Just stumbled on this from Moon which echoes old Hillary’s “what difference now does it make?” but backed up by some very plausible reasoning as regards the two wars and their outcomes vs Trump’s cabinet picks. Very worth a read - grounds even for optimism?!
Been thinking about my own reaction to the chaos emanating from the Trump transition. While I stand by my perception of that reality and my increasingly low expectations for the new Trump administration, I admit that I may be missing the forest for the trees. Mark and others here have repeatedly said that politics will not fix America and the West generally. What’s required is a cultural / spiritual revolution. I think this is a helpful admonition as I am tempted to “doom loop” over Trump’s terrible nominations. Indeed, I have joined the chorus claiming “he’s got two years, maybe four, to pull this off, otherwise it’s game over.”
Maybe not. I think something fundamental has shifted with this election. The zeitgeist seems suddenly to be moving in a new direction. If so, there’s good reason to think that our long-run prospects look bright regardless of setbacks of the moment like Trump’s missed opportunities, own-goals, and even betrayals. This thing feels bigger than Trump or his tenure in office. It has to be. Otherwise it’s just much ado about nothing.
Here are a couple of videos that got me thinking about this. I don’t necessarily agree with everything said or the specific angle of approach, but they did broaden the context in which I was viewing recent developments. Maybe you will find them helpful as well. Both are from philosopher Michael Millerman. The first one highlights Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin’s reaction to Trump’s election. The second has Millerman’s personal take on the election’s significance.
“I’m Witnessing America’s Bro-Revolution and It’s Shocking”
I certainly hope that Trump's election is concomitant with or indicative of a cultural "sea change." I think it might not be quite that dramatic in that (as other commenters have pointed out), a true cultural change will require more than just Trump's election and will be an ongoing process.
I think the immediate change in the Zeitgeist is that "normies" now have official sanction to speak and act on their beliefs without being threatened, called extremists, or prosecuted as such by their government. That is a great and absolutely needed first step in the larger cultural change!
Part of this also is the oft-written about "pendulum swing" back towards the right from the craziness of the left. Someone I saw also compared it to the Thermidorian Reaction, which I thought was a good comparison.
Oh yes. Why would anyone believe this democrat/rino "fake news mem/ trope" and who cares. The sexual depravity issue train has left the station long ago. Ignore it. It is most likely exaggerated if true at all, but That Geni ain't goin back in the bottle. So think Mick Jagger.
Too true. However, the issue in my mind at least is not ultimately about moral fitness. It’s about vulnerability. The Deep State is playing for keeps. It should go without saying that such obvious zipper problems, as Mark put it, makes an easy mark for manipulation and blackmail.
You are probably right, but,,,,,,that means a couple of other appointments are at equal risk. Is the Trump team trolling with the intent of withdrawing those nominations as well?
I'm still taking a wait and see attitude. Let's see how the Republican-led House and Senate play ball with Trump.
There are way too many in the mold of Thune, Cornyn, Ernst, etc.
My opinion is that if the country doesn't capitalize on the opportunity presented by this election, we will have change forced on us by the reality of our debt, the costs of our empire and our ruinous interference in the affairs of other nations.
I pray for this nation and hope others do, as well. There are some positive signs, but no guarantees.
The fact that men came out and voted is encouraging. Some conservative Christian denominations are seeing more men in the pews.
We need good blue collar jobs. We need stable marriages and we need more babies. All the fear-mongering about overpopulation has led to many countries with an aging population.
“The fact that men came out and voted is encouraging. Some conservative Christian denominations are seeing more men in the pews.”
Exactly right. We’re not going to turn this ship around on a dime. We just won a major battle, maybe the first decisive battle. But there will be a lot of work (and fighting) to do beyond Trump’s tenure.
Thank you for the high praise. Coming from you, it means a lot.
Like everyone else, I am only human, subject to my sinful nature. The current state of our culture weighs heavily on me. Thank God that I have Him in my life. It makes all the difference.
