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Radio War Nerd EP #485 — Meet The Trumpists, feat. Kelley Vlahos (Patreon)

Published:
2024-11-27 03:21:03
Imported:
2024-11
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Guest: Kelley Vlahos, Responsible StatecraftRecorded: November 24, 2024

We're joined by longtime friend of the show Kelley Vlahos for our quadrennial look at the New Boss's foreign policy. Spoiler: don't get yer hopes up.

Check out Kelley's site Responsible Statecraft.

Previous RWN with Kelley:*EP 36 — Gilded Deep State + "1979"*EP 58 — DC Reaction to Trump Shocker*EP 258 — Sizing Up Trump & Biden Foreign Policy

Total time: 1:27:37Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

*

Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio

Check out the Radio War Nerd Merch store here!

Order your print or ebook of John Dolan's new book Erdogan Pizza: Dispatches from a Violent & Grotesque World

Files

Comments

NYCM&AHole

I always enjoy being told that the lawyers are parasites.

Greg

I had a dream about pod save America. I am not well but I am here. Safe. With Mr. BRECHER

NYCM&AHole

Correct your guest - Zelensky isn’t hopped up on adrenaline. It’s probably cocaine or meth

Ander Pierce

A guest from the institute of responsible statecraft? That's the kind of statecraft that I've yet to see in this bizarre nation.

a clash of purple

I think Kelly Vlahos really knows what she's talking about (and, maybe more importantly, doesn't try to say too much about subjects she *doesn't* know about), but at the same time I don't understand why she can't see the imperial logic behind the ruling class's decisions. Drawing down and retrenching America's overseas commitments might benefit the American people in some abstract sense, but it's not as if it would be accompanied by increased investment in public welfare. The ruling class *can't* reallocate resources from the empire to the metropole. Even if they wanted to, the United States's power and wealth is based mostly on its status as global hegemon and, more crucially, the ultimate global consumer. If somehow we lost our empire, and tried to compensate by reinvesting in domestic industry and whatever, the entire world order would collapse. Who would buy all of China and Europe's crap? All the other major economies in the world are premised on exporting garbage to the United States. The global economy is tenuous enough as it is. American currency would become worthless. If we made our own products, we wouldn't be able to afford them. It took *three* apocalyptic global conflicts (counting the Cold War) to build the modern world. At the moment, everyone, including the ruling class, is just along for the ride. If we're going to change the course humanity has chosen for itself, it will take some kind of societal upheaval and break with the status quo far bigger than picking between two completely disgusting freaks to be POTUS for four years. We can discuss the peculiarities and fortunes of this or that administration or regime, but it should always be with that understanding in mind. It might be worthwhile to try and nudge the powers-that-be in a saner direction wherever possible (I'm skeptical, but at the same time it's not like I have any better ideas) but the overall trajectory of history at the moment is pretty clear and, I would argue, almost 100% irreversible.

Bodie Tack

Is there a picture of John's massive battle painting posted anywhere? Would love to see it!

Pranjal Dwivedi

The cold logic of military Keynesianism being the backbone of American hegemony means that money will continue to go into the DMV area

CT

Lol @ “tHe cOurSe hUmAniTy cHoSe fOr iTsELf”

Alejandro Pepsi

Vivek went on a blood thirsty zionist tirade at either cpac or aipac recently, so I'm not sure where this guest is picking up his moderate views on Isreal from. And JD Vance changes his views based on who he is talking to to best fit his goals, he called trump Hitler in 2017!

Anthony Schiappa

Kelley is a great guest and I think knows what she's talking about - but I totally disagree with her take on Tulsi. She may not be a Christian, but she's definitely a Zionist, and she too believes in "civilizational struggle" against Muslims.

a clash of purple

Yeah, everyone bears some small share of the responsibility for this fucked up era. I don't think that's crazy to say. To say otherwise is to give up your agency to change things for the better.

a clash of purple

I also live in northern Virginia, and yeah, not everyone here is rich. There's plenty of working poor and homeless people. Almost all the money here is concentrated in the hands of the contractors and literal royalty who come here from Jordan or whatever to attend UVA. There's plenty of great people here (including several other RWN guests in addition to Kelly Vlahos) but it's also the (incredibly lame) American equivalent of Rome. At least the ancient Romans had, like, the colosseum and the hippodrome. We don't even have good sports teams.

