Given where it eventually ended up, America has largely been a sort of "elected monarchy" for the past 200 years. From the beginning of its formation, the American presidency has been vested with what might be referred to as "expansive monarchical authority".

The transistor from Bell Labs.

It may be that the rest of the world, including China, will quickly come to Venezuela's aid and the American military will be completely powerless to stop them.

Nerfherder is usually entertainingly snarky, but this time I think he's on the right track. Time will tell.

You will ID Nancy Guthrie's killers around the same time you will ID JFK's killers.

Shi'a. The correct term is Shi'a.

There will always be those who forget the lessons and long-term significance of Thermopylae.

Sometimes "winning" is nothing more than forcing your adversary to expose its own ethical rot, base hypocrisy and extreme depth of depravity.

Hans, why did you change your name here? I'm curious.

So, to confirm, you are Hans? Why did you change your name?

Is that you, Hans? I remember you from way back. Someone told me you died. Where's that Dethspud fellow? Does he still come here?

The writer of this piece, David Frum, once coined the "Axis of Evil" for his boss Bush. It takes me back over 20 years ago to the Iraq invasion days. The vile spew of the National Review in the run-up to war. Bill Kristol, Norman Podhoretz and Frum, et. al. All completely beholden to Israel. And the forever war they helped ignite is still burning.

One could argue that Frum's neoconservative propaganda over the last quarter century has done as much to harm America as Trump has. One could also argue that Frum directly helped strengthen and legitimize certain aspects of the current MAGA movement. That some people would continue to give him legitimacy just because he has pivoted to keeping his career afloat by being anti-Trump is quite concerning. Much of America's current media apparatus is regurgitated and recycled from yesteryear. I am thankful my memory is still strong enough to remember it all from the first go-round.

Thank you for posting this.

Half of Graham Platner's extended family is Jewish, so if he is a Nazi that makes his Thanksgiving dinner table conversations rather intriguing to speculate upon.

I for one just hope that he's not a Fetterman disguised in sheep's clothing.

I'm sure many of you remember that after 9-11, citizens gathered by the hundreds in their respective cities in Iran and held candlelight vigils for the American dead.

At that point in time, Iran could've been steered towards a more moderate political posture, and would have been a cold, yet willing partner against expanding Russian influence in the region, but the neoconservative Bush administration (and many Democrats) decided to listen to Israel and designate Iran as a key part of the notorious "axis of evil".

And now here we are. And it all could've been avoided.

Yes. I still reside in North Dakota but spend more of my time up the Red River in Winnipeg. I'm a part-time Pegger and thus an honorary Canadian. Gives good perspective with just a nondescript, 4 hour drive.

Although I am not very well-versed in these types of politics, I do believe that Barney Frank has a thinly veiled concern for the end of American political support for Israel. I believe that is the main reason why he supports Janet Mills over Platner.

Truly, for Frank (who is Jewish and has a history of deep support by pro-Israelis) and many other senior members of the political spectrum, refusing to support Israel and to be openly critical of its current actions and behaviors after nearly 50 years of overwhelming support is "embracing an agenda that goes beyond what's politically acceptable."

As a whole, Americans have a disturbing tendency to elevate and celebrate and humanize people whose job or goal it is to dehumanize, subdue, conquer or kill.

Excessive American hubris has gotten in the way of any major strategic military victory since 1945. All this hubris has done is slowly erode America's once seemingly unassailable foundation of progressive political, social and economic principles and philosophies. In contrast, during roughly the same timeframe China has pulled itself from the mire of an extended era of weakness and humiliation and seized upon global hopes of a better future- hopes of a better future that America once claimed as exclusively its own.

America = Leopold II

Trump is a nihilist and nihilists do not have goals. Their endgame is simply defined as the achievement of the means. The more chaos and destruction, the better.

That map above is intriguing, but money isn't everything. Is there a map that rates states according to people's sense of happiness or well-being? I currently live in eastern North Dakota and it's pretty satisfying here (and even moreso just across the border in Minnesota) although we are ranked 47th in supposed ROI as shown on the map above.