Meanwhile, in Ukraine

 Peruse the front page of any news aggregate or scholarly world-affairs journal these days and it's likely to be preoccupied with the latest Middle East developments.

Let us not forget, however, that Ukraine continues to be subject to this on a regular basis:

Russian missiles and drones destroyed homes, burned buildings, and killed civilians in Ukraine's major cities in a mass overnight strike on April 16, killing at least 17 and injuring over 100 in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. 

The overnight assault marks one of the deadliest Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians of 2026.

The Air Force later said Russia launched a total of 19 ballistic missiles, 25 cruise missiles, and 659 drones during the attack. 

Twelve missiles and 20 drones hit 26 locations across Ukraine, and debris from interceptions hit 25 locations.

In the first attack on Kyiv in over a month, at least four people — including a 12-year-old child — were killed and 48 others injured overnight in Kyiv, Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 26 of the wounded were hospitalized, and that among the victims are emergency medics and children. 

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the overnight Russian attack killed at least nine people in the southern port city of Odesa and killed at least four people in the central-eastern city of Dnipro, the local authorities and the State Emergency Service reported.

This is a direct result of the West's moral compass being wobbly from the time Russia launched its assault in February 2022. The Biden administration was skittish about sending what was needed to repel the assault. Europe had not yet gotten a clue as to how it needed to step up, and rogue actors such as North Korea and Iran were all too happy to help Russia. Then along came the Very Stable Genius and that supremely shameful dressing down of Zelensky in the Oval Office, as well as the Alaska "summit" with Putin the following August.

But ironies abound. Yes, Ukraine is still subject to the kind of horror described above, but the shape of a new alliance structure is coming into view:

President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Rome on April 15 for talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, continuing his diplomatic tour across Europe.

During the visit, Zelensky underscored the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defenses and said that Kyiv and Rome are "working out the specifics" of an upcoming drone deal.

"Italy is very interested in developing joint production, especially in the drone sector, in which Ukraine has become a leading nation in recent years," Meloni said during a joint press conference with Zelensky after talks at the Chigi Palace.

Zelensky urged closer air defense cooperation among European partners, offering Ukraine's expertise in countering drones and missiles.

"We all need a truly effective defense system that can protect against any threats. War has changed," Zelensky said.

Meloni reiterated Italy's support for Ukraine and called for increased economic pressure on Russia, specifically through the EU's 20th sanctions package, currently blocked by Hungary.

The two leaders further discussed Kyiv's efforts to join the EU, the EU's 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan for Ukraine, the battlefield situation, and the U.S.-Iran conflict.

As part of his official visit, Zelensky also met Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace, who underscored the "deep friendship" between Italy and Ukraine, the Ansa news agency reported.

And that visit comes on the heels of a rift between Meloni and the Very Stable Genius:

 

For years, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy enjoyed leverage as the right-wing leader who could bridge the gap between Europe and President Trump.

This week, though, she seems to have decided that Mr. Trump is a bridge too far.

After suffering major political setbacks because of her association with Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy and seen as the cause of rising gas prices, Ms. Meloni seized on an opportunity to extricate herself from a relationship that had grown domestically and internationally poisonous. After Mr. Trump launched a broadside on Monday against Pope Leo XIV, Ms. Meloni rallied to the American pontiff’s defense, saying, “I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable.”

Mr. Trump, clearly jilted, lashed out at Ms. Meloni, saying in an interview with an Italian newspaper on Tuesday that he hadn’t talked to her “in a long time,” was vexed by her lack of participation in the war in Iran and was “shocked by her,” adding, “I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.” He responded to her “unacceptable” criticism by snapping, “She’s the one who’s unacceptable.” On Wednesday, he added in a television interview that with Italy, “we do not have the same relationship.”

 One hears a lot about how a newly motivated West, minus the United States, is still no match for the military and economic might of the US, but that kind of depends on properly sizing up that motivation. Carney, Starmer, Macron, Merz, Tusk et al know, as the Trumpists like to say, what time it is.

And Ukraine has remained strong enough through this ordeal to emerge as a sought-after vendor of drones, even in the Middle East. And these days Zelensky is forthrightly saying that Ukraine ought to be in NATO.

For all the sober analysis of the current state of all this. there's something to be said for being on the right side of the dynamics from a moral standpoint.

