By the way, I think you're too hard on Candace. You have to remember that she is still pretty young, 35, and most of the stuff that she is talking about right now, she only discovered in the past 12 months or so? She's still in that discovery phase, but I think she's on the right path, all things considered.
Besides, not everyone is a product for everybody to consume, i.e. she obviously has her own little niche audience, and for her, and them, this is all relatively new ideas, facts, concepts.
She's not exactly a classically trained historian.
She had her little feud with Benny Boy Shapiro, got some shots in, (he helped by getting completely unhinged over Oct. 7th), and now she's learning some stuff that many of us knew about decades ago.
By the way, Unz's take was that he found it odd that she hasn't been cancelled, yet, and attributed it to her being a bit of a fringe lightweight on many topics, including some stuff that he found odd, like Macron's grandmother wife being a dude.
Ha ha, what? Why? I think it's great. "The Jews lost control of their black Golem, and now it's turned on them", that's good stuff!
Being purely analytical about it, love it or hate it, Candace has gotten all this "buzz", and press, and coverage, which only raises her profile, I suppose.
Just wait until she finds out about the moon landing, and who was really behind 9-11!
35 is NOT young. The extended adolescence in our culture is out of control right now.
I used to work for an off-Broadway theater, when their "youth" pricing went up to 30 I realized our culture was starting to have a problem.
Yes, we're deindustrialized. There are fewer big jobs. But Owens got one of those. By virtue of being cute and Black she cut the line and went from being an office manager or something - in charge of ordering folders, keeping conference rooms neat - to having a political platform.
She hasn't even suffered the setbacks of the 2008 crash or the pandemic, what that did to people 35-45 and their finances. She's been printing money for years.
Don't make excuses for her lack of maturity or her inability to take advice. There are REALLY dumb actors and athletes who, by virtue of listening to their agents, come across as brighter than Owens. She has no excuse.
She's, one, clearly too dumb for the platform that was just gifted to her. And two, also too dumb to stop biting the hand that feeds her. No excuses. She hasn't been working 3 jobs to support her Vietnam-syndrome dad and siblings after the factory closed, followed by 3 jobs trying to get into college somehow, then she woke up at near 40 with no sense and no real grounding in anything.
She won a lawsuit in HS, got a massive settlement, went to a state college but dropped out. She has always been dumb in spite of every windfall that's come her way.
She is "young" relative to (Dave and I) 9/11, or what she was probably taught about WWII, etc.
And who is "making excuses" for her? She is practically a household name, but is at least very widely recognized. She had her own gig, got on the The Daily Wire, feuded with all of them, got bounced, now is even more well known, and has countless lessor known people talking about her, including Cole and Unz on the same day.
She's not a Rhodes Scholar, she's an "Internet Celebrity/Commentator". As far as success in that world goes, she's a goddamned rock star.
You guys can hate her for it, like many hate everyone else in that realm, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been successful.
Hell, I could name a dozen people that you know of, that all followed a similar path. Some are great, some are buffoons, and some are just "meh", but it's a gig, and many of them have gotten pretty far doing it.
And just like Candace is still relatively "young", most of us are relatively "old", because we still think that Internet Stardom is rather juvenile and niche, when the fact is, it's the modern star chamber to success.
Also, being a little dumb, is hardly a disqualifier in that world either.
Lastly, it's pretty easy and convenient to sit on the Internet, and talk about the individual failings of many a Internet success story, because they aren't perfect, or because we don't agree with everything they say, or because we think they are beneath us, etc., but the reality is that they are, none the less, very successful in that space, and achieving fame, notoriety, fortune, and influence, despite their failings, so much of it probably comes down to envy.
Hell Bells, we're all sitting here talking about her, aren't we?
Cole has never done an article about me! And I'm practically his best friend! (j/k)
Well, Mike, we're about two months away from seeing whether the right's bonehead "influencers," with tens of millions of combined followers, help or hurt the election of their God King.
Yeah… if you still believe that elections are legit. At this point, I’m praying for Civil War, WWIII, or the biggest goddamned asteroid since Godzilla roamed the Earth! By the way, now that the heat is ebbing, can we expect some Video Cole? Or as I call it… The Coooooole Train!
But the extended adolescence is because of mandatory public schooling and---- oops, sorry!
Philip Roth said you can't stay young but you can stay immature. Many have proven him right.
But why become mature and get married and have babies when doing so looks like a sucker's game? The State has ultimate control, power, the last word, over the children's fates, but the parents get stuck with all the bills. Responsibility without power, that's parenthood in the industrialized world. Is it any wonder birth rates are so low?
I think the only people who should have children are those willing to sacrifice for them. People who don't want kids should be left alone. Shitty parents fuck up kids even more than liberalism and black folks. Almost every good kid out there has parents who love and sacrifice for them. Almost every bad kid has parents who fucked up again and again. I watch it happen every day, but they don't ask me for advice.
I never even had to spank my kids. If they screwed up, we would talk it out until dawn if necessary, even if it cost my money or sleep or problems at work. Nothing was more important to me. They are happy and well-adjusted contributors to this liberal shithole we call America.
I have several children, and my life is much better for it. Fortunately, my wife and I have the resources to provide for them, and we love them. They are on their own now.
If my son were ever drafted, I would have begged the authorities to let me go in his place. Not to coddle him, but I wouldn't want him to die for America. Me, I'm old, who gives a fuck?
No, it's not. If anything public schools are churning out the only sensible working people in our society. When you go to the grocery store the cashier was probably not a product of hand-wringing Christian homeschoolers or Lutheran school. Your auto mechanic? Probably public school. The CNA who wipes your mom's ass in assisted living? Public school or dropped out of Mexican public school in the 3rd grade. Public schools are just NOT the problem.
The reason we got things like "on your parents' insurance until you're 26" or "youth pricing until you're 50" is actually about middle class people coddling their kids. Mom and Dad's insurance until 26 was a sop to elites who can't imagine poor Jimmy or Susie getting a Medicaid root canal after they get home from Peace Corps but before they're on their law school health insurance.
In the same way, the tranny thing is mostly spoiled white kids. The kind whose parents want to march into school and argue them into an A+ average and try to get the teacher who failed them just for not showing up or working fired.
Public schools are NOT the problem. Most people who go to public schools end up just fine, regardless of what books the librarian is highlighting. Did you EVER ask the school librarian for advice on ANYTHING? Or did you just use the card catalog like a normal person of normal intelligence? Were you hanging out in the guidance counselor's office all day? Most kids are FINE, they ignore their teachers just like we did.
Public schools mostly churn out workers. In the 70s when California guidance counselors were telling parents "Hey man the kids like weed they experiment maaan" it didn't break the country. The trans bullshit won't either.
That's a good angle, and accurate. While I despise the TikTok teachers who brag about teaching trannyism in the classroom, that shit CAN be stopped (as DeSantis is doing). The much bigger problem is middle and upper-middle class white liberal parents who use their "tranny" kids to score social points for themselves in their elite little circles. And how do you stop THAT? Conservatives are the first to say "PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WHATEVER! PARENTAL CONTROL!" Well, who coddles the tranny kids? For every story about shocked parents whose kid secretly "transitioned" with the help of a teacher there's 100 stories of parents encouraging little Bipsy to transition, then bragging about it at brunch.
Candace is going for the Alex Jones target audience after Blexit fell flat on its face in 2020 when the black vote was as terrible as normal when it comes to voting Republican.
She's the new pretty face of Alex Jones, updated to also appeal to the likes of the groper nerds among other targets.
She's seen a gap in that space and she's more than willing to fill it.
This is why the Daily Wire gave her the boot, they saw where she was heading.
Ironically dropping the bombs on Japan was the humane way to wage that war. The bombs were brutal yes, but a ground invasion of Japan would have cost exponentially more lives both American and Japanese.
Yes, and the Russians would have taken part too---they woulda LOVED to get some revenge for the humiliation they suffered in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. And I think it's safe to say that much of Japan's territory would now belong to Russia!
What many say is that the A-bomb could have been dropped off the coast of Tokyo, instead of on a city, as a warning that this is what is in store for them if they don't surrender.
Other say that because the USA only had two A-bombs they didn't want to waste one as a warning.
I think that in my lifetime the right has grown more susceptible to anti-American propaganda because of its beloved macho-maudlin tropes. You see it in a lot Eastwood stuff like Gran Turino with the jaded permacripple, or American Sniper where the hero is a misunderstood victim. You see it in the Wounded Warrior stuff that shows veterans as broken, emotionally incontinent, and pathetic beings instead of powerful and dignified men to be respected and not pitied.
This coincides with the corporate SEAL leadership consulting or Black Rifle Coffee crap to make everything military look gay and fake.
I don't think the wounded warrior thing is bad. Taking care of disabled vets IS important. And the Wounded Warrior thing is an important corrective to the way we abandoned vets after Vietnam.
I DO think former SEALs who write stupid corporate advice books that doughy CRE brokers gobble up are bad for the military. Those guys know they sit on their asses all day and they're hungry for "traditional masculinity" even though they're too lazy to mow their own lawns. The SEAL guys are filling a market niche but it manages to come across as both gross and stupid. I DO also think people bragging about all their alleged kills as a sniper is a worse look for the military than the noble silent stoic thing.
