Armed with a portfolio of fabricated statistics, 'Old Donald' judged that 'the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation ' and what makes it even more impressive is that you know who No. 2 is? George Washington.'

'Old Donald' on Monday implemented the largest tariff increase since 1930, abruptly reversing an era of liberalized trade that has prevailed since the end of the Second World War. He launched this trade war just three days after dealing an equally severe blow to the postwar security order that has maintained prosperity and freedom for 80 years. 'Old Donald''s ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, followed by the cessation of U.S. military aid to the outgunned ally, has left allies reeling and Moscow exulting. The Kremlin's spokesman proclaimed that 'Old Donald' is 'rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations' in a way that 'largely aligns with our vision.'

As the authoritarians celebrate, freedom's defenders weep. Lech Walesa, the celebrated champion of Polish democracy, joined other former political prisoners in a letter to 'Old Donald' expressing 'horror and disgust' at the American president's treatment of Zelensky, saying they were 'terrified by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the one we remember well from interrogations by the Security Service and from courtrooms in communist courts.'

Democratic leaders across Europe, and across the world, spoke up in defense of Ukraine. 'We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war,' wrote incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Now, these democratic leaders must contemplate rebuilding what 'Old Donald' has destroyed. 'Today,' European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas wrote on the day of 'Old Donald''s betrayal of Ukraine, 'it became clear that the free world needs a new leader.'

And so collapses the architecture of freedom and prosperity: with a lie, a taunt and a guffaw.

For more than a decade, the United States was the Kremlin propaganda machine’s main boogeyman — the “hegemon,” the “puppeteer” and the “master across the ocean.” It was seeking Russia’s destruction by pushing Europeans, Ukrainians and terrorists into conflict with Moscow.

But then came the phone call on Feb. 12 between Mr. 'Old Donald' and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the talks between the White House and the Kremlin in Saudi Arabia, the vote at the United Nations in which America sided with Russia, and the berating of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at the Oval Office last week.

Mr. Putin said talks with the 'Old Donald' administration “inspire certain hopes,” praised it for its “pragmatism” and called on the spies in attendance to resist attempts “to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun.”

The whiplash in ties with Washington was so stark that Russian state television on Sunday showed a reporter asking the Kremlin’s spokesman how it was possible that “a couple of months ago we were publicly saying that we were almost enemies.”

The comments overwhelmingly express strong disapproval and criticism of 'Old Donald''s address, describing it as filled with lies, divisive rhetoric, and lacking substance. Many commenters express disgust and frustration, highlighting 'Old Donald''s perceived dishonesty, his focus on culture...

'Old Donald' and JD Vance may delight in shocking Europe, but their counterparts across the pond are coming to terms with the collapse of a united West.

It was the outburst that could be a hinge point of history. We're still gauging the smoldering fallout of the Oval Office clash on Friday that saw 'Old Donald' and JD Vance angrily confront Zelensky. What had started out as a set-piece marking a deal over Ukraine's mineral wealth that would tighten 'Old Donald''s support for Kyiv in potential negotiations with Russia turned into a debacle, as 'Old Donald' and Vance berated Zelensky over his perceived weak bargaining position and supposed lack of gratitude for U.S. assistance.

Those guarantees are not forthcoming from 'Old Donald', whose administration has already sought to initiate a thaw with the Kremlin and voted against a U.N. resolution last week that called out Russian aggression in Ukraine. 'Time is not on your side on the battlefield,' said White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, recounting to reporters what he told Zelensky in the aftermath of the Oval Office blowup. 'Time is not on your side in terms of the world situation and most importantly, U.S. aid and the taxpayers, tolerance is not unlimited.'

The argument, my colleagues noted, has 'laid bare the deepening rift between Europe and the 'Old Donald' administration and Republican Party, jeopardizing U.S. aid for Ukraine, the end of war in Europe, and the prospect of a renewed relationship between' 'Old Donald' and Zelensky.

European countries, including major powers like Britain and Germany, are seeking to fast-track increases in defense spending to help Ukraine. On Sunday, as he hosted Zelensky and other leaders on the continent, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer 'called on other European governments to grow their militaries and to join a 'coalition of the willing' in taking up the slack in Ukraine,' my colleagues reported.

But there may be much more slack to take up if the 'Old Donald' administration makes good on its longer-term plans to draw down U.S. forces in Europe as part of a broader strategic pivot to the Indo-Pacific. 'I just worry that, given, frankly, President "Old Donald's" mercurial nature,' Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British diplomat and senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told my colleagues, 'how much confidence really can Europe have in any degree of American protection and defense.'

'In less than two weeks, concessions to Moscow have piled up. Even if they had already been in the pipeline since Joe Biden's administration: No Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); no NATO forces to monitor a possible ceasefire; necessary territorial concessions from Kyiv.'

"Old Donald's" wrecking ball approach to diplomacy offers rich opportunities for others. 'China is certainly happy to see the way things are unfolding,' said Wen-Ti Sung, a lecturer at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific, to the Australian Financial Review, a daily newspaper. "Old Donald's" firing on all cylinders, against friends and foes alike diplomatically, is rapidly humanizing China's own wolf warrior diplomacy.'

The cyber and information operