self care and communal care

by liberal japonicus

Started out as a comment, but thought I might spin it out to a post. Russell, building on nous, suggested that communal care is self-care and I want to unpack a bit. Nous mentioned in an earlier thread about the difficulties he is having (difficulties that I share) of students who have been told about the importance of self-care and are carrying it out, often to the detriment of the class (my restatement, I'm sure nous put it much more elegantly than I am) which is a difficulty I'm finding as well. Students, when faced with the smallest of speed bumps, throw up their hands and give up. My colleagues here have shared similar stories.

While the situation in a school is different from life after graduation, I was listening to a New Statesman podcast (here) and Andrew Marr brings up the point that a growing number of young people in the UK are going on unemployment with disability benefits and staying on them, which is one of the main drivers of Get Britain Working Again initiative. Marr points out that if the trend continues, the portion of the budget required is going to be unsustainable, if it isn't already. Rachel Cunliffe pointed out that this issue is, in large part, due to pandemic disruption. Marr takes that point, but notes that we don't see the same situation in France and Germany. He doesn't mention the US, probably because the benefits here are so miserly, everyone is basically on their own. They do mention in passing that people with disability benefits were supposed to be re-examined at set intervals, but the Tory government scrapped that requirement to save money.

Some idle speculation by me, while Russell's observation is probably true in a culture like the US, I'm wondering if it applies to the same degree here in Japan, at least in terms of education. As students drop out to self care, the network of inter-personal relationships frays and weakens because there is little to no understanding that they are pulling away for self-care. A large part of Japanese education is socialization, and when a larger and larger minority pull back, that socialization, which was supported by group trips and common expectations, disappears, or is at least greatly reduced. Furthermore, behavior of Japanese colleagues seem to mirror Terry Prachett's observation, which is this

Slave is an Ephebian word. In Om we have no word for slave,” said Vorbis. “So I understand,” said the Tyrant. “I imagine that fish have no word for water.

Never existing in a context where socialization was not immediately and automatically created, the idea that they have to set up alternate systems to make up the gap is inconceivable. Nous mentioned 'circles of care', but setting those up requires initiative and a willingness to try new things, all of which are in short supply here.

I'm returning to this post after a bit, but thought that I would put it up in case people want to talk. Have at it.

Comments

[wj]

students who have been told about the importance of self-care and are carrying it out, often to the detriment of the class (my restatement, I'm sure nous put it much more elegantly than I am) which is a difficulty I'm finding as well. Students, when faced with the smallest of speed bumps, throw up their hands and give up.

It feels to me (from, admittedly, a great distance) that at least part of the problem is one of definition. They have absorbed the term "self care", without grasping what it really means.

Part of caring for yourself is learning how to deal with the speed bumps that life inevitably throws up. Not by walking (running?) away, but by digging down and dealing with them. Because at some point you will (not may but will) encounter issues that simply cannot be evaded. And if you've never learned to cope, you will be in far greater trouble than if you had.

[russell]

I've forgotten exactly what my comment was, but FWIW the stuff I've been doing (or planning to do) includes:

• Taking volunteer shifts at a local food bank.


• Doing basic volunteer work for local immigration assistance programs


• Learning conversational Spanish, because most of the folks who are likely to be affected by all of the bullshit in my local area speak Spanish

This is all kind of small beer stuff, but it gives me at least a minimal sense of not being completely at the mercy of jerks. It provides a tiny sense of agency.

Other friends of mine are doing similar stuff, some focused more on gay and trans rights, some on labor, some on housing. There's a lot to do.

I'm less good at actual self-care, which I need to be more attentive to. Don't drink too much, take walks, don't spend all day doom-scrolling. Don't hide in bed all morning with my head under the covers. :)

At some point I think it's likely that stuff will get a bit more real, and circumstances may call on me to get out of my straight white male married suburban householder bubble of privilege and be part of the sand in the gears. Not something I look forward to, exactly, but as a friend said this morning, I don't want to be a bystander.

A lot of folks don't have the option of being bystanders.

The phenomenon of countries with stronger social safety nets tending to decrease the need for individual engagement in communal care is pretty interesting, and not something that had ever occurred to me. Weird that the US's meager social fabric could end up being useful.

Stay safe out there y'all. Take care of yourselves, and anyone else you can.

Little things add up.

[wj]

Take care of yourselves, and anyone else you can.

Emphasis added. Because that may be the critical piece.

[wonkie]

I'm not doing much yet except honoring the consumer boycott and badgering elected officials. I don't really need to take better care of myself; my deep cynicism and my retirement benefits protect me. I've been moving through the stages of grieving over the loss of all I value for at least a decade already, so I'm at resignation. Everything that happens just confirms by belief that homo sapiens is a very dumb animal. I still feel rage, but it's...when you expect people to be evil, it's a little less painful emotionally when they confirm your expectations.
As far as helping others: I am writing GOTV letters, I visit a nursing home weekly, I sit with a neighbor's wife weekly so he can get out of the house, and I break the conventional rules of conduct and respond to polite "How are you" greetings with, "A pussygrabbing moron is destroying America, but my personal life is okay so far. How are you?" You all would enjoy the shocked looks I get from MAGAs. And they never say a word in response. I've done this three or four times so far.
I do need to do more for community care.

[nous]

Just a few more notes from the classroom. I've been teaching my "college music" class again this term (and next), and one assignment is an essay answering the question "does college music still exist?" Many of my students land on arguing that the college music of today is less monolithic than it was in the college radio heyday because colleges are more diverse and because streaming services mean that music can be tailored to individual student taste and freely shared with others.

What I never get from them is any sense that their music is also their community, which is what I think of when I think about college music. Their music is a commodity that may be an accessory to their identity, but that identity is also largely thought of as a sort of personal brand. Their sense of self is mostly expressed in the language of social media. And while in the past I had a much stronger sense that social media could also create real communities engaged with real world issues (like the k-pop kids fighting social injustice), I have not seen that as much since the COVID lockdown and the rise of Big Algorithm. My kids these days seem fairly atomized.

What they really don't quite grasp is how the college music of the past was not a genre that created a community, but a community that created an ethos, and that ethos spun out into several genres. At its heart it was all punk - iconoclastic and yearning for big-tent inclusivity. It was mutual support. It was DIY. It was anti-hegemonic and anti-consumerist. The music happened the way it did because of the ethos, and the aesthetic followed from that.

And they are really hungry for that. They respond enthusiastically to writing that expresses that ethos of collective resistance and community organizing. They just have such a hard time breaking free of the Plato's Cave of social media to discover any embodied communities and effective, embodied means of collective resistance. It almost happened during the encampments, but I think those too were coopted and blunted by social media.

It's weird. Community and communication have become so easy to put together that it makes them just as easy to disassemble.

How does this all fit together and where am I going with it? Beats me. It's a reflection without a conclusion or any synthesis. Yet.

[russell]

I do need to do more for community care.

Sounds like you're doing lots already, wonkie.

Carry on.

[wj]

My personal response to "How are you?" Tends to be "As well as can be expected when my country is being turned into a third rate banana republic."

[GftNC]

wj, I hope you will forgive me if I suggest an addendum to your response, like this:

"As well as can be expected when my country is being turned into a third rate banana republic by a corrupt insurrectionist and a drug-addicted madman."

There were so many descriptions to choose from, I had to leave out e.g. felon. And, IMO, wonkie's response has a charm all of its own.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

'...it's not a banana republic because we raise bananas. It's a banana republic because our Republicans have gone bananas.'