A lot of time and opportunity have been lost so far in the Ukraine situation, but there's a palpable push for those with the most at stake to do the right thing now.

That's to be encouraged.

 

A silly foreign policy in a deadly serious world

 So Vance, Kushner and Witkoff return empty-handed from Islamabad, the Very Stable Genius orders a US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (and I'm not the first to point out the absurdity of the US closing the strait that is already closed by Iran, and which was open to all the ships of the world prior to the VSG starting the current war), Israel is on the same footing it went on prior to previous attacks on Iran,  polls in Hungary don't portend an Orban win, despite the blatant endorsements of Vance and Trump, and the VSG spent last night enjoying himself at a UFC fight. Marco Rubio was in attendance, too.

 For that matter, I don't think I've seen the VSG congratulate the Artemis II crew. If he has, he was low-key about it.

I came across a National Review article this morning that made a compelling case for widening one's scope beyond this panoply of developments:

There is a comfortable orthodoxy settling over editorial boards, university seminars, and policy conferences from Ottawa to Brussels. It goes something like this: Donald Trump broke the international order, the United States is an unreliable partner, and the remedy is diversification — toward China, toward the BRICS bloc of emerging economies (including players like Brazil, Russia, and India), toward anyone who is not Washington. This narrative is not merely incomplete, it is dangerously wrong, and the countries indulging in it are squandering what little time they have to prepare for a world that is about to change in ways that ...

The author, an expatriate American living and teaching in Japan, says the bigger dynamics we ought to consider include AI, and the sclerotic regulatory climate in Canada and Europe.

I respect his perspective, but, as is so often the case with a certain kind of sober-analysis piece I run across, it underestimates the impact of the VSG on post-American politics, the shaping up of new dynamics on the world stage, and the setting of precedents that future generations will take for granted at its own peril.

The guy is so clearly out of control, and his contempt for the rest of the West is getting increasingly egregious. His ha-ha-you-don't-know-whether-I'm-kidding-on-the-square-or-completely-serious style of posting on Truth Social or bloviating to reporters has the rest of the world, malign and good-faith alike, shaping events without waiting around for post-America.

Europe appears determined to sidestep the US in the effort to tailor its defense apparatus to 21st-century needs. Ukraine has already proven itself as a solid vendor of drones to several Mideast nations.

I pray, of course, about the current state of affairs. There are signs, such as the aforementioned polls in Hungary, that the good, right, and true can prevail over the bad, wrong and false, but I'm not counting on post-America to be a needle-mover, at least on the side of the former.

Dare to compare

 The Very Stable Genius's take on where things stand re: resolution to the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

President Trump jabbed at Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Friday — blaming him for a lack of progress in peace talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year invasion.

“Zelensky is going to have to get moving,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for North Carolina.

“Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky is going to have to get moving. Otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity.”

Russia's take:

 As the United States renews its diplomatic push to end Russia's war against Ukraine, Moscow is making something clear: its position has not changed.

While U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian officials met for trilateral talks in January and again in early February — with another round expected next week — the Kremlin has used the same period to restate its position.

As Washington speaks of momentum and narrowing gaps, Russia's most senior officials have publicly dismissed key elements of the proposed framework.

There would seem to be a gap in expectations.

 

Well, let's see . . .

. . . in the past week , there's been 

The National Prayer Breakfast

at which Trump called Thomas Massie a moron who "loves voting no"

and rehashed for the zillionth time the 2020 election, served up in a word-salad meander about his ego

and employed  his signature usage of brand-burnishing third-person reference to himself to serve up a little totalitarianism with the faithful's hash browns, saying, "If you do say something bad about Trump, I will change my mind and I will have your tax-exempt status immediately revoked."

The standoff between Poland and post-America

in which US ambassador Tom Rose cut ties with lower-house-of-Parliament speaker Vlodzimier Czarzasty to placate the loyalty-demanding Very Stable Genius, who got hurt feelz because Czarzasty didn't support the nomination of the VSG for the Nobel Peace Prize

The Obamas-as-apes video

made by the same guy who did the airplane-dumping-poop-on-a-No-Kings-rally video a while back.

The revelation that

[t]he Trump administration asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for the Washington region’s Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station to be named after President Donald Trump in exchange for releasing the federal funds required to build a long-delayed tunnel between New York and New Jersey, multiple sources told NBC News.

Guess the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Peace didn't satiate his appetite for self-glorification.