These behemoths run on enertia and are management proofed by the "deep state". Their complexity comes from the size. Defund them, break them, live with them and let Putin solve the problem with a major financial or military reset and then work from scratch. Any idiot can run DoD. Budget, Operational, all requirements are built starting at unit level and approved by the Commander. It used to be on Lotus spread sheets, now input into a computer database. It ain't rocket science. All Pentagon and lower levels begin with the previous years position. They don't zero base and it certainly requires no advance degrees.The next level rolls all the subordinate unit data together, then adds, modifies or deletes a line(s) item and approves then passes to the next level. These requirements end up in what used to be called, "The Army Green Book" or Navy/AF equivalent, that ties budget data to operation description (thus being classified) , or the "CINC's Integrated Priority List" (also classified because of technical description and operational requirement analysis) and passed through secretarial level to Congress. The only difference being that the Pentagon Analysts get paid GS15 salaries for consolidating the work of GS 7s at unit level. They must also be prepared to answer phone calls from congressional staffers, who know "next to nothing about the items listed" but more than the legislators. Also, consolidation from millions of 'line items' to a few thousand, blinding the congress from seeing where the real waste is. "management proofed". I seriously doubt that any Commander below Division spends any time with these management concerns; TDA organizations are work load and budget driven so they would have more working knowledge; all Senior leaders (think Generals) have one or more civilian deputies to to watch the details and keep the "big kahuna" in the picture, meaning that the deputies are the real knowledge and power in this matrix. The current crop of Generals don't have any combat experience (why else are they in charge) and they never managed the underlying support management structure. Politics has broken the system. Bring the troops home. close the border; noone in the world will touch us. We don't need the navy (we even call it "force projection", ie. intimidation, and the current air forces and army forces are more than enough to defend this country.
The ability of any individual to run these huge bureaucracies is suspect. While Trump's nominees may share his views, their success at reforming the departments will depend on factors outside of their control. I am of the belief that reform will be possible only when the budgets are cut and out of necessity the fat is removed. Of course, the muscle may be removed and the fat remain. Nonetheless, the US is out of money, our debt is expanding at an exponential rate, and the day of reckoning is now. Trump and the Congress will have to deal with the fiscal realities. If they continue to emit credit at 7% or more of GDP, we can count on high inflation. The department of war will have to be cut. What better excuse to ax all the 3 and 4 star generals? The DEI programs? The useless studies. The expensive weapons' programs. The deployments. The provocations. The overseas bases. I could go on.
The US empire will crumble regardless of who is put in charge because there is no money left. The empire won't go quietly though.
semper fidelis nisi uxori (always faithful, except to my wife)
You are right Mark; if this is not a deal-killer, you have to wonder wtf. So Trump enjoys him on Fox Weekends? That isn't enough to give him a cabinet position.
How much experience do you have in the armed forces? How many books did you write? Did you go to Harvard and Princeton? No, you were probably drinking at AOC's bar.
Things were bad/strange enough. But now we’re hearing Mike Rogers is being considered for head of the FBI. Okay. I give up trying to understand these nominations, much less hoping for a constructive outcome. Trump II is shaping up to feature the same undisciplined, chaotic mess we got with Trump I.
Wow! That would be a relief! Kash has prosecutive and investigative creds and was in some management positions, if only briefly.
When Rand Paul was responding to the rumors I thought, this might be true. What a complete disaster that woulda been.
I'm not seeing anything official, though--competing camps trying to influence? FBI isn't a cabinet post--Wray still has like 3 years left on a ten year term. But he knows Trump will fire his ass.
My guess is that there are going to be several rethinks on some of these pics. As well as there should be. Trump rushed into these pics and he should’ve known better. he reminds me of what they used to say about Franklin Delano Roosevelt ,the last person to talk to Roosevelt about something was the thing that Roosevelt would go with rather than all the other advice he got before hand.
LOL. I happened to glance at the comments on Sundance’s post about the Hegseth nomination, which, not incidentally, he claimed was “understandable.” Anyway, some of the commenters were crowing about Pete being a “family man.” Insert clip of slaps to the forehead.
