St. Patrick’s Day Forum

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FILED UNDER: Open Forum,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Sleeping Dog says:
  2. Scott says:

    Interesting political day for Texas. Trump keeps saying he will endorse either John Cornyn or Ken Paxton for Senator. However, today is show time!

    Trump up against deadline on Texas endorsement — if John Cornyn or Ken Paxton to drop out

    President Donald Trump is running out of time if he wants U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to drop out of the May 26 runoff for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat.

    After the Texas Republican Party finalized primary results Saturday, the candidates have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to file with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to get their name taken off the runoff ballot. After that, their name will appear even if they suspend their campaign.

    Although the polls are close (Paxton slight lead over Cornyn), I sense the far right Republicans are far more enthusiastic about Paxton and are more likely to vote in the runoff. My guess is that Cornyn is toast and Trump, if he does anything at all, will endorse Paxton for that reason alone.

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  3. Daryl says:

    This is hilarious!!!

    Brian Cole, the Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs at the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, is now arguing he is covered by President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon of Jan. 6 defendants.

    And furthermore…

    “Cole’s conduct is so inextricably and demonstrably tethered to the ‘events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021’ that he must be pardoned pursuant to the applicable Presidential Pardon of January 20, 2025,” they wrote

    Blanket pardon, indeed.

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  4. Charley in Cleveland says:

    George Conway hits the nail on the head:

    For the life of me I’ve never understood why the press and the political class find it so difficult to talk about @realDonaldTrump‘s severe and manifest personality disorders.

    These disorders may be impossible for any professional to treat, but they are easily understandable to any intelligent lay person who can read and follow along.

    Indeed, Donald Trump’s mental illnesses and the American press and political class’s appalling and shameless cowardice in failing to address them will be someday be a mandatory part of the curriculum for secondary-school and university students the world over.

    NYT and WaPo sanewash, Congressional Republicans “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” like trained seals, and offer post hoc justification for the stupid things Dear Leader says and does, and the clown car cabinet can’t get in front of a microphone without blaming Joe Biden for the ills of the world. Conway and Mary Trump have been openly talking about Trump’s narcissism and delusions, but they are shouting into the wind.

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  5. Kathy says:

    Iran War progression:

    We’ve won!1!

    We’re winning!!11!!

    SEND HELP!!!!!111111111111!!!!!!!1

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  6. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Charley in Cleveland:
    Current politically correct norms do not allow any commentary on possible mental illness. In kidlit you’re not allowed to use the word, ‘crazy.’ Because apparently crazy people might be offended.

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  7. Gregory Lawrence Brown says:

    Joe Kent has resigned from CIA. Can not support Trump’s war.
    CNN

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  8. Joe says:

    “Affordability,” the infrastructure week of the second Trump administration.

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  9. Kathy says:

    Yesterday I ran across the notion that taxes don’t fund the government….

    I’ve been finding some validation for this idea. I’d attempt to explain it, but I find it impossible to explain something I don’t understand. So, here’s a link.

    Dismal science indeed.

    Completely unrelated, a few days ago I dreamt someone told me “This language’s simplicity contains great complexity .”

    Sounds about right.

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  10. ptfe says:

    @Kathy: We’ve now moved to “You won’t help? We never WANTED your help ANYWAY! Also we won! So we don’t NEED your help!”

    Literally acting like a child at this point. He could learn a lot by retaking first grade, and he’s in charge of nuclear weapons.

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  11. Kathy says:

    According to The Guardian, Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the negotiations held between Dumb and Dumber (aka Jared and Witkoff) and Iran.

    Mr. Powell claims an agreement was close, and that Iran made a significant offer on its nuclear program.

    Also on the Guardian (sorry, no link to this portion of the live blog), Anthony Blinken says the following about Israel and Iran during his time in the Obama administration:

    And back during the Obama administration the Israelis were pushing President Obama to take military action against Iran and were warning that they would do it themselves if he didn’t and he wouldn’t because he thought the better way to get at the nuclear programme, which is what we were focused on, was through very muscular diplomacy backed up by very, very strong sanctions, which we rallied the world to put in place and then we got the Iran nuclear agreement.