I was a cute 20 something when people were coming back from Afghanistan bragging about killing a bunch of inbred third world have-nothings and accusing me of being a "communist" for not wanting to listen to that shit. Oh you murdered some tards who didn't have anything in a war about nothing? They were all like, fry cooks who were trying to convince me they'd been snipers, too. Odd how they ended up as fry cooks instead of in private security as highly sought-after hires. Odd how they never suspected I have family members who were actually Marine of the Quarter or whatever, and I might be able to see through their bullshit. But the post-9/11 worship of anything military has empowered a bunch of terrible guys to try and run game on most of society.
The worship of the military right now is as gross as when we ignored all the wounded vets who'd been doused with Agent Orange. Right now there are a lot of guys who worked as truck mechanics in the Army puffing out their chests bragging about their "heroism" and it's very obvious lying. THAT is way worse for everyone than the WWII thing of "don't talk about the war or what you did in it."
Like the post, but just to clarify: it’s not a statement about the help vets program, just the trope of veteran as a pathetic and incompetent person instead of a proud member of society.
But most people know or are related to veterans who work. When I was a kid, there were Vietnam vets who were destroyed and slept in the library.
There were also Vietnam vets working as our family doctor and as teachers. There have always been sensitive people who get destroyed by what they see in war; there have always been more resilient people. It just is what it is.
Drafts and unscrupulous recruiters capture people of all kinds and they don't make allowances for more anxious types who are going to be destroyed by it. You just take care of them when they get back, that's all you can do.
Yeah, not disputing that there were some egregious cases of veterans being ignored or abused. My granddad was a Vietnam vet and he said that the abandonment and mistreatment was overstated - there, but something too often used as a cudgel.
You just hit on one of my biggest pet peeves! When people "discover" something they think is new and breathlessly tell you their revelation with the zeal of a Born Again Christian as if we didn't already know. [Argh!]
Anyway ... about this particular topic though regarding the atomic bombings of Japan ... here's my two yen to add to this debate, Dave ... Twenty years ago I lived in the Land of the Rising Sun for a few years (doing the English teaching thing) and, as a good patriotic Western boy, I hadn't given much thought to whether or not the bombing was needed. Then I visited Hiroshima and toured the memorials, including going to the museum they have near their ground zero, and I must say it certainly provided food for thought on the "no" side. (I won't go into here, but there is real legitimacy to those people who argue this point -- as you say.) But then, in the course of my job at the time, I'd speak with many Japanese people including some elderly ones. I just so happened to speak to one particular man after my Hiroshima trip, who was born pre-war and had childhood memories of living under American occupation. When I asked him if he thought the bombing of Hiroshima was justified he said: "Yes, my people needed to be defeated and only technological superiority was going to convince us that we'd lost." That then led to Japan's total embrace of technology as a way to modernize their nation, which, as we know was one of the greatest turnarounds in history: total destruction to economic powerhouse in one generation. Amazing.
This man also said that the Japanese embrace of English language and Western clothing was itself a way to honor the victors, not out of submissiveness but due to respect. So being thoroughly defeated as they had been was the kick up the butt that they needed in order to shake them out of their isolation and become a member of the global community.
Final point ... what about Nagasaki? After all these years I've settled on the side of Hiroshima being an unpleasant necessity but Nagasaki not so much, especially as the Japanese were given such short notice on that one. It really was just to see how that bomb would perform in comparison to the other, and when we're talking about destroying a city full of civilians (terrorism?) I have to agree with the Candace Owenses of the world just on this one point.
I've read the U.S. War Dep't had chosen Kyoto to nuke, but Henry Stimson had been there as a young man and persuaded them not to do it.
Japan was pushed to the wall by FDR before WWII ("who gets to control the Pacific, you know"), much like our current gov't is pushing Russia over Ukraine. Pearl Harbor was a gift to FDR, just as a Russian strike on a NATO ally would be a gift to our current gov't.
Any serious argument around the use of the atomic bomb will come back to the matter of the emperor and unconditional surrender. There was a piece by Walter Trohan published in the Chicago Tribune on August 19, 1945, that is reproduced here:
Roosevelt Ignored M’Arthur Report On Nip Proposals
By Walter Trohan
-----
Make of that what you will, but since the Japanese monarchy was preserved after the war, it is plausible that the a-bombs could have been avoided. The issue is over unconditional surrender, since preserving the emperor was a condition which some Japanese militarists were fixed on. The US did preserve the emperor, but only after the Japanese unconditional surrender had made it possible for the US to abolish the emperor.
Unconditional surrender was something which came up on the Allied side because of the stab-in-the-back lie which scoundrels like Hindenburg, Hitler and Ludendorff had promoted after 1918. The Allies could have crushed Germany in 1919. Ludendorff resigned because he knew everything was hopeless. But once he was out of office, he began promoting the fake story that Germany had not been militarily overwhelmed but had simply been betrayed by Social Democrats and Catholic Centrists. There was a good case to be made in 1942 that Germany needed to be unconditionally trounced so that no such stab-in-the-back legend would ever arise after 1945.
Maybe it could have been done a bit differently with Japan to the point of allowing the emperor to be maintained in advance before the surrender.
It's still not obvious why it couldn't be announced that the Allies would accept the preservation of the monarchy in constitutional form. All of the arguments around the a-bomb come back to unconditional surrender and whether or not the monarchy would be preserved. Japanese Rightists in 1945 were determined that the monarchy should remain. Some were probably grumbling over the thought of a constitutional monarchy. But this was the rationale for continuing the war.
Now it's possible that if Truman had announced in July that the US would accept the maintenance of the emperor under a constitution, then some nutbars might still have wanted to continue the war. In that case, the rationale for the a-bomb would have been clearer. But this wasn't put to the test. Instead, unconditional surrender remained the terms in force.
> I just so happened to speak to one particular man after my Hiroshima trip, who was born pre-war and had childhood memories of living under American occupation. When I asked him if he thought the bombing of Hiroshima was justified he said: "Yes, my people needed to be defeated and only technological superiority was going to convince us that we'd lost."
Great column, Dave. The whole A-Bomb debate falls prey to the same problem most historical "look-backs" do: Trying to frame a 1945 problem in a 2024 lens. Something I rarely see is anyone discussing the general mood of the entire United States -- political & military leadership and about 99% of the populace -- near the end of the war. The prevailing attitude was that we needed to kill as many Germans and Japanese as we could, as quickly as we could, "by any means necessary", to borrow a phrase. General George Kenney, the commander of the US Army Air Forces in the Pacific, gives a sober and honest accounting of this drive in his wartime memoir. People forget what a vicious, existential fight WW2 really was and how much more clear-eyed people were in 1945 about the reality of human nature. The war didn't start in July of 1945, but most of the "debates" surrounding the bombings are conducted as if it did.
Your assessment of the importance of understanding how we "fight the after-war" is spot on. In a very real sense, the entire US military structure and philosophy is predicated on fighting WW2, only better. This is why, to a great extent, we have been unprepared for the fights we've been involved in post-1945. WW2 was an epochal event that we got really good as a nation at fighting, as odd as that sounds. It "left a mark", as the kids say, and we've been misunderstanding its lessons ever since.
Yes, c'est brillante! "We won WWII this way, why change our methods?"
Also the U.S. population during WWII had been heavily propagandized: sacrifice your son and we'll never have to fight another war again! Which is why the Korean war in '50-'53 turned so many sour.
Dave, have you read the Paul Fusell article, Thank God for the Atom Bomb? It's worse than people think. What these Anime-niacs where getting ready to do was monsterous. On the first day of the invasion they were going to exterminate ALL the Western POW's they had. Some 50,000 British, Dutch, French and American men women and children were to be masacred! They were getting ready kamakazi sea mines, torpedos, planes, trains. You name it. During the week that followed the attacks they sank 1 submarine, the USS Bonefish, with all hands lost, 2 destroyers, several planes and had "judiciously" executed 8 downed fliers by beheading. Sheesh! What a bunch of assholes!
Thanks, Dave, brilliant article, as always, and another history lesson!
But I'm not so sure we can avoid WWIII when you consider 1) human nature, and 2) the stupidity, corruption, and incompetence of those in charge, including the DEI hires, who are supplying US and NATO weapons and intelligence to Ukraine to attack Russia (including civilian and military targets within Russian!), a clear act of war, and pushing to include Ukraine in NATO despite previous assurances they would not.
Perhaps WWIII has already started. I wouldn't blame the Russians for responding with force against US and NATO targets.
Will this lead to Russia using tactical nuclear weapons? Or all-out nuclear war? One hopes cooler heads will prevail, but hope is not a strategy or a useful coping mechanism.
Please take care of yourself, Dave, we need your brilliant insight and analysis now more than ever. And I'd love to hear your opinion about the attempted Trump assassination. The details so far are beyond belief and mere incompetence. Shortly after, you published your article "Where's the Blood", which helped inform my analysis.
What can I say, my favorite TV shows were Quincy, Columbo, Barnaby Jones, and Forensic Files! And Charlie's Angels for a different but obvious reason. I still think about Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith in those 1970's bikinis! Sorry, TMI! Lol!
LOL! Columbo is eternally popular (justifiably so), but I think Quincy doesn't get the credit it deserves for being the pioneer of the CSI shows. One of my favorite Quincys had a corrupt doctor who decides to switch tissue samples from a corpse to clear his druggie son in a murder case, but what the bad doc doesn't know is, an Orthodox Jew had died, so a rabbi is sitting shiva in the morgue. The evil doc isn't expecting anyone there, and the rabbi sees him take the samples from the corpse. Quincy cracks the case by talking to the rabbi and putting two and two together. Quincy was always as good a detective as a coroner.