[Hartmut]

Yellow and crooked? ;-)

[liberal japonicus]

Sorry, I should have included a link to the comment, it's not a long one

https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2025/01/its-actually-about-a-boat-in-scotland-open-thread.html?cid=6a00d834515c2369e202e860e056a0200b#comment-6a00d834515c2369e202e860e056a0200b

Nous' comment about music creating communities, over here, I'm hoping that what has happened is more a corona hangover than a societal change. Coming to uni, Japanese students often had or discovered 'tribes' they could join. One big problem is that many of them find their 'tribe' at a part time job. Here in Japan, there is a pretty astonishing labor shortage, meaning that where a convenience store might have 2 or 3 people working, they only have one, and the manager/owner then takes advantage of their willingness to join that tribe and gets them to be hesitant to refuse work or even to quit (you may have heard of so called 'black companies' in Japan, and part time work has the same issues) I get students who end up working long shifts and are too tired to do the out of class work or even get to class. So the 'self care' motif sometimes becomes blowing off the things that you are not going to get into too much trouble for (at least initially) because you are pressured to do work.

[hairshirthedonist]

Is is becoming a third-rate banana republic or a first-rate banana republic? They seem really good at it, so...

On the theme of self-care and communal care, I got to thinking about it on an international level given what's going on with USAID and such, particularly in light of the idea that communal care IS self-care. What tRump and ElMu are doing is known in soccer and hockey as an "own goal." It is only through vast ignorance that so many people don't see it that way.

I suppose the same point could be made domestically on many fronts as well. Where to begin?

[CaseyL]

I've been reading "The Entangled Life," which is about fungi and their mycelium networks.

The book is wide-ranging, talking about how mycelium networks connect everything, how they seem to "think," and how they enable nearly every biological process on the planet.

While the last century or so in the biological sciences has shown, over and over again, how connected everything is... the current political climate (not just in the US, but most dramatically in the US) is going in the opposite direction. Communities getting smaller, more isolated; societies becoming less open, more atomized.

I don't know what this shift portends, long-term.

One thing I keep wondering is whether the shift has at least partly to do with humankind being unable to tolerate the idea that we are not the center of the universe, much less the entire reason the universe even exists.

That is, for the past century, scientific research and exploration has contextualized the cosmos so that people who pay attention to that sort of thing know we are simultaneously "one with the universe" (in terms of the biological networks that keep us alive and conscious) and a tiny grain of unimportant sand, an eyeblink in time, in that same universe.

The very foundations of today's monotheistic religions, and especially the fundamentalist versions, depend on seeing humanity as the ne plus ultra of creation. Take that away and...?

[nous]

I'm with you there, CaseyL. I'm currently reading through a decent-sized pile of books about Deep Ecology, ecosophy, and eco anxiety. The possible social futures those books outline seem so much more connected and healthy than our current one.

One thought I keep returning to, much to my chagrin, is how in CS Lewis's The Great Divorce he describes hell as an ever expanding, hollowed out circle as the inhabitants retreat from connection into isolation. I have many, many issues with CS Lewis, but that is one of the places where I found him to have expressed something worth keeping.

We are building that hell on earth. Our social networks are antisocial. I think heaven must be more like mycelium.

[Hartmut]

Or like Nirvana.

A classic quote that applies not only to the religious:

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

― H.P. Lovecraft

I wonder what he would have made of Adams' 'Total Perspective Vortex'.
And what would a total self-centered person's (like His Orangeness) reaction be, if subjected to that?

[CaseyL]

nous - Serendipitously, last night I went to see "Lewis and Tolkien," a fictional account of the estranged friends, now elderly, meeting again in their old college tavern, and talking about where their lives diverged.

Tolkien's very strict Catholicism, which (in this play) played a significant role in their estrangement, was a topic of their dialog.

Lewis' own fervent religiousness - again, per this play - became somewhat more flexible after he fell in love with, and married, a divorced woman, which was at the time forbidden by Catholic doctrine.

With that perspective in mind, I can understand why Lewis would view Hell as a desolate isolation.

[GftNC]

I'm very sorry, but having just watched parts of the Trump-Vance-Zelensky meeting in the Oval Office, I feel absolutely unable to contemplate any self care. I hope and expect this will change, but I am afraid at the moment I feel physically ill and somewhat emotionally devastated. I wonder whether the pollsters will poll the American public about this, because around the rest of the world (except of course in Russia) I guarantee that the reaction will be to do (even more) enormous damage to the reputation and image of the United States. Eheu.

[novakant]

CaseyL, how is the play?

Regarding the banana republic: I don't think I have ever seen a thing like what just happened between Zelensky and Trump anywhere - never mind the US.

Even at the height of the cold war there was some sense of diginity and decorum - or am I just getting old, forgetful and nostalgic?

[russell]

One thing I keep wondering is whether the shift has at least partly to do with humankind being unable to tolerate the idea that we are not the center of the universe, much less the entire reason the universe even exists.

This ^^^^^

[CaseyL]

GftNC -

Imagine living in the country ruled by those piles of walking, talking vomit. As a USian, I thought I could not be more repulsed by Trump & Co. I was wrong.

novakant -

It was quite good. I recommend seeing it, if you can.

There were times I thought the dialog defied acting, in that it didn't sound conversational. But then I remembered we were listening to two products of the best of British education of that time period, a time and place where conversation could be and was prolix, multi-level, and highly intellectual. Think Winston Churchill, whose most casual conversation also tended to sound studied and portentous.

In that light, I think the writing should get high marks indeed - and the actors, who were **excellent**.

[russell]

I've mostly been off of social media and the news today - I took the "don't buy anything" economic blackout day as a more general opportunity to step away from the shit show.

I heard a tiny excerpt of the Trump / Vance / Zelenskyy meeting on the radio while running some errands, and prompted by GFTNC's comment here decided to listen to the recording that's up on the Guardian website.

The only sensible way to think about all of this is to consider Trump to be essentially a mafia don. A wanna-be mafia don, really, but with the resources of a real one, because of the foolishness of the American public.

The rest of the world needs to recognize that and act accordingly. Europe should assume that the US is no longer a reliable partner, full stop, and will in fact at a minimum give Putin diplomatic cover for whatever plans he has for Eastern (at least) Europe.

I can honestly say I have never been more ashamed to be an American than I am today. Never. We are governed by incompetent, stupid, vindictive children.

This is going to be - already is - one of the most shameful episodes in our national history.

Being a person who does such things, I send a prayer for the safety of Zelenskyy as he travels back to Ukraine, and for a secure future for the Ukrainian people. Their courage and resilience over the last three years has been nothing but amazing.

We will most likely get what we deserve. People and nations simply cannot treat others the way that Trump is treating Zelenskyy without consequence. We're very rich, we have a formidable military, and all of that makes us a nation that other nations can't ignore. But this betrayal of a people who have been an ally is going to - has to - make a significant impression on the rest of the world. And consequences will flow from that. And we will have earned them.

What a despicable performance by our leadership.

[russell]

We're very rich, we have a formidable military, and all of that makes us a nation that other nations can't ignore.

I will add - we're in the process of undermining those advantages as well.

I don't really know how we come back from this.

[GftNC]

And by God, we knew Trump was a bully (and a cowardly bully, next to what Alastair Campbell just called one of the bravest men in the world) but Vance certainly proved himself to be a 24 carat creep and toady. Unbelievable. All the diplomatic commentators were saying it had all the hallmarks of a trap that they lured Zelensky into. Probably at Putin's behest. I can't even....

