Jo-Ann Mort, from her website.
Jewish “Humanitarian leftist”, self-described co-founder of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jo-Ann Mort sees anti-Semitism in conservative policies, but can’t see that it permeates the Democratic Party and the ‘Palestinians’ she so wants to see free and independent.
You can oppose Israelâs policies without killing Jewish people
The majority of US Jews overwhelmingly oppose Netanyahuâs policies. But subtleties get lost and truly unleashed people react
Prussian Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke the Elder wrote, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength,” which is frequently bastardized as “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” I’m old enough to remember when debates in the United States were all about matching the Soviets in warheads, weapons, and delivery systems. The impetus was less deterrence than it was being able to fight the USSR on the European battlefield. It all made sense, if you thought a nuclear war was a winnable thing. It was as though we could actually plan out a war that included using nuclear weapons, and somehow emerge victorious.
We have used nuclear weapons in war, and emerged victorious, but that is because the enemy didn’t have them, and because his plan to knock out the American fleet at Pearl Harbor did not survive first contact with the enemy. Yes, the Japanese attack sank four battleships and seriously damaged four more, also sinking or damaging three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and a minelayer. There were no aircraft carriers in port, and the wrath of our country was raised, and our industrial might undamaged.
Now, with Donald Trump having won the 2024 election, and his great reticence to get involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War, our European allies in NATO are revisiting notions of, as Major Kong put it, “Nuclear combat, toe-to-toe with the Russkies.”
Dropping tactical nuclear weapons was a major strategic error. We must correct it
It was only a couple of days ago that the democratic West was buoyed by Ukraine’s deep strikes into Russia. From The Washington Post:
Ukraineâs drones disrupt Russia with airport closures, internet blackouts
As Ukrainian drones strike deep into Russian territory, they are disrupting day-to-day life and reminding Russians that the war is not confined to the trenches.
by Mary Ilyushina | Memorial Day, May 26, 2025
Large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks have rattled multiple Russian regions for the third consecutive day, grounding flights, disrupting internet access and stretching the countryâs air defense systems thin. Continue reading
I have said it before: if we had social media back in 1944, the Usual Suspects wopuld have been decrying the violence and whining that Germany was defeated, that there was no need to continue the march into Germany proper, and think of all of the poor, innocent civilians who would be killed! Had such people been around then, they wouldn’t have cared that their calls for a “Ceasefire Now!” would have left der FĂźhrer and his henchmen alive and in power, and a couple of the concentration camps in place, but still . . . .
This morning’s story is what piqued The Philadelphia Inquirer’s far-left columnist’s ire: Continue reading
Harvard University, our nation’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher learning — though any college which accepted David Hogg and granted him a degree has to be suspect when the term “higher learning” is applied to it — is suing the Trump Administration over federal spending cuts to the school due to Hahvahd’s refusal to go along with measures to protect Jewish students and personnel from the anti-Semitism which has been running rampant through our (supposedly) top universities.
So, naturally the Usual Suspects decide to demonstrate their anti-Semitism! Continue reading
My Twitter — I refuse to call it đ — feed was full of chortling posts claiming that the Vatican denied Vice President J D Vance a meeting with Pope Francis, sending the Vatican’s second-ranking official instead, in what the left loudly proclaimed was a deliberate snub to Mr Vance.
That’s not quite what it was.
The story behind JD Vanceâs unlikely visit with Pope Francis
Vance and Francis had publicly disagreed in recent months on immigration policies and other aspects of church teaching.
Imagine, if you will, that there were ubiquitous iPhones and the internet, and social media in 1944. The scenes, which Joseph Goebbels would be doubtlessly pushing across the West, of German families shattered by the deaths in collapsed houses due to Allied bombing, of orphaned children rescued from the rubble, where they had been buried next to their dead parents.
Were today’s American and European left alive in 1944, but with today’s mentality, we would be seeing all sorts of plaintiff cries on Quitter — the 1944 version of Twitter — saying that Germany was clearly defeated, that the Allied armies were at the Rhine and the Oder-Neisse and the Third Reich had been expelled from all of the territory it had captured in the war, and we should declare a ceasefire, leaving everything in place, to stop the killing, to stop the unnecessary deaths.
That, of course, would have left Adolf Hitler and his henchmen alive, and the concentration camps that were in Germany proper operating. All of the actual extermination camps were located in occupied Poland, to keep them secret from German civilians, but the fanatical FĂźhrer and his equally insane Schutzstaffel would have adapted camps like Bergen-Belsen in Germany for more mass killings. Continue reading
Elwood P Dowd is one of the liberal commenters on my good friend William Teach’s The Pirate’s Cove. The distinguished Mr Dowd is a Democrat and true hater of President Trump, and every so often, he gets me rolling in my response. He wrote:
If Trump abandons Ukraine to Putin, the Baltics are likely to be at risk. Do you believe King Donald would risk anything to help NATO defend Latvia? LOL.
Kind of a throwaway ending to a longer comment on a completely different subject, but that was the part to which I had to respond.
In 1939, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of France gave an unconditional guarantee to Poland that they would defend the Polesâ independence. Two days after the Nazis invaded, the UK and France declared war on Germany, but not a single British or French soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine ever fought in Poland to defend the country from the Third Reich! If der FĂźhrer hadnât been stupid and invaded the USSR, itâs quite possible that the Nazis would still be in control of Poland, and all of Europe. Continue reading
The tactic was well used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy, to let everyone know that if you disagreed with him, you were a Communist.
I participated in the Weekend Open Thread on Patterico’s Pontifications, knowing in advance that if my comments were published, I’d be running into a buzz saw of opposition. The host, Los Angeles County prosecutor Patrick Frey, a conservative who has mostly withdrawn from the blog, leaving it up to a much nicer and better-looking Dana than me, is nevertheless a dedicated #NeverTrumper, as are the majority of commenters, a majority of whom also wholeheartedly support helping Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. The commenters there are mostly well-educated, and many are lawyers, but it’s clear that many — certainly not all — view opposition to the kind of aid provided by former President Joe Biden is wholly unappreciated. Continue reading