She's reacting, not so much to the renaming, as to the glee with which that...geez, words fail me to describe the Hegseth creature--with which he preens, putting that plaque on his door instantly and posting it to social media. Look ma! What a big bad boy I am! I have hundreds of thousands of toy soldiers to play with now! And real tanks! At my word, lots and lots of real people will die!

Yesterday I watched a Planet Critical inter view with Luke Kemp, who studies ancient history. He said the evidence is that our ancestors did NOT kill the Neanderthals--they likely died out because of lack of genetic diversity, whereas our ancestors roamed far and wide, often changed groups, lived in bands of 100 to 200 people who were often not closely related...did all kinds of trade, and were generally egalitarian. There are even ancient cities that were egalitarian, no hierarchy. This matters, because we are told that xenophobia and hierarchy and violence are human nature, that we need strong centralized states to keep us in line or all hell would break out. He said the study of history is a study of organized crime. This answers the question, how did it come to this, where the people in charge of the most powerful empire ever, albeit one in decline--are all such caricatures, such monsters, such pathetic clowns? How different were the Democrats? They WERE different, more than Caitlin acknowledges, but the main difference was that they put a prettier VENEER over their reptilian heads. A pretense of democratic norms, the rule of law, concern about minorities, etc.The reality of their policies wasn't much different, and derives from the fact that sociopaths are much better at getting what they want than psychologically healthy people, because they aren't hampered by scruples--and want they want is generally wealth and/or power. The ones who come from poor and/or dark-skinned backgrounds, and the stupid ones, tend to end up in prison. The ones who come from wealthy white families and have at least normal intelligence, often end up in corporate boardrooms or Congress. The veneer coming off in January 2025, with obviously unqualified, often deranged people being put in powerful positions, is what happens when the empire is in decline.