[GftNC]

And let's not forget for a moment the performance afterwards by Lindsey Graham. In a long career of disgracefulness, he did not let standards slip. Dear God. I'm taking to the booze...

[wj]

First thing tomorrow (today being a don't buy anything day, including Visa's percentage of anything you use a card for), I'm donating to Ukraine. I urge everyone else to do so as well.

Whatever you can afford. Because, while the money is important, it is at least as important to demonstrate that a lot of Americans are still on their side. Even if what you can manage is $10, do it. It's the number of donations that matter in this moment.

And remember, mighty rivers happen one raindrop at a time.

[Donald]

I think that mess was a manifestation of Trump’s idiocy— that is, I think he sincerely wants to steal Ukraine’s mineral wealth ( and probably expects to benefit personally in some corrupt fashion) but when Zelensky pushed back even slightly with the comment about how America too would struggle in a war and has benefited from being on the other side of an ocean from its enemies, Trump lost it. He doesn’t have the ability to empathize or take correction from someone he perceives as the weaker party. He wanted to dictate terms and wasn’t willing to hear any back talk.

Vance just goes along with his boss.

Trump doesn’t care about Europe at all. He only cares about strong people as he sees them.

As for US moral depravity, this isn’t new. What is new is being ruled by a giant toddler who is openly thuggish. I watched a lot of State Dept press conferences on Gaza and generally found them to be sickening displays of moral evil. The difference is that most adults know how to couch their immoral positions in diplomatic soft- spoken language. It is infuriating but it is also the tribute vice pays to virtue. Trump has no idea why he should ever do that even to further his own ends. He is a bully and a thug and really believes this is what makes him great and everyone should love or admire him for it.

[GftNC]

wj, thank you for that suggestion, that was exactly what I needed to do. I donated on the Ukrainian government's own site for such donations, and they allow you to designate which heading you want it to go under. I chose "Military". Obviously I am not an American, but the options for currency were USD, Euros, or something else which I assume to be Ukrainian currency. So I donated in dollars, and I hope many millions of people do likewise, for the very reasons you give.

[Hartmut]

This adds to the pattern:
(from MSNBC)
* In related news: “The State Department this week terminated a U.S. Agency for International Development initiative that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore Ukraine’s energy grid from attacks by the Russian military, according to two USAID officials working on the agency’s Ukraine mission.”

I assume that this was decided even before the farce in the Oval Office took place. Can't say, whether this was a specific deliberate target or just part of the Kill USAID project.

What's the bet that the guidance systems for Ukrainian guided weapons made in the US get remotely disabled next? Musk already blocked Star Link for the Ukrainian military in areas occupied by the Russians in the past.
I would not put it beyond His Orangeness and his paymaster muskrat to now go for active sabotage of the Ukrainian war effort, not just cutting funds or deliveries. They will and cannot tolerate the defiance of the guy they intended to humiliate and rob blind publicly. They have to save face now (in their own distorted minds).
Btw, I would not have been surprised if ElMu had been invited to the WH event too.

[wj]

What's the bet that the guidance systems for Ukrainian guided weapons made in the US get remotely disabled next?

Sorry, Hartmut, you're not winning any sucker bets today.

I would note that Ukraine has a bunch of seriously talented (and experienced) hackers. So whether that stuff stays disabled very long is questionable.

And at this point, I would guess that a number of US allies (rapidly becoming ex-allies) will be eager to buy that little technological fix.

[wj]

P.S. It does occur to me that the guys who know to implement disabling those guidance systems may be among those laid off. I mean, if you can lay off the folks securing and maintaining our nuclear weapons, why not these guys, too?

[GftNC]

I read about this earlier on either the Guardian or the Times, but couldn't find it again.
This is the same story from something called The Record.

Exclusive: Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Hegseth gave the instruction to Cyber Command chief Gen. Timothy Haugh, who then informed the organization's outgoing director of operations, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Ryan Heritage, of the new guidance, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

The order does not apply to the National Security Agency, which Haugh also leads, or its signals intelligence work targeting Russia, the sources said.

While the full scope of Hegseth’s directive to the command remains unclear, it is more evidence of the White House’s efforts to normalize ties with Moscow after the U.S. and international allies worked to isolate the Kremlin over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

President Donald Trump has made a series of false statements and demands that align him with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including blaming Ukraine for the war and calling the country’s leader a dictator.

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Washington on Friday to sign a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources. However, the deal did not happen following an Oval Office shouting match between the two leaders.

The exact duration of Hegseth’s order is unknown, though the command has been told the guidance will last for the foreseeable future, according to sources.

Heritage, who is expected to retire soon, knows all of the command’s mission packages and whether they are in a planning or execution stage. He would be responsible for contacting the relevant entities and telling them to hold off. That task likely extends to the 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), the outfit responsible for planning and conducting digital operations across U.S. European Command.

The sources said Cyber Command itself has begun compiling a “risk assessment” for Hegseth, a report that acknowledges the organization received his order, lists what ongoing actions or missions were halted as a result of the decision and details what potential threats still emanate from Russia.

The implications of Hegesth’s guidance on the command’s personnel is uncertain. If it applies to its digital warriors focused on Russia, the decision would only affect hundreds of people, including members of the roughly 2,000 strong Cyber National Mission Force and the Cyber Mission Force. That is collectively made up of 5,800 personnel taken from the armed services and divided into teams that conduct offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace. It is believed a quarter of the offensive units are focused on Russia.

However, if the guidance extends to areas like intelligence and analysis or capabilities development, the number of those impacted by the edict grows significantly. The command boasts around 2,000 to 3,000 employees, not counting service components and NSA personnel working there. The organizations share a campus at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Hegseth’s instruction comes at a time when Cyber Command is struggling to staff up to target Mexican drug cartels, eight of which the administration formally labeled as terrorist groups. Trump officials have advocated for military action against cartel figures and infrastructure to stem the flow of drugs across the border.

A command spokesperson deferred a request for comment to the Pentagon.

In a statement, a senior Defense official said, “Due to operational security concerns, we do not comment nor discuss cyber intelligence, plans, or operations. There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the Warfighter in all operations, to include the cyber domain.”

Effects on Ukraine?
Outside of internal challenges, the order could derail some of the command’s most high-profile missions involving a top U.S. digital adversary, including in Ukraine.

The command sent “hunt forward” teams to Kyiv in the run-up to the Kremlin’s assault to harden its digital defenses. It has since paid close attention to how Moscow uses its digital capabilities, especially for intelligence purposes.

Russia is also a bastion for cybercrime, with state-linked and criminal ransomware actors striking targets around the globe. The command has become a key player in countering the malicious activity.

In addition, the stand-down order could expose private sector entities in the U.S. and around the world to greater risk if the command is not keeping Moscow’s intelligence and military services, which both feature notorious hacker groups, at bay.

Late last year Microsoft found Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) had targeted government employees and others in dozens of countries to gain access to their devices and systems.

Updated 5:27pm EST with a comment from a senior Defense official.

[GftNC]

Just posted a story about Hegseth's order for Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning, but it appears to have gone into spam. I didn't think it was long enough to trigger that, but I was wrong. If someone could rescue it, I'd be grateful.

[liberal japonicus]

Just to note, almost immediately after Zelensky left, le tache de merde orange posted on (un)Truth (anti)Social about Zelensky disrespecting the offal Office.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dejydynngo

Given the timing, it was clearly teed up, which means that everything on Trump's side was planned and scripted.

