A Rapid American Geopolitical Descent

“Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader . . . it will no longer be America.” – Ibid.

Geopolitical Grandmaster Putin Seeks an Opening in Europe at America’s Expense: President Trump’s decision to impose stiff tariffs on imports from closely allied countries is having deep and far-reaching effects. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for the meeting of NATO defense ministers, must again try to mend relationships strained by presidential policies. As one US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “This ministerial is going to be overshadowed by the tariffs issue.” Mattis suggested to reporters that the tariffs might ruffle the feathers of NATO allies, but he didn’t expect the decision to impact defense issues at this point. However, one US national security expert disagreed. “I think it was such a shock and the reactions from several allies being so unprecedented and so emotional and insulted, that I think some of that will bleed into some of the discussions at the sort of geopolitical level,” he said.

Trump’s decision is showing signs of having one particularly worrisome effect. It has given Russia the opportunity to gain stature and favor among those same allies. President Vladimir Putin was a persona non grata in Europe for actions such as his military involvement in Ukraine, Crimea, and Syria, and his election meddling and fomenting of right-wing populist uprisings throughout the continent. Now Putin is taking advantage of Trump’s resolution to treat allies as competitors. He is presenting himself to Europe as a reliable friend and trading partner, and he’s gaining considerable traction. Putin, now the one coming off as the grand strategist, said recently: “It is not our aim to divide anything or anybody in Europe. On the contrary, we want to see a united and prosperous European Union because the European Union is our biggest trade and economic partner. The more problems there are within the European Union, the greater the risks and uncertainties for us.”

– The former wife of a murdered mafia boss, who turned police informant and helped authorities bring down the Cosa Nostra in the early 1990s, was elected to Italy’s Parliament in March with 52% of the vote of her Sicilian constituency. But fearing vendettas, she cannot have her face shown to the public, and she lives under an assumed name. (Washington Post)

– With a month and a half to go before Pakistan’s election, a brutal military campaign of intimidation and crackdown on dissent is intensifying. Journalists are being abducted or threatened, major news outlets are being blocked, and supporters of the civilian governing party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, are being censored or punished. (NYT)

– A former Cambridge Analytica (CA) director, who said she met with Julian Assange in February 2017 to discuss what happened in the US election, has also said she funneled cryptocurrency payments and donations to WikiLeaks. The connection between CA and WikiLeaks was unknown until October 2017, when it was learned that in July 2016, CA had offered to help Assange index the 33,000 emails stolen from Hillary Clinton. (The Guardian)

America Quickly Loses Goodwill Overseas and in its Own Backyard: Mexico responded Tuesday to the Trump administration’s counterproductive steel and aluminum levies by imposing its own tariffs on roughly $3 billion worth of American pork, steel, cheese, and other goods. The move comes amid the White House’s struggle to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the 1994 pact between Mexico, the US, and Canada. If the administration thought hitting Canada and Mexico with 25% steel tariffs and 10% aluminum tariffs on June 1 was a good way to pressure those countries into accepting America’s demands on a revised NAFTA, the idea appears to have backfired. The three country talks have been fractious, and now President Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the president asked him to negotiate with Canada and Mexico separately. Both those countries insist that idea is a non-starter.

Mexico’s levies are designed to cause the most pain for those parts of the US represented by high-profile Republicans, including steel from Vice President Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana, motorboats from Senator Marco Rubio’s Florida, and agricultural products from the California district of Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader. Farmers stand to be the most devastated by the tariffs. The deputy director of Farmers for Free Trade said: “Farmers need certainty and open markets to make ends meet. Right now they are getting chaos and protectionism.” Despite the angry protestations from North American and European leaders, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that “The President feels very confident in his decision.”

– “Crime, Zhou Haohui says, is a universal theme, which is why detective stories or police thrillers can more easily transcend cultural divides than, say, historical fiction.” – How to Catch a Killer in China: Another Chinese Crime Novel Goes Global (NYT)

– “In the course of a presidency, a U.S. president says millions of words in public. You never know which of them end up cementing a certain impression. For Barack Obama, one of those phrases would be ‘red line.’” – Inside the White House During the Syrian ‘Red Line’ Crisis (The Atlantic)

– “‘The coming decades will show us whether we have learned from history,’ Merkel said in Washington after a lunch with Donald Trump. Accompanying her on her travels in recent weeks — to the United States, Beijing, and Shenzhen — one doesn’t get the impression that Merkel is particularly optimistic. If you look at the world through her lens, the riders of the apocalypse are already appearing on the horizon.” – Merkel’s Dark View of the World We Live In (Spiegel Online)

– “Kentucky Crowd Cheers Valedictorian’s Trump Quote, Then Learns Obama Said It” (NYT)

– Higher education may have reached its peak, with enrollment rates in steady decline. If these trends continue, there may be an educational crisis coming, with less education options available, as well as less jobs, and possibly a lower standard of living. And “Top Colleges Are Cheaper Than You Think (Unless You’re Rich): At elite colleges, poor families pay $6,000 per year on average. Very affluent families pay $69,000.” (NYT & The Atlantic)

– Odds are 16 trillion to one that a man could win the “My Million” lottery twice within eighteen months…and yet an unnamed Frenchman did it. Another event considered very unlikely is being struck by lightning twice — with odds being one in twenty million. (BBC)

– Supervillains have been an evolving archetype in the world of Hollywood movies, from world-ending disasters to Russians and now to Silicon Valley’s tech bros. How times have changed from when nerds were the protagonists, hacking into the villain’s mainframes to save the world…now we see high profile geniuses at the helm of evil robot armies and plots to rule the world. A New Yorker article explores how the new mad men are the math men. It feels safe to say that in Hollywood, the math men are the new archenemies. (The Guardian & The New Yorker)

– This is the why Daily Pnut’s publisher always gives the side eye or does a double take when someone says they are considering joining the National Guard (over joining Active Duty or the Reserves): “Man arrested after taking joyride in tank-like military vehicle: An armoured personnel carrier was stolen from a base in Virginia and taken on a two-hour ride, and the driver is now in custody.” (The Guardian)

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

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