Dizzying, I know. But do not become inured. This is way outside the parameters of anything we could define as having experienced before.  

 

 

And everybody's going to get on his or her particular high horse, and thus does post-America edge closer to atomization

 Re: the Don Lemon arrest, the hot takes are coming fast and furious.

Everything from

“They arrested Don Lemon. This is horrifying. I don’t care what your political beliefs or leanings are, what journalism outlet you represent, this absolutely cannot stand,” she argued.

to 

“LMFAO! Couldn’t happen to a more deserving faux ‘journalist’ who helped terrorize women and children. TIME TO PROSECUTE!” wrote Daugherty.

Megyn Kelly does ask us to consider a valid hypothetical:

“For those saying this is criminalizing journalism, journalists don’t get a pass when breaking the law just bc they have a mic,” submitted Kelly. “If I accompanied ppl storming an abortion clinic harassing/scaring/’traumatizing’ the crying women while saying ‘But I’m a reporter!’ I would absolutely have been charged under any Dem admin.”

There's more at the link and a lot of it is pretty ripe. January's not even over and we can be sure that it's going to be a year of dug-in heels, extreme narratives and a backdrop of fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-America has opted to be one of the world's bad actors

 I decided LITD was the appropriate place for this rant. Perhaps some nuggets from it will find their way into a Precipice post, or two or three. 

But I'm not ready yet to frame my reaction to recent events in a nicely laid out argument with a singular theme and perhaps some clever metaphors.

No, presently, I'm horrified and enraged. 

There's no longer any question that the United States, under its current "leadership," has rent asunder not just the transatlantic alliance but the commonly held notion of Western civilization.

The Very Stable Genius imposes a ten percent tariff - that's ten percent above and beyond present tariffs - on any nation that doesn't back the VSG's insane designs on Greenland. 

So the European Union - and this is a good move, but it's sad that it's come to where it became necessary - has forged a free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc - Argentina, Brazil. Paraguay and Uruguay (and probably new bloc member Bolivia. Europe now views post-America as the kind of nation around which it should do an end run, rather than embrace as a partner.

In Copenhagen,  the normally unruffled Danes made a statement:

The crowd, which included parents with small children as well as older Danes, wore hats in the style of Trump’s MAGA caps but scrawled with “Make America Go Away,” and waved Greenlandic flags and signs saying, “Hands off Greenland.”

And check out how this country is reacting to these tariffs:

 Russian officials welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland, with Kremlin economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev claiming on Jan. 17 that the move signals the "collapse" of the transatlantic alliance. 

Trump earlier said that Washington would impose 10% tariffs on NATO allies — France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland — until the U.S. reaches a deal to buy Greenland. He has threatened to acquire the island "one way or the other."

"The transatlantic alliance is over," Dmitriev wrote on X, mocking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and urging European leaders not to "provoke" Trump.

And now - sheesh - we're back to sending hints about Canada:

 President Donald Trump is privately ramping up his focus on another target in the Western Hemisphere, increasingly complaining to aides in recent weeks about Canada’s vulnerability to U.S. adversaries in the Arctic, according to two U.S. officials, a senior administration official and three former senior U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

As Trump’s advisers work toward his goal of acquiring Greenland, the president has privately grown more exercised about what he sees as Canada’s similar inability to defend its borders against any encroachment from Russia or China, specifically arguing Canada needs to spend more on defense, the officials said. They said his push has accelerated internal discussions about a broader Arctic strategy and potentially reaching an agreement with Canada this year to fortify its northern border

The VSG is also creating a "board of peace" to oversee Gaza reconstruction. In a characteristically self-aggrandizing move, he'll be the chair. 

If a country wants to sit on the board more than three. years, it will have to pony up to the tune of a billion dollars.

And into what kind of fund or account will this bit of lucre be deposited?

The draft also reportedly suggests that Mr Trump would control the money himself, and that it would allegedly go towards rebuilding Gaza.

And it seems this board's scope of mission will be more broad than just Gaza:

. . . the text of its charter, which does not mention Gaza but stresses the need for a “more nimble and effective international peace-building body”, suggests its scope would be far broader, and that the body — which will be chaired by Trump himself — could be used as a rival to the UN.

“The Board of Peace is an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” the charter says, according to a copy seen by the Financial Times.

“Durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”

On the home front, so far, it's been what we'd call federal agents, employees of the Department of Homeland Security, that have been sent to post-American cities, but now we're talking soldiers:

Some 1,500 active duty Army paratroopers have been put on alert for a potential deployment to Minnesota, according to two defense officials.

The soldiers are from the 11th Airborne Division, based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, one of the Army's premier infantry formations and a frontline force in the U.S. military presence in the Pacific, positioned to help deter China. The division is also the military's leading formation for Arctic warfare.

One official said the president had not made a final decision on whether to deploy two battalions. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Don't get so overwhelmed by the momentum-gathering cascade of events that you become inured. 

Fully let in, as painful as it might be, that post-America is one of the world's bad guys now. 

So what is to be done? 

I really have nothing concrete beyond not acquiescing. Resist what the country has been transformed into. It's not going to get easier to do so. Quite the contrary. It's going to require an increasing amount of courage.

Okay, that's pretty much it for right now. 

For one thing, I just ate lunch and I don't want to lose it. 

 

 

 

Well, why not? It's still late in the day

 Hello, everybody. As you can see, I haven't posted here since March.

I have stayed busy over at my Substack, Precipice, which has a fair number of subscribers and is where I post longer essays that tend to be about a wider range of topics.

I started Late in the Day a few years earlier (LITD, 2012; Precipice, 2019), and the intent has been to invite the public to fully grasp what has happened to this formerly recognizable thing called the West. I do a fair amount of that at Precipice as well, but LITD has always been a bit more topical and the posts more link-rich.

I guess what prompted me to wade back in over here is that I'd like a place to less formally gather my thoughts in response to each - or at least many - of the developments comprising the torrent of abrupt history-making whenever the mood strikes me. A place to feel my way toward inspiration for other projects.

Let's see; the last post I did here had to do with the Jeddah talks regarding Ukraine. 

What a ten months it's been since then. Putin still has no interest in any kind of peace settlement. In fact, he's upped the savagery level of his missile and drone attacks. 

There's the related issue currently on our plate of the Very Stable Genius's blathering about Greenland with random capitalizations and uses of quotation marks and the thank-you-for-your-attention-to-this-matter sign-off that characterize his social media posts. It’s yet another example of this ha-ha-am-I-kidding-on-the-square-or-deadly-serious “presidential” style that we’re saddled with. But it definitely has Denmark, and Europe generally, alarmed and discussing various what-if scenarios.

The bottom line in that arena is that the post-1945 international order is no more. We're back to spheres of influence. Brute force. (Hell, Stephen Miller says so.) 

Venezuela? Sure, as an isolated development, it's great that Maduro has been captured and deposed. But let us consider that newly sworn in president Delcy Rodriguez is a Chavista through and through. As is interior minister Diosdado Cabello, who wields a blunt instrument, literally, in the country's government.  And collectivos are boarding public buses and demanding that passengers hand over their phones so they can check for signs of support for Maduro's ouster. Then there's the VSG's clear indication that oil is his first priority. That's how Vance is thinking of it, too. 

There's the situation with ICE in Minneapolis. I've watched some of the video. It does look to me like Renee Good was steering her car to the right, away from the agents. From what I can tell, they had options other than shooting her in the face. Is it true that she was a cause-y lefty with an edgy lifestyle? Sure. But she was an American citizen and her life is as precious as that of any other of God's children. And now both sides have dug in their heels, have glommed onto hard and fast positions that will brook no nuance.

So things will probably get increasingly confrontational between ICE and people on the streets of post-America's cities. And not only will the question of how to humanely address the situations of long-time residents from elsewhere who have lived productive lives in the US continue to get sidelined, more actual citizens will surely get caught up in the ugliness. 

Anyway, I think I'll start chiming in here again with some degree of frequency. 

I've been kind of missing the place. 

 

So the Jeddah talks have begun

 So post-America has finally deigned to meet a Ukrainian delegation, after sending unmistakable signals to the world that it cares not whether that nation continues to exist as a sovereign entity, and that, in its view, Russia has the more sensible view of how to proceed.

The meeting is being hosted by Saudi Arabia:

Ukrainian and U.S. delegates are starting their talks in Jeddah on March 11 in a meeting that will likely have a major impact on Washington's future support for Kyiv and any effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

"The meeting with the U.S. team started very constructively; we are working towards a just and lasting peace," said President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

The Ukrainian delegation is said to include Yermak, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Zelensky's Deputy Chief of Staff Pavlo Palisa.

