As someone who hates the process of flying, I think a lot of people ignore the door to door time cost of flying. I have a radius inside of which I'll drive.

(Outside maybe, too, because I love seeing what 2 lane America has to offer, but that's not germane to the discussion.)

Where's Israel going to go if not to the U.S.?

Right? Intercity rail would be awesome. From Chicago, where I live, there are any number of cities I'd love to take the train to, even if it was only as fast as driving.

I'm planning a trip to the UK as I write, and one of the cities I'm going to visit is Exeter, which has a population just slightly smaller than Rockford. There are 38 trains running today between London and Exeter.

You left out right thinking.

Colonialism refers to steady encroachment on Palestinian land. It's the same as Manifest Destiny.

At the same time, people in 1948 thinking that carving out a new Jewish nation in that area of the world was going to happen peacefully was the height of Great Power folly. Here we are, nearly 80 years later, still living with that.

You're not addressing the criticism part. The Palestinian leaders are idiots and the people who cling to any right of return are fools. To acknowledge that and also state that no one has clean hands over there is my point. By your reasoning the only agency Israel has is, "Look what you made me do."

What's PMC?

Israel has The Bomb and has been expropriating land for years. It also has a well-justified sense of persecution and self-preservation that manifests itself in some pretty ugly ways sometimes. It carries outsized weight in American foreign aid and policy. No right thinking individual believes that country is going to disappear.

As an American, whose tax dollars get spent in the Middle East, I'll reserve the right to criticize the recipients of that aid without having first passing a purity test.

We're going to need a cite for this: "multiple states funding what are basically IslamicNazi arguments".

Politico floats Rahm Emanuel as a presidential candidate. I don't know how he'd fare nationally, but he carpetbagged his way into the Chicago mayoralty and was pretty effective. Laquan McDonald doomed him, but I think he was on his way out anyway. He's certainly got the political chops and he ain't afraid to play hardball.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/12/rahm-emmanuel-president-2028-column-00224241

Probably. Anyone that matters to the fate of the Dems.

I must say the airing of personal grievances in the Federal Register is something I didn’t have on my history of the United States bingo card.

Take us through this, please.

Heh. No way those won’t be vandalized soon.

Which group voted for this?

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/11/2025-03989/addressing-risks-from-perkins-coie-llp

By my reading of this, only the most pure of heart may render criticism of Israel.

According to the linked article, there's only 1 firm Dem yes vote.

Agreed. We're less than 2 months into DJT's presidency and the administration is keeping all its campaign promises, love them or hate them. No one ought to be surprised, especially given the trifecta, and yet people are.

Personally, I'll never understand the mindset of someone who thinks Donald John Trump is presidential timber, but there are enough of them to have won him the presidency. For now, 4 corners is good enough for me. We just have to see if the Dems can even execute that.

I think Koz' response is the most important here. He's all in on DJT, even to the point where he wrote an endorsement here on this site. His litany of grievances is nothing the extant Democratic party can do anything about, nor should it. I mean where do you even start with this? They're pissed off about something in Washington that seems to be only the fault of the Democratic Party.

Truth be told, if any of the economic grievances listed were sincere, the pitchforks would already be out for Trump. Perhaps unfairly, since saddling any man, Dem or Republican, with the blame for the state of the American economy is just absurd, but that's the game the American electorate plays.

Perhaps the best the Dems can do right now is play defense while the current hysteria plays itself out. Too bad there's no Joseph Welch to ask, "Have you no sense of decency?"

Southwest Airlines is giving up its only competitive advantage. It used to be such a great airline and now it's just another face in the crowd.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/southwest-airlines-will-charge-check-bags-first-time-launch-basic-econ-rcna195776

The Palestine/Israel debate is a special case, I'd posit. For whatever reason (usually cynicism), we're not allowed to differentiate between criticism of Israel and anti-semitism. Until that happens, we're just talking in circles.

Let's just go with a bunch of adults being upset over the casting in a kids movie reveals a lot about the complainer.

Douthat's reference to Catholicism being a unifying factor is a little bizarre given the fact that hardly anyone goes to Mass anymore in France.

His handwaving away the Holocaust in his phrase "crippling sense of historical guilt that still pervades Germany" is a little befuddling. There are still people alive who went through it. We're currently seeing in America what happens when self-reflection becomes taboo. The American right's embrace of AfD is more than a little concerning.

The strategy of trying to bolster our European allies into becoming true allies instead of vassals is a good one, but doing so by pushing them out of the nest immediately after hatching is a method doomed to failure.

For those without a subscription to the failing New York Times.

https://archive.is/mCumB

I daresay you do. Otherwise, this site would be one post poorer.

Oh, I'm sure he has his fans. I also, despite the volume of my comments here, have a job. Something's gotta give.

Mr. Donaldson is entirely correct. Expecting yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's grandstanding occupants of the White House to give up their recitation of programs that will be proposed and never enacted, the parade of lame, halt, and wronged, and other tomfoolery is a fool's errand.