Beware the alienated intellectual

The Wall Street Journal usually has pretty good reporting. But I avoid its opinion page, particularly since it was Murdochulated.

But, I’m making an exception for this piece, “The Alienated ‘Knowledge Class’ Could Turn Violent: Societies that exile their intellectuals risk turning them into revolutionaries,” by Jukka Savolainen. In it, the author argues that Trump’s crude and graceless cuts in everything from funding for higher education to salaries for government agencies could have very bad effects. Specifically, they could create hordes of unemployed, alienated, frustrated, and angry individuals…all of whom have University degrees and no little talent for organization.

Savolainen thinks that most such people wouldn’t turn violent, but even if only a few do, the results could be very serious, indeed. He notes that several of the most destructive groups of the 1960s and 1970s – the Weather Underground here in the US, the Red Brigades in Italy – had very similar backgrounds. Those “urban guerrillas” were likewise middle class and well-educated, but could find no place for themselves in their countries.

Possibly the best part in the piece reads, “As the Trump administration downsizes public agencies, dismantles DEI programs and slashes academic research funding, it risks producing a new class of people who are highly educated but institutionally excluded. History suggests this group may become a source of unrest—and possibly violence.”

Thus more gifts from the Trump Administration–misery and unrest, and a society at war with itself. 

MAGA is killing American Science…and America

 

Powerful piece in the Economist recently, “MAGA’s assault on science is an act of grievous self-harm.” In it, the editors note that the Trump Administration’s current attack on science is among the worst things that’s ever happened to the United States. It is driving the best researchers out of the country, and depriving us of myriad scientific and technical advances – the sort of thing that builds economies and prosperity.

It concludes (chillingly) that what Trump and his minions are doing is effectively turning over the future to China, and anyone else who might hate us.

Jill Biden: American Hero

So I read recently in the Daily Beast Trump DOJ Lawyer Floats ‘Criminal Charges’ for Jill Biden, an article by Leigh Kimmins. According to the piece, “Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights” has suggested that Jill Biden is guilty of “elder abuse,” as part of some imagined plot to conceal President Biden’s illness.

This is, of course, ridiculous. No such plot ever existed. And Dr. Bilden is wholly innocent. But, that doesn’t matter. I’m guessing that the whole point of the story was part of the Administration’s strategy of “flooding the zone” with insane non-news to keep the media, the public, and the Democratic Party off balance. I’m betting that in a few days, the whole thing will vanish, to be replaced by yet another idiotic manufactured crisis.

But there’s the rub. The story is an exercise in calculated cruelty, designed to wound the Biden family and distract the public. It is, in effect, a pure falsehood, but one which reveals much about the people. Their sadism, their total disregard for truth, and their willingness to sacrifice everything…including their dignity…for power, all these are on display.

And no one should fail to see that. For it reveals who they truly are.

Which is to say, they are monstrous. And obscene. And must be opposed in every possible way.

Jake Trapper and his smear-all book

I must confess, I’m appalled by Mr. Trapper’s current book, which purports to be a tell-all revealing how diminished was Joe Biden toward the end of his term. That’s partly because I have trouble believing it. The Biden I saw in public was anything but the senile cripple that the book claims he was. If anything, Biden seemed active, alert, and quite bright. He was running the country and doing it well.

But, suppose for a moment that the book is true. I’m still not a fan of Mr. Trapper. The simple fact of the matter is that Joe Biden is not president of these United States at the moment. Donald Trump is. And right now, Trump seems to be a far greater threat to American freedom than any we’ve faced since World War II.

So, why…in God’s name?...are we spending our time and energy yet again trashing Biden (who presided over a healthy economy and a successful foreign policy), when Trump is there, a monument to corruption, and a danger to us all?

What will he do?

So today is Memorial Day. 

How, do you suppose, Trump will mark this solemn occasion? By ignoring it? By making a wholly disingenuous show of patriotism? 

Or…

By dismissing the dead and martyrs as suckers and losers?

I’m kinda guessing that last.

Note to Putin: Don’t Even Think About It

Don't Tempt Him.

So several countries sharing a border with Russia are preparing for war on the theory that once Putin is done with Ukraine, other nations are bound to follow. One of those is Finland (see Finland accelerates preparedness for war in all forms by Shona Murray in Euro.news) and another is Poland (see Poland prepares for war by Rob Schmitz and Greg Dixon on the NPR website.) 

As is clear from both articles, the two countries are quite serious about fighting back. And remember, both nations fought wars of independence with Russia – Finland twice (The Winter War and the Continuation War), and Poland in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921. In both cases, these much smaller European nations did remarkably well against their much larger rival. 

So, note to Putin. Don’t think about an invasion of either Poland, or Finland, or anywhere else in Western Europe. You didn’t do well in your initial invasion of Ukraine. You are still not doing terribly well there. And, yes, you’ve learned a lot over the last few years, but so has everyone else. We’ve all learned the lessons of this new kind of war – the importance of drones, cyberwarfare, social media, etc. –  and we know how to apply them. 

Therefore, here’s a word of advice. Yes, Trump, that repulsive lickspittle, has given you the green light to do what you like in Europe. But he’s not the only factor to consider. Finland, Poland, plus the whole of NATO, are fully capable of hurting you badly.

So badly, in fact, that even a victory might seem Pyrrhic at best, and an abject disaster at worst.

Tariffs On? Or Tariffs Off? Or What?

Are the walls there. Or not?

So as I write this (on May 12) Trump has announced a temporary suspension of tariffs against China, and he’s trumpeting the suspension as a great victory and a feat of deal-making.

But, also as I write this, experts are not convinced that the suspension isn’t just a short-term measure, and that America has gained anything for all the effort (other than a titanic embarrassment internationally), and that the deal won’t collapse in the end. (See The U.S. and China make a deal on trade. Here's what analysts are saying: Stocks are rallying, but this victory looks hollow, analysts and economists say — and it might not last, By Catherine Baab, Quartz)

So, by the time you read this (I’m scheduling it for May 23), pretty much everything may have changed. Probably for the worst.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe the theory is that if he just keeps talking, just keeps blithering, people won’t notice what a disaster he really is.

Not even when we all end hungry, selling blood to survive, and offering kidneys for the transplant market.