The Drooping Rhino

It’s super informative to hear from an observer/participant with her finger on the pulse (slime?) of the blob. Please consider unlocking this post.

a clash of purple

The fact that Vance has no ideological convictions means that he's not likely to do something that's against his self-interest. Kelly talked about how the same is true for Trump, and that might prove to be a less bad thing than the current regime.

a clash of purple

Isn't Tulsi a Modi fan? The BJP are certainly not opposed to genocide against Muslims.

JoR

I completely agree with this.

John Waaben

Thinking about what Annibale said in a previous episode about how “colonizing countries become infected with the disease of racism”. DC is the site of American tertiary imperial syphilis, an oozing, toxic, psychotic buboe (I went to college in DC during the Trump years)

William

“It’d be so great if capital didn’t accumulate wealth at the expense of the workers” yeah, wow, thanks for that insight

NYCM&AHole

I disagree. The only agency that an individual has to produce change involves acts that would be highly illegal.

NYCM&AHole

And yet the service at the DMV is always shit

Tim Quirk

So is there going to be a Victoria help John move event? Count me in.

William

Tulsi has some weird cult connections too

William

Yeah, idk why people don’t get this. Like, that is where all the corruption, the graft, and the “swamp” is. Don’t fucking talk to me about government “bloat” when the goddamn pentagon straight up can’t account for $20billion of spending each year, and cannot be audited because their accounting is shit

William

Not irreversible but practically irreversible. I mostly agree with everything else, though. I think I dislike this guest for the same reason I take umbrage with a lot of what Ben Aris says - both are great on the facts but can’t, for the life of them, see the actual story those facts tell, and not the real funhouse mirror reality they hear talking to other people in their orbits

N

It seems incredibly, incredibly naive to me for people to keep listing Tulsi Gabbard as some sort of moderating influence. She's an intense hawk on Iran and China, a craven opportunist and an active US Psyops officer lol. Could not imagine a more deep state neocon figure if you tried

N

And shes a Hindutva fascist lol

NYCM&AHole

Look the auditor can’t find the heroin trafficked through fort Bragg, ok?

a clash of purple

NYCM&AHole that made me chuckle (the joke about the DMV, not the heroin trafficked through Fort Bragg)

a clash of purple

@NYCM&AHole It's funny how that works, isn't it? It's almost like the law is a weapon the rich and powerful use to bludgeon the rest of us into line.

DumbDumDumbDumb

“Hell-O?”, the Kelly Vlahos signature line

Jonathan Penn

Analyzing Donald Trump as a rational actor with a plan, as was done in this episode, seems to me very problematic. What makes Trump so uniquely dangerous is that he is not in any way a thinker. He is profoundly ignorant of history, knows less than nothing about science, and seems almost pathologically incurious. For a man who grew up with great wealth and privilege (in the words of a friend, he has always known where the next Bentley was coming from), he is remarkably insecure and defensive. He has no convictions that he is not willing to change instantly if he thinks it will benefit him. Such a person cannot have a policy or policies. He will make one erratic decision after the next, and all utterly unconcerned with consequences to anyone except himself. Einstein may have said that God does not play dice with the universe, but he had not met Donald Trump. Add the soupcon that Trump is just as far into senile decline as Biden (although it manifests itself in different ways) and you have trouble, right here in River City. Or in the words of Bette Davis, "Fasten your seatbelts. It is going to be a bumpy night."

