America Is Not Caught in a ‘Thucydides Trap’!
Posted By: Mercedes44, 5/21/2026 3:11:27 PM
The distinguished political scientist Graham Allison, author of the 2015 Atlantic article “The Thucydides Trap,” argued that often in history an established power will stage a preventive war against an ascendant adversary—for fear that otherwise it will soon lose its primacy. His title derives from two passages in the first book of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides (460–400/395? BC), author of The Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, on these two occasions, felt that the most likely cause of the Spartan-Athenian war (431–404) was Spartan fear of an increasingly powerful rival Athenian empire.
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The distinguished political scientist Graham Allison, author of the 2015 Atlantic article “The Thucydides Trap,” argued that often in history an established power will stage a preventive war against an ascendant adversary—for fear that otherwise it will soon lose its primacy.
His title derives from two passages in the first book of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides (460–400/395? BC), author of The Peloponnesian War.
Thucydides, on these two occasions, felt that the most likely cause of the Spartan-Athenian war (431–404) was Spartan fear of an increasingly powerful rival Athenian empire.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough be fired, arguing that over the years, her rulings have been “brutal” to Republicans.
The parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the Senate Majority Leader, who can instruct the Senate Secretary to dismiss the official at any time.
Trump expressed frustration in a post on Truth Social that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has refused to take this step, raging that the “Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us.”
The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced murder charges against former Cuban President and longtime Defense Minister Raúl Castro, 94.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated during a press conference in Miami on Wednesday that a federal grand jury charged Castro and five co-defendants with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder, in connection with a 1996 incident where Cuban jets shot down humanitarian flights of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
Elected officials in Florida’s Cuban American communities on Wednesday praised the Justice department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
House Judiciary subpoenas SPLC for evidence
of collusion with Biden admin, CEO to
testify in June 2 replies
of collusion with Biden admin, CEO to
testify in June 2 replies
House Judiciary Republicans confirmed Wednesday night that Southern Poverty Law Center CEO Bryan Fair will testify in front of the committee next month regarding allegations it funded elements of extremist and racist groups.
For decades, the SPLC has positioned itself as the nation’s preeminent watchdog, which maintained a controversial "Hate Map" that increasingly labeled benign conservative organizations and religious groups as hate groups.
But a recent federal indictment returned by a grand jury suggests the organization was playing a double game by allegedly manufacturing the very extremism it claimed to be fighting to keep its fundraising machine humming.
Seattle’s lefty Mayor Katie Wilson admitted she was wrong to slam Starbucks and push for a boycott of the mega-coffee chain birthed in the Pacific City.
Wilson, 43, issued a terse mea culpa to the New York Times this week as questions swirl about whether the liberal Northwest city can attract and retain businesses, including Starbucks, which recently chose to expand its footprint in Tennessee.
The democratic socialist made waves last fall when she joined a barista union rally as mayor-elect and expressed her disgust with one of Seattle’s most recognizable businesses.
An Air France flight was blocked from entering US airspace and instead diverted to Canada over fears of one passenger’s exposure to the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Air France Flight 378 was scheduled to land at Detroit Metro Wayne Airport in Michigan late Wednesday afternoon before it changed course for Montreal Trudeau International Airport in the Canadian city.
US officials stopped the flight from entering the country after it was revealed a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo was allowed to board “in error,” the US Customs and Border Protection told CBS News.
“Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus,
Zohran Mamdani’s “apology tour” to quell the business community’s outrage over his bizarre social media posting targeting fellow business leader Ken Griffin didn’t include much apologizing, The Post has learned.
In fact, Griffin’s name and Mamdani’s “creepy” stunt — where he stood outside the Citadel chief’s penthouse to brag about taxing the rich — never came up in the confabs Monday with two of the biggest CEOs on Mamdani’s agenda, Jamie Dimon, the chief of mega bank JP Morgan and David Solomon, the CEO of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.
Don’t blame our Marxist mayor for ignoring the obvious —
The Democratic left’s favorite caricature of President Trump describes him as recklessly impulsive, wildly inconsistent and addicted to shooting from the hip.
