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Wild Lion*esses Pride from Jay's avatar

@Noah Berlatsky, I appreciate the clarity. Trump isn’t an isolationist. He never was. He isn’t anti-war. He isn’t anti-intervention. He is transactional, authoritarian, and expansionist. He sees the world as something to own, not as people with sovereignty.

Gaza isn’t real estate. Palestinians aren’t an inconvenience. This isn’t foreign policy. It’s colonialism. Naming it matters.

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Robert Jaffee's avatar

Why bother discussing this anymore. It was a ruse. What’s really happening is takeover of all the levers of power, and all of you guys are focused on the low hanging fruit.

What’s happening at the Pentagon? What’s Flynn’s his goon squad up to? X has gone full fascist and whites supremacist, and Musk is into all of our sensitive government servers with a bunch of kids, who don’t have any experience, or even a security clearance!

Seriously, can’t you tell the difference between policy and flooding the zone wi the BS? This is exactly why they’re winning! Democrats are useless invertebrates, who could get a court order to stop Musk, but aren’t.

And, as soon as he has full access to these systems, and he changes the codes, then we’ll never get back, or learn of all of the changes he’s making to our government: unsupervised!

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Aaron Rupar's avatar

Thanks for your input, Robert. I agree that it's highly unlikely American boots end up on the ground in Gaza, but I still think Trump's comments send an important signal and speak to his worldview. And if you missed it, we covered Musk's antics in Tuesday's edition of the newsletter.

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Robert Jaffee's avatar

Aaron, I don’t disagree, and my point is that this Gaza debacle is still getting coverage in the MSM, while we have no idea what’s going on at any of the intelligence and military agencies; the Pentagon, etc. Trump and Musk may just be the bright shiny object, while Heritage is doing even more lasting damage in the shadows.

And we have no idea how far along this coup really is. We have experts downplaying the significance, saying he’s incompetent; but is he really?

Heritage has been planning this for four years, and from where I’m sitting, they are laying waste to everything, yet how do we know everything is being reported, or if the press is just being distracted, as intended?

You newsletter is great, I’m just getting very anxious, because between the laughter of his incompetence, is a shrewd and executable plan to take this country as soon as possible; before the democrats wake up to what’s actually going on. And the clock is ticking!…:)

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Michael Wild's avatar

To say Trump's Gazan plan was 'half baked' was too generous. The ingredients were all inedible, were badly mixed and the wretched mess never made it to the oven.

Blind Freddy could see that none of the states who were supposed to accept the Gazans would say, nay scream, No Way! Large numbers of the Gazans would fight tooth and nail to remain in Gaza and America would have become a hate object second only to Israel to the tens of thousands of terrorist recruits growing up in the next decade. Let it be noted they’ll never forget their fathers, mothers, siblings, cousins, grandparents have been killed by bombs dropped by a hated enemy. They might have forgotten the bombs were provided by the US but they sure as hell would never have forgotten American troops helping move them from their ancestral lands.

If Biden had even hinted at such a scheme everyone would have said that he was entering agitated dementia

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David J. Sharp's avatar

Finally, if Trump is such a warrior, why does he only pick on those least able to defend themselves? Children in cages, trans athletes, struggling weaponless immigrants … and now, post-genocide Palestinians.

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Claudia Wheatley's avatar

"Sens. Tina Smith and Chris Murphy both suggested the idea was so ridiculous that Trump must be using it to distract from Elon Musk’s illegal seizure of federal government departments."

BINGO.

Guys, stop. Mad King Donald has dementia. This fantasy is clearly related. Yet nowhere in this article do you suggest that his "plan" is the product of observable mental illness.

Stop falling for GOP distraction tactics. Give the ravings of Donnie Demento as little attention as possible, and only when they're likely to cause real-life problems.

And for god's sake, do what you need to do to raise questions about his mental deterioration, which has advanced rapidly since 2020. I'm sure Dr. Bandy Lee is paying attention, and she's not the only expert willing to comment.

Start EVERY morning by asking yourself, WIMDT? (What Is Musk Doing Today) and focus your energies on THAT.

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Becky Daiss's avatar

Beyond trump's demented, narcissistic sociopathy, he appears to be regressing into a pampered child who throws tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. His Gaza insanity may also be a function of this. I have no doubt that he's heard various plans for taking Gaza from the Palestinians from the "grown ups" around him. And then he takes his limited understanding of it and says the quiet part out loud. I'm probably stretching it too far. But in any case, I don't think the grown ups are happy.

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Claudia Wheatley's avatar

I don't think you're stretching too far. Trump's intellectual deteriorating is advancing rapidly, and anyone who's been paying attention knows he is observably much, much worse now than he was in 2020. He's likely to be non-verbal by the midterms.

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Alison's avatar

Thank you, Noah…such a good summary of 2016 to now…and I do agree, this is the distraction from the horrors at home, albeit horrifying on so many levels.

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Carl Selfe's avatar

The Trump-Musk plan is in play. Money being set aside to sweep up. Education is in the way!! https://open.substack.com/pub/hotbuttons/p/watch-the-treasury?r=3m1bs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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Helen Stajninger's avatar

Thank you Noah for outlining Trumps outrageous wanna be takeovers of countries: Gaza, Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal and withdrawing support for Ukraine.

What I read was that Marco Rubio said something like” Make Gaza great again”. That doesn’t sound like he is tempering Trump and all…

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David J. Sharp's avatar

And funny how the New Republicans - known historically for their antisemitism- now want to involve themselves in occupying a part of Israel. Israel for the semites - Jew and Muslim - not those wanting a nice place for the Second Coming.

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David J. Sharp's avatar

Occupy Gaza … ethnic cleansing … invade Panama/Greenland/Canada … a dictator propping up a wannabe dictator … lies, the promise of violence under the guise of retribution … pretty heady for a guy who had daddy exempt him from Vietnam.

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