I recently watched that episode of Quincy! One of my favs, too! And Barnaby Jones was trained or had a degree in forensic science. Something I didn't know until I was much older. For me, shows like that laid the foundation for critical thinking and empirical analysis and helped me to break free from my cult upbringing, although I'm never truly free. The memories and consequences linger.
Anyways, besides being a drinking buddy, I could talk for hours with you. We have so much in common, and our birthdays are several days apart. Mine is August 27th, today! Buy me a beer! Wait, I don't have that link! Lol!
I was watching a Match Game ep from 1978, one of the questions required the contestant to fill in a sentence about Quincy performing an autopsy on (blank). I think every celeb answered "Brett Somers".
Yes, I agree that we are skirting WWIII in Ukraine. John Mearsheimer thinks so too and he's no Candace Owens. We think we can push the Russians without end and they'll just keep backing down, like we wrongly believe they did in the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm not sure why the Russians didn't reveal then to the world that the U.S. took missiles out of Turkey as part of the deal; big payoffs to the Russian leadership perhaps.
U.S. political leadership still thinks we're in the 1990s, when Russia was down and out. But Russia has built itself back up and it drives our politicos crazy. "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country" they say, but the U.S. is an open bar doing the same.
WWIII isn't gonna happen. It just isn't. And when it doesn't, some of you will say to me, "you made a lucky guess." That's why I try to be very clear that I'm not guessing - I'm knowing. It ain't gonna happen.
I've read and saved hundreds of your articles to know you never make lucky guesses. Thats's why I value your insight and keep an open mind. That said, I hope you're right. No sane person wants WWIII or any war.
World War 1 was gonna happen either. The German Bonaparte said it best: "When a war begins, it's like opening the door on a darkened room." Once they start wars can have a way of going in a direction few could have predicted.
You can't compare the situation in WWI to now. Putin initiated a massive ground war, which may or may not drag on for way more years than he anticipated (it already has). But I'm talking world war, and the mindset back then for something like that is completely incomparable to now. It's exactly what rightists hate - "the world is now run by oligarchs and MONEY and ONE WORLDERS" that alone makes the situation different from when kings and emperors would play around with global conflict for giggles like a board game.
How many people in 1910 thought the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be gone in ten years? Only wicked smaht people whom no one in power paid any attention to.
When George Ball warned JFK that troop increases in the early 1960s could end up with over half a million U.S. troops in V'nam, JFK said something like, "George, that's just crazy talk!"
I think Ball was the only honorable fellow in the JFK and Johnson administrations. Historian Jeff Shesol told me in an email that LBJ aide Harry McPherson was too, but I'm not so sure---still, here’s a fun anecdote from A Political Education by Harry McPherson:
Next morning, before he spoke, Johnson watched films of air attacks on bridges and roads around Hanoi. The briefing officer, an admiral, was especially proud of the “Wall-Eye” missile, which carried an image of its target, made by photo-reconnaissance planes, and homed in on whatever matched the image. There was a picture of one wobbling through the sky, and finally zooming down on the pier of a bridge. “Pretty accurate?” the President asked. “Yessir, pretty accurate.” “Does it miss sometimes?” “Occasionally it does, sir. It picks up a similar image away from its target, and homes in on that.” “So I might be trying to hit a barracks, and hit Ho Chi Minh’s house?” “Well, Mr. President, the accuracy rate is high . . .” “I’m trying to find out whether if I tell that thing to hit a Viet Cong, it might hit Lady Bird.” “Oh, I’m sure it wouldn’t do that, Mr. President.” “Uh-huh, O.K., thank you.”
I hope you're right. And if it doesn't happen I'll say, "I'm glad you were right."
Would you consider a war between NATO and Russia as WWIII, or would that only be if it goes nuclear? Neither side is willing to back down in Ukraine. The Poles want us to fight a war against Russia as much as Israel wants us to fight a war against Iran.
With the exception of radical Islamics, who don't have the ability to start a world war, nobody wants to see the world go up in flames. They are ALL invested in keeping the world turning. Even Russians. The world survived Andropov and Chernenko, two USSR leaders who were dying as they took office at the height of Cold War tensions (i.e. either of those guys could've started a war because they had like a year to live so why not if you're dying anyway?), but they didn't because there are always people behind the person, and posting photos of yourself shirtless riding a bear doesn't change that.
I'm more fearful of "Our Side" than I am of Putin. Both the U.S. and European ruling leadership have bet everything on Zelensky-Ukraine, and it's a losing horse.
Ha ha, safe bet, because if it does happen, we probably won't get much of a chance to say "I told you so Cole! By the way, how are you set for Iodine?"
Dave, a few hours reflection on your absolutist statement is scaring the hell out of me. As I know you well know, history is replete, knee-deep, overflowing like a laundry basket used as a bed by Ratibor & clan, with such absolutist "There's no way _____ can happen" statements. Maybe better not to tempt the Fates---perhaps say instead, "The likelihood of WWIII occurring is tiny, infinitesimal even."
The Dunciad by Alexander Pope. The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman.
I remember one of your docs recommending a medicine for your sour stomach; you asked him the Christian Szell question, and he replied, "Of course it's safe! It's been approved by the FDA!" Folly in the medical field is eyelids-deep: people go to a doctor and want a cure for what ails them; they want action, even if it's ignorant and foolish action.
There's no limit to the human folly by which we can be brought down.
There will be no American Civil War reboot, no race war, no world war, no global climate apocalypse in which millions die from flooding or burning etc, and no Rapture. I have never gone wrong betting against the apocalyptics. It's the surest bet possible.
I hate the war going on in Ukraine, but it is definitely weakening the Russian war-making capabilities, and our defense contractors are using it as a war laboratory.
According to the Polish defense department it is the Ukrainians who have been utterly worn down. They leaked that the AFU has suffered 1 million casualties by now.
You know they have. That's not all, they are learning all kinds of things about the weapon systems we use and their strengths and vulnerabilities. They are also ironing out all the kinks. Incompetents and time servers are being cashiered as well.
While there is truth in what you say about Russia's benefits from learning a few new tricks, they have also found out how far ahead of them our software is and that their strengths don't measure up to our highly sophisticated war-making ability. In a conventional war, we would have significant advantages against Russia.
It's also brought the Chinese and the Russians closer together, and that is hardly a natural alliance. It has strengthened BRICS+, from a pro forma alliance into a more formidable force. It's persuaded a number of nations to forgo using U.S. dollars as a currency for trading.
Well, as Ken Kesey told the Vietnam Day Committee in 1965, "Just turn your back on the whole war and say 'Fuck it.'"
The Chinese especially don't want global apocalyptic conflict; the fortunes of their leaders are tied up in business stability. If India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed nations run by religious nuts who hate each other with a burning passion, can avoid major conflict every time they jub-jub over Kashmir, everyone can, and will.
It's actually increased the Russian war making capabilities.
I suggest you change your news sources if you are being told that.
It's a US cope message after the Ukranian fightback was stalled in the second year of the war, and the Russians claimed back most of the territory and is increasing that territory slowly but surely.
Current events in Kursk is also not going to last as Ukraine is losing ground across the frontlines elsewhere.
This is all seen from the Ukranian side who publish the maps every day.
I suggest you check out the The New Atlas on YouTube and watch their latest video analysis on Kursk.
My news sources are The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Alexander Hamilton's New York Post, X, various hard right websites, anything connected to Google News or Apple News, and the inimitable David Cole's articles and other authors at Takimag. I'm retired and a very fast reader.
The Ukrainian Army of at best 1/4 the size of the Russians, uses sophisticated US software for finding and assessing, in seconds, high-value targets & guiding lethal force to exact locations. Costly and sophisticated surveillance, intelligence, and logistics donated by the US keep Russia off balance and only able to cope because we don't allow Ukraine more leeway to attack Russian territory. Plus, the Russians are belligerently plucky and won't admit they can't win, so they keep grinding up men and material in an embarrassing stalemate. The Ukrainians have held off an army that should have kicked their ass in two weeks.
If the US Army, Navy and Air Force, faggots and trannies and all, were to unleash their full capabilities directly, the Russians have seen what we can do, and they know we would wipe them out. The US software and AI kill chain capabilities scare the shit out of Russia. Nukes are the only thing they have that scares us.
The Russians are hand to mouth, niggardly rigging control systems from wherever they can get them, straining their factories to keep up with all the wasted dumb artillery they have lobbed downrange, in addition to their occasional crude guidance ordnance. Their manpower and weaponry is at best strained, and likely nearly depleted. They are likely down to their last spare parts for planes they are afraid to fly against US anti-aircraft weaponry.
They have wasted men and material, been severely degraded operationally, and will need years to catch up.
It is a logistics and PR victory for the West and a disaster for Russia.
I hate it anyway for all the killing and maiming, and I feel like Trump would have prevented it. I would vote for an immediate truce and succession of Ukranian territory at the current battlelines to Russia to stop it. It worked for Israel in 1967, and Vlad would take it.
Yeah, but...not ONE of them looked believable in a fight. Smith walked through every episode like she just got a manicure and didn't want to touch anything. I'd grown up on Avengers reruns, and Diana Rigg had a brutality along with her femininity that none of the Angels did. Hell, they never even looked comfortable holding a prop gun! Similar problem with Lynda Carter, the best genes that beans and Irishmen can produce; stunning lady. But as an action heroine, she NEVER looked invincible, but rather "I just did my hair" shy when it came to fighting.