I watched the Japanese news, doing some channel hopping, and the reaction was basically to look away and not talk about it. I wonder what news in other countries looks like.

[liberal japonicus]

GftNC, done!

[nous]

lj - all the other contestants are livid. Best mid-season stunt ever for this show. Ratings will be off the charts for the next episode once the mid-season break is over.

[nous]

MAWB - Make America Westboro Baptist

It's pronounced "mob"

[wj]

Ratings will be off the charts for the next episode once the mid-season break is over.

How soon does the break start? (Soon, I hope!) How long does it last? (Hoping for 6 months or more. I'd prefer a 4 year break, but one must be realistic.)

[GftNC]

Thanks, lj. Meanwhile, booze helped, but I don't expect it will for 4 years. Donating helped. It helped me, at any rate. I hope that donations flood in, as wj suggested. And I hope Trump's "ratings" plunge through the floor, but I won't hold my breath.

[wj]

Worth sharing:
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hs233lknsqvobhnddnembtxf/post/3ljbm4f2btk27

Trump thought he was ambushing Zelenskyy. What actually happened was Zelenskyy effectively ambushed Trump. By keeping his cool and letting Trump be Trump in a room full of cameras.

Massively embarrassing for America. But overall, probably a plus for Ukraine in the medium, not to mention long, term.

[CharlesWT]

Meeting with Trump and Zelensky turns tense (YouTube)

[Hartmut]

(Nearly) everyone called it a 'shouting match' while only one side was actually shouting. Many also called it a humiliation of Zelensky while (imo) it was an attempted but (for now) failed one.
And the press corps(e) brought shame on itself by angrily complaining about Zelensky not wearing a suit to his face (while not daring to do the same to ElMu). So, the headlines distort at least partially what happened there (even if the reporting below does not).

[novakant]

this isn’t new

I disagree: this is new and it is important to recognize it as such. It's not just Trump being thuggish, but Trump openly siding with a war criminal who is trying to break up the post WW2 world order, doing away with diplomacy and trying to establish a state of nature in international relations.

Of course US foreign policy has been depraved numerous times before, but that tribute vice pays to virtue is actually very important, as it adheres to a common moral framework. Trump and many others not only in the US want to dismantle that framework.

[novakant]

Oh and at the behest of the petroleum industry he also just sounded the death-knell for the Rice's whales, a species of which there are only some 100 left:

https://www-slate-fr.translate.goog/monde/donald-trump-menace-baleines-rice-golfe-mexique-navires-protection-animaux-marins-cetaces-disparition-agence-noaa-administration-etats-unis?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

https://gizmodo.com/trump-just-made-life-more-dangerous-for-one-of-the-rarest-whales-on-earth-2000568811

[GftNC]

What novakant said @02.20, particularly about the price vice pays to virtue.

[GftNC]

@02.29, and not price but tribute! And since the copy editor is back on the job, I'd say that it "acknowledges" a common moral framework, rather than adheres to one. But otherwise, what novakant said.

wj, I liked the cartoon. But what matters to me is how widespread that impression is, otherwise I think we are just comforting ourselves in our own silos.

[novakant]

Thanks GftNC, that's actually what I meant to say

[GftNC]

There are certain days you remember and which leave you sickened. The murder of Jo Cox MP was one, the slaughter of journalists working for Charlie Hebdo another. So, of course, on a much greater scale was 9/11. There have been others too. No-one died in the Oval Office last Friday but certain ideas perished nonetheless and since these were good ideas and principles worth cherishing and defending this was as low a day as there has been in the modern history of the American presidency. It was nauseating and enraging to watch.

Gift link:

https://alexmassie.substack.com/p/a-day-of-infamy-in-washington?utm_source=substack&publication_id=547776&post_id=158163512&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=w2vx&triedRedirect=true

[wj]

wj, I liked the cartoon. But what matters to me is how widespread that impression is, otherwise I think we are just comforting ourselves in our own silos.

We do have our own silos, of course. And those in the other silo in the US, doubtless have a different impression. (Although I think that interview Zelenskyy did afterwards, on Fox, may have weakened the desired impression there.)

On the other hand, my sense is that, outside the US, Trump's stock managed to sink lower. Quite a bit lower, unimaginable as that might have seemed previously. Other countries will continue to have to deal with the US government on some things. But I'm guessing they will mostly not waste their time even trying, unless it is absolutely necessary. Why would they?

[Pro Bono]

The extraordinary thing about Trump's behaviour is that, transactional as he is, he didn't seem to be offering any sort of a deal.

If he wants Europeans to pretend to respect him, he can have that (there will be some coded digs, like Starmer's about not wanting to interfere in the USA's internal affairs, but Trump won't hear them). If he wants something substantial, he has to offer something substantial in return. My read is that he could have had serious concessions on Ukraine's minerals in exchange for a meaningful security guarantee.

But Trump's approach seemed to be that he wanted Zelensky to grovel, and to hand over the minerals, in exchange for nothing. I haven't read The Art of the Deal, and nor I suppose has Trump, but I doubt it suggests that would work.

[GftNC]

On the other hand, my sense is that, outside the US, Trump's stock managed to sink lower

No, no, you misunderstand me. I know very well that the whole rest of the world (except Russia, as I said upthread, not to mention North Korea et al) will regard Trump and Vance's behaviour with horror, disgust and contempt. My point was that what matters in the short and medium term is how it is regarded in America. And that is where the silos come in: I have already seen many Americans online defending Trump and lambasting Zelensky. The only thing that might make a difference will be if there is substantial downward movement in his domestic poll ratings. Because it is the only thing that might make a difference to him, and we in our silo lamenting and admiring scornful cartoons are irrelevant, or worse.

[russell]

$50 to Ukraine from me today. I donated here, hopefully it's legit. :)

My gut check at the moment is that this bullshit is not sustainable. The "shock and awe" is wearing off, people are pissed off.

I don't know where it all goes from here, but I don't see a successful four year Trump regime in the cards.

[russell]

I have already seen many Americans online defending Trump and lambasting Zelensky.

Same here. And I have seen many Americans telling those folks to fuck right off. Pardon my language.

I think there's gonna be a lot more of that.

[GftNC]

Your language needs no pardon, russell. It is wholly appropriate. That site looks legit. FWIW, this is the one I used, and I too hope it's legit:

https://u24.gov.ua/

[GftNC]

I'm happy to say that there are pictures of Starmer greeting Zelensky with a very warm hug this afternoon, and he has said the UK "would stand with Ukraine for as long as it may take". Zelensky is also meeting the King tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in an interview in the Times, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves:

announces the unlocking of billions of pounds for Britain’s defence industry, and will also release more than £2 billion from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s military.

Reeves will change the remit of the £27.8 billion National Wealth Fund (NWF) so it can be spent on supporting the defence sector. This public-private investment fund was previously only used for infrastructure projects such as green energy schemes.

The chancellor and the Ukrainian finance minister will also sign the £2.26 billion UK-Ukraine bilateral loan agreement. It marks the first time the money generated from the appreciation of frozen Russian assets will be used for military purposes.

[wj]

GftNC, I'm not sure about the site russell linked to. But U24 is definitely legit. It's one I have used before, and am using this time.

[wonkie]

"But Trump's approach seemed to be that he wanted Zelensky to grovel, and to hand over the minerals, in exchange for nothing. I haven't read The Art of the Deal, and nor I suppose has Trump, but I doubt it suggests that would work."

