Dear Weekend Jolter,
Like a certain famous character of fiction, Americans have had the misfortune of coming unstuck in time.
How else to explain the abrupt shifts in position we're seeing from the major parties? Such substantial reversals take decades of normal time to complete, not days. Time is speeding up, or we're being flung through its fabric like a Christopher Nolan protagonist, or something else funky is going on.
Christian Schneider observed evidence of these temporal glitches last month, when Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer warned of the risk of using tariffs indiscriminately, even though, as Christian wrote, trade protectionism has been "a foundational issue for Democrats for decades." This, as erstwhile free traders on the right cheer tariffs.
More jarring has been the inversion on the matter of "abundance."
Noah Rothman earlier this year wrote (skeptically) about the emerging "progressive abundance agenda," as expounded in a new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Fast-forward a few weeks, and President Trump has, improbably, put himself on the other side of the question, making the case for accepting scarcity if that's what it takes to see his tariffs through. What's more, he's doing it in the language of Bernie Sanders, echoing the ethos of the World Economic Forum. From NR's editorial:
Bizarrely, the man who for decades has been a symbol of unapologetic American excess is now defending his tariff policies by making a case against abundance.
When confronted with the reality that, should his tariffs go fully into effect, Americans will no longer have access to low-priced goods that are currently being imported, Trump is now arguing that children are going to have to get used to having less.
Last week, Trump said at his cabinet meeting, "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."
Asked about it on NBC's Meet the Press, he reiterated the talking point, saying, "They don't need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five."
As the editorial notes, this is the same Trump whose seemingly infinite portfolio of iconic images includes one of him by a banquet table stacked with fast-food sandwiches. The same Trump whose sumptuous residences were described in a 1997 New Yorker profile as containing, in the case of Mar-a-Lago, "tapestries, murals, frescoes, winged statuary, [a] life-size portrait of Trump (titled 'The Visionary'), bathtub-size flower-filled samovars, vaulted Corinthian colonnade, thirty-four-foot ceilings, blinding chandeliers" and, in the case of Trump Tower, a "twenty-nine-foot-high living room with its erupting fountain and vaulted ceiling decorated with neo-Romantic frescoes" and "onyx columns with marble capitals that had come from 'a castle in Italy.'"
In the piece, an anecdote about a kumquat captured the atmosphere of abundance. The way Trump's then-attorney told it, one day he grabbed the small citrus from a bowl of fruit at Mar-a-Lago on his way to the loo — and by the time he came out, "the kumquat [had] been replaced" (emphasis in original).
This Trump, the one with a reserve supply of kumquats to fill any space that is missing its allotted kumquat, is worried you might be buying too many dolls.
If the tariffs have had a uniquely disruptive effect on the positions of the parties, the divide over the Ukraine war gave early signs of a coming reorientation. Recall the artist-activists who, in what looked like an act of bizarro Code Pink, flew paper planes at the Guggenheim demanding enforcement of a no-fly zone shortly after Russia's invasion. Christian, again:
Ukraine presents perhaps the most dramatic flip-flop. Historically home to antiwar sentiments, the Democratic Party in recent years has undergone a remarkable shift. Democrats almost unanimously now advocate robust U.S. military aid for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. The party's traditionally dovish factions seem to have vanished, at least in that one foreign policy realm, replaced by a resolute stance against Vladimir Putin's authoritarianism and aggression. The Democratic position now eerily mirrors the Cold War ethos once championed by Republicans, most notably Ronald Reagan.
As Christian notes, Democrats have newfound respect as well for federalism, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court — though that's no surprise for a party in the minority. Still, there's no telling what positions Democrats and Republicans might swap next. Tesla is just one example of how quickly an issue, or product, can be rejected by one side and adopted by the other when the Trump factor is at play.
Maybe we're not unstuck after all. Maybe we're stuck. But the alternative explanation, that party belief systems are being determined ad hoc and daily in relation to Trump's latest statements, is discomfiting enough to make one turn to science fiction. So it goes.
NAME. RANK. LINK.