Dave, I once dated a lovely woman who was half Japanese (Asian, obviously) on her mom's side and White on her father's side (former Marine). She treated me very well. She'd even cook me a hot lunch on occasion. How many women do that for their guy? I have very fond memories. If she's indicative of the average Japanese, then I love them all. Enjoyed the article.
Janet Sanders, a woman I worked with in the air force, half Jap on her mother's side. I still dream about her today 30+years later. What a vamp! She was like Betty Boop made flesh!
I enjoy the stupidity of the argument. The bombs were dropped, the war ended soon after, we won. Arguing about why we did it is just jerking off. And yea, I know those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, blah, blah, blah. What we should have learned mirrors what you said about Afghanistan, find where they are and flatten it, no need to sacrifice American troops.
The terms "Learn from history so we don't repeat the same mistakes" and "Reasonable doubt" in court trials should both be thrown in the garbage.
The only lessons people seem to learn from history is how to do bad things and I've watched enough TV court trials to know how many people end up being found guilty when there's a bucketload of reasonable doubt brought in to the trial.
As soon as I read the headline I was like "I bet this is related to candace owens." I don't pay any attention to her directly but I hear about her all the time.
She used to run a website that was designed from the ground up for the purpose of doxing enemies of the Left so that's I ever needed to know about her. She eventually realized that competition in that space was fierce since black female leftists are a dime a dozen but being a black female conservative is basically a unicorn who's all but guaranteed to get showered with money so she did the ole switcharoo.
I did find it funny that ben shapiro thought it was a good idea to hire & promote her. Her first round of promoting kanye was a complete disaster with him backing out of supporting trump so you'd think he would've tethered her in when she decided to go for round two. That blew up in ben's face spectacularly & yet he STILL kept her around right up until candace herself well full black israelite.
Candace has the black female diversity armor so youtube won't touch her even when the broken clock effect kicks in & she says something true they'd otherwise want to censor. Due to that she's not going anywhere, might as well get some popcorn because this is only the beginning, I'm counting down the days till she discovers flat earth- assuming she hasn't already.
Her trajectory reminds me of benjamin owen where he gobbled up redpills until he went insane. Difference is nobody will try to stop her descent into madness, instead everyone will just nod their heads the same everyone at the RNC recently did with that black stripper with the forehead tattoo because she's proof of concept that we really can get black people to adopt conservatism. Nobody ever stops to ask what's even being conserved with these moves that lower the shit out of our standards but hey, at least we have proof we're not racist, that'll show those leftists!
I hate to tell ya, but she did go flat earth, a few weeks ago. In her typically retarded fashion, she was like "I no longer trust science, which means I no longer believe that the earth if round," as if she's "punishing" scientists by adopting crazy. "Take THAT, scientists!"
Oh boy, I guess I was behind the curve on that one, my predictions were a little too optimistic. It's funny that despite her lack of ebonics she's still fundamentally a typical black woman, that's like a high level version of a black lady snapping her fingers while cocking her head to the side & saying "nuh uh, dat earf be flat, you ain’t foolin me, uh uh." Same energy lol.
I've noticed for people who don't have much experience with blacks when they're well spoken it's like a siren call that lulls people into a false sense that they're talking to someone reasonable & often leads to people walking right into a social landmine.
Thank you for reminding me of the taki article this week BTW, forgot to check to see if it was up, I'm gonna go read that right now.
It's much better to judge them by their actions. Some of them are alright, but I always play the odds, remain cautious, and don't let my wallet out of sight.
All I knew about the early days of candace was that website & her heel turn on youtube, I always wondered how she ingratiated herself with the mainstream but I would've never guessed it was Horowitz. Crazy!
Also "vaginal rabbit pheromone" I lol'd hard at this god damn.
Top tier article this week man, I didn't know half of this about her. Now I understand why shapiro tolerated her for so long thinking she'd take the hint. Very insightful.
Awesome column, Dave. I too was taken aback by the outright falsehood that the Japanese were ready to surrender. I know you're not a fan of the Daily Wire's movies and series, and in general I agree that they are not that useful in the culture war, though some are quite entertaining. One exception is a series on their site called "What we Saw" hosted by Bill Whittle. He had an entire series on the cold war, and he covers the A-bombs dropped on Japan (not directly part of the cold war, but did have a profound effect on it) and the fact that some were willing to stage a coup to prevent the surrender of Japan. He also mentioned an effort to provide every Japanese civilian weapons to repel the upcoming ground invasion of Japan. Not to mention that the reason we had to drop two bombs on them was because they didn't surrender after the first one.
Growing up in the South, I always had a dislike of General Sherman and his march to the sea. However, I understand the strategy, and it goes to the theme of your column. Sherman understood the war wouldn't end until the will of the southerners was broken, so he went on a rampage, destroying infrastructure, burning plantations, and pretty much salting the Earth. And you know what? It worked.
Hi Dave , this is Jaye from Chicago . The Obamas made my neighborhood their base of operations here . Their first mansion ( they have 3 now in DC diplomat neighborhood , Magnum PI estate in Hawaii and country estate in Martha s Vineyard MA - these places have ~ 0% Poor Black people. I m living next to the largest all Black Black ‘hoods in North America . The Obama s mansion here was 3 blocks from where I grew up and was right next to a Jewish Synagogue that looks like an Islamic mosque - not an accident .
Dave I always appreciate your highest views about racial realities from your unique Si Cal KA J perspective .
My views on 9-11-01, foreign wars especially J Neo Con wars , national building , “ making the world safe for American style Democracy ( World War I nonsense ), George HW Bush Sr fighting Saddam Hussein another Hitler realizing the dream of a Bew World Order under the United Nations , then his stupid Yale frat Boy don George W Bush mouthing worst ever Je@ Neo Con speech writer David Frums “ Axis of Evil speech …
All ridiculous nonsense .
I lived in New York City racial , immigration hell 1985-91 - I predicted Islamic terrorist slaughters in NYC and left B4 the first one in 1993 against the WTC - the mastermind terrorist was a blind Egyptian cleric with a hook for a hand - I couldn’t t create a better propaganda enemy - but of course the GOP Stupid party will never us him , 9/11/01 Muhamed Ata - they ll invade the world for Israel and White , Russian hating Neo Con Js , then cheerfully accept millions s of nasty Arabs , Pakistani Islamists that hate us to move here and to England , Sweden to rape our girls and knives murder our elderly make London /Londonstan and smear any of us who object to invade the world , invite the world as a Racist NAZI , or a Bkafimir Putin .
Sigh
That was a long rant .
I ll buy you a couple of beers if you take the time to read and comment on my long rant .
Yeah, the Axis of Evil was pretty unconvincing, even right after 9/11.
John Mearsheimer blames Bush for starting the current Ukraine war by declaring at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest that both Ukraine and Georgia would both join NATO down the road---kinda like Putin announcing that Canada and Mexico will eventually be joining BRICS+.
The two worst things in history for the white man were Adolph Hitler and African slavery, we gonna be diggin' out of that for another 100 years or so. We should disown the lazy and stupid white guys who make the other 90% of us look bad.
As for Candace Owens, I've paid little attention to her, and only a few of my buddies ever talk about her. My biggest reason for not liking her is that she wants to ban porn!
If anyone ever does mention her again, I'm going to use your line about the airplane pilot!
I have a friend who's as active in conservative circles now as I was 14 years ago, and he's like "90% of the people I meet don't talk about Candace at all, but the 10% who do are INSANELY crazy in love with her and fixated on her every word."
Damn Dave!
You're getting crankier by the day!
By the way, and you'll love this little factoid- Your nemesis, Ron Unz, published an article about Candace today as well.
Cheers!
Not a case of "great minds think alike"...more a case of "great mind inadvertently mirrored by Elephant Man mind."
By the way, I think you're too hard on Candace. You have to remember that she is still pretty young, 35, and most of the stuff that she is talking about right now, she only discovered in the past 12 months or so? She's still in that discovery phase, but I think she's on the right path, all things considered.
Besides, not everyone is a product for everybody to consume, i.e. she obviously has her own little niche audience, and for her, and them, this is all relatively new ideas, facts, concepts.
She's not exactly a classically trained historian.
She had her little feud with Benny Boy Shapiro, got some shots in, (he helped by getting completely unhinged over Oct. 7th), and now she's learning some stuff that many of us knew about decades ago.
By the way, Unz's take was that he found it odd that she hasn't been cancelled, yet, and attributed it to her being a bit of a fringe lightweight on many topics, including some stuff that he found odd, like Macron's grandmother wife being a dude.
You are NOT gonna like the Taki's column that'll be posting soon.
Ha ha, what? Why? I think it's great. "The Jews lost control of their black Golem, and now it's turned on them", that's good stuff!
Being purely analytical about it, love it or hate it, Candace has gotten all this "buzz", and press, and coverage, which only raises her profile, I suppose.
Just wait until she finds out about the moon landing, and who was really behind 9-11!
Cheers!
35 is NOT young. The extended adolescence in our culture is out of control right now.
I used to work for an off-Broadway theater, when their "youth" pricing went up to 30 I realized our culture was starting to have a problem.
Yes, we're deindustrialized. There are fewer big jobs. But Owens got one of those. By virtue of being cute and Black she cut the line and went from being an office manager or something - in charge of ordering folders, keeping conference rooms neat - to having a political platform.
