Sleeping Giants Arouse

On Ukraine, perhaps the biggest issue earlier in the week was whether Putin is a rationalist sucker obsessing over the joys of having that nice, cuddly, respectful Donald as a mate. What a time they might have!

We had established that Putin can compartmentalize: he can be firm with Zelenskiy while quite soft with the Yellow Doll. But Trump’s mood was altered, beginning to get testy even because Putin was definitely not walking back on any of his demands for an end to the Ukraine conflict, while Zelenskiy and Europe - the one in an economic death spiral and the other heading in the same direction (though distracted by the greasy thought of stealing Russia’s seized or frozen assets) were digging in their heels. Trump was wavering on the latest false hope: the issue of sending Tomahawks to Ukraine. Putin professed to be disappointed, saying, first that this could destroy Russian-US relations but then relenting and saying that it would only damage them. He probably understood, as most knowledgeable US sources attest, that the chances of workable, launchable Tomahawks getting to Ukraine, particularly in any number that could make a difference before Ukraine’s slice of the map shrinks a good deal further, are very slim.

So why not be all smiley for Don? But again, as many in Russia and the West are asking of Vladimir Putin, is, really, why bother, when the clear goal of the US remains unchallenged dominance?

Rather, what is needed, these voices likely say, is a real wake-up call to the US to shock it out of its Hollywood induced self-satisfaction, sufficient to save the world from the sheer, reckless silliness of the policies of Washington and its proxy subalterns.

Lo and behold, that seems to be what Russia and China have done this week. From a war of attrition in the Donbass Russia has shifted to a war of conquest and angry retribution that appears to have brought Ukrainian cities to a standstill, to have wrecked over half of Ukrainian gas production and crippled weapons production and transport systems. Trump will know that American and European supplied air defense systems, even as the flow of these to Ukraine is reduced to a trickle are pathetically inadequate to protect the country from the mighty increase in volume and power of Russia’s nightly missile and drone attacks.

China meanwhile has shut down most of its rare earth supply to the US, indifferent to the relatively shallow impact Trump’s additional 100% tariffs are going to make to China’s economy. China may be the first to say so boldly that it can do without the US but it will not be the last.

The Yellow Doll is absolutely the wrong character for the unfolding era, seemingly unable to rise above his own narcissism - as indicated by the chair of Sweden’s Nobel committee even as it awarded a Peace prize to an extremist, pro-US regime change fanatic in Venezuela (a move that will encourage an American invasion; so much for peace).

He seems to understand very little of substance. In his vanity he equals Macron (who tonight is re-appointing a resigned and failed prime minister rather than give an inch to the far more popular prevailing political coalitions).

This is what you get when the rich govern. Their money buys them freedom from having to learn about themselves, and having to deal with the fact that both they and their policies are really rather stupid.