EDITORIALS
On the new pope: An American Pope: Welcome Leo XIV
On the latest immigration idea: Self-Deportation Requires More Than Payouts
Once again, Congress should step in: Congress Should Decide Harvard's Tax Exemption
ARTICLES
Dan McLaughlin: Trump Has Hollywood's Foreign Propaganda Problem Backwards
Andrew McCarthy: Judge Invalidates Trump's Executive Order Against Perkins Coie Law Firm
Audrey Fahlberg: In a Wildfire-Ravaged L.A. Suburb, Red Tape Snarls the Rebuilding: 'Everybody's Forgotten About Us'
Audrey Fahlberg: Trump Says GOP Will 'Work Something Out' as Cracks Emerge over Defunding Planned Parenthood
Will Swaim: Trump's First 100 Days Have Shattered California's Left-Wing Illusions
Noah Rothman: Joe Biden Is As Embarrassed by His Presidency As We Are
Noah Rothman: V-E Day Should Be a Day of Celebration, Not Solemn Remembrance
Rich Lowry: Why No One Can Win an Argument with Donald Trump
Michael Brendan Dougherty: The Latin Mass Is a Problem for the Conclave
Brittany Bernstein & James Lynch: Cardinal Robert Prevost Named Pope Leo XIV, First American Pope in History
James Lynch: FBI Botched Congressional Baseball Shooting Probe, Dismissed Shooter's Anti-GOP Terror Motive, House Report Finds
Jim Geraghty: The Obamas Aren't Going to Rescue the Democrats
Haley Strack: Alcatraz Won't Reopen
Ryan Mills: Outed During MeToo, Ex-CIA Agent Was Exonerated by Jury. He Still Lost His Career
John Fund & Wendell Cox: California's Toy Train Hobbyists Won't Give Up
Giancarlo Sopo: Netflix's CEO Wants You Lonely and Miserable
CAPITAL MATTERS
Daniel Pilla explains why the notion of trading taxes for tariffs doesn't hold up in real life: There's No Way to Replace the Income Tax with Tariffs
Veronique de Rugy, on a related theme: Scott Bessent's Failed Attempt at Coherent Economic Policy
LIGHTS. CAMERA. REVIEW.
Brian Allen dons the fashion-police cap: More Fizzle Than Sizzle at the Met Gala
Armond White counsels, "Take heed of Idles": Idles Says 'The Kids Are Not Alright'
EXCERPTS: THEY'RE LIKE TAPAS, IN ARTICLE FORM
Noah Rothman explains why this week should have been more of a party:
You're unlikely to hear me say this often, but the Russians have this one figured out.
Although the regime in Moscow observes the allied victory over Nazi Germany in the only way it knows how — with insecure displays of martial muscularity — at least it understands that V-E Day deserves to be celebrated. Over the decades, observance of V-E Day in the West has assumed a more muted, solemn tone. That is, when it is remembered at all. . . .
To his credit, Donald Trump has encouraged prideful American celebrations of the contributions it made to collapsing the National Socialist enterprise. And yet, he, too, masks his diffidence with Russian-style bravado. The "victory was mostly accomplished because of us, whether you like it or not," the president stressed. There's a lot to like in Trump's trolling remarks, as a provocation that directly undermines the Russian state's modern origin myth. His assertion is, however, subjective and arguable, and it makes collateral damage of our allies' contributions to the defeat of Hitlerism.
The United States should, however, celebrate the end of World War II in Europe with great fanfare. We need not languish in esoteric debates over who contributed what to German's defeat. The United States may have only helped win the war, but it was most certainly the primary victor in the peace that followed.
Historians debate the value and necessity of the concessions the Western powers made to the Soviet Union at Yalta, but the errors of the Roosevelt era were swiftly revised amid the necessity presented by Moscow's expansionism.
The United States was the author of the 1948 Berlin Airlift, which challenged a Soviet attempt to throttle Western access to that divided city not through military confrontation, but a herculean display of logistical and soft power Moscow could not match. America committed to the Marshall Plan, which helped stave off what looked at the time like the imminent rise of Communist-aligned popular governments in Italy and France. The United States took the lead in establishing NATO, the longest-lived military alliance in history. Washington confronted the crises in Turkey and Greece which, if mishandled, might have delivered both states into Soviet hands.
While the Soviets were sending tanks into Poznan and Budapest, the U.S.-led West was integrating Ankara, Athens, and even the West German government in Bonn into NATO via popular consensus. Whereas Moscow exported Soviet communism at gunpoint, the West promoted its values through peaceful means; smuggling freedom into the Eastern Bloc through radio broadcasts and banned literature, and demonstrating its superior model via rock music and blue jeans.