She hasn't even suffered the setbacks of the 2008 crash or the pandemic, what that did to people 35-45 and their finances. She's been printing money for years.
Don't make excuses for her lack of maturity or her inability to take advice. There are REALLY dumb actors and athletes who, by virtue of listening to their agents, come across as brighter than Owens. She has no excuse.
She's, one, clearly too dumb for the platform that was just gifted to her. And two, also too dumb to stop biting the hand that feeds her. No excuses. She hasn't been working 3 jobs to support her Vietnam-syndrome dad and siblings after the factory closed, followed by 3 jobs trying to get into college somehow, then she woke up at near 40 with no sense and no real grounding in anything.
She won a lawsuit in HS, got a massive settlement, went to a state college but dropped out. She has always been dumb in spite of every windfall that's come her way.
Well-said!
Amen. So many people are getting sick of her "hustle" I wonder when it flubs out and she starts an OF account.
Very possible!
Even worse, how many of these nerds will go pay to see it.
She is "young" relative to (Dave and I) 9/11, or what she was probably taught about WWII, etc.
And who is "making excuses" for her? She is practically a household name, but is at least very widely recognized. She had her own gig, got on the The Daily Wire, feuded with all of them, got bounced, now is even more well known, and has countless lessor known people talking about her, including Cole and Unz on the same day.
She's not a Rhodes Scholar, she's an "Internet Celebrity/Commentator". As far as success in that world goes, she's a goddamned rock star.
You guys can hate her for it, like many hate everyone else in that realm, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been successful.
Hell, I could name a dozen people that you know of, that all followed a similar path. Some are great, some are buffoons, and some are just "meh", but it's a gig, and many of them have gotten pretty far doing it.
And just like Candace is still relatively "young", most of us are relatively "old", because we still think that Internet Stardom is rather juvenile and niche, when the fact is, it's the modern star chamber to success.
Also, being a little dumb, is hardly a disqualifier in that world either.
Lastly, it's pretty easy and convenient to sit on the Internet, and talk about the individual failings of many a Internet success story, because they aren't perfect, or because we don't agree with everything they say, or because we think they are beneath us, etc., but the reality is that they are, none the less, very successful in that space, and achieving fame, notoriety, fortune, and influence, despite their failings, so much of it probably comes down to envy.
Hell Bells, we're all sitting here talking about her, aren't we?
Cole has never done an article about me! And I'm practically his best friend! (j/k)
LOL!
Well, Mike, we're about two months away from seeing whether the right's bonehead "influencers," with tens of millions of combined followers, help or hurt the election of their God King.
Dave, you wrote earlier that you did a podcast with Mark Weber. Is this out yet and where?
Yeah… if you still believe that elections are legit. At this point, I’m praying for Civil War, WWIII, or the biggest goddamned asteroid since Godzilla roamed the Earth! By the way, now that the heat is ebbing, can we expect some Video Cole? Or as I call it… The Coooooole Train!
But the extended adolescence is because of mandatory public schooling and---- oops, sorry!
Philip Roth said you can't stay young but you can stay immature. Many have proven him right.
But why become mature and get married and have babies when doing so looks like a sucker's game? The State has ultimate control, power, the last word, over the children's fates, but the parents get stuck with all the bills. Responsibility without power, that's parenthood in the industrialized world. Is it any wonder birth rates are so low?
I think the only people who should have children are those willing to sacrifice for them. People who don't want kids should be left alone. Shitty parents fuck up kids even more than liberalism and black folks. Almost every good kid out there has parents who love and sacrifice for them. Almost every bad kid has parents who fucked up again and again. I watch it happen every day, but they don't ask me for advice.
I never even had to spank my kids. If they screwed up, we would talk it out until dawn if necessary, even if it cost my money or sleep or problems at work. Nothing was more important to me. They are happy and well-adjusted contributors to this liberal shithole we call America.
I have several children, and my life is much better for it. Fortunately, my wife and I have the resources to provide for them, and we love them. They are on their own now.
If my son were ever drafted, I would have begged the authorities to let me go in his place. Not to coddle him, but I wouldn't want him to die for America. Me, I'm old, who gives a fuck?
No, it's not. If anything public schools are churning out the only sensible working people in our society. When you go to the grocery store the cashier was probably not a product of hand-wringing Christian homeschoolers or Lutheran school. Your auto mechanic? Probably public school. The CNA who wipes your mom's ass in assisted living? Public school or dropped out of Mexican public school in the 3rd grade. Public schools are just NOT the problem.
The reason we got things like "on your parents' insurance until you're 26" or "youth pricing until you're 50" is actually about middle class people coddling their kids. Mom and Dad's insurance until 26 was a sop to elites who can't imagine poor Jimmy or Susie getting a Medicaid root canal after they get home from Peace Corps but before they're on their law school health insurance.
In the same way, the tranny thing is mostly spoiled white kids. The kind whose parents want to march into school and argue them into an A+ average and try to get the teacher who failed them just for not showing up or working fired.
Public schools are NOT the problem. Most people who go to public schools end up just fine, regardless of what books the librarian is highlighting. Did you EVER ask the school librarian for advice on ANYTHING? Or did you just use the card catalog like a normal person of normal intelligence? Were you hanging out in the guidance counselor's office all day? Most kids are FINE, they ignore their teachers just like we did.
Public schools mostly churn out workers. In the 70s when California guidance counselors were telling parents "Hey man the kids like weed they experiment maaan" it didn't break the country. The trans bullshit won't either.
That's a good angle, and accurate. While I despise the TikTok teachers who brag about teaching trannyism in the classroom, that shit CAN be stopped (as DeSantis is doing). The much bigger problem is middle and upper-middle class white liberal parents who use their "tranny" kids to score social points for themselves in their elite little circles. And how do you stop THAT? Conservatives are the first to say "PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WHATEVER! PARENTAL CONTROL!" Well, who coddles the tranny kids? For every story about shocked parents whose kid secretly "transitioned" with the help of a teacher there's 100 stories of parents encouraging little Bipsy to transition, then bragging about it at brunch.
Candace is going for the Alex Jones target audience after Blexit fell flat on its face in 2020 when the black vote was as terrible as normal when it comes to voting Republican.
She's the new pretty face of Alex Jones, updated to also appeal to the likes of the groper nerds among other targets.
She's seen a gap in that space and she's more than willing to fill it.
This is why the Daily Wire gave her the boot, they saw where she was heading.
Ironically dropping the bombs on Japan was the humane way to wage that war. The bombs were brutal yes, but a ground invasion of Japan would have cost exponentially more lives both American and Japanese.
Yes, and the Russians would have taken part too---they woulda LOVED to get some revenge for the humiliation they suffered in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. And I think it's safe to say that much of Japan's territory would now belong to Russia!
You're right about the ground invasion.
What many say is that the A-bomb could have been dropped off the coast of Tokyo, instead of on a city, as a warning that this is what is in store for them if they don't surrender.
Other say that because the USA only had two A-bombs they didn't want to waste one as a warning.
That's only if you take unconditional surrender as a given.
I think that in my lifetime the right has grown more susceptible to anti-American propaganda because of its beloved macho-maudlin tropes. You see it in a lot Eastwood stuff like Gran Turino with the jaded permacripple, or American Sniper where the hero is a misunderstood victim. You see it in the Wounded Warrior stuff that shows veterans as broken, emotionally incontinent, and pathetic beings instead of powerful and dignified men to be respected and not pitied.
This coincides with the corporate SEAL leadership consulting or Black Rifle Coffee crap to make everything military look gay and fake.
Very interesting observations!
I don't think the wounded warrior thing is bad. Taking care of disabled vets IS important. And the Wounded Warrior thing is an important corrective to the way we abandoned vets after Vietnam.
I DO think former SEALs who write stupid corporate advice books that doughy CRE brokers gobble up are bad for the military. Those guys know they sit on their asses all day and they're hungry for "traditional masculinity" even though they're too lazy to mow their own lawns. The SEAL guys are filling a market niche but it manages to come across as both gross and stupid. I DO also think people bragging about all their alleged kills as a sniper is a worse look for the military than the noble silent stoic thing.
I was a cute 20 something when people were coming back from Afghanistan bragging about killing a bunch of inbred third world have-nothings and accusing me of being a "communist" for not wanting to listen to that shit. Oh you murdered some tards who didn't have anything in a war about nothing? They were all like, fry cooks who were trying to convince me they'd been snipers, too. Odd how they ended up as fry cooks instead of in private security as highly sought-after hires. Odd how they never suspected I have family members who were actually Marine of the Quarter or whatever, and I might be able to see through their bullshit. But the post-9/11 worship of anything military has empowered a bunch of terrible guys to try and run game on most of society.
The worship of the military right now is as gross as when we ignored all the wounded vets who'd been doused with Agent Orange. Right now there are a lot of guys who worked as truck mechanics in the Army puffing out their chests bragging about their "heroism" and it's very obvious lying. THAT is way worse for everyone than the WWII thing of "don't talk about the war or what you did in it."
Like the post, but just to clarify: it’s not a statement about the help vets program, just the trope of veteran as a pathetic and incompetent person instead of a proud member of society.
Loved the part with the fry cooks
But most people know or are related to veterans who work. When I was a kid, there were Vietnam vets who were destroyed and slept in the library.
There were also Vietnam vets working as our family doctor and as teachers. There have always been sensitive people who get destroyed by what they see in war; there have always been more resilient people. It just is what it is.