Trump has had only two approaches to deal making-- bullying and stiffing his creditors. He never had the self-discipline to do anything else, regardless of what his ghost writer wrote.

He can be manipulated by flattery sometimes.

I think he did want Zelensky to grovel. He's probably feeling vulnerable because of all the taunting about Musk being the real president--after all, the recent images of his Cabinet meeting showed Musk standing and talking while he appeared to be falling asleep. So he needed to put on a performance for the cameras.

Pathetic loser Vance also felt a need to put on a performance.

No American in the room was serious about making a deal and not one was serious about our long term defense of ourselves or our allies. It was performance for the cameras.

The MAGGOTS are eating it up, but I think the pussygrabber and Vance just punched themselves in the face.

One of my FB acquaintances defended the pussygrabber by saying that he was putting America first and we need to take care of our own. I said that the Republican party has no interest in the well being of America or Americans as evidenced by the attacks on every aspect of government that constitutes taking care of our own. I told her that if she really believed we should take care of our own, she needed to vote for Democrats, because the Republican party is opposed to taking care of America--except the rich elite.
That shut her up.

[wj]

I think he did want Zelensky to grovel.

Ever since Zelenskyy told Trump "No!" in response to Trump's demand for invented charges against Hunter Biden, Trump has ached to establish some kind of dominance. Vengence, in a word. Everything else, whether a mineral rights "deal" or a peace "deal" is entirely about revenge against Zelenskyy. Ukraine, per se, doesn't come into it.

Unfortunately for Trump, he was out of his league. Zelenskyy is in a position politically where he couldn't grovel even had he wanted to. Which he didn't. Agree to a lopsided deal? Yes. But not grovel. And Zelenskyy has a lot more experience on TV than Trump's heavily edited show provided. Which meant that, even working in a foreign language, he overmatched Trump.

[nous]

Here are two stories that I think are worth paying attention to while looking for signs of some underlying impetus for what is going on. The first of those is the quiet alliance that has been formed between Miller and Musk which is advancing the far-right populist cause:

https://www.wired.com/story/katie-stephen-miller-elon-musk-takeover/

If true, then Orange Julius is just the star of the show, but the others are the showrunners.

Of a piece with this, I think, is the role that Vance is trying to play as the Red Caesar in waiting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/jd-vance-volodymyr-zelenskyy

We have a Quisling faction in the US trying to cut the legs out from under the liberal democracies in the EU and replace them with illiberal nationalists more amenable to Putin.

Trump is just trying to stay ahead of his Russian held financial obligations and whatever quid pro quo he's done to maintain it.

[JanieM]

Pro Bono: But Trump's approach seemed to be that he wanted Zelensky to grovel, and to hand over the minerals, in exchange for nothing. I haven't read The Art of the Deal, and nor I suppose has Trump, but I doubt it suggests that would work.

Clickbait isn't "normal" in any way, including how he does "deals." Adam Silverman at BJ posted something enlightening last night about how he operates:

What we saw today was intended to look like an ambush and a betrayal, but it was really Trump having a temper tantrum because he knew he wasn’t going to get his way and he knows he can’t intimidate President Zelenskyy into doing what he wants. In 2016, Josh Marshall wrote a column about the two things Trump is known for in the business world, which I’ve quoted from/referenced here before. He described these two things as: “one is simple bullying as a business tactic, another is cheating people out of money they’re owed and then making the ‘deal’ stick by grinding the counter-parties down with the promise of endless litigation.” Marshall then goes on to provide a description sent to him by a NY real estate developer.

There is a personality type with a New York developer, one Donald learned from Fred when he carried his dad’s briefcase to acquisition meetings out in the boroughs and it goes like this:

Donald contracts for a service or good, or the acquisition of a piece of land for $1 million.

He then does not pay you

You ask Donald for your million dollars

Donald yells at you, basely, abusively, wholly out of character to the rich gentleman you broke bread with and made the deal with. He tells you that no, YOU owe him $200,000. Gives you no reason but screams how can you be such a son of a bitch to rip him off, how he’s going to sue you, expose you as a cheat, etc.

You’re off your pins, defensive. How could this be the guy who was so nice when he picked up the check at Per Se?

So, you compromise, because human nature avoids conflict, right? This is what he’s gaming you for because once you compromised, you’ve lost. You’ve inferred his premise that you have some complicity in the matter otherwise why would you compromise? You are on the defensive and will never get it back.

You offer $750,000 as a settlement, angry buy want it over and done with. He then sues you. Why, because you’ve already committed yourself to the loss. You volunteered to surrender your position and what will stop you from keeping going?

I’ve seen many a New Yorker settle things like this with Trump people for 5-10 cents on the dollar and then happy, even eager to keep doing business with them. Why? Because he got in their heads with this aggressively counterintuitive behavior.

As we saw it didn’t really work with President Zelenskyy. He didn’t cower, he didn’t wine, he didn’t try to quickly apologize. Rather he let Marjorie Taylor Green’s boy toy have it with both barrels, refused the deal, which he was always going to have to do, & ultimately left. If you’ve seen Fox News’s & similar outlets’ attempts to spin this as Trump behaving the way American president’s should, but never do or demonstrating this is what America First means, it’s because they know that the video looks bad for both Trump & Vance. They looked horrid for Rubio.

(Outer indented paragraphs are Adam. Inner ones are quoted from the Josh Marshall.)

I would guess that Clickbait lost it even further because his so-often-successful shitheadedness wasn't working on Zelensky.

[GftNC]

We have a Quisling faction in the US trying to cut the legs out from under the liberal democracies in the EU and replace them with illiberal nationalists more amenable to Putin.

Yup. After Munich, nothing Vance said or did should have come as a surprise. And yet, in the Oval Office at the court of Orange Ubu Roi, one can still be surprised. I imagine he did not know (and probably wouldn't care) how he came across to the rest of the world. But, as I have said, what I think is currently important is how he (and all of that ghastly crew) came across to the American public. I would love to imagine that American public opinion will shift dramatically, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Michael Cain]

The extraordinary thing about Trump's behaviour is that, transactional as he is, he didn't seem to be offering any sort of a deal.

My own guess is Trump has already decided on his view of America's future, and it doesn't include Ukraine. It's a problem for Russian and the EU, or maybe Russia and the European part of NATO. I suspect he has problems keeping, for example, how countries like the UK and Turkey fit into that view straight.

Again a guess, he really intends to establish a North American hegemony. He expects the rest of the world to conform to that sort of model. Russia+, China+, Europe-. How India/Pakistan or the Middle East, or Africa shake out is immaterial to him.

[Michael Cain]

In the self-care category... I hadn't bought a new bicycle in 25+ years. My two bikes no longer fit my old-man needs: I don't bounce around in the kind of terrain the mountain bike was intended for, nor ride at the speeds the road bike was for. This week I went shopping and bought a new bike for the old man's needs.

Since our second false spring has extended into the weekend, I took the new bike out for a ride this afternoon. 13 miles and it was pretty much everything I hoped for. I'll probably buy a spring-loaded seat post to soften the ride up just a bit. I think granddaughter #1 wants this to be the summer she outrides me. I think she may be disappointed :^)

[Michael Cain]

Also in the self-care category... Over at LG&M Cheryl Rofer asks what the goal is for the NOAA/NWS staff cuts and what alternative weather services there might be. A number of commenters use the old line, "When grandpa's knee hurts, it means...". I have an alternate take that will be a birthday card for my daughter in a couple months. When this grandpa's knees hurt, it usually means granddaughters :^)

http://mcain6925.com/little_monsters/birthday/spinning-grandpa.pdf

[JanieM]

Love the drawing, Michael. Self-portrait and all. :-)

[wj]

Way off topic
The (private) Norwegian company which provides refuelling for commercial and military vessels has just announced that it will no longer provide fuel for US Navy vessels.

