At this point yes, you do have to hand it to Bill Kristol, longstanding Republican operative and leading proponent of the US invasion of Iraq, who is doing far more in his personal capacity to publicly defend trans people than the Democratic Party, the nominal opposition to Trump - ThreadSky

nateo.bsky.social • 6 days ago

At this point yes, you do have to hand it to Bill Kristol, longstanding Republican operative and leading proponent of the US invasion of Iraq, who is doing far more in his personal capacity to publicly defend trans people than the Democratic Party, the nominal opposition to Trump

Reposted from Bill Kristol

On the dishonorable attempt by Trump and Hegseth to purge transgender individuals serving honorably in the military.
www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-anno...

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dodechedrononon.bsky.social•5 days ago

Is he defending trans people or people who serve in the military (who happen to be trans)?

From what little I saw it looks like the latter.

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

He’s repeatedly defended trans people. Immigrants, refugees. Yeah, I know, what a wild world. Orange Man Bad ex-Republican’s better than the Dems

berkeleyeve.bsky.social•6 days ago

definitely End Times for all

endtimesenjoyer.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thats what IVE been saying.

endtimesenjoyer.bsky.social•5 days ago

the alternative joke is "you rang?"

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

At this point I don’t think there’s market forces driving his decision to pivot this past decade—I think he’s a true believer

berkeleyeve.bsky.social•5 days ago

i've been reading their stuff in the last few months and he is pushing back against Trump... sounds personally offended by the grift and corruption

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

I’ll take it

kellumdander.bsky.social•5 days ago

Kristol has always been an ardent never-Trumper afaik

he's my idea of a tolerable conservative. He isn't a complete idiot, he will show respect to opposing views, and does seem to have some form of spine. If the Republican party was mostly people like him, the USA would be in vastly better shape.

kellumdander.bsky.social•5 days ago

this isn't me saying I'm "with" the guy so much as saying, there has to be an opposition in politics, at least it can be in mostly good faith

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yup. He’s a true believer. I may not like him and would gladly see him get his comeuppance in a just world, but if more Republicans were more like him we might have a chance

gregk.co.uk•6 days ago

When the bar drops so low the swamp creature starts to look like a sedentary land-dweller

saddestrobots.bsky.social•6 days ago

gotta admit: it seems like bill kristol has actually gone through the kind of transformation that the media pretended david frum went through

paco-button.bsky.social•5 days ago

I encourage everyone to listen to Kristol on a Bulwark podcast. Give him 30 minutes, today, in 2025, and then you can turn your nose back up if you want to.

haredurer.bsky.social•6 days ago

[through gritted teeth] ok

jujoe.bsky.social•5 days ago

Mad but here we are

vovegan.bsky.social•5 days ago

Such a timeline we're white-knuckling through. What's next, James Carville promoting a "don't eat the crawfish" movement?

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Carville’s far to the right of Kristol, it’s madness (actually not that surprising)

erinerex.bsky.social•5 days ago

What a world huh

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's weird to note that his support for the invasion of Iraq was due to a (horrifically misguided) sincere moral conviction, but it's that same conviction that is leading him to have moral courage here while too many others squirm and triangulate.

dysamoria.com•5 days ago

“Sincerely held belief” & religion are raised up to the level of facts (even above) by a strain of “respect” culture that causes systemic harm to facts and those who deal in them.

It’s maddening to form coalitions with “people of conviction” with influence, when they happen to take a good position.

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

Also, as you point out, to rules. We have come to tolerate casual rule breaking by those in power, which starts with seemingly insignificant transgressions and is now on the threshold of collapsing the very idea of rules and laws.

dysamoria.com•5 days ago

Yes. I have no tolerance for that shit because of knowing how it normalizes things. When politicians break laws, I don’t care what political party they’re in: they should be treated like ANYONE ELSE.

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

I mean, in 2003, that Saddam Hussein was murdering his own people and menacing his neighbors was a fact. That fact had to be weighed against the likelihood that the US intervening would cause immeasurably more harm than it relieved, but that was then still a hypothetical.

dysamoria.com•5 days ago

I’m not saying it’s easy, but the people in power here in the USA wanted their notions to be true so much that they refused to listen to details and promoted whatever got them a thumbs-up for invasion. Then there’s not going through Congress. That’s where the crime started.

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

On that I totally agree. And that casual casting aside of the rules, in favor of their passions, was the beginning of a fatal slide.

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

Many of us could see how it was going to play out. We could also see that most of the neocons didn't actually give a shit about the democracy they claimed to be trying to spread, but the Bill Kristols of the world couldn't see that.

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

Incidentally, there were also the opposite - people on our side who turned out not to be against oppression at all, but just really big fans of certain dictators and subscribers to a warped theory of multipolarity. See CodePink for a shining example.

dysamoria.com•5 days ago

Holy shit. This was the primary funder:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Roy_Singham

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•5 days ago

If you actually care about human dignity, trans rights are a sine qua non. Regardless of personal feelings.

strwbrryjen.bsky.social•5 days ago

what a time we live in, supporting the Iraq invasion means this man's a ghoul but I'll take whatever support I can get

nateo.bsky.social•6 days ago

Any port in a storm, I hate to admit it

nateo.bsky.social•6 days ago

I’m serious: Bill Kristol is doing his part, far outstripping the Democratic Party, in vocally defending trans people from Trump https://bsky.app/profile/thebulwark.bsky.social/post/3lj6hw2ttav2e

whiteroseafa.bsky.social•6 days ago

Bill is not an ally and is a monster. I won't support him, but I'm glad he's speaking out against worse monsters.

nateo.bsky.social•6 days ago

I agree. He would not want to be alone in a room with me, but at this point I wouldn’t either, much bigger fish to fry

whiteroseafa.bsky.social•5 days ago

100%

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