Oh Pete is a family man is he? Well here he is in less than 15 years on his third wife with seven children or something like that. At 44 years old, I predict many more wives in the future. Lord, I’d hate to have his alimony payments.
Bobby is the prince of NGO dark money (Steve Kirsch is the king), is a Communist pig just like his mother, wants to test vaccines on other people's kids for big pharma and will push for Federal DigitalID (Kirsch is founder of DigitalID)- an absolute hero!!
Hi! And welcome fellow wingnut. Don't get too tinfoil-heavy in this forum, the big guy has low tolerance for that kind of thing. Maybe cite some sources at least?
FWIW I don't really trust Bobby either, nor Musk, nor any of these clowns. But he's on record making some pretty sensible proposals and I'm interested in seeing how these get followed up.
Truth is trolling? Well then, I'm happy to be a troll, and I live in a big, beautiful brick home, not under a bridge but thank you for your racist/misogynist comment!
Unfortunately, General Macgregor joined never Trumper Bret Weinstein on his new (same as old) "resistance movement" - an event recently held in DC. He should've remained neutral and not joined the grifter Weinstein, who threatened Trump, urging him to appoint Kennedy as his VP (assassination insurance). He lost street cred by joining the grifter.
LJ has an interesting post about Trump's appointments.
https://sonar21.com/has-trump-derailed-a-deep-state-plot-to-attack-iran/
Check out the new post here.
Just stumbled on this from Moon which echoes old Hillary’s “what difference now does it make?” but backed up by some very plausible reasoning as regards the two wars and their outcomes vs Trump’s cabinet picks. Very worth a read - grounds even for optimism?!
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/11/english-outsider-on-trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities-and-how-little-it-matters.html#more
Seems pretty sound. Thanks.
VOLUNTEER WANTED
ASSIGNMENT: Audit the military wing of the world's largest mafia (MIC, Banking, Congress, Lobbyists, etc.)
Hegseth, and many of his first round selected, is walking point with the intent of drawing fire.
#godspeed
Been thinking about my own reaction to the chaos emanating from the Trump transition. While I stand by my perception of that reality and my increasingly low expectations for the new Trump administration, I admit that I may be missing the forest for the trees. Mark and others here have repeatedly said that politics will not fix America and the West generally. What’s required is a cultural / spiritual revolution. I think this is a helpful admonition as I am tempted to “doom loop” over Trump’s terrible nominations. Indeed, I have joined the chorus claiming “he’s got two years, maybe four, to pull this off, otherwise it’s game over.”
Maybe not. I think something fundamental has shifted with this election. The zeitgeist seems suddenly to be moving in a new direction. If so, there’s good reason to think that our long-run prospects look bright regardless of setbacks of the moment like Trump’s missed opportunities, own-goals, and even betrayals. This thing feels bigger than Trump or his tenure in office. It has to be. Otherwise it’s just much ado about nothing.
Here are a couple of videos that got me thinking about this. I don’t necessarily agree with everything said or the specific angle of approach, but they did broaden the context in which I was viewing recent developments. Maybe you will find them helpful as well. Both are from philosopher Michael Millerman. The first one highlights Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin’s reaction to Trump’s election. The second has Millerman’s personal take on the election’s significance.
“I’m Witnessing America’s Bro-Revolution and It’s Shocking”
https://youtu.be/6fEXntLcN3A?si=dcQ5avZoxD-thOhv
“Trump, Musk, and the New Right: An Epochal Shift?”
https://youtu.be/Y-8RTtjPJPo?si=HJ2lkPdMkLNgqGmL
I certainly hope that Trump's election is concomitant with or indicative of a cultural "sea change." I think it might not be quite that dramatic in that (as other commenters have pointed out), a true cultural change will require more than just Trump's election and will be an ongoing process.
I think the immediate change in the Zeitgeist is that "normies" now have official sanction to speak and act on their beliefs without being threatened, called extremists, or prosecuted as such by their government. That is a great and absolutely needed first step in the larger cultural change!
Part of this also is the oft-written about "pendulum swing" back towards the right from the craziness of the left. Someone I saw also compared it to the Thermidorian Reaction, which I thought was a good comparison.