James Lynch revisits the 2017 congressional baseball-practice shooting:
The FBI failed to perform a thorough investigation into the 2017 Congressional baseball practice shooting, according to a new House report which condemns the bureau for hastily announcing to the public that shooter was not a domestic terrorist despite substantial evidence that he was motivated by a desire to kill Republican lawmakers.
A week after the shooting, the FBI used false statements and misrepresentations to dismiss the possibility that gunman James Hodgkinson committed an act of domestic terrorism, according to the House Intelligence Committee report, released Tuesday.
"The FBI case file makes clear this case was a premeditated assassination attempt on Republican congressmen by a radical, left-wing political extremist, who was seeking to affect the conduct of our government," the report reads.
FBI Director Kash Patel worked with the committee to disclose the case file after years of obstruction under the previous FBI regime. The committee received 2,500 pages from the FBI in March and another 1,900 in April in order to compile its report. The FBI told the committee those files make up all of the case file records.
The FBI issued a press release on June 21, 2017, just one week after the shooting, with its initial findings, including a determination that the bureau "does not believe there is a nexus to terrorism." The conclusion was based on "information and evidence gathered in ongoing interviews, searches, and other investigative activity," the FBI said in the release.
The House Intelligence report details the exhaustive evidence indicating that Hodgkinson had terroristic motivations for carrying out the attack and was not simply seeking to perform suicide by cop, as the bureau claimed.
The shooter began firing at his targets without uniformed police officers in sight rather than choosing a location with an obvious police presence. He fired at lawmakers from a storage building, seemingly to protect himself from return fire. Moreover, the night before, Hodgkinson Googled directions back home and texted his wife that he would be returning.
"After all, chronologically, Hodgkinson was upset with President Trump's election, took a concealed carry firearms class, told friends and family they may not see him again, left his wife in Illinois, drove with his firearms to Washington, D.C. 'to protest,' cased the Eugene Simpsons Park baseball field for two months, and then confirmed the presence of Republican congressmen before using his firearms to shoot more than 70 rounds at Republican congressmen and staff," the report reads.
ICYMI, Audrey Fahlberg has a thorough and maddening report on the red tape holding up the rebuilding process in Los Angeles:
These days, there's an eerie energy in the air in this unincorporated Los Angeles County suburb. What used to look like a little slice of heaven — with its rolling hills, palm trees, and bougainvillea flowers — now looks more like the wreckage from a nuclear blast. Incinerated cars sit in abandoned driveways amid the ash and rubble. Charred palm trees, rusted fences, and bare chimneys are often the only bones that remain of old homes. Some lots have been untouched since the fires as residents weigh whether to rebuild or sell.
Standing in their vacant lot on a cloudy morning here in late April, Monica and John Stuhlman explain the daunting details that surround the permitting and rebuilding process: finding an architect, paying thousands out of pocket to get a demo done, getting soil testing for toxic waste, and so much more.
The grief these residents are experiencing after losing their dream homes and all their possessions is compounded by the onerous permitting, fireproofing, and rebuilding requirements to comply with California's building code — such as fire-resistant roofs, solar panels, and automatic sprinklers.
Confusion abounds even after Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and suspending the California Environmental Quality Act and the Coastal Act — two of the state's most stringent environmental laws — for homes and businesses that are being rebuilt after the January wildfires. Residents complain about the pace of permitting review. As of late April, only one single-family-home rebuild permit had been approved in Altadena — thanks to the work of Habitat for Humanity.
The problem, John says, is that "California overregulates."
"You don't want to put solar panels on? They're going to make you put solar panels on. No wood-burning fireplaces," John says. "I asked about a gas range, about a gas hot water heater, about a gas stovetop. Yes, you can do it, but you have to have the ability to go electric. I don't want electric." John suspects their property taxes will double to account for construction rates.
These burdensome and costly code requirements coincide with a host of other factors that complicate the rebuilding process, such as navigating insurance claims and zoning requirements. Some residents who are distrustful of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are hesitant to let anyone touch their lots. Looting is another huge problem — to the point that some residents are debating hiring private security to guard their construction materials.
CODA
I hesitate to even mention Jack White, for reasons we've previously explained. Doing so only causes trouble. But dang it, this song off Blunderbuss is just such a banger, it's worth courting disaster to share it.
Thanks for reading, music fans.
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site