Denaturalization

 In his memoir about life in France on the threshold of World War II, Scum of the Earth, Arthur Koestler charts out the full ignominious course of events by which once-proudly democratic France surrendered to Hitler and gradually converted itself into an authoritarian, collaborationist state. 

First, Koestler recounts, the French government locked up all the anti-Hitler refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe (including Koestler himself). This perverse action was accompanied by a wave of unthinking xenophobia directed against any outsider, wholly unable (or unwilling) to distinguish friend from foe.

Private Execution

 So I guess, per Trump's remarks yesterday, our nation will not in fact be live-streaming the gruesome death by firing squad of a human being for the delectation of howling social media mobs, despite Pete Hegseth's earlier pledge. Even Trump appears to have blanched at the optics of lining up rifles to shoot down a semi-paralyzed man who uses a wheelchair to get around.

But it's only the live-streaming that's been called off, keep in mind. Not the execution itself. That means a group of U.S. soldiers will still be lining up, presumably, with rifles at the ready, and gunning to death a disabled man. The bullets will still tear through his flesh and blot out his life. He will still void his bowels in the final moment of agony. 

Betrayed by Immoderation

 Yesterday, Trump appears to have moved from tongue-lashing Ukraine to actively trying to undermine their efforts to defend themselves. He has already pulled most forms of military aid from the country. Now, he seems to have gone even further, apparently blocking Ukraine from a key Pentagon platform for intelligence sharing (though U.S. officials deny anything has formally changed). 

In the past few days, Trump delivered a major form of diesel sanctions relief to Russia—overriding the clear intent of Congress in their recent bipartisan sanctions legislation—in exchange for no concessions whatsoever from Putin. Trump proceeded to blame our Ukrainian allies for being invaded. He also exerted verbal pressure on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. 

Save My Skin and Damn My Conscience

 Okay, so let me see if I'm following along accurately here. In the last few days, Trump has announced a major form of sanctions relief for Russian diesel in exchange for no concessions whatsoever from Putin. He then proceeded to blame Zelensky for the war, even as Russian bombs killed more Ukrainian civilians. He then declared a bilateral "energy ceasefire" between the two nations, which Putin proceeded to violate within hours. 

And still, Trump does not appear to be interested in applying any pressure on Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine. Instead, all he seems to want to do is to blame Zelensky for being invaded and to unwind whatever shreds of U.S. support are still in place for Ukraine. 

A Higher Level of Suffering

 The other day on his Substack, the blogger Noah Smith was warning that the availability of endless short-form video content on our smartphones risks trapping us in a kind of hedonistic dystopia: a place where reward-chemicals have become so readily accessible that much of the meaning is drained from life—since meaning can only be derived from struggle. 

He writes with despair: "Perhaps it’s in the fundamental nature of intelligence to hack its own reward function — to find a way to give up striving and building and loving, and to simply hit the dopamine button until it starves itself ecstatically to death."

A Little More Socialism Please

 Californians are getting ready to vote next month on Proposition 42, a measure that would forbid any future tax on wealth holdings. Gavin Newsom announced his endorsement of the proposal a few days ago, adding his voice to those of tech billionaires who sponsored the measure, as well as the Wall Street Journal editorial board, in opposition to the possibility of any tax on wealth as opposed to income. 

The reasons they cite are essentially the same old penguin ones we've discussed before. They point out that billionaires may simply leave the state to avoid paying. California will experience capital flight and end up poorer in public revenues than it was before the wealth tax. As the richest burghers among the Penguins intone, in Anatole France's novel Penguin Island: 

Slow-Motion Munich

 Ever since Trump came back into office, people have been warning that it seems like he is planning to betray Ukraine. But, no matter how inevitable it seemed that Trump would eventually pull a Neville Chamberlain and cut a deal with Putin to hand our ally over to the country that was invading them, the decisive moment never quite came. Instead, Trump would at times appear to suddenly and radically undermine our relationship with Ukraine; but then, the next day, he would backpedal. And so the cycle would continue. 

For all we know, Trump's remarks yesterday may not have been his final word on the subject either. Mere days from now, he may patch things up with Zelensky yet again and pivot to offering another round of halfhearted praise for our ally. Whatever Trump may do from day to day, however, the larger pattern is unmistakable at this point: he really is walking away from Ukraine, by whatever fits and starts. He may be acting less precipitously than Neville Chamberlain did in 1938—but this is still a Munich in slow motion.