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Politics:
In just a few minutes, the behavior of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance created a brand new stereotype for America: not the quiet American, not the ugly American, but the brutal American. Whatever illusions Europeans ever had about Americans—whatever images lingered from old American movies, the ones where the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and honor defeats treachery—those are shattered. Whatever fond memories remain of the smiling GIs who marched into European cities in 1945, of the speeches that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan made at the Berlin Wall, or of the crowds that once welcomed Barack Obama, those are also fading fast.
Quite apart from their politics, Trump and Vance are rude. They are cruel. They berated and mistreated a guest on camera, and then boasted about it afterward, as if their ugly behavior achieved some kind of macho ‘win’…
These are the actions not of the good guys in old Hollywood movies, but of the bad guys. If Reagan was a white-hatted cowboy, Trump and Vance are Mafia dons. The chorus of Republican political leaders defending them seems both sinister and surprising to Europeans too.
Trump May Revoke Legal Status for 240,000 Ukrainians
…Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
‘Why Doesn’t Somebody Stop This?’
In just over a month, the Trump administration has established a dynamic in which they take unpopular actions driven by the executive branch, then pull back selectively in response to public outcry, court orders (maybe? sometimes?), or other forms of organized opposition.
But they keep doing it, with actions that corrode the Constitution from multiple angles: banning media outlets from press conferences; engaging in staggering corruption; making what amount to serious policy decisions through DOGE, a rogue body not authorized by Congress. This leaves the Constitutional order badly weakened, like a car that’s still running, but marred by spreading streaks of rust that map out its eventual demise.
Justices Reject Trump’s Pause on Foreign-Aid Payouts
A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to pause foreign-aid funding, refusing to suspend a lower court order that required the government to pay contractors nearly $2 billion for work they already have performed.
Poorly Educated People Make An Excellent Servile Class
…Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as Thursday aimed at abolishing the Education Department.
Um, the Department of Education was created by law, passed by Congress and signed into law (Pub. L. 96-88). Since when do Executives Orders override laws? Did I miss a memo?
The Quiet Moments Said the Most
…Trump’s speech on Tuesday was a long and loud spectacle that went on for about 100 minutes, making it the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. But it was the rare moments of relative silence that seemed to say the most.
Republicans were so rowdy for so much of the night — roaring at Mr. Trump’s talk about the border and his legal and political victories; jumping to their feet at his declaration that ‘wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad’ — that it was telling when they just sat still.
Trump Aides Hold Secret Meetings with Zelensky’s Rivals
Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job.
At first, Trump’s early-term energy on multiple fronts was a bolt of energy as he scratched his Sharpie across executive orders and chased away the lethargy that marked President Joe Biden’s waning months in office.
Six weeks in, however, as Trump makes gut-check calls to dismantle post-Cold War national security arrangements, the global free trade system, and the federal machine – all of which helped make the US a superpower – a new realization is dawning.
There doesn’t seem to be a plan.
Serendipity:
The Humanism of Star Trek: A Galactic Perspective
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