okay okay okay science is literally about 5050 on the lab leak vs natural/meat market theories and few individual scientists give either theory a strong thumbs up. They're all more "...ehh, maybe?" and come down on one side or the other but really still straddling the line. But here's the thing: Don't fucking blame Biden because I don't know if you're aware but it's called Covid Fucking Nineteen, not Covid-21 or 23 you absolute nitwit. Look at a calendar and see what your address was in 2019. Hint: It was a big white house. Whitehouse.gov/Screenshot by NPR
Centrist? I like that he gets described that way, but Brooks is everything a conservative was 20-40 year ago. Mostly I'd call it a good thing. He does have the ability to see other sides of an issue and can empathize with other people. But he's only centrist in the sense that the right moved so far it put him in the middle. They moved the average, he hasn't changed much.
I generally like him (some of his positions on war and violence are difficult, but he sure got Sarah Palin right), and I acknowledge labels can be limiting. But I still have a hard time thinking of him as a centrist. Rational conservative?
Center-right. Pretty much how I see most "independents" too. They'd (still) be GOP if GOP was reasonable.
Politically, Iâm a bit of a wanderer. I grew up in a progressive family and was a proud democratic socialist through college. Then, in the Reagan-Thatcher era of the 1980s, after watching the wretched effects some progressive social policies had on poor neighborhoods in Chicago, I switched over to the rightâand then remained a happy member of Team Red for decades. During the era of social thinkers like James Q. Wilson, Allan Bloom, Thomas Sowell, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Irving Kristol, the right was just more intellectually alive. But over time Iâve become gradually more repulsed by the GOPâfirst by Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, then by the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus, and now, of course, by Donald Trump.
So these days I find myself rooting for the Democrats about 70 percent of the time. Iâve taken up residence on what I like to call the rightward edge of the leftward tendency, and I think of myself as a moderate or conservative Democrat. But moving from Red World to Blue World is like moving to a different country. The norms, fashions, and values are all different. Whenever you move to a new place or community or faith, you love some things about it but find others off-putting. So the other 30 percent of the time a cranky inner voice says, âScrew the Democrats, Iâm voting for the GOP.â (...)
In the beginning there was agony. Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.
But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short.
Trumpism is threatening all of that. It is primarily about the acquisition of power â power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit â learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice.
So far, we have treated the various assaults of President Trump and the acolytes in his administration as a series of different attacks. In one lane they are going after law firms. In another
they savaged U.S.A.I.D. In another theyâre attacking our universities. On yet another front theyâre undermining NATO and on another theyâre upending global trade.
But thatâs the wrong way to think about it. These are not separate battles. This is a single effort to undo the parts of the civilizational order that might restrain Trumpâs acquisition of power. And it will take a concerted response to beat it back.
I think he is right...back to my point on how the democrats cant sit this out or treat it like just another republican offensive.
The universities is probably a good place to start organizing...a g20 summit type meeting where they organize a response as a whole
David Brooks. Establishment centrists of the world unite!
Centrist? I like that he gets described that way, but Brooks is everything a conservative was 20-40 year ago. Mostly I'd call it a good thing. He does have the ability to see other sides of an issue and can empathize with other people. But he's only centrist in the sense that the right moved so far it put him in the middle. They moved the average, he hasn't changed much.
I generally like him (some of his positions on war and violence are difficult, but he sure got Sarah Palin right), and I acknowledge labels can be limiting. But I still have a hard time thinking of him as a centrist. Rational conservative?
Aren't there several members of the cabinet with assault charges? Just googled and most of them are just straight up sexual assault, not battery. Well at least we know you have a limit somewhere.
Fourth Circuit on the case of the deportation to El Salvador of Kilmar Abrego Garcia:
The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done.
This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.
Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth
Posted:
Apr 17, 2025 - 5:24pm
Fourth Circuit on the case of the deportation to El Salvador of Kilmar Abrego Garcia:
The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done.
This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.
