The Global Order Didn't Die; It Was Murdered

 The spiritual rot of our time is nowhere so evident as in the number of people—across both parties—who are rushing to normalize Trump's threats to invade Greenland (a neo-colonial assault that would—let us recall—also constitute a direct attack on a NATO ally, and thereby trigger Article 5 against... ourselves? I don't think the designers of the treaty ever contemplated that one). 

The punditry's response to Trump's bizarre and unprovoked saber-rattling (against, I repeat, countries that are already allied to us, at least until Trump succeeds in completely and permanently poisoning those relationships) has been all-too typical. In the immediate wake of Trump's comments, people mocked those who took him seriously. "He's just kidding," they said; or "it's a negotiating tactic." 

A Poem

 They say Moses wrote the Torah

There's just one small problem

He dies part-way through it

"Well, he

"Was gifted with foresight!"

They say. But—

Hebdomads

 On this day I complete my thirty-fifth year. I wasn't really sure how to feel about 35. I suppose I am now unambiguously in my mid-thirties. Adulthood is no longer a thing that can be procrastinated. It is already here. But other than that, I didn't have any particularly strong associations with this birthday. 

33 was a bigger milestone. The year of the crucifixion. 36 is the age at which Byron died in Greece—so I have that to look forward to. But I didn't have much to work with for 35. 

Fire and Ice

 The news this week presented quite the apocalyptic split-screen. Over in California, Los Angeles is in flames. An inferno has engulfed the city, and as of this writing, it has still not been contained. The cause of the fire was complex, but it was almost certainly exacerbated by dry conditions linked to climate change. 

Meanwhile, Trump is making headlines by fantasizing about an unprovoked war of aggression to seize U.S. control of Greenland—an ice-bound Arctic island nominally controlled by Denmark. An invasion of the island would be a direct attack on a NATO member, and thereby might trigger World War III. 

Left Populism

 Ever since the Democratic loss in the 2024 election (and, really, long before), we've heard periodic calls for a revitalized left-wing populism as an antidote to the right-wing racist and nationalist populism of Donald Trump. In the most simplistic form of the argument, people point to the resentment that right-wing populists currently try to foment against immigrants and minorities. They argue that, instead of seeking to counteract or subdue these political passions outright, the Left should instead seek to channel and redirect them against the working class's "true enemies": namely, the rich, and big corporations. 

Well, in the progressive social media reaction to the murder of United Health CEO Brian Thompson, the proponents of this argument essentially got what they wanted. The politics of rage, hatred, and envy were indeed stirred up and redirected against a left-wing–approved target: the CEO of a major corporation. And the results, I fear, are not pretty. Random strangers on X and Instagram celebrated the shooting death of a defenseless man—a father of two—in a public street. They heaped schadenfreude on the victim and his family before the body was cold. 

Change Elections

 Amidst the endless attempts to explain the unthinkable results of the presidential election last November, one persistent theme keeps emerging: the Democrats, we are told, lost because they were perceived as the party of the establishment. They had become the party of the status quo. Whereas Trump, bizarrely (since he was in office just four years ago) was once again perceived as the "change candidate." And Americans love change. 

So long as the Democrats had been perceived, by contrast, as the party of radical renovation—so this argument goes—they could still win elections. Obama was able to sail to victory twice because he had a message of "hope and change." But after eight years in office, Democrats had become the Powers That Be. Innumerable people said things like: "I voted for Obama, but then everything stayed the same." Or, eight years later, they said the same thing about Biden and Harris. So, out of vengeful disappointment, they voted for Trump the next time around. 

Ill Fares the Land

 The New York Times ran a piece on Saturday about how the Democratic Party lost the support of working class voters. The story is a familiar one from recent commentary, but probably has more than a kernel of truth in it, for all that. Basically, the author's contention is that the fundamental bargain at the heart of neoliberalism didn't work. Why? Because it failed to take account of people's deeper needs.

When Democratic politicians changed tack on issues like trade protection and globalization in the Clinton era, after all—it was clear to everyone that these policies would impose some highly-concentrated costs on blue collar workers in manufacturing industries. Some would lose their jobs; others would have to see their wages and benefits slashed in order to compete with cheap, nonunion labor overseas.