the attitude with arnie arnesen the tues edition Jan 27

[Arnie Arnesen]

The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen

opening thoughts: 

producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins

Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)

streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH

podcasts available at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/attitude-with-arnie-arnesen/id1634055179

opening thoughts: 

This is message from a former police officer friend that I admire and respect, Jim Shepard. He is speaking truth.

He writes:

These aren’t my words but they capture my feelings on the Renee Goode situation pretty well

“I wore a badge long enough to know the difference between a dangerous situation and a manufactured one.

What happened in Minneapolis wasn’t split-second chaos. It wasn’t a tragic accident. And it sure as hell wasn’t “necessary force.”

It was escalation. Illegal, reckless escalation—and any law enforcement official who tells you otherwise is lying, or hasn’t done the job.

From what we’ve seen so far, the encounter didn’t begin with a threat that justified lethal force.

There was no imminent danger to officers or the public that required bullets. There was time. There were options. There were off-ramps.

And they weren’t taken.

One of the first things you’re taught as a police officer is that force is not a punishment. It’s not a tool to assert dominance. It’s not something you use because someone doesn’t comply fast enough or says the wrong thing.

Force is a last resort governed by law. Period.

The standard is simple: Is there an immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death? If the answer is no, deadly force is unlawful. Full stop.

What we’re being fed now—by Trump officials, right-wing media, and the same law-and-order grifters who never hesitate to excuse police violence—is a familiar script.

They cherry-pick moments. They speculate about “what could have happened.” They inflate fear after the fact to justify an outcome that was already decided before any real threat existed.

That’s not analysis. That’s propaganda.

I’ve watched this play out too many times. A civilian is killed. The facts are inconvenient. So the story gets rewritten—fast. Suddenly the victim is on trial. Suddenly we’re told the officer “felt threatened.” Suddenly every rule of policing bends to accommodate the result.

But feelings don’t determine legality. The Constitution does.

If a cop “feels” scared but the objective facts don’t support deadly force, the shooting is still illegal.

Law enforcement isn’t vibes-based. It’s rule-based. Or at least it’s supposed to be.

The Trump administration knows this. They also know that if they repeat the lie often enough—if they shout “violent suspect” and “split-second decision” and “officer safety” into every camera—they can muddy the water long enough for accountability to disappear.

That’s the real pattern here. Not law enforcement. Not justice.

Covering your ass cause you just did something morally abhorrent and don’t want to admit it.

As someone who has been in violent confrontations, who has had to make real decisions under real pressure, I’m telling you this plainly: restraint is part of the job. De-escalation is part of the job. Walking away alive with everyone still breathing is the job.

When officers abandon that responsibility—and when the federal government rushes to excuse it—we don’t get safety. We get impunity.

And when the state lies to protect unlawful killing, it doesn’t just dishonor the person who died. It poisons the legitimacy of every officer who still believes the badge means something.

This wasn’t a tragedy without cause. It was a choice.

And no amount of propaganda can change that.”

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The Pentagon’s newly released 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) is not a campaign document, a messaging exercise, or a rhetorical flourish. It is a planning blueprint — the document that shapes force posture, procurement priorities, alliance expectations, and the Pentagon’s internal definition of acceptable risk.

And it marks a decisive break with the post–Cold War security order.

Gone is the language of collective responsibility and rules-based international order. In its place is a blunt hierarchy of interests: Americans first, American territory first, American leverage first — and everything else is conditional.

This is not isolationism. It is something more precise — and more destabilizing.

It is selective engagement backed by overwhelming force, with allies treated less as shared stakeholders and more as cost-sharing variables.

A Strategy Built on Rejection, Not Continuity

The opening pages of the strategy are explicit about what they are discarding.

The document dismisses decades of U.S. foreign policy as distracted by “cloud-castle abstractions” — a pointed reference to the rules-based international order, multilateralism, and institution-driven security guarantees. It frames interventionism, alliance reassurance, and nation-building as strategic errors that diluted readiness and squandered American power.

Instead, the Pentagon now articulates a doctrine rooted in concrete, national interest prioritization, arguing that not all threats matter equally — and that many threats previously treated as global responsibilities are, in fact, someone else’s problem.

This philosophical shift is foundational. It reframes how the United States defines danger, obligation, and restraint.

....

Why the Gap Matters

The difference between what is promised and what is enforced is not rhetorical — it is structural.

Promises of peace rely on shared assumptions of restraint and predictability. Enforcement mechanisms in this strategy rely on leverage, compliance, and dominance.

That gap is where instability grows:

• Allies hedge instead of trust

• Adversaries probe instead of deter

• Crisis management replaces prevention

In short, peace is promised — but pressure is what’s institutionalized.

part one: Steve Paikin we talk Canada after the break upSteven Hillel Paikin OC OOnt (born June 9, 1960) is a Canadian journalist, author, and documentary producer. Paikin has primarily worked for TVOntario (TVO), Ontario's public broadcaster, and is anchor of TVO's flagship current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin.Paikin retired as a full-time TVO host on June 27, 2025, which was also the final episode of The Agenda. He will be continuing with TVO as co-host of the weekly political podcast #onpoli, and writing column's for TVO's website as well as hosting the town hall series, TVO Today Live, which airs several times a year, and the YouTube history series, Ontario Chronicle.^[6][7]topics:Canada after PM Carney's speech...now what?Canada’s prime minister just declared the end of the world as we know it https://www.vox.com/today-explained-newsletter/475992/canada-mark-carney-davos-speech‘Nostalgia is not a strategy’: Mark Carney is emerging as the unflinching realist ready to tackle Trump https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/21/nostalgia-is-not-a-strategy-mark-carney-is-emerging-as-the-unflinching-realist-ready-to-tackle-trump

A 'stunning' speech... But what does Carney do now? https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-64-the-house/clip/16193977-a-stunning-speech...-but-carney-now
What's next for U.S.-Canada relations after Mark Carney's pointed speech at Davos?  https://www.npr.org/2026/01/25/nx-s1-5685175/whats-next-for-u-s-canada-relations-after-mark-carneys-pointed-speech-at-davos
Canada-Trump tensions grow after Carney ‘rupture’ speech https://thehill.com/policy/international/5703219-carney-trump-tensions-rise/
Carney says Canada not pursuing free trade deal with China as Trump threatens tariffs https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/carney-says-canada-not-pursuing-free-trade-deal-with-china-as-trump-threatens-tariffs

part two:
Eric Lob I am an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University. My research focuses on the intersection of politics and development in the Middle East. I am the author of the book Iran’s Reconstruction Jihad: Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979 (Cambridge University Press, 2020). 
The rise of Reza Pahlavi: Iranian opposition leader or opportunist?https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-reza-pahlavi-iranian-opposition-leader-or-opportunist-273423

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KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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