cowgirl dress at age 4 — emails to show me her picture of herself at approximately age 4, dressed as a cowgirl:



She was inspired by Jane Russell (in "Son of Paleface"). I was inspired by... can you tell?... one of my readers could...



... Sally Starr.

"In Egypt, governments come and go. The only thing certain is that American taxpayers will continue to be stuck with the $1.5 billion bill."

"In Egypt, democratic authoritarianism is replaced with military junta. American neocons say send them more of your money."

Said Rand Paul.

"The neocons are paranoid. The neocons are paranoid because Rand Paul comes from his father's gene pool."

"This isolationist wing is worried about maybe there's something more going on here than simply opposing drone strikes. There's all kinds of ramifications. Well, they might think he's a kook, but they're worried that he's a kook that nobody thinks is a kook, and so they'll follow him. He's a stealth kook."

"Jon [Stewart] has always been a crypto-neocon."

"Could he be coming out of the closet? ... A neoconservative is a liberal mugged by reality."

Bill Kristol comments to Howard Kurtz who's trying to figure out what it means that Jon Stewart is making fun of Barack Obama.

I'd say it mainly means that Barack Obama is President of the United States. "The Daily Show" isn't going to work unless it makes fun of the powerful.

Scouring the text of Obama's victory speech:

Mickey Kaus says:

I was struck by two lists of virtues used by Obama in his acceptance speech--or rather by two omissions on those lists. [Emphasis added]

1.

To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you.

"Peace and security." Not "democracy" or "freedom." This is someone who doesn't want to seem in any way a neocon idealist.

2.

And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

No mention of "equality"--not even social equality. Nor "equality before the law." This is someone who doesn't want to seem in any way a leftish "redistributor."

Here's the whole text of the speech. I'm interested to read it, after listening last night and picking out the phrases that struck me, live-blog style. The written text always has secrets to deliver up, as Mickey's post reminds me. I'm noticing the elegant structure of the speech:

... tonight is your answer.

It's the answer...

It's the answer...

It's the answer...

It's been a long time coming... change has come to America.

It's the answer...

It's been a long time coming...

[Call from McCain.]

[Tribute to Biden.]

[Love to the family.]

[Acknowledgment of the Davids, Plouffe and Axelrod.]

[Thanks to everybody.] This is your victory....

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep....

There will be setbacks and false starts....

[Let's work together.]

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long....

[Shared destiny with the whole world.]

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change....

[Focus on one person: Ann Nixon Cooper, "born just a generation past slavery." Here begins a list of things Cooper has lived through, which is also an account of the last 100 years, punctuated with the familiar refrain.]

... Yes we can.

... Yes we can.

... Yes we can.

... Yes we can.

... Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do....

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time...

Yes We Can....

I love the form. The substance is very fine too. Uplifting and inclusive.