Yeah, I would say his election is less cause than result of the sea change.
People are tired of the craziness of the Left. We want to be left alone to live our lives in peace.
Oh yes. Why would anyone believe this democrat/rino "fake news mem/ trope" and who cares. The sexual depravity issue train has left the station long ago. Ignore it. It is most likely exaggerated if true at all, but That Geni ain't goin back in the bottle. So think Mick Jagger.
Too true. However, the issue in my mind at least is not ultimately about moral fitness. It’s about vulnerability. The Deep State is playing for keeps. It should go without saying that such obvious zipper problems, as Mark put it, makes an easy mark for manipulation and blackmail.
You are probably right, but,,,,,,that means a couple of other appointments are at equal risk. Is the Trump team trolling with the intent of withdrawing those nominations as well?
I'm still taking a wait and see attitude. Let's see how the Republican-led House and Senate play ball with Trump.
There are way too many in the mold of Thune, Cornyn, Ernst, etc.
My opinion is that if the country doesn't capitalize on the opportunity presented by this election, we will have change forced on us by the reality of our debt, the costs of our empire and our ruinous interference in the affairs of other nations.
I pray for this nation and hope others do, as well. There are some positive signs, but no guarantees.
The fact that men came out and voted is encouraging. Some conservative Christian denominations are seeing more men in the pews.
We need good blue collar jobs. We need stable marriages and we need more babies. All the fear-mongering about overpopulation has led to many countries with an aging population.
Keep the faith and keep praying!
“The fact that men came out and voted is encouraging. Some conservative Christian denominations are seeing more men in the pews.”
Exactly right. We’re not going to turn this ship around on a dime. We just won a major battle, maybe the first decisive battle. But there will be a lot of work (and fighting) to do beyond Trump’s tenure.
Amen.
Thanks for the note of common sense sanity. Putting one's faith in one man and his appointees is a delusion. Trust but verify!
Psalm 146:3
Exactly.
Thank you for the high praise. Coming from you, it means a lot.
Like everyone else, I am only human, subject to my sinful nature. The current state of our culture weighs heavily on me. Thank God that I have Him in my life. It makes all the difference.
These behemoths run on enertia and are management proofed by the "deep state". Their complexity comes from the size. Defund them, break them, live with them and let Putin solve the problem with a major financial or military reset and then work from scratch. Any idiot can run DoD. Budget, Operational, all requirements are built starting at unit level and approved by the Commander. It used to be on Lotus spread sheets, now input into a computer database. It ain't rocket science. All Pentagon and lower levels begin with the previous years position. They don't zero base and it certainly requires no advance degrees.The next level rolls all the subordinate unit data together, then adds, modifies or deletes a line(s) item and approves then passes to the next level. These requirements end up in what used to be called, "The Army Green Book" or Navy/AF equivalent, that ties budget data to operation description (thus being classified) , or the "CINC's Integrated Priority List" (also classified because of technical description and operational requirement analysis) and passed through secretarial level to Congress. The only difference being that the Pentagon Analysts get paid GS15 salaries for consolidating the work of GS 7s at unit level. They must also be prepared to answer phone calls from congressional staffers, who know "next to nothing about the items listed" but more than the legislators. Also, consolidation from millions of 'line items' to a few thousand, blinding the congress from seeing where the real waste is. "management proofed". I seriously doubt that any Commander below Division spends any time with these management concerns; TDA organizations are work load and budget driven so they would have more working knowledge; all Senior leaders (think Generals) have one or more civilian deputies to to watch the details and keep the "big kahuna" in the picture, meaning that the deputies are the real knowledge and power in this matrix. The current crop of Generals don't have any combat experience (why else are they in charge) and they never managed the underlying support management structure. Politics has broken the system. Bring the troops home. close the border; noone in the world will touch us. We don't need the navy (we even call it "force projection", ie. intimidation, and the current air forces and army forces are more than enough to defend this country.