That will disrupt existing logistics. And if it catches on, we may be reduced to something like refueling from Russian dark tanker fleet. Assuming they have suitable refined products available.

[novakant]

Speaking of Quislings, here's Ross Douthat portraying Trump as the bold conveyor of undeniable truths that others are too cowardly to mention, and if only he could work on his delivery a bit, all would be well (gift link):

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/opinion/trump-vance-zelensky.html?unlocked_article_code=1.004.p8gH.cCPbFJxQeySG&smid=url-share

His choice of words to describe the EU is particularly interesting:

Europe has been badly misgoverned by its establishment, once-lionized figures like Angela Merkel above all. Its economic position is parlous, its demographic situation is miserable and its military capacities have atrophied, and most of the chest-thumping about a revival of European power is empty talk and fantasy politics.

[novakant]

And he's saying this with faux seriousness while the US is on its way to become an autocracy:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/trump-putin-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.004.kY8N.tk9qg9A7QZja&smid=url-share

I guess he himself will be alright if he just keeps carefully towing the line, never mind his colleagues. What a creep.

[wj]

Its economic position is parlous, its demographic situation is miserable and its military capacities have atrophied, and most of the chest-thumping about a revival of European power is empty talk and fantasy politics.

The first part sounds very much like Russia actually. Parlous economic situation? Check. Miserable demographics? Check. Atrophied military capacities? As Ukraine has demonstrated, check. Putin has gone beyond chest-thumping, but carefully limited himself to soft targets like Georgia and Ukraine. Except that this time Ukraine has turned out to not be such a soft target.

[JanieM]

Some years ago I would have said you would be hard put to find a writer more turgid, stupid, self-congratulatory, and just plain idiotic than Ross Douthat.

He was equally thoughtful in college.

Life is too short....

[russell]

Protest sign of the day, from JD Vance's day of skiing in Vermont:

"JD Vance puts his cast iron skillet in the dishwasher"

And, of course:

"JD Vance skis in jeans"

New Englanders know how to bring the shade! :)

[GftNC]

I'm just watching Starmer's press conference after the multi-government meeting, and I must say I'm really impressed by him. Who knew, when he was elected and we all thought that the most significant problem he'd have to deal with was the UK economy, how much he'd have to step up (in the phrase of the moment) on really consequential foreign affairs. And who could have predicted how well he would do it. So far, so good - fingers crossed.

[bobbyp]

The Zelensky browbeating was, well, awful (words escape me), but we have yet to reach the nadir. Gutting Social Security (you know, that Ponzi scheme)/Medicare/Meidcade, gutting the administrative state, turning our backs on climate change, idiotic tarrifs, the end of NATO,and, last but not least: Tax cuts for the wealthy.

There has been a good deal of commentary on what drives Trump toward these terrible policies. But look, that does not matter. The goal needs to be resistance, and the utter destruction of the Republican Party from dog catcher to prez. There are no "good republicans" (but I repeat meyself). They have aligned themselves with pure unmitigated nihilism.

They need to go.

[BigBadY]

What do we do with them? They still live in our country.

[Donald]

“ Of course US foreign policy has been depraved numerous times before, but that tribute vice pays to virtue is actually very important, as it adheres to a common moral framework. Trump and many others not only in the US want to dismantle that framework.”

The moral framework was ignored on a regular basis. Gaza is a blatant example, but also typical.

What is different about Trump is that he is stupid and shortsighted, not that he is a grotesque moral freak. He is a grotesque moral freak, but so were the members of the Biden Administration. I have no patience with saying the betrayal of Ukraine and ditching NATO is worse than Gaza ( which of course could be further destroyed any moment now with Trump’s support.). The underlying theme of our hypocrisy is that there were certain classes of civilians that we could murder or betray and pay no price for doing so. But not in Europe. Until now.

What is different about Trump is that he spits on longterm allies for short term gain. As many have pointed out, he is destroying in a matter of weeks the trust and friendship built up over generations. And people voted for this moron. I have to say I didn’t really spend any time thinking last fall how Trump coukd destroy relations with Canada, but here we are. And now nobody can ever trust the US again, not for a generation or so anyway. Yeah, we would cheerfully support barbaric wars in Gaza or Yemen or invade Iraq for stupid illegal reasons — we are run by scum—but who thought we were going to treat Canada with complete contempt? This isn’t so much about morality as it is about trust and rationality and showing that at least with friends you can be trusted not to stab them in the back or spit in their face. But Trump doesn’t get this. I think even most dictators and authoritarian rulers get this better than he does.

[novakant]

Ok, maybe I was unclear in part, Donald, and GftNC actually helped clarify what I wanted to say by correcting my choice of words and you might have overlooked her post, so let me put it here again with the correction:

Of course US foreign policy has been depraved numerous times before, but that tribute vice pays to virtue is actually very important, as it acknowledges a common moral framework. Trump and many others not only in the US want to dismantle that framework.

So what I am referring to when I'm saying "moral framework" is something to aspire to in the Kantian sense. Of course it is not reality, it is an idea. If one proclaims to embrace this idea but acts contrary to it, we call it hypocrisy. If this happens often, the idea will be undermined but it lives on.

What Trump, Putin, Orban et al are doing is to attack the idea directly, trying to eradicate it altogether and to replace it with something akin to the state of nature.

I am the first one to be frustrated to no end by the hypocrisy of the West and have criticized it quite harshly for years here. When the Gaza war broke out I read three Judith Butler books in a row, because she is one of the few people who dare to actually apply philosophical principles to political issues in a mostly coherent manner, as opposed to making all sorts of excuses based on inconsistent reasoning.

So, to cut a long story short: I get it.

And yet, what we are facing now is different, because it is a direct attack on an idea that has lived on for hundreds of years, rather than just regrettably common hypocrisy. Not acknowledging the difference is a dangerous path to go down to.

Trump, Putin and their willing (or unwitting) fellow travellers love to point out the hypocrisy of the West in order to establish an entirely different world order based solely on power. They want us isolated, indifferent and cynical and it is working well partly because of the sins of the past, partly because that state of mind is easier to maintain than a constructive one.

Let's not hand them an easy win.

[russell]

What is different about Trump IMO is his use of his position to pursue a personal vendetta. To exact revenge on his own private collection of enemies.

[GftNC]

What is different about Trump IMO is his use of his position to pursue a personal vendetta. To exact revenge on his own private collection of enemies.

Yes, this is different from anyone we are recently used to in the US. But in order to do this, if I understand novakant correctly, Trump is determined to return the US (and in fact the world) to what novakant is calling "a state of nature", which I take to mean what T H White described in The Once and Future King as the doctrine of "Might is Right"*. The previous century's norms, and the tribute vice pays to virtue, at least pay lip service to the concept that Right is Right, and to the extent that enough nations collaborate in diplomatic efforts, and international legal frameworks, at least a semblance and therefore eventually a hope of civilisation is preserved.

I salute Donald for his moral clarity, and sympathise with his horror and disgust at so much of the world's (and our) hypocrisy, but in this case I agree with novakant.

*novakant cites Kant, and I cite T H White. I am grateful for your (all your) tolerance!