Alex

The answer to the question “how does the war in Israel benefit America” is that it keeps the Epstein videos from coming out

Alex

Great episode, love this guest. Always love a genuinely enlightened DC person

Jack Ross

Great ep, I loved hearing this guest’s perspective. This is very out of left field but I would like to make a suggestion for an episode. Forgive me if you’ve already had one on this topic but I think a history of the White House press briefings would be pretty interesting. This is something I have thought about particularly since the Gaza genocide began: why can’t journalists really just tear into people like Matt Miller or Karine Jean-Pierre when they spout their lies? We see the journalists try their best to use the blatant hypocrisy of US policy in these briefings and they do a good job of that but since we began a literal population liquidation the likes of the eastern front in WWII you would think we would see more outbursts like what came from Liam Cosgrove which gained some amount of publicity. Obviously, he’ll never be able to ask another question ever again but why do they have such power to limit questions? Was it always like this? Thanks for allowing me to vent this honest frustration here. Thanks for everything you guys do, you are my favorite podcast and I’ll never stop being a supporter.

Jack Ross

I think instead of identifying his “plan” this ep is moreso looking at the direction his policies may lean via his position appointments, which actually would be somewhat consistent with his first administration. First time around you saw him appoint neocons like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton; of which pulling out of the JPCOA could be seen as a natural conclusion. Now, you are correct, he was an erratic actor (attempting detente with N Korea, killing QS might be good examples) but you could see how those same neocons were able to exert influence in pulling him back from his promises of rapprochement with Russia in his first administration as well. This time around you can see him going for more of a “loyalist” cabinet which will may similarly act as a weathervain to how his policies may unfold in a general sense. As erratic as Trump may be, his appointments actually do give us some insight into what kinds of moves he might make. This was similarly true the first time around.

a clash of purple

The problem with what you're saying is that it could just as easily apply to at least half the U.S. presidents. And it's not as if the "smart" presidents like Nixon and Obama were any more rational. Anyway, they never said that Trump is rational or that he has a plan. But while he's not personally motivated by ideology, there is a logic to his behavior. He's not just doing things totally at random. He's motivated primarily by his shallow self-interest and his pathological need for attention. Based on that, you can understand and predict his behavior. Remember the way Elijah Magnier broke down Trump's management of U.S. involvement in Syria back during his first term: he was fairly cold-blooded, cynical, and not at all irrational. Certainly many of the people Trump surrounds himself with have clear track records and ideological bona fides which indicate how they'll operate in their roles.

JoR

This is a great idea. It's also the kind of topic they did a lot of early on in the show. It's not an exact equivalent, but they did an episode analyzing the rhetoric of the NYT's podcast on ISIS. And an analysis of the western media's coverage (or lack therefore of) of the Yemen genocide during the war.

Jack Ross

Damn, beautifully put

jbwhat

Totally agree. And a lot of things Trump did in his first term opened the door to whats happening in Gaza. Sheldon Adelson gives him money to move the Embassy to Jerusalem, "give" Israel the Golan Heights, and break the Iran treaty. All this, plus the Abraham accords were instrumental in why Oct 7 happened. Trump has said he'd have kept troops at Bagram. That would have kept Afghan going. Not to mention what could have happened after Soleimani. Trump just does what people give him money to do. You want Khashoggi swept under the rug? 2 billion after the election. And as far as nukes- Trump expanded our nuclear arsenal. I really don't get it. Everyone, left and right, will agree Trump lies about everything, but then will pick one thing, assume he's talking in good faith, and then hang their hat on it. One day he's anti abortion. One day it's states rights. Wink wink. One day he says we need Gaza to end. Next day he and Giuliani are calling all Palestinians terrorists. I agree Biden has sucked, but Trump got a lot of these balls rolling, and trying to predict any kind of good faith non-interventionist foreign policy out of Trump seems naive at best.

William

I feel myself get frustrated with episodes like this and it’s hard to remember that in some cases, factual accuracy is t as important as understanding that this is how a segment of the population thinks. Like is Vivek a moderate on isreal? Doesn’t matter - they think he is one

Jeremy

The tulsi gabbard enthusiasm is very misguided. Still a member of her Hawaiian anti-gay surfer cult she was born into and a clear intelligence asset. She will not be different and is leading gullible liberals by the nostrils

Gergely Gáli

"a clear intelligence asset" Sorry, but it isn't clear to me. Care to elaborate?

Jeremy

There’s plenty of good journalists out there who have done the research! Easy to find! I believe in you!