The ability of any individual to run these huge bureaucracies is suspect. While Trump's nominees may share his views, their success at reforming the departments will depend on factors outside of their control. I am of the belief that reform will be possible only when the budgets are cut and out of necessity the fat is removed. Of course, the muscle may be removed and the fat remain. Nonetheless, the US is out of money, our debt is expanding at an exponential rate, and the day of reckoning is now. Trump and the Congress will have to deal with the fiscal realities. If they continue to emit credit at 7% or more of GDP, we can count on high inflation. The department of war will have to be cut. What better excuse to ax all the 3 and 4 star generals? The DEI programs? The useless studies. The expensive weapons' programs. The deployments. The provocations. The overseas bases. I could go on.
The US empire will crumble regardless of who is put in charge because there is no money left. The empire won't go quietly though.
So, waiting for a catastrophe?
As they say in AA, sometimes you gotta hit rock bottom before recovering.
You have mentioned all Trump haters. We don't care what they think.
I am really tired of your bullshit.
It's negative doom loop
If you want to take a look into "realville" I'll welcome you.
As is it is now, you're Brick Walling.
Stop
Have a nice day.
semper fidelis nisi uxori (always faithful, except to my wife)
You are right Mark; if this is not a deal-killer, you have to wonder wtf. So Trump enjoys him on Fox Weekends? That isn't enough to give him a cabinet position.
How much experience do you have in the armed forces? How many books did you write? Did you go to Harvard and Princeton? No, you were probably drinking at AOC's bar.
RF
Things were bad/strange enough. But now we’re hearing Mike Rogers is being considered for head of the FBI. Okay. I give up trying to understand these nominations, much less hoping for a constructive outcome. Trump II is shaping up to feature the same undisciplined, chaotic mess we got with Trump I.
Kash Patel was nominated for head of FBI
Mark, apparently not. Someone else being interviewed.
Wow! That would be a relief! Kash has prosecutive and investigative creds and was in some management positions, if only briefly.
When Rand Paul was responding to the rumors I thought, this might be true. What a complete disaster that woulda been.
I'm not seeing anything official, though--competing camps trying to influence? FBI isn't a cabinet post--Wray still has like 3 years left on a ten year term. But he knows Trump will fire his ass.
My guess is that there are going to be several rethinks on some of these pics. As well as there should be. Trump rushed into these pics and he should’ve known better. he reminds me of what they used to say about Franklin Delano Roosevelt ,the last person to talk to Roosevelt about something was the thing that Roosevelt would go with rather than all the other advice he got before hand.
LOL. I happened to glance at the comments on Sundance’s post about the Hegseth nomination, which, not incidentally, he claimed was “understandable.” Anyway, some of the commenters were crowing about Pete being a “family man.” Insert clip of slaps to the forehead.
Oh Pete is a family man is he? Well here he is in less than 15 years on his third wife with seven children or something like that. At 44 years old, I predict many more wives in the future. Lord, I’d hate to have his alimony payments.
That's a lot of families, so I guess he really is a family man;)
Well, I hope Bobby Junior gets into HHS and stays a while. He at least is eminently qualified for the job.
Bobby is the prince of NGO dark money (Steve Kirsch is the king), is a Communist pig just like his mother, wants to test vaccines on other people's kids for big pharma and will push for Federal DigitalID (Kirsch is founder of DigitalID)- an absolute hero!!
Hi! And welcome fellow wingnut. Don't get too tinfoil-heavy in this forum, the big guy has low tolerance for that kind of thing. Maybe cite some sources at least?
FWIW I don't really trust Bobby either, nor Musk, nor any of these clowns. But he's on record making some pretty sensible proposals and I'm interested in seeing how these get followed up.
Go back under your bridge, troll.
Truth is trolling? Well then, I'm happy to be a troll, and I live in a big, beautiful brick home, not under a bridge but thank you for your racist/misogynist comment!
Unfortunately, General Macgregor joined never Trumper Bret Weinstein on his new (same as old) "resistance movement" - an event recently held in DC. He should've remained neutral and not joined the grifter Weinstein, who threatened Trump, urging him to appoint Kennedy as his VP (assassination insurance). He lost street cred by joining the grifter.