[Hartmut]

If he were not so lazy, he (His Orangeness) would probably feel quite at home in T H White's anthills. At least the propaganda broadcasts would be quite familiar to him. And ElMu would be exstatic to play both sides there (while absconding with the seeds).
Neither of them would like or even understand the geese.

[russell]

Trump is determined to return the US (and in fact the world) to what novakant is calling "a state of nature", which I take to mean what T H White described in The Once and Future King as the doctrine of "Might is Right"

In which White follows Locke in his Second Treatise on Government, which informed the political philosophy of the folks who began the US.

The state of nature is all upside for billionaires. That kind of money is an effective proxy for might.

The rest of us, not so much.

And as for individuals, so also for nations. At this point my guess is that Ukraine is looking at their surrender of nukes as a bad choice.

[wj]

There is the detail that, in a true might makes right state of nature, Trump would have been taken down long since.

[novakant]

Yeah, "state of nature" was me digging up faint memories of having read Hobbes some 30 years ago, meaning something like pre-social-contract.

[GftNC]

Ha, I see I was not the only one thinking about Might is Right. This is from today's Times, by Max Hastings, Thatcher's biographer apart from other things. Paywalled, and probably long enough to go in spam, so in 2 instalments here is number 1:

Stay firm in face of Donald Trump’s divide and rule
President’s treatment of Zelensky leaves the western alliance in its gravest crisis since 1945 — but we must pull through

Amid turbulence greater than has rocked the Atlantic alliance since 1945, it does no good merely to pile the abuse mountain higher. The West’s predicament is so serious that it would waste verbiage to reprise obvious truths about Donald Trump. We must instead reflect on precedents, and explore future courses.

Have we ever been here before? Think Poland. Churchill in 1945 was distraught that the nation for whose freedom Britain had gone to war with Hitler should fall into the bloody maw of Stalin. The prime minister stood accused of naivety in making a deal at Yalta for Polish free elections which the Russians had no intention of honouring. Yet Churchill saw no choice save to trust Stalin when the dying President Roosevelt refused to quarrel with the Kremlin. Moreover the Americans arguably displayed a realism from which the British recoiled, by acknowledging that the Russians occupied Poland. The Red Army had got there first.

In May 1945 Churchill, despairing and frustrated at finding the Yalta deal betrayed, ordered Britain’s chiefs of staff to draw up a plan for the western allies to expel the Russians from Poland by force. The outcome was Operation Unthinkable, a blueprint for an assault by 47 American and British divisions. In this amazing document the chiefs used the adjective “hazardous” eight times. Their chairman, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, wrote in his diary: “The whole idea is of course fantastic and the chances of success quite impossible”.

The planners observed that “even if our objective is no more than a square deal for Poland, the scope of such a conflict would not be ours to determine. If [the Russians] want total war, they are in a position to have it.” When the Unthinkable proposal was submitted to Washington, the new Truman administration unhesitatingly dismissed it. Poland was served on toast to the Kremlin.

Of course Ukraine’s plight is different, but there seem four relevant points: the Russians have achieved military ascendancy there; justice plays scant part in international relations; Putin is playing Stalin’s old Polish game; yet we cannot launch an Operation Unthinkable.

The distinguished strategic analyst François Heisbourg wrote before the weekend train wreck in Washington that the outcome in Ukraine “will either blunt or sharpen Russia’s pursuit of its broader aim … to recreate a latter-day Russian empire by limiting the sovereignty of the states [of eastern Europe]”.

If the US continues to refuse air support for European military peacekeepers in Ukraine, there will be no such deployment. The likeliest consequence of the Trump administration’s withdrawal, if persisted with, is that President Zelensky’s country will become, sooner or later, a Russian vassal state like Belarus, and probably also Georgia, just as did Poland in 1945. With the Americans offering shameless support to Vladimir Putin, and shameless animosity to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Europeans lack the military power, and — as yesterday’s summit suggests, for all its fine words — probably also the will, themselves to protect Ukraine.

We should certainly not acquiesce in Zelensky’s martyrdom, a tragedy not only for Ukraine but for freedom everywhere. Our leaders must continue to strive to keep the Americans in the game, by urging a peace plan upon Washington. We should ship all such arms as we can muster for as long as the Ukrainians continue to fight, and it is welcome that the prime minister confirmed the commitment to do this. But we cannot rearm ourselves remotely fast enough to undo the consequences of Trump’s treachery — and his actions, if persisted with, indeed represent treachery to America’s historic allies.

We must strengthen our defences on a scale thus far unspoken of at Westminster, if we wish to have any voice in an ugly new world in which might is to be deemed right. I am doubtful whether Sir Keir Starmer is yet ready to embrace such radical action, but his duty to our country demands it. We must think beyond the immediate threat to an epochal future requirement to protect ourselves without much America.

The British government should continue to address the Trump administration with superhuman restraint, but concede no point of principle, and recognise that mere subservience will get us nothing. Trump respects only strength. Compassion is not in his lexicon.

[GftNC]

Instalment 2:

He seeks to divide and rule America’s allies; to break the economic power of the EU by promoting the political power of the extreme right and fracturing European unity. He appears willing, for today at least, to treat Britain with a certain regal condescension, because he applauds our separation from the continent.

His mood is liable to change tomorrow, however. Britain is a liberal democracy. He is in the business of destroying such polities. I have often urged recognition of the fact that, forgetting nonsense about the special relationship, a lot of Americans do not like us, and such Americans are now in charge. A mere state visit will not change that.

We can traffick with Trump only with extreme caution, while prioritising unity with our neighbours and the other old allies. It is problematic whether we can continue full intelligence-sharing with Washington, amid uncertainty about what Trump’s security appointees might tell Moscow. Few students of global strategy expect this generational crisis — which Starmer’s words at the summit acknowledged as such — to end any time soon. It is unlikely that accord can be restored between Washington and Kyiv. Despite yesterday’s emotional protestations of the Europeans’ goodwill, their real strength of purpose seems doubtful, about rearming on a scale to compensate for American retreat.

Trump revels in high noons at which he casts himself in the principal role. He is sustaining a strike rate of almost one a day, exhausting hundreds of millions of horrified spectators around the world. We are being called upon to hold our nerve, to sustain a sense of order, calm and commitment to reason, when none of these things is on offer from Washington.

Hal Brands, of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, writes in the latest issue of US Foreign Affairs: “The democratic recession of recent years could become a rout if Washington quits the fight for the world’s ideological future — or, worse still, joins the other side … Trump’s world could become a very dark place”.

Advertisement
Somehow we shall come through. But the people of the United States may discover themselves paying a historic price for what is happening, through a collapse of respect for their country and of faith in its word. The betrayal of Ukraine, amid televised presidential conduct such as few mafia bosses would stoop to, can only be forgiven if Trump changes course.

There. I have failed. Despite an expression of good intentions in the first lines of this column, it has proved impossible to complete it without adding to the abuse heaped upon America’s most deplorable president.

[GftNC]

Margaret Renkl in today's NYT, gift link headlined Truths to Remember in a Time of Lies:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/opinion/trump-truth-lies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1E4.Pc7k.xaItOyofXiz3&smid=url-share

[russell]

We're pausing military aid to Ukraine, tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods begin tomorrow, and LInda McMahon, the billionaire CEO of the World Wrestling Foundation, has been confirmed as head of the Department of Education. Because hey, who wouldn't want the CEO of the World Wrestling Foundation as head of the Department of Education.

Also, the Department of Defense has halted all offensive cyberoperations against Russia.

