Kinstler’s article in the Times magazine is an interesting snapshot of views of the administration’s pursuit of that it casts as a realist foreign policy and a pursuit of power with clear and somewhat justifiable antecedents in American history. Another take is from Prof of international security Patrick Porter.
“For Porter, it is not realism that defines the Trump era but rather its ‘corrupt cousin,’ machtpolitik, which pursues power for its own sake and is defined by a ‘sort of violent exhilaration of destruction, nihilism and vengeance.’
Trump’s penchant for theatrics and bombast, his obsession with status, and his use of power to enrich himself and his family — all these are characteristic elements of this darker ideology. Machtpolitik is realism gone wrong, the kind of phenomenon that it was ostensibly invented to prevent.
‘By losing all restraints, you destroy yourself,’ Porter said. The perpetual threat of machtpolitik is why, he says, ‘realists can never relax, never just sit back when people invoke the philosophy for the sake of imperial hubris.’”
Elsewhere the article makes a passing reference to a point many people know: that the president’s message resonates with many voters because they see in the view of realism the way power is often wielded against them and their interests, along with how other politicians’ messages seem to distort this. The president’s worldview therefore rings more true to them.
I think those who really loathe the president often cast him as truly evil in looking for destruction or nihilism, and that’s a simplistic bit of villain construction. I would say that many of his personal shortcomings just lend themselves to the greater problems of machtpolitik — in the sense that “power corrupts” and hardly anyone has the armor to withstand corruption, he merely arrived on the scene with more previous corruption of character and less ability to slow a rapid descent into worse.
"Revised data for November, meanwhile, showed a gain of 56,000 jobs rather than 64,000, the Labor Department said Friday, while revised data for October showed a loss of 173,000 jobs compared to the earlier reported decline of 105,000. In all, monthly payroll growth for the year, including December's data, averaged 49,000, Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in a post on X." "That's the slowest annual growth outside of recessions," Kolko said. "Immigration policy slowed workforce growth, which has held back job growth."
Kinstler’s article in the Times magazine is an interesting snapshot of views of the administration’s pursuit of that it casts as a realist foreign policy and a pursuit of power with clear and somewhat justifiable antecedents in American history. Another take is from Prof of international security Patrick Porter.
“For Porter, it is not realism that defines the Trump era but rather its ‘corrupt cousin,’ machtpolitik, which pursues power for its own sake and is defined by a ‘sort of violent exhilaration of destruction, nihilism and vengeance.’
Trump’s penchant for theatrics and bombast, his obsession with status, and his use of power to enrich himself and his family — all these are characteristic elements of this darker ideology. Machtpolitik is realism gone wrong, the kind of phenomenon that it was ostensibly invented to prevent.
‘By losing all restraints, you destroy yourself,’ Porter said. The perpetual threat of machtpolitik is why, he says, ‘realists can never relax, never just sit back when people invoke the philosophy for the sake of imperial hubris.’”
Elsewhere the article makes a passing reference to a point many people know: that the president’s message resonates with many voters because they see in the view of realism the way power is often wielded against them and their interests, along with how other politicians’ messages seem to distort this. The president’s worldview therefore rings more true to them.
I think those who really loathe the president often cast him as truly evil in looking for destruction or nihilism, and that’s a simplistic bit of villain construction. I would say that many of his personal shortcomings just lend themselves to the greater problems of machtpolitik — in the sense that “power corrupts” and hardly anyone has the armor to withstand corruption, he merely arrived on the scene with more previous corruption of character and less ability to slow a rapid descent into worse.
That last paragraph is way too easy on Trump, and way too hard on his hugely justified critics. False sophistication.
Activists protested outside a synagogue, chanting, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here.”
Whatever the amnesia surrounding 10/7, the truth must never be forgotten: Hamas murdered, maimed, mutilated, raped, and tortured thousands of innocent Israelis. It is—and has… pic.twitter.com/JeGh1XzA2A
"Revised data for November, meanwhile, showed a gain of 56,000 jobs rather than 64,000, the Labor Department said Friday, while revised data for October showed a loss of 173,000 jobs compared to the earlier reported decline of 105,000. In all, monthly payroll growth for the year, including December's data, averaged 49,000, Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in a post on X." "That's the slowest annual growth outside of recessions," Kolko said. "Immigration policy slowed workforce growth, which has held back job growth."
A few more damning snippets from the report:
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little over the month at 1.9 million but is up by 397,000 over the year.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 5.3 million, changed little in December but is up by 980,000 over the year. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job was little changed at 6.2 million in December but is up by 684,000 over the year. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey...
Payroll employment rose by 584,000 in 2025 (an average monthly gain of 49,000), less than the increase of 2.0 million in 2024 (an average monthly gain of 168,000). ** "less than" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence! **
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised down by 68,000, from -105,000 to -173,000, and the change for November was revised down by 8,000, from +64,000 to +56,000.
Let's look at things another way:
In the four years that Biden was president, the single worst month added 44k jobs. Trump has already had FOUR months with worse job reports (he had 5 in his first term). In Biden's second worst month, the economy added 71k jobs. Trump has already had SIX months with worse job reports (HALF OF THE MONTHS HE'S BEEN IN OFFICE!). He had 6 months worse than that in his first term. Biden averaged 341.5k jobs added per month for four years. Trump hasn't had a single month with that many added since he's been back in office. He lost an average of 59.5k jobs per month during his first term, and 41 of 48 months were worse than Biden's average.
TRUMP'S MAKE AMERICAN GAS GREAT AGAIN (MAGGA) FAILS!
Oil And Gas Land Auction In Colorado Gets… Zero Bids
A Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday of more than 20,000 acres of public land in Colorado for oil and gas development yielded exactly zero bids, despite a starting price of just $10 an acre.
Aaron Weiss, the deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities: "In general, everything that is really high value across the West that will ever produce oil has already been sold. There are no oil and gas companies that think that it’s profitable to lease them, even at 10 bucks an acre."
TRUMP'S MAKE AMERICAN GAS GREAT AGAIN (MAGGA) FAILS!
Oil And Gas Land Auction In Colorado Gets… Zero Bids
A Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday of more than 20,000 acres of public land in Colorado for oil and gas development yielded exactly zero bids, despite a starting price of just $10 an acre.
Aaron Weiss, the deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities: "In general, everything that is really high value across the West that will ever produce oil has already been sold. There are no oil and gas companies that think that it’s profitable to lease them, even at 10 bucks an acre."
Maybe it was just because everyone was busy making their travel plans to Venezuela ??
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