The U.S. delegation is led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

The stakes are high:

Kyiv is entering the talks with a weak hand but is prepared to do what it needs to to get the U.S. back on its side.

"We're ready," a source in the President's Office told the Kyiv Independent when asked about the prospect of signing the mineral deal.

In an effort to convince the U.S. that Ukraine is serious about peace and in the hope that Washington will resume military aid and intelligence sharing, Kyiv is also reportedlyproposing a partial ceasefire covering long-range drone and missile strikes, as well as hostilities in the Black Sea.

The U.S., however, may now want to extort more from a weakened Ukraine.

Having to offer so much to the U.S. before peace talks with Russia can begin in earnest is being keenly felt in Kyiv.

When asked what Ukraine was expecting at the talks in Jeddah, the source in the President's Office replied: "Finally hearing what the Americans want from the negotiations."

Deciphering that level of inscrutability is a daunting task. The Very Stable Genius's signals are anything but encouraging:

"So many of the things that Trump has said in the last two or three days give you the impression that he thinks Ukraine was going to lose regardless, that the Biden administration wasted a lot of money prolonging (the war), and we just have to get that over with," Volker said.

Nothing that has come out of the White House in recent weeks suggests Trump has any interest in reaching a peace agreement that is in Ukraine's interests.

After Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Ukraine would not survive without U.S. support, Trump was asked in an interview on March 9 if he was "comfortable" with the thought of his actions potentially leading to the destruction of the country.

"Well, it may not survive anyway," Trump said.

His assessment of Ukraine's future came around a month after he flippantly suggested the country "may be Russian someday" in comments that made clear his main interest lay in Kyiv's mineral wealth and the ability to pay back U.S. military aid.

Trump's transactional approach to negotiations that appear to have little regard for Ukrainian lives, territory, or sovereignty is a major source of concern in Kyiv, and the country as a whole.

"The expectations (of the Jeddah meeting) are alarming," Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, lawmaker from the Holos party, chairman of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, told the Kyiv Independent.

"Because recently the U.S. administration has demonstrated a desire not for just peace, but for the fastest possible reconciliation between the victim and the aggressor, without taking into account the interests of the victim."

Yurchyshyn acknowledged that an "optimistic" outcome for the talks would simply be to get relations back on track and for the U.S. to "take into account the interests of Ukraine in the future negotiation process."

But another unavoidable fact of the U.S.-led peace negotiations so far is that Washington has not yet had to truly negotiate with Russia.

The much-vaunted first round of talks between Washington and Moscow on Feb. 18 produced little of actual substance — restoring embassy staffing for further diplomatic missions, appointing representatives to further the negotiation process, and creating the necessary conditions for restarting U.S.-Russia relations.

While repeatedly strong-arming Ukraine into proving it is serious about peace, the White House has said nothing so far about how it plans to make Russian President Vladimir Putin order his armed forces to put down their guns.

There's going to be a lot of talk about "difficult choices" and "the realm of what's possible." That crap pales in comparison to the central issue: what's right and wrong. The Putin regime forcibly annexed Crimea in 2014 and assaulted mainland Ukraine in March 2022 with missiles, drones and ground troops. Children have watched their mothers raped by Putin's thugs. Other children - thousands of them - have been kidnapped and taken to re-education camps inside Russia. Hospitals and schools have been destroyed.  Russian government officials and television commentators have regularly bandied about the possible use of nuclear weapons.

And in the last month the Very Stable Genius and his geldings have re-conferred "legitimacy" on the Putin regime.

It's obvious why. The VSG things the world's dictators sit at the cool kids' table. They're the kind of leader who gets things done, who command deference just by walking in a room.

Consequently, the VSG is engaging in outright evil. The Oval Office humiliation of Zelensky, the "pausing" of intelligence-sharing and aid, Rubio's opening bid at this Jeddah meeting.

It's evil, but it may well prevail.

 

Yeah, there's been a realignment, but it's as garbage as the previous alignment

 We're starting to see the broad outlines of a second Very Stable Genius administration come into focus, and it indicates, as expected, an incoherent populist-nationalist mess where the few sound, conservative policies get sullied by having been folded into the overall cluster-you-know-what.