Drafts and unscrupulous recruiters capture people of all kinds and they don't make allowances for more anxious types who are going to be destroyed by it. You just take care of them when they get back, that's all you can do.
Yeah, not disputing that there were some egregious cases of veterans being ignored or abused. My granddad was a Vietnam vet and he said that the abandonment and mistreatment was overstated - there, but something too often used as a cudgel.
You just hit on one of my biggest pet peeves! When people "discover" something they think is new and breathlessly tell you their revelation with the zeal of a Born Again Christian as if we didn't already know. [Argh!]
Anyway ... about this particular topic though regarding the atomic bombings of Japan ... here's my two yen to add to this debate, Dave ... Twenty years ago I lived in the Land of the Rising Sun for a few years (doing the English teaching thing) and, as a good patriotic Western boy, I hadn't given much thought to whether or not the bombing was needed. Then I visited Hiroshima and toured the memorials, including going to the museum they have near their ground zero, and I must say it certainly provided food for thought on the "no" side. (I won't go into here, but there is real legitimacy to those people who argue this point -- as you say.) But then, in the course of my job at the time, I'd speak with many Japanese people including some elderly ones. I just so happened to speak to one particular man after my Hiroshima trip, who was born pre-war and had childhood memories of living under American occupation. When I asked him if he thought the bombing of Hiroshima was justified he said: "Yes, my people needed to be defeated and only technological superiority was going to convince us that we'd lost." That then led to Japan's total embrace of technology as a way to modernize their nation, which, as we know was one of the greatest turnarounds in history: total destruction to economic powerhouse in one generation. Amazing.
This man also said that the Japanese embrace of English language and Western clothing was itself a way to honor the victors, not out of submissiveness but due to respect. So being thoroughly defeated as they had been was the kick up the butt that they needed in order to shake them out of their isolation and become a member of the global community.
Final point ... what about Nagasaki? After all these years I've settled on the side of Hiroshima being an unpleasant necessity but Nagasaki not so much, especially as the Japanese were given such short notice on that one. It really was just to see how that bomb would perform in comparison to the other, and when we're talking about destroying a city full of civilians (terrorism?) I have to agree with the Candace Owenses of the world just on this one point.
Thank you for the personal and thought-provoking comment, Bill.
I've read the U.S. War Dep't had chosen Kyoto to nuke, but Henry Stimson had been there as a young man and persuaded them not to do it.
Japan was pushed to the wall by FDR before WWII ("who gets to control the Pacific, you know"), much like our current gov't is pushing Russia over Ukraine. Pearl Harbor was a gift to FDR, just as a Russian strike on a NATO ally would be a gift to our current gov't.
Any serious argument around the use of the atomic bomb will come back to the matter of the emperor and unconditional surrender. There was a piece by Walter Trohan published in the Chicago Tribune on August 19, 1945, that is reproduced here:
https://ihr.org/journal/v06p508_Hoffman.html
-----
Chicago Tribune, August 19,1945
JAPS ASKED PEACE IN JAN. ENVOYS ON WAY — TOKYO
Roosevelt Ignored M’Arthur Report On Nip Proposals
By Walter Trohan
-----
Make of that what you will, but since the Japanese monarchy was preserved after the war, it is plausible that the a-bombs could have been avoided. The issue is over unconditional surrender, since preserving the emperor was a condition which some Japanese militarists were fixed on. The US did preserve the emperor, but only after the Japanese unconditional surrender had made it possible for the US to abolish the emperor.
Unconditional surrender was something which came up on the Allied side because of the stab-in-the-back lie which scoundrels like Hindenburg, Hitler and Ludendorff had promoted after 1918. The Allies could have crushed Germany in 1919. Ludendorff resigned because he knew everything was hopeless. But once he was out of office, he began promoting the fake story that Germany had not been militarily overwhelmed but had simply been betrayed by Social Democrats and Catholic Centrists. There was a good case to be made in 1942 that Germany needed to be unconditionally trounced so that no such stab-in-the-back legend would ever arise after 1945.
Maybe it could have been done a bit differently with Japan to the point of allowing the emperor to be maintained in advance before the surrender.
It's still not obvious why it couldn't be announced that the Allies would accept the preservation of the monarchy in constitutional form. All of the arguments around the a-bomb come back to unconditional surrender and whether or not the monarchy would be preserved. Japanese Rightists in 1945 were determined that the monarchy should remain. Some were probably grumbling over the thought of a constitutional monarchy. But this was the rationale for continuing the war.
Now it's possible that if Truman had announced in July that the US would accept the maintenance of the emperor under a constitution, then some nutbars might still have wanted to continue the war. In that case, the rationale for the a-bomb would have been clearer. But this wasn't put to the test. Instead, unconditional surrender remained the terms in force.
> I just so happened to speak to one particular man after my Hiroshima trip, who was born pre-war and had childhood memories of living under American occupation. When I asked him if he thought the bombing of Hiroshima was justified he said: "Yes, my people needed to be defeated and only technological superiority was going to convince us that we'd lost."
Cuckolded people will say such things.
Great column, Dave. The whole A-Bomb debate falls prey to the same problem most historical "look-backs" do: Trying to frame a 1945 problem in a 2024 lens. Something I rarely see is anyone discussing the general mood of the entire United States -- political & military leadership and about 99% of the populace -- near the end of the war. The prevailing attitude was that we needed to kill as many Germans and Japanese as we could, as quickly as we could, "by any means necessary", to borrow a phrase. General George Kenney, the commander of the US Army Air Forces in the Pacific, gives a sober and honest accounting of this drive in his wartime memoir. People forget what a vicious, existential fight WW2 really was and how much more clear-eyed people were in 1945 about the reality of human nature. The war didn't start in July of 1945, but most of the "debates" surrounding the bombings are conducted as if it did.
Your assessment of the importance of understanding how we "fight the after-war" is spot on. In a very real sense, the entire US military structure and philosophy is predicated on fighting WW2, only better. This is why, to a great extent, we have been unprepared for the fights we've been involved in post-1945. WW2 was an epochal event that we got really good as a nation at fighting, as odd as that sounds. It "left a mark", as the kids say, and we've been misunderstanding its lessons ever since.
Great comment - thank you!
Yes, c'est brillante! "We won WWII this way, why change our methods?"
Also the U.S. population during WWII had been heavily propagandized: sacrifice your son and we'll never have to fight another war again! Which is why the Korean war in '50-'53 turned so many sour.
Dave, have you read the Paul Fusell article, Thank God for the Atom Bomb? It's worse than people think. What these Anime-niacs where getting ready to do was monsterous. On the first day of the invasion they were going to exterminate ALL the Western POW's they had. Some 50,000 British, Dutch, French and American men women and children were to be masacred! They were getting ready kamakazi sea mines, torpedos, planes, trains. You name it. During the week that followed the attacks they sank 1 submarine, the USS Bonefish, with all hands lost, 2 destroyers, several planes and had "judiciously" executed 8 downed fliers by beheading. Sheesh! What a bunch of assholes!
I read that piece years ago; just bookmarked it to read again. Thanks!
Still I love the food and monster culture and cannot wait to visit Tokyo this fall.
Thanks, Dave, brilliant article, as always, and another history lesson!
But I'm not so sure we can avoid WWIII when you consider 1) human nature, and 2) the stupidity, corruption, and incompetence of those in charge, including the DEI hires, who are supplying US and NATO weapons and intelligence to Ukraine to attack Russia (including civilian and military targets within Russian!), a clear act of war, and pushing to include Ukraine in NATO despite previous assurances they would not.
Perhaps WWIII has already started. I wouldn't blame the Russians for responding with force against US and NATO targets.
Will this lead to Russia using tactical nuclear weapons? Or all-out nuclear war? One hopes cooler heads will prevail, but hope is not a strategy or a useful coping mechanism.
Please take care of yourself, Dave, we need your brilliant insight and analysis now more than ever. And I'd love to hear your opinion about the attempted Trump assassination. The details so far are beyond belief and mere incompetence. Shortly after, you published your article "Where's the Blood", which helped inform my analysis.
What can I say, my favorite TV shows were Quincy, Columbo, Barnaby Jones, and Forensic Files! And Charlie's Angels for a different but obvious reason. I still think about Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith in those 1970's bikinis! Sorry, TMI! Lol!
LOL! Columbo is eternally popular (justifiably so), but I think Quincy doesn't get the credit it deserves for being the pioneer of the CSI shows. One of my favorite Quincys had a corrupt doctor who decides to switch tissue samples from a corpse to clear his druggie son in a murder case, but what the bad doc doesn't know is, an Orthodox Jew had died, so a rabbi is sitting shiva in the morgue. The evil doc isn't expecting anyone there, and the rabbi sees him take the samples from the corpse. Quincy cracks the case by talking to the rabbi and putting two and two together. Quincy was always as good a detective as a coroner.
I recently watched that episode of Quincy! One of my favs, too! And Barnaby Jones was trained or had a degree in forensic science. Something I didn't know until I was much older. For me, shows like that laid the foundation for critical thinking and empirical analysis and helped me to break free from my cult upbringing, although I'm never truly free. The memories and consequences linger.
Anyways, besides being a drinking buddy, I could talk for hours with you. We have so much in common, and our birthdays are several days apart. Mine is August 27th, today! Buy me a beer! Wait, I don't have that link! Lol!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY my good friend and fellow Virgo! All my best for a great day!