The image is powerful boob bait for the uninformed, but it is demonstrably false when it comes to matters of great importance. Exhibit A is Trump’s consistent and decade-long patient policies toward Iran. For years he has been saying the mullahs would never be allowed to get nuclear weapons on his watch.
It was a major theme of his first campaign and first term.
He proved he was serious in 2018 when he withdrew the United States from President Barack Obama’s sketchy pact,
A 28-year-old New Yorker ditched the five boroughs for a booming Texas suburb — and says he’s “never” moving back as a flood of workers and companies head south in search of cheaper living and better opportunities.
Akash Khanna, a commercial real estate agent, relocated to Frisco, Texas shortly after the pandemic — a move he made after years of bouncing between Jersey City, Wall Street, Brooklyn and Queens.
“I never think about moving back there, ever,” Khanna said, describing New York as a “high-paced” metropolis that no longer fit his long-term goals.
Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke at the American Law Institute and warned that the Supreme Court risks looking political after its handling of the Louisiana redistricting case under the Voting Rights Act.
KBJ argued the court must guard its public image, especially in election cases, because, as the AP reported, Americans expect judges to stand apart from partisan fights. That's a fair-sounding statement; nobody wants the highest court in America to look like a cable news panel wearing matching robes.
Unfortunately, despite a fair-sounding message, the problem comes from the messenger. Jackson has become the court's loudest progressive voice, and subtlety doesn't appear to be her preferred instrument.
Given the enormity of the problem, the authors of the report had to limit their focus to "seven EU countries where no-go zones are most reported: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands."
No-go zones, according to the report, are especially characterized by high rates of crime, violence and terrorist recruitment.
"This institutional reluctance, driven by political correctness, allowed gangs to operate with impunity in NGZs, where cultural segregation and weak policing created fertile ground for such crimes, effectively rendering the state an accomplice through its failure to protect victims." – From "Immigration, Islamisation, and the Rise of Parallel Societies," a report by New Direction – Foundation for European Conservatism.
Jeff Bezos blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani for casting billionaire Ken Griffin as a “villian” in a bizarre video Hizzoner filmed outside his Manhattan apartment announcing a new pied-à-terre tax last month.
The Amazon honcho ripped the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor for demonizing Griffin and filming outside the Citadel head’s home in the viral video.
“Ken Griffin isn’t a villain,” Bezos told CNBC during a Wednesday sit-down. “He hasn’t hurt anybody. He’s not hurting New York. In fact, quite the opposite. And so that piece of it isn’t right. And there was no reason to do that.”
The billionaire, however,
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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was among the four Republican Senators who voted in favor of moving forward with a resolution that would direct President Donald Trump to pull the U.S. military out of the conflict with Iran.
Cassidy’s vote in favor of moving forward with the Iran War Powers Resolution comes days after he lost his reelection bid to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming.
The Senate voted 50-47 to move the War Powers Resolution out from the Senate’s Foreign Relation Committee, with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Cassidy voting with the Democrats, CBS News reported.
Why I'm Never Rubio
25 replies
The Atlantic magazine recently announced the People’s Choice for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. “Trump Voters Like Marco Rubio More and More (And J.D. Vance Less and Less)” the headline proclaimed, a ruling that deserves respect considering that this is the magazine that has spent the past decade ferociously denouncing Trump as a “racist,” “fascist kleptocrat,” “warped,” “corrupted,” an “authoritarian,” a “demagogue,” a “xenophobe” and a “liar.”
President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough be fired, arguing that over the years, her rulings have been “brutal” to Republicans.
The parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the Senate Majority Leader, who can instruct the Senate Secretary to dismiss the official at any time.
Trump expressed frustration in a post on Truth Social that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has refused to take this step, raging that the “Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us.”
A Shameful NAACP Boycott
21 replies
I am willing to assume that there was a time when the NAACP did some good. (I do not make the same assumption about the SPLC.) But that time is long, long gone. For many years, the NAACP has been a force for ill, not for good. An excellent example is its just-launched boycott campaign:
The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps that the nation’s oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting rights.
There is no conceivable theory on which anyone is restricting black voting rights.
Launched Tuesday, the “Out of Bounds” campaign urges prospective
Seattle’s lefty Mayor Katie Wilson admitted she was wrong to slam Starbucks and push for a boycott of the mega-coffee chain birthed in the Pacific City.