Henry Olsen is kind of an odd cat. He's a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a fine house in Washington, and he's capable of articulating the conservative vision as applied to specific areas, but he, for some reason, seems to have a soft spot for Trump. 

The latest example is his current New York Post column, in which he asserts that Trump's November victory signals an historic American political realignment, which is probably true, but doesn't follow up with much in the way of signals as to whether he thinks it's a healthy one:

Signs suggest it could be something even worse: a historic defeat that puts Republicans in the political driver’s seat for a generation or more.

That’s because the exit poll showed that more voters said they were Republican than Democrat — for the first time in a presidential election since 1928.

Such a result hasn’t happened since talking pictures were new and Babe Ruth clobbered homers in the original Yankee Stadium.

No one alive today has ever voted in a presidential race where this has occurred.

Now, watch how he words this part.:

A world where Republicans lead Democrats by 8 to 10 points in partisan preference is one where Republican preferences and priorities prevail.

Like the GOP in the last century, Democrats could win only by running as “me too” candidates, offering a slightly less bold version of the Republican agenda.

Well, okay, but those preferences and priorities are, as I say, populism-nationalism with the occasionally actual conservative position showing up like a blob of flour in a lumpy gravy. 

Olsen does qualify his wowee-zowee level of amazement with this:

This isn’t set in stone, though: Trump needs to have a successful term.

If the economy tanks, or illegal migration continues, or Trump goes to war with China or Russia, voters will flee from the GOP like rats off a sinking ship.

Trump could also mess up by prioritizing issues he didn’t run on.

George W. Bush did that in 2005, when he tried to reform Social Security without first getting a mandate to do so.

Barack Obama, too, in 2009 and 2010, when he made passing Obamacare his focus even after running as a centrist.

Trump could make either or both mistakes. Failure and fecklessness will be punished.

But imagine if he doesn’t.

Imagine an America in 2028 that’s at peace, with illegal immigration virtually ended, the woke tsunami broken and the economy humming.

Henry, the signs during this transition period don't point in the direction of the scenario you want us to consider.

At a time when the very notion of the West is extremely wobbly (the financial woes of Britain and France, the Orban camp within NATO, Turkey's clear shift to an anti-Israel stance, the ongoing inadequate trickle of what Ukraine needs to defeat Russia, the cultural rot and population decline common to Western nations on both sides of the Atlantic), he's getting his kicks with kidding-on-the-square comments, as well as outright threats, to the United States' allies and neighbors:  

Trump on Wednesday continued to tease US territorial expansion in social media posts, criticizing the operation of the canal and doubling down on suggestions the US should absorb Canada and Greenland, a territory controlled by Denmark.

In a sardonic Christmas message, Trump claimed Chinese soldiers are operating the Panama Canal and reiterated his criticism that Panama is exploiting US vessels that use the waterway.

“Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in ‘repair’ money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about ‘anything,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

In the same message, Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “governor,” again insinuating Canada should become a US state. He also suggested the citizens of Greenland “want the US to be there, and we will.”

Recall that he also got off on a contentious footing with Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum, suggesting US forces may have to enter Mexico to deal with the cartel problem.

Then there are the tariffs, about which a National Retail Federation report released last month had this to say:

• The proposed tariffs on the six product categories alone would reduce American consumers’ spending power by $46 billion to $78 billion every year the tariffs are in place.

• The proposed tariffs would have a significant and detrimental impact on the costs of a wide range of consumer products sold in the United States, particularly on products where China is the major supplier.

• The increased costs as a result of the proposed tariffs would be too large for U.S. retailers to absorb and would result in prices higher than many consumers would be willing or able to pay.

• Consumers would pay $13.9 billion to $24 billion more for apparel; $8.8 billion to $14.2 billion more for toys; $8.5 billion to $13.1 billion more for furniture; $6.4 billion to $10.9 billion more for household appliances; $6.4 billion to $10.7 billion more for footwear, and $2.2 billion to $3.9 billion more for travel goods.

• Based on current trade, average tariff rates for all categories examined would exceed 50% in the extreme tariff scenario, up in most cases from single or low double digits.

Then there is - yeah, I'm gonna go there - the appearance that the VSG is instinctively drawn to associates and appointees whose sex lives and marital track records are as sordid as his. Musk, Hegseth, Kennedy. Matt Gaetz, who is no longer in the running for Attorney General, nor even a House member, but to whose defense the VSG came a couple of days ago, calling the exhaustive ethics report "unfair."