Thanks, Dave!
I was watching a Match Game ep from 1978, one of the questions required the contestant to fill in a sentence about Quincy performing an autopsy on (blank). I think every celeb answered "Brett Somers".
Just think how brilliant Peter Falk would have been if he had two good eyes!
Yes, I agree that we are skirting WWIII in Ukraine. John Mearsheimer thinks so too and he's no Candace Owens. We think we can push the Russians without end and they'll just keep backing down, like we wrongly believe they did in the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm not sure why the Russians didn't reveal then to the world that the U.S. took missiles out of Turkey as part of the deal; big payoffs to the Russian leadership perhaps.
U.S. political leadership still thinks we're in the 1990s, when Russia was down and out. But Russia has built itself back up and it drives our politicos crazy. "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country" they say, but the U.S. is an open bar doing the same.
WWIII isn't gonna happen. It just isn't. And when it doesn't, some of you will say to me, "you made a lucky guess." That's why I try to be very clear that I'm not guessing - I'm knowing. It ain't gonna happen.
I've read and saved hundreds of your articles to know you never make lucky guesses. Thats's why I value your insight and keep an open mind. That said, I hope you're right. No sane person wants WWIII or any war.
World War 1 was gonna happen either. The German Bonaparte said it best: "When a war begins, it's like opening the door on a darkened room." Once they start wars can have a way of going in a direction few could have predicted.
You can't compare the situation in WWI to now. Putin initiated a massive ground war, which may or may not drag on for way more years than he anticipated (it already has). But I'm talking world war, and the mindset back then for something like that is completely incomparable to now. It's exactly what rightists hate - "the world is now run by oligarchs and MONEY and ONE WORLDERS" that alone makes the situation different from when kings and emperors would play around with global conflict for giggles like a board game.
Yes they're different but I mean only to point out the risk of miscalculation in such cases.
How many people in 1910 thought the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be gone in ten years? Only wicked smaht people whom no one in power paid any attention to.
When George Ball warned JFK that troop increases in the early 1960s could end up with over half a million U.S. troops in V'nam, JFK said something like, "George, that's just crazy talk!"
I think Ball was the only honorable fellow in the JFK and Johnson administrations. Historian Jeff Shesol told me in an email that LBJ aide Harry McPherson was too, but I'm not so sure---still, here’s a fun anecdote from A Political Education by Harry McPherson:
Next morning, before he spoke, Johnson watched films of air attacks on bridges and roads around Hanoi. The briefing officer, an admiral, was especially proud of the “Wall-Eye” missile, which carried an image of its target, made by photo-reconnaissance planes, and homed in on whatever matched the image. There was a picture of one wobbling through the sky, and finally zooming down on the pier of a bridge. “Pretty accurate?” the President asked. “Yessir, pretty accurate.” “Does it miss sometimes?” “Occasionally it does, sir. It picks up a similar image away from its target, and homes in on that.” “So I might be trying to hit a barracks, and hit Ho Chi Minh’s house?” “Well, Mr. President, the accuracy rate is high . . .” “I’m trying to find out whether if I tell that thing to hit a Viet Cong, it might hit Lady Bird.” “Oh, I’m sure it wouldn’t do that, Mr. President.” “Uh-huh, O.K., thank you.”
I hope you're right. And if it doesn't happen I'll say, "I'm glad you were right."
Would you consider a war between NATO and Russia as WWIII, or would that only be if it goes nuclear? Neither side is willing to back down in Ukraine. The Poles want us to fight a war against Russia as much as Israel wants us to fight a war against Iran.
With the exception of radical Islamics, who don't have the ability to start a world war, nobody wants to see the world go up in flames. They are ALL invested in keeping the world turning. Even Russians. The world survived Andropov and Chernenko, two USSR leaders who were dying as they took office at the height of Cold War tensions (i.e. either of those guys could've started a war because they had like a year to live so why not if you're dying anyway?), but they didn't because there are always people behind the person, and posting photos of yourself shirtless riding a bear doesn't change that.
I'm more fearful of "Our Side" than I am of Putin. Both the U.S. and European ruling leadership have bet everything on Zelensky-Ukraine, and it's a losing horse.
Except they haven't lost anything.
Their proxy Ukraine and their evergreen enemy, Russia have lost lives in a brutal, though still, small scale war.
The billions in aid mostly ends up back with the military contractors who are in bed with the warmongers, so we are led to believe.
If the war ends with Russia expanding its western borders a few hundred kilometres it's not going to cause the US to launch a war against Russia.
We are in a completely different era to that of 1914 or 1939.
Ha ha, safe bet, because if it does happen, we probably won't get much of a chance to say "I told you so Cole! By the way, how are you set for Iodine?"
Dave, a few hours reflection on your absolutist statement is scaring the hell out of me. As I know you well know, history is replete, knee-deep, overflowing like a laundry basket used as a bed by Ratibor & clan, with such absolutist "There's no way _____ can happen" statements. Maybe better not to tempt the Fates---perhaps say instead, "The likelihood of WWIII occurring is tiny, infinitesimal even."
The Dunciad by Alexander Pope. The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman.
I remember one of your docs recommending a medicine for your sour stomach; you asked him the Christian Szell question, and he replied, "Of course it's safe! It's been approved by the FDA!" Folly in the medical field is eyelids-deep: people go to a doctor and want a cure for what ails them; they want action, even if it's ignorant and foolish action.
There's no limit to the human folly by which we can be brought down.
There will be no American Civil War reboot, no race war, no world war, no global climate apocalypse in which millions die from flooding or burning etc, and no Rapture. I have never gone wrong betting against the apocalyptics. It's the surest bet possible.
I'm betting your dad told Vernon that "no way these pills will hurt your boy"!
I hate the war going on in Ukraine, but it is definitely weakening the Russian war-making capabilities, and our defense contractors are using it as a war laboratory.
I agree with your latter point, but not the first: I think the Russian army has become razor-sharp from the 2+ years of war.
I would assert they are likely worn out from all the fighting, and most of the men would desert if their own officers wouldn't shoot them.
We need Trump to work out a deal with Vlad.
According to the Polish defense department it is the Ukrainians who have been utterly worn down. They leaked that the AFU has suffered 1 million casualties by now.
I'm sure the Ukrainians are worn down. The Russians are tough and stubborn bastards, and massively outnumber them.
You know they have. That's not all, they are learning all kinds of things about the weapon systems we use and their strengths and vulnerabilities. They are also ironing out all the kinks. Incompetents and time servers are being cashiered as well.
While there is truth in what you say about Russia's benefits from learning a few new tricks, they have also found out how far ahead of them our software is and that their strengths don't measure up to our highly sophisticated war-making ability. In a conventional war, we would have significant advantages against Russia.
It's also brought the Chinese and the Russians closer together, and that is hardly a natural alliance. It has strengthened BRICS+, from a pro forma alliance into a more formidable force. It's persuaded a number of nations to forgo using U.S. dollars as a currency for trading.
Well, as Ken Kesey told the Vietnam Day Committee in 1965, "Just turn your back on the whole war and say 'Fuck it.'"
The Chinese especially don't want global apocalyptic conflict; the fortunes of their leaders are tied up in business stability. If India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed nations run by religious nuts who hate each other with a burning passion, can avoid major conflict every time they jub-jub over Kashmir, everyone can, and will.
It's actually increased the Russian war making capabilities.
I suggest you change your news sources if you are being told that.
It's a US cope message after the Ukranian fightback was stalled in the second year of the war, and the Russians claimed back most of the territory and is increasing that territory slowly but surely.
Current events in Kursk is also not going to last as Ukraine is losing ground across the frontlines elsewhere.
This is all seen from the Ukranian side who publish the maps every day.
I suggest you check out the The New Atlas on YouTube and watch their latest video analysis on Kursk.
My news sources are The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Alexander Hamilton's New York Post, X, various hard right websites, anything connected to Google News or Apple News, and the inimitable David Cole's articles and other authors at Takimag. I'm retired and a very fast reader.
The Ukrainian Army of at best 1/4 the size of the Russians, uses sophisticated US software for finding and assessing, in seconds, high-value targets & guiding lethal force to exact locations. Costly and sophisticated surveillance, intelligence, and logistics donated by the US keep Russia off balance and only able to cope because we don't allow Ukraine more leeway to attack Russian territory. Plus, the Russians are belligerently plucky and won't admit they can't win, so they keep grinding up men and material in an embarrassing stalemate. The Ukrainians have held off an army that should have kicked their ass in two weeks.
If the US Army, Navy and Air Force, faggots and trannies and all, were to unleash their full capabilities directly, the Russians have seen what we can do, and they know we would wipe them out. The US software and AI kill chain capabilities scare the shit out of Russia. Nukes are the only thing they have that scares us.
The Russians are hand to mouth, niggardly rigging control systems from wherever they can get them, straining their factories to keep up with all the wasted dumb artillery they have lobbed downrange, in addition to their occasional crude guidance ordnance. Their manpower and weaponry is at best strained, and likely nearly depleted. They are likely down to their last spare parts for planes they are afraid to fly against US anti-aircraft weaponry.
They have wasted men and material, been severely degraded operationally, and will need years to catch up.
It is a logistics and PR victory for the West and a disaster for Russia.
I hate it anyway for all the killing and maiming, and I feel like Trump would have prevented it. I would vote for an immediate truce and succession of Ukranian territory at the current battlelines to Russia to stop it. It worked for Israel in 1967, and Vlad would take it.