    So what Bibi can’t stand is engagement with Iran that gives the latter relief from sanctions.

    In other words, Bibi can wag the dog, when the dog is a weak, scared, demented idiot, in way over what passes for his head.

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  12. Jen says:

    @Gregory Lawrence Brown: He resigned from the director’s position at the National Counterterrorism Center. It might not make much of a difference in the minds of most Americans, but it is a separate and distinct organization from the Central Intelligence Agency (at which he worked previously).

    Also, from the NYT:

    “Mr. Kent has long had a penchant for conspiracy theories, claiming without evidence that intelligence officials had a hand in the violence around the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”

    He’s a bit of a loon, but I suppose any port in this particular storm…!

    ETA: His wife had a distinguished and fascinating career:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/us/shannon-kent-military-spy.html

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  13. Daryl says:

    @Gregory Lawrence Brown:
    IIRC he’s a bit of a loon. But everyone knows that Netanyahoo and Bone Saw were pressuring Fatso.
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/top-counterterrorism-official-kent-resigns-134907898.html
    The most easily manipulated POTUS ever.

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  14. Eusebio says:

    @Jen:

    He’s a bit of a loon, but I suppose any port in this particular storm…!

    Being a bit of loon goes hand-in-hand, IMO, with being “a staunch Trump supporter,” as reported by CNN.
    And ditto on Shannon Kent, whose life was cut short while serving her country.

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  15. gVOR10 says:

    Insider trading:

    While the United States remains at war with Iran, the owner of a bomb shelter manufacturer said at least two members of President Donald Trump’s administration ordered bunkers from his company.

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  16. Gregory Lawrence Brown says:

    @Jen:..National Counterterrorism Center

    Thank you for the correction.
    I was unaware of Mr. Kent’s avian status.

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  17. Kathy says:

    As to El Taco’s insistence Europe and others bail him out of his own Mess on Hormuz, what if some other country had been the aggressor and then demanded help from the US?

    The closest situation I can think of is the Suez war in 1956. France, Great Britain, and Israel got together to effect regime change in Egypt, and take control of the Suez canal. They didn’t demand US help, but they expected Eisenhower to just go along and allow them a free hand.

    Eisenhower didn’t.

    Of course, it was far more complicated than that, especially as it was still the early decades of the Cold War, and there were plenty of other considerations. And not too far removed from the Korean War. Here’s the Wikipedia entry (it’s a long one).

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  18. Jen says:

    I’m incredibly irritated by the outright lying Republicans are using on the SAVE act. It is NOT a voter ID bill.

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  19. Kathy says:

    I would tell Chief Fixer Roberts: if you didn’t want to lie on that bed, why did you make it that particular way?

    TL;NWR*: The Chief Fixer calls for end to ‘dangerous’ hostility toward judges.

    *”Too long; not worth reading”

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  20. Kathy says:

    I had read the world’s best cinematographer would not do the third Dune movie for a while, yet the first trailer has dropped.

    It’s supposed to be released in December. I probably won’t see it. Definitely it’s not a movie I’d pay to go see in a theater, and I can’t see not cancelling HBO for at least several years if the Elysons buy WB (I haven’t paid for Paramount+, even though I do want to see season 3 of Strange New Worlds, and at least check out Starfleet Academy).

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  21. Kathy says:

    After an abnormal heatwave in mid February, temps returned to more normal levels the rest of the month (still higher than they should be, though). Then the mercury started moving up early in March.

    Next came a surprise. Milder days and cooler nights. Some cloudy days, and some light rain. And today it got really cloudy around 2:30 pm, and then we got rain. Not heavy rain, but not light rain either. Right now it’s around 12-13 C, which is unusually cool for mid-March.

    The cool weather won’t last, but I’m enjoying it while it does. A couple of weeks from now, I’ll be complaining it’s too hot to get a decent night’s sleep…

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