Henry, character is not a part of the Trumpist vision that now pervades the Republican Party.

Then there is the hawking of a perfume line and the Lee Greenwood Bible during this transition period. 

Donald Trump thinks this whole thing is a hoot. He's never experienced more glorification, which is the end aim of anything he does in life.

Henry, I honestly don't get your wow-this-is-exciting assessment of this new Republican alignment. It's not going to achieve your dream scenario, and any table scraps of conservatism to be found in it are hopeless tainted by the surrounding garbage.

"New political era." Big effing whoop. We're still headed toward the same accelerated decline the Left had us on. 

 

 

 

 

 

Donald Trump hates economic freedom - today's edition

 This isn't going to be one of those dispassionate analyses of the reality what the Republican Party has become. Statisticians and sociologists are doing a fine job of painting that picture. The 2024 election made clear that there is lots of realignment going on in post-America. There's a swath of the electorate that spans a lot of demographics, but has in common a feeling of being unsettled by the vast economic and cultural changes of the last several decades. It wants stability and familiarity.

But the truths of economics do not change. The free market, as described and defended by the great thinkers known well to all actual conservatives - Adam Smith, Bastiat, William Graham Sumner, Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt and Milton Friedman  - has proven that it is the only kind of economic system compatible with the other levels of human freedom. In fact, it's really not proper to speak of it as an "economic system." It's the absence thereof. It's the way human beings naturally transact in the absence of an externally imposed system. It's the sum total of millions of agreements reached daily between buyers and sellers of goods and services as to the value of each.

The 2024 Trumpist Republican Party gives not the first flying f--- about it. 

Exhibit A is this social media post by the Very Stable Genius:

I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan. Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST! As President, I will block this deal from happening. Buyer Beware!!!

Donald Trump Truth Social 09:21 PM EST 12/02/24 

@realDonaldTrump

9:32 PM · Dec 2, 2024

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318.5K

 Views

Excuse me, but it is not any of the federal government's business who buys US Steel. This is blatant, vulgar pandering to those who, for emotional reasons, bristle at the thought of a foreign company owning a manufacturer of one of the world's most basic manufacturing materials with the words ""United States" in its name. This is what the yay-hoos mean by "America First." The government is not there to guide the economy's dynamics in one direction or another.

Exhibit B is the bringing back of one of the most shameful hucksters from VSG 1.0:

President-elect Trump on Wednesday named his once-jailed former aide Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to the incoming White House, picking a loyal ally to help implement broad plan for tariffs.

Navarro served as White House trade adviser in Trump’s first term. That eventually led to Navarro serving a a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Just hours after Navarro’s release from prison in July, he got a roaring reception by Republicans during his prime-time speech endorsing Trump for a second term at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“I am pleased to announce that Peter Navarro, a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it, will serve as my Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing,” Trump posted on Truth Social in announcing Navarro’s new role. “During my First Term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American. He helped me renegotiate unfair Trade Deals like NAFTA and the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), and moved every one of my Tariff and Trade actions FAST….”

The president-elect added that the senior counselor position will allow Navarro to use his experience and “his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills” to push forward the Trump trade agenda.

Implementing tariffs were a key part of Trump’s reelection campaign. He threatened last week to impose steep 25 percent tariffs on all goods from U.S. allies Canada and Mexico and ramp up tariffs on China with an executive order signed on Day 1.

The president-elect went on to praise Navarro in the Truth Social post.

“Peter is not just a superb, Harvard-trained Economist, he is a noted author of more than a dozen bestselling books on strategic business management and unfair Trade. He did a superb job for the American People in my First Term,” Trump said, “Peter will do even better as Senior Counselor to protect American Workers, and truly Make American Manufacturing Great Again.”

Navarro was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the Jan. 6 probe and another for skipping his deposition before the now-defunct House committee that was investigating the riot at the Capitol that day.

So the VSG means business. He's showing his collectivist impulse. He has a vision of what American economic activity should look like and will use public policy to shape it accordingly. The stinking president of the United States is not supposed to have a vision of what American economic activity should look like. 

Didn't conservatives oppose FDR for grand-scale government economic interference? And those of Johnson, Carter and Obama?

Post-America is in no position to claim it sets an example for less-developed countries that want to up their prosperity and liberty levels.

Someone has to say so.