@Pluto's Republic

Thanks for pointing out that they were accessible. I read a fair number of them, and most of them showed that the readers had more common sense than "BC."

I just happened to notice this Elbridge Colby tweet going through Lyle Goldstein's X thread.

What happened to all the supposed lessons learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Able Archer, and the Cold War?

Weren’t we have supposed to have “learned” to be super careful when treading around nuclear thresholds?

This is super real. It’s not a morality fable.

— Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby) May 23, 2024

Colby is trying to paint himself as the reasonable voice in the room. I don't know why Lyle retweeted it. Lyle is certainly way more talented than BC or Pottinger as a military analyst. I think the opinion of BC as expressed in the tweet is quite misleading, when compared to his prior writing on this subject. In fact, he fancies himself as quite the nuclear game theorist, and can foresee situations where tactical first use of nuclear weapons might be required with China-

Nuclear Weapons Aren’t Just For the Worst Case Scenario

Indeed, rather than excluding the possibility of American nuclear first use, Washington should be emphasizing it. This does not mean the United States should ever use its nuclear weapons lightly. Rather, Beijing should simply understand that, even if it is able to gain conventional military advantages in the Western Pacific, Washington is prepared to seriously consider using nuclear weapons first to vindicate its own vital interests and those of its allies — for instance with respect to their territorial integrity. More than that, Beijing should understand clearly that if it pushes forward with its military buildup, it will spur the United States to rely even more on its nuclear forces to compensate — and, if that is not enough, the real possibility that U.S. allies will be impelled to pursue nuclear arsenals of their own.

#2

It's filled with hints of chronic brain damage, of course, but fascinating none the less. (Will these fossilized Neocons never die off?)

FT allowed me to read reader's comments on the opinion piece, which were interesting. They reminded me that readers pursuing investment tips can easily overlook a newspaper's hideous political ideology. Different views came out in the comments.

@on the cusp
.
.
is going about their conquest in an ancient fashion
by killing everyone in their way
somehow the rest of the world is not thrilled with
their tactics using US bombs to destroy a race

the sound of wanna-be empires being flushed down
the toilet of history ..

#4 to Israel, and their fall back of defending themselves because of The Holocaust, ain't flying no more.

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

Pretty good. My reaction was pretty much the same, when I first became aware of it being official US policy to torture people, kidnap people, indefinite detention, murder people, etc. The rationalizations for it were absurd and went against everything I learned on duty. So glad I got off active duty just as the first Iraq war was breaking out. The real trouble when the country simply abandoned any pretense of the law or human rights came with 911.

Remember the drama series 24, with Keifer Sutherland? Complete propaganda justifying torture. There was similar programs, and movies that were just anathema to any semblance of human dignity or respect for human rights, due process and so on. You really couldn't get away from it. I pretty much shut off all US media at that point. No movies, TV, even news programs, it just made me sick. I would read news to determine what was going on. Even that wasn't reliable and full of s..t, as Bremmer points out well particularly with respect to the NYT.

Piece of crap, DeSantis, allegedly a JAG officer at the time, did work at Gitmo putting the imprimatur of legality on a star chamber and torture zone there straight out of twilight zone. He's a disgrace.

#4

Long, but worth it.

https://www.ianwelsh.net/category/civil-liberties/torture/

And not just torture has been accepted by our rules based government.

Anyone can be next. Indeed, on Feb. 3 Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee that it was now “defined policy” that the U.S. government can murder its own citizens on the sole basis of someone in the government’s judgment that an American is a threat. No arrest, no trial, no conviction, just execution on suspicion of being a threat.

This shows how far the police state has advanced. A presidential appointee in the Obama administration tells an important committee of Congress that the executive branch has decided that it can murder American citizens abroad if it thinks they are a threat….

In no previous death of a U.S. citizen by the hands of the U.S. government has the government claimed the right to kill Americans without arrest, trial, and conviction of a capital crime.

Obama killed 2 Americans over seas without due process because he didn’t like what the father was saying and then killed the son because he should have had better parents. Yep he actually said that and since he got away with it Trump decided that he could kill Americans without due process too. During the BLM protests some guy killed another guy and Trump sent a special squad to kill the first guy. And they did. Jumped out of a car and shot him with no attempt to arrest him or warn him or even speak to him. Just BANG….you’re dead.

Anyone surprised that cops are brutally breaking up peaceful protests and beating the shit out of anyone they want? Including the 65 year old Jewish woman who was telling the cops to quit beating on her students.

And speaking of disgusting cops….

"I support genocide, I support killing all you guys."

City University of New York public safety officers attacked pro-Palestine students chanting for Palestine during a graduation at the College of Staten Island. pic.twitter.com/1KIBrWlEw3

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 23, 2024

You think anything is going to happen to this piece of shit?

@snoopydawg

I wouldn’t be surprised if every cop responding to the Palestine protests think just like him. People shouldn’t have to accept being beaten by the cops we pay for!

#4

Long, but worth it.

https://www.ianwelsh.net/category/civil-liberties/torture/

And not just torture has been accepted by our rules based government.

Anyone can be next. Indeed, on Feb. 3 Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee that it was now “defined policy” that the U.S. government can murder its own citizens on the sole basis of someone in the government’s judgment that an American is a threat. No arrest, no trial, no conviction, just execution on suspicion of being a threat.

This shows how far the police state has advanced. A presidential appointee in the Obama administration tells an important committee of Congress that the executive branch has decided that it can murder American citizens abroad if it thinks they are a threat….

In no previous death of a U.S. citizen by the hands of the U.S. government has the government claimed the right to kill Americans without arrest, trial, and conviction of a capital crime.

Obama killed 2 Americans over seas without due process because he didn’t like what the father was saying and then killed the son because he should have had better parents. Yep he actually said that and since he got away with it Trump decided that he could kill Americans without due process too. During the BLM protests some guy killed another guy and Trump sent a special squad to kill the first guy. And they did. Jumped out of a car and shot him with no attempt to arrest him or warn him or even speak to him. Just BANG….you’re dead.

Anyone surprised that cops are brutally breaking up peaceful protests and beating the shit out of anyone they want? Including the 65 year old Jewish woman who was telling the cops to quit beating on her students.

And speaking of disgusting cops….

"I support genocide, I support killing all you guys."

City University of New York public safety officers attacked pro-Palestine students chanting for Palestine during a graduation at the College of Staten Island. pic.twitter.com/1KIBrWlEw3

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 23, 2024

You think anything is going to happen to this piece of shit?

@on the cusp

They didn’t really say much except that some people said they were tortured in Israeli prisons. They got in that they saw some of the Hamas tunnels, but they didn’t see what was in them. And the tunnels we saw looked more like basement rooms with some fake evidence added.

Sam says thanks, but she has enough. I think she is pleased enough. But she so loves getting her treat out when I put one in the roll. Such a fun game. She took this week off from getting my socks. She’s still doing her stay in the bedroom at day. Unless she wants a treat and then she brings me a soggy toilet paper roll.

#4 worth the read. CNN is FINALLY doing actual reporting?
Never thought I would live long enough to see that happen.
Thanks, Snoopy,and let me know if my client wants me to ship her my cardboard toilet tissue roles for her pleasure.