Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • Sartorial Incongruity and TDS

    There’s President Trump in his expensive bespoke suit with a ridiculous red cap on his head, a “prole cap” — one size fits all! — emblazoned with “Trump was right about everything.” Gaucherie, braggadocio, exaggeration. Lefties and never-Trumping righties are ‘triggered,’ albeit in different ways, by these low-class characteristics and hate him in consequence. Their…

  • Naomi Wolf on Zohran Mamdani

    Naomi Wolf feels  . . . guilty because my reaction to Mamdani is so personally aversive. It is aversive because of the lie-and-deception factor. Mamdani, as I will reveal, is a nepo son dressed as a communist — but a communist takeover of NYC is not what really motivates this man, not what is really…

  • The Sam Tanenhaus Biography of William F. Buckley

    I came across it at the local library but the sheer weight of the thing dissuaded me from checking it out.  I borrowed  Jake Tapper's light-weight (in both senses) Original Sin instead. I cannot recommend it. William Voegli's review of Tanenhaus, William F. Buckley and the Conservative Future, I can recommend.  It raises the question:…

  • Why Do We Support Trump?

    Charlie Kirk, six months in to the second Trump term, sets forth what sets Trump 2.0 apart.  His astonishing accomplishments include, in Kirk's words: 1) Completely and instantly securing the U.S.-Mexico border after the four-year Biden invasion.  2) The stock market hit record highs this very week and blue-collar wages are rising faster than they…

  • Trump has Made News Great Again

    Politics in hyperdrive. Who can keep up? And to what extent should one keep up? Here are a couple of articles that caught my eye: The Islamic Republic's New Lease on Life. Mercifully brief, and very interesting.  In Foreign Affairs, by one Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar.  I'd be interested in Caiati's and Soriano's comments.  Elon Musk…

  • The Dems, True to Form, are Lying

    About so much. About gutting the 'safety net' for example. WSJ rebukes the mendacious shites.  (Ought we be polite to such brazen liars?) As for multi-'colored' Kamala, she is like unto Traitor Joe not just in her moral obtuseness, but also in respect of her intellectual vacuity, as explained here. Here and here for two…

  • Is the U-Haul the Vehicle of Peaceful Coexistence?

    You may have noticed that our relations with some people improve when we no longer have contact with them. Now while we can and must round up and deport illegal aliens, our classically liberal principles make it very difficult to force out of our midst those of our political adversaries who count as out-and-out political…

  • Is ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ a Concentration Camp?

    It is according to the author of a TNR article.  I don't disagree.  After all, the bad hombres are being held against their will in one place prior to their deportation. The conclusion to draw, of course, is that some concentration camps are morally justified. This one is also legally justified. President Trump is merely…

  • The Upside of Zohran Mamdani

    What I like about the winner of the New York City mayoral Democrat primary is that he is not a 'stealth ideologue' a phrase I have been using for years to characterize the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.  Mamdani, unlike the mendacious foursome just mentioned, comes clean about what…

  • Trump, Nukes, and Nation-Building

    It is blindingly evident that Ayatollah Khamenei and the rest of the  radical Islamists in control of Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Donald Trump has been clear and consistent about this during the ten years he has been in the political spotlight.  He may speak of diplomacy and agreements but he…

  • Bill Maher versus David Mamet

    About six minutes long. Topics: 2020 election and Jan 6. Tell me who you think 'won' and why. Related: Three Notes on David Mamet.  From 2023. Vito Caiati and Dmitri Dain offer their typically astute comments.

  • A Devastating Case against the Depredatory Dems

    Unanswerable.

  • Political Nominalism

    One form political nominalism takes is loyalty to a political label.  In late November I heard a self-described "life-long Democrat" on Fox cogently explain why Kamala Harris lost the election and why her political career ought to be over. Despite the accuracy of his analysis, the fool remains a Dem! That makes no sense. When…

  • Nancy Pelosi in 1996: A Pre-Trumper on Tariffs

    You have probably seen this by now, but in case you haven't, here is Nancy Pelosi in 1996 talking sense! I didn't think she had it in her, given the inanities she has been spouting for the last quarter century. I don't see much if any difference between what she said then about  tariffs, trade…

  • Let Them Eat Woke

    Alex Castellanos: Democrats, your party has a product problem, not a marketing problem. Don’t look around. Look in the mirror. Your problem is staring back. You’ve lost the ability to govern your country. That’s why your party expired in 2024 with Kamala Harris. That election was not a changing of the guard, it was the…