Gergely Gáli

So you are a victim of a baseless smear campaign. Got it.

Jeremy

Just because you don’t want to educate yourself or do any of the work, doesn’t mean you can have a temper tantrum about it.

Gergely Gáli

I would love to educate myself. So please name at least one of the "plenty of good journalist".

Jeremy

It’s all out there for you. Have fun screaming into the void for people to do everything for you

Gergely Gáli

Then why all the neocons smearing her as an intelligence asset for Russia?

JoR

This shit is why the left in America (and really everywhere) never goes anywhere. Such a condescending attitude, and for what reason? If it's "so easy" to find these sources (I believe you), why can't you just give him a few links? Gergely seemed to be receptive to your view point yet all you want to do is scold him. Say what you want about psycho conservatives, but for the most part, they don't have an issue throwing links and sources (no matter how shady) at you. Meanwhile, so many on the left just scream "educate yourself!". I'm sorry is that what Mao and the Chinese did? Hell no.

Jeremy

“Why I left the left: because they were mean and told me to look into it myself instead of demanding a response right now with all the information” I really don’t care. Go join the neocons then.

JoR

Can we get an update on Aleppo and the movement in Syria in the next episode? Could be a BS moral operation, could be a significant movement in the war? Probably the former, but it's crazy that any news from Syria is even happening. Throwback to the first 50 episodes

Kevin Hickey

Bcuz even the slightly independent perch she has established herself in is still seen as dangerously out of step with total continuous confrontation everywhere that is espoused by most hawks.

NYCM&AHole

You’re just mad because you tried to get her attention on Twitter and she ignored you

N

She's not out of step. She's fully in line with hawkishness against both Iran and China and is a full throated supporter of the IDF and Modi's fascist India. She's fooling you lol

George P

She didn't go along with the bullshit on Syria and was smeared as a Putin and Assad supporter for it by the usual suspects. Sadly she's been consistently on the wrong side of everything since then.

jack flowers

Her staff replied when I emailed her about Medicare for all and when I emailed to ask why she thought running for president made any sense. But yeah I think she's kinda nuts

Alec Rosekrans

Did you really pull out the “do your own research” line? I thought that was just for Qanon types.

Jeremy

Friends of this podcast have done episodes about her cult involvement and her ties to Hindu extremists. I don’t care what you think personally, history doesn’t lie. Get off your ass and learn something.

Gergely Gáli

She isn't on the wrong side on Ukraine and Iran:www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/14/why-is-tulsi-gabbard-trumps-new-intel-tsar-so-controversial

Kevin Hickey

If you’re replying to my comment,the word “slightly” means being skeptical about regime change in Syria. I am not under any illusions about her general “war footing”, just pointing out how shallow the threshold is for being considered alt in American foreign policy.

James

You might be right about Tulsia, but being so belligerent over a fairly simple request for help doesn't help anyone.

Jess

you forgot Amazon, Arlington is a Bezos town

showlistener

I liked this episode but if you think Vivek or Vance or Gabbard are actually anti-war and pro-peace then you're a grade-A moron. These cretins have no actual values but they'll do and say whatever sounds good in the moment. They don't believe in anything. I'm not saying that all politicians are de-facto liars and frauds, but these people in particular have a track record that makes it ok to dismiss anything they say. There are a very small number of pro-peace people in DC (like Rashida Tlaib and Ihan Omar) but they aren't mentioned in this ep. Maybe that's because they don't wield a lot of power, and hey fair enough, but it's not like those 3 will either.

xxx

This is def one of those episodes where the comments section has better analysis than the episode itself.

Jeremy

Should I raise my pinky when I sip my tea as well? I know forcing the liberal mind to think for itself is a hard task but again, the ease of access of information means there’s no excuse for being too lazy to look into it yourself. I really don’t care if you think it’s mean or belligerent welcome to the end of 2024. Look around you. The time of being nice is over.

M

What was with all the unchallenged Tulsi glazing?

Matt Lewis

She was wrong when you had her on before Trump 1.0 and nothing has changed here.

Zach

Which episodes have undesirable guest interactions?