We are a month and a half into a four year term of office. It's hard for me not to see this as basically the implosion of the United States in any kind of recognizable form.

If they don't utterly fuck up Social Security my wife and I will probably be OK, and I'll do whatever I can to help keep the wheels on for folks in my own personal orbit, to the degree I can. Which isn't really that much.

But god damn, this country is going down in flames.

[wj]

Of course Ukraine’s plight is different, but there seem four relevant points: the Russians have achieved military ascendancy there; justice plays scant part in international relations; Putin is playing Stalin’s old Polish game; yet we cannot launch an Operation Unthinkable.

Ah, but has Russia achieved military ascendancy? Their 3 day blitz conquest of Ukraine not only didn't happen, they are currently reduced to importing North Korean meat cubes** to make up the numbers on their own meat cubes. Meat cubes who are dying in droves to conquer the occasional square mile.

The only thing keeping Russia in the game is a shortage of ammunition on the Ukranian side. And the Ukranian domestic production of drones, increasingly the critical weapon in this war, is skyrocketing.

** Yes, I know the North Korean troops are far above meat cube level. But as far as I can see they are being used as meat cubes, just like Russian troops. With the result that they are running up lots of casualties, while not having the big impact on the fighting that was anticipated. Meanwhile Russia seems to rely primarily on Iranian designed drones, which by now are a couple of generations behind.

[wj]

If they don't utterly fuck up Social Security my wife and I will probably be OK, and I'll do whatever I can to help keep the wheels on for folks in my own personal orbit, to the degree I can. Which isn't really that much.

On current trends, I'd say it's pretty much a certainty that they will fuck up Social Security. And all (political) hell will break loose.

As with the firings of the nuclear weapons safety folks, they will scramble to reverse course. The thing is, it won't be surprising if they have done damage that it will take someone competent to fix -- which is to say, trashed some "legacy" (i.e. CoBOL) software.

Finding the people who could fix it, persuading them to pick up the mess (they may demand concessions, like booting Musk and his kiddies), that will take time. Then actually effecting repairs will take more time. All the while, Social Security payments aren't happening.

As I say, there will be a political shit storm the likes of which we have never seen. Congressmen will suddenly appear to have rediscovered their backbones, at least on this issue. Any Congressman who doesn't scream bloody murder over it, and there will doubtlessly be some, will be facing torches and pitchforks the first time he shows his face in his district. Quite possibly literal ones.

Of course, none of this helps the people who live SS check to SS check. They are the ones the rest of us will need to care for.

[russell]

which is to say, trashed some "legacy" (i.e. CoBOL) software.

You know, I started my glorious tech career writing COBOL code for an insurance company. It's been... 40 years, but maybe I could brush up?

$150/hour and I'm your man! But it's gotta be a work-from-home deal.

:)

We're assuming they'll screw it up at some point, probably sooner rather than later, and are basically not spending money on anything non-essential. We're a step or two ahead of "SS check to SS check", but an extended interruption - or an end to the program altogether - would be a problem.

And hell yeah, we gotta watch out for the folks who are less well placed.

[CharlesWT]

Sooner or later, if Congress doesn't act, there will be no money left that can legally be spent on SS checks.

[JanieM]

Sooner or later, if Congress doesn't act, there will be no money left that can legally be spent on SS checks.

WTF does "legally" have to do with it? I have been wondering how soon it will become apparent that the rule of law is ... well, I wouldn't even say it's on life support at this point. The fact of its death just hasn't seeped through to everyone's consciousness and daily life yet.

And Congress has already abdicated its role and responsibility to an unelected fraud (never mind the elected fraud) and his teenage minions, so ... what does Congress have to do with it?

[russell]

fake news!.

Briefly, Social Security is funded via means that are not affected by the budget under consideration.

[wj]

Social Security payments might be safe (Depending on whether Musk's kids have trashed the government payments system, of course.). But the staff salaries are a different story. For that matter, do little things like SSA's computer systems, and the power to run them, stay up? In the hope, on the part of staff and vendors, that this administration will eventually pay for them.

[Priest]

All future payments will be in bitcoin or ethereum. Problem solved.

[Donald]

Novakant—

Handing Putin an easy win is irrelevant. The non- Western world already knows that our principles mean nothing. They really don’t. I use the term hypocrisy but it doesn’t capture what is happening, because Western elites really believe in their own virtue. I don’t think the bipartisan fainting spells that American politicians had when the ICC indicted both Israeli and Hamas leaders were fake. They really exist in a mental world where Western officials are good guys and the authoritarians we happen to oppose are evil.

And this attitude is ubiquitous. Setting aside Trump, who really is uniquely bad ( but not on war crimes),, when people in our political culture ( outside the far left) talk about Putin they see him as a war criminal and a murderer and as corrupt. When they talk about bad Western leaders, it is nearly always about corruption. There was a period in the Dubya era where mainstream libs used the war crime label but once Obama came back that talk was quickly retired. Nowadays the neocons are heroes and upholders of civic virtue so long as they despise Trump.

Gaza is not an exception. It really isn’t. When 19th century whites talked about liberty and owned slaves, they were hypocritical if you believe that all men were created equal but most of them did not believe that. They existed in a moral universe where they had a code and a belief system where it made sense for them to talk about freedom and tyranny and sincerely never see themselves as bad guys.

I do agree that Trump is different and people are saying similar things. With Trump, literally everything revolves around him. I think he is willing to upend any agreement, any standard, to make himself feel powerful and rich and worshipped. And his followers are a nasty religious cult.

To the extent there is a different Trump doctrine, it could be a version of “ realism” vs the alleged “ idealism” of people who see the West as upholders of human rights, but I always thought that debate obfuscated more than it revealed. Anyway, Trump is too much of an insane megalomaniac to have a consistent doctrine. If he were more normal, he might be like Kissinger.

I will say one other thing uniquely horrible about Trump. We had a bipartisan consensus in favor of saving lives in Africa and Trump and Musk ended this for no sane reason at all. It cost us very little, contradicted no foreign policy goal no matter where you stood, but it was some money spent on poor powerless people, so they ended it. That was pure evil.

[Donald]

Oh, one other thing. I was focused entirely on foreign policy above.

Domestically, yes, Trump is a fascist. He and his billionaire pals want ruke by the super rich and they will break any law that stands in their way if they can get away with it. So I would guess I agree with everyone here on that.

[Donald]

Third thing. U use the word “ really” too much. Annoying tic.

[Donald]

I use, not U use. I am going away now.

[Michael Cain]

Third thing. I use the word “really” too much. Annoying tic.

I have been training myself to ask a question every time I use a word that ends in "ly". Does that word need to be there? Does it add anything to the statement?

[Hartmut]

For me it's 'actually'.

The Dems in Congresss should have greeted His Orangeness with a chorus of:

Jail to the thieves now embezzling our whole nation
Jail to the thieves who are out to rob us all
Jail to the thieves, let us pledge incarceration
For foul defilement, to prevent our downfall.

You may proclaim to make this great nation greater
That you will do, it defies all sane belief
Jail to the clown, musk rat and couch fornicator
Jail these embarrassments! Jail them, good grief!

[GftNC]

We had a bipartisan consensus in favor of saving lives in Africa and Trump and Musk ended this for no sane reason at all. It cost us very little, contradicted no foreign policy goal no matter where you stood, but it was some money spent on poor powerless people, so they ended it. That was pure evil.

Wholeheartedly agree. And I think it's also connected to how they despise DEI: some people/groups are just subhuman, and don't count.