Wilson, 43, issued a terse mea culpa to the New York Times this week as questions swirl about whether the liberal Northwest city can attract and retain businesses, including Starbucks, which recently chose to expand its footprint in Tennessee.
The democratic socialist made waves last fall when she joined a barista union rally as mayor-elect and expressed her disgust with one of Seattle’s most recognizable businesses.
Three beachgoers were stabbed while hundreds of teens took over packed New England beaches in separate incidents on Tuesday, sparking fights and forcing evacuations of the summer hotspot.
The suspected stabbing broke out just after 3 p.m. Tuesday at Narragansett Town Beach, a popular summer vacation retreat in southern Rhode Island, as temperatures reached into the 90s.
Responding officers located three victims suffering from minor stab wounds, Narragansett Police Chief Kyle Rekas said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Three beachgoers were stabbed while hundreds of teens took over packed New England beaches in separate incidents on Tuesday, sparking fights and forcing evacuations of the summer hotspot.
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D.) suggested that legendary "American Sniper" Chris Kyle shot innocent civilians in Iraq in order to inflate his kill numbers. Platner also bristled at the idea of the former Navy SEAL and his platoon being dubbed "heroes."
Platner, running for Senate against Sen. Susan Collins (R.), lashed out at Kyle and members of the SEAL's "Task Unit Bruiser" in a May 2024 podcast interview on Green Beret Chronicle Show in which Platner, a former Marine, discussed his deployment in 2006 to Ramadi, a hotbed of insurgent activity during the Iraq war. In the interview, Platner—who did not belong to an elite Special Forces unit like
The Senate RINO’s are threatening to obstruct President Trump’s midterm agenda. GOP Strategist Caroline Wren set the record state on Bannon’s War Room.
Caroline Wren: Over the last 72 hours, like these, the only people that were lobbying for a Cornyn endorsement were other GOP senators. And in the last 72 hours, the GOP senators had come out against President Trump on several things.
They told him:
** We’re not passing the Save America Act
** We’re not going to nuke the filibuster
** We’re not going to fund (security) for your ballroom
** The weaponization fund’s a bad idea
** W’re not going to fire the parliamentarian.
Former 16-term Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at the age of 86.
First elected to the House in 1980, Frank is known for being the co-author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) as well as being the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay. Just over two weeks before his passing, he appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash” while receiving hospice care at his Maine home — where he warned that his lifelong party was lurching too far leftward.
Ask anyone in the South, and they can confirm to you that college football is more or less a religion there.
In particular, the Southeastern Conference — better known by its acronym of SEC — has become one of the crowning jewels for Southern football fans.
The conference is known for producing swathes of NFL-caliber players, dynasties like Alabama, and consistent top-tier programs like Georgia. While the proliferation of college athletic money has somewhat closed the gap between the SEC and its fellow power conferences, the conference is still viewed as the gold standard of college football (though some fans are quick to call the conference overrated,
Under the U.S. Constitution, anyone who is not a "natural-born citizen" is barred from becoming president or vice president. Now, a House Republican wants to expand that requirement to much of the federal government.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., plans to introduce a joint resolution Wednesday proposing a constitutional amendment requiring members of Congress, federal judges and other Senate-confirmed appointees to be natural-born citizens.
The proposal would affect more than a dozen naturalized citizens currently serving in Congress, including several Republicans. Mace, who is running to be South Carolina’s next governor, suggested that the country’s nearly 25 million naturalized citizens, who made the deliberate choice to become Americans, may have divided loyalties.
Hakeem Jeffries Will “Break” Trump Voters
15 replies
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries showed up at the crazy Center for American Progress to impart his questionable wisdom. He said we have to “break” MAGA extremists, MAGA extremists meaning conservatives. He calls everyone who wants to make America great again an extremist. Hakeem wants to stack the Court, so Democrats win every case in perpetuity. That’s not extreme? He also plans to seize control of the courts, and corrupt the vote with the John Lewis Voting Act. Recently, he aligned himself with the SPLC. Just last month, he traveled to Denmark to trash the president and the country. Now, Hakeem knows extremism since he is extreme, as is his