Your sources are awful, continue to enjoy your alternative version of the war provided for you by the US government.
Did you see where I mentioned "various hard right websites?"
New York Post?
X?
I'm generally considered so far right that I'm concerned the gummint will whack me. From here on out, I'll use you as a reference!
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, Tanya Roberts
Yeah, they were all smokin' hot!!! And feminine with no tats, fake boobs, or radical feminist attitudes. Just genuine beauty!
Yeah, but...not ONE of them looked believable in a fight. Smith walked through every episode like she just got a manicure and didn't want to touch anything. I'd grown up on Avengers reruns, and Diana Rigg had a brutality along with her femininity that none of the Angels did. Hell, they never even looked comfortable holding a prop gun! Similar problem with Lynda Carter, the best genes that beans and Irishmen can produce; stunning lady. But as an action heroine, she NEVER looked invincible, but rather "I just did my hair" shy when it came to fighting.
Thank you for this glorious "lost" takedown of that blithering idiot Owens. Patiently waiting for your Tuesday column on Takimag to drop.
Also I think I found the single greatest item for TWTP ever:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/music/philly-rapper-who-dug-up-enemys-grave-shot-dead-101724513146855-amp.html
My mama always said, "Nothing good ever happens in graveyards at 3 AM."
Beautiful, Mike! Expect it in TWTP very soon. Thanks!
What bugs me is the certainty some people have when engaging in these historical what-if scenarios.
Dave, I once dated a lovely woman who was half Japanese (Asian, obviously) on her mom's side and White on her father's side (former Marine). She treated me very well. She'd even cook me a hot lunch on occasion. How many women do that for their guy? I have very fond memories. If she's indicative of the average Japanese, then I love them all. Enjoyed the article.
Janet Sanders, a woman I worked with in the air force, half Jap on her mother's side. I still dream about her today 30+years later. What a vamp! She was like Betty Boop made flesh!
I enjoy the stupidity of the argument. The bombs were dropped, the war ended soon after, we won. Arguing about why we did it is just jerking off. And yea, I know those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, blah, blah, blah. What we should have learned mirrors what you said about Afghanistan, find where they are and flatten it, no need to sacrifice American troops.
The terms "Learn from history so we don't repeat the same mistakes" and "Reasonable doubt" in court trials should both be thrown in the garbage.
The only lessons people seem to learn from history is how to do bad things and I've watched enough TV court trials to know how many people end up being found guilty when there's a bucketload of reasonable doubt brought in to the trial.
As soon as I read the headline I was like "I bet this is related to candace owens." I don't pay any attention to her directly but I hear about her all the time.
She used to run a website that was designed from the ground up for the purpose of doxing enemies of the Left so that's I ever needed to know about her. She eventually realized that competition in that space was fierce since black female leftists are a dime a dozen but being a black female conservative is basically a unicorn who's all but guaranteed to get showered with money so she did the ole switcharoo.
I did find it funny that ben shapiro thought it was a good idea to hire & promote her. Her first round of promoting kanye was a complete disaster with him backing out of supporting trump so you'd think he would've tethered her in when she decided to go for round two. That blew up in ben's face spectacularly & yet he STILL kept her around right up until candace herself well full black israelite.
Candace has the black female diversity armor so youtube won't touch her even when the broken clock effect kicks in & she says something true they'd otherwise want to censor. Due to that she's not going anywhere, might as well get some popcorn because this is only the beginning, I'm counting down the days till she discovers flat earth- assuming she hasn't already.
Her trajectory reminds me of benjamin owen where he gobbled up redpills until he went insane. Difference is nobody will try to stop her descent into madness, instead everyone will just nod their heads the same everyone at the RNC recently did with that black stripper with the forehead tattoo because she's proof of concept that we really can get black people to adopt conservatism. Nobody ever stops to ask what's even being conserved with these moves that lower the shit out of our standards but hey, at least we have proof we're not racist, that'll show those leftists!
I hate to tell ya, but she did go flat earth, a few weeks ago. In her typically retarded fashion, she was like "I no longer trust science, which means I no longer believe that the earth if round," as if she's "punishing" scientists by adopting crazy. "Take THAT, scientists!"
Oh boy, I guess I was behind the curve on that one, my predictions were a little too optimistic. It's funny that despite her lack of ebonics she's still fundamentally a typical black woman, that's like a high level version of a black lady snapping her fingers while cocking her head to the side & saying "nuh uh, dat earf be flat, you ain’t foolin me, uh uh." Same energy lol.
Yep, as I write in today's Takimag piece, one lesson I learned from my black schools was not to associate "talking white" with IQ.
I've noticed for people who don't have much experience with blacks when they're well spoken it's like a siren call that lulls people into a false sense that they're talking to someone reasonable & often leads to people walking right into a social landmine.
Thank you for reminding me of the taki article this week BTW, forgot to check to see if it was up, I'm gonna go read that right now.
It's much better to judge them by their actions. Some of them are alright, but I always play the odds, remain cautious, and don't let my wallet out of sight.
All I knew about the early days of candace was that website & her heel turn on youtube, I always wondered how she ingratiated herself with the mainstream but I would've never guessed it was Horowitz. Crazy!
Also "vaginal rabbit pheromone" I lol'd hard at this god damn.
Top tier article this week man, I didn't know half of this about her. Now I understand why shapiro tolerated her for so long thinking she'd take the hint. Very insightful.
Thank you, my friend!
Awesome column, Dave. I too was taken aback by the outright falsehood that the Japanese were ready to surrender. I know you're not a fan of the Daily Wire's movies and series, and in general I agree that they are not that useful in the culture war, though some are quite entertaining. One exception is a series on their site called "What we Saw" hosted by Bill Whittle. He had an entire series on the cold war, and he covers the A-bombs dropped on Japan (not directly part of the cold war, but did have a profound effect on it) and the fact that some were willing to stage a coup to prevent the surrender of Japan. He also mentioned an effort to provide every Japanese civilian weapons to repel the upcoming ground invasion of Japan. Not to mention that the reason we had to drop two bombs on them was because they didn't surrender after the first one.
Growing up in the South, I always had a dislike of General Sherman and his march to the sea. However, I understand the strategy, and it goes to the theme of your column. Sherman understood the war wouldn't end until the will of the southerners was broken, so he went on a rampage, destroying infrastructure, burning plantations, and pretty much salting the Earth. And you know what? It worked.
The Civil War gave us 800,000 dead white men, likely as many civilians, massive property damages, starvation, and mostly ungrateful black descendants.
In Lincoln's defense, he did want to ship them back to Africa.
Really great point about Sherman. Thank you!
Hi Dave , this is Jaye from Chicago . The Obamas made my neighborhood their base of operations here . Their first mansion ( they have 3 now in DC diplomat neighborhood , Magnum PI estate in Hawaii and country estate in Martha s Vineyard MA - these places have ~ 0% Poor Black people. I m living next to the largest all Black Black ‘hoods in North America . The Obama s mansion here was 3 blocks from where I grew up and was right next to a Jewish Synagogue that looks like an Islamic mosque - not an accident .
Dave I always appreciate your highest views about racial realities from your unique Si Cal KA J perspective .
My views on 9-11-01, foreign wars especially J Neo Con wars , national building , “ making the world safe for American style Democracy ( World War I nonsense ), George HW Bush Sr fighting Saddam Hussein another Hitler realizing the dream of a Bew World Order under the United Nations , then his stupid Yale frat Boy don George W Bush mouthing worst ever Je@ Neo Con speech writer David Frums “ Axis of Evil speech …
All ridiculous nonsense .
I lived in New York City racial , immigration hell 1985-91 - I predicted Islamic terrorist slaughters in NYC and left B4 the first one in 1993 against the WTC - the mastermind terrorist was a blind Egyptian cleric with a hook for a hand - I couldn’t t create a better propaganda enemy - but of course the GOP Stupid party will never us him , 9/11/01 Muhamed Ata - they ll invade the world for Israel and White , Russian hating Neo Con Js , then cheerfully accept millions s of nasty Arabs , Pakistani Islamists that hate us to move here and to England , Sweden to rape our girls and knives murder our elderly make London /Londonstan and smear any of us who object to invade the world , invite the world as a Racist NAZI , or a Bkafimir Putin .
Sigh
That was a long rant .
I ll buy you a couple of beers if you take the time to read and comment on my long rant .
Keep the faith LA Dave
Jaye
Left Behind in Chicago
Yeah, the Axis of Evil was pretty unconvincing, even right after 9/11.
John Mearsheimer blames Bush for starting the current Ukraine war by declaring at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest that both Ukraine and Georgia would both join NATO down the road---kinda like Putin announcing that Canada and Mexico will eventually be joining BRICS+.
The two worst things in history for the white man were Adolph Hitler and African slavery, we gonna be diggin' out of that for another 100 years or so. We should disown the lazy and stupid white guys who make the other 90% of us look bad.
As for Candace Owens, I've paid little attention to her, and only a few of my buddies ever talk about her. My biggest reason for not liking her is that she wants to ban porn!
If anyone ever does mention her again, I'm going to use your line about the airplane pilot!
I have a friend who's as active in conservative circles now as I was 14 years ago, and he's like "90% of the people I meet don't talk about Candace at all, but the 10% who do are INSANELY crazy in love with her and fixated on her every word."
They're just grateful for any black conservative.
And just like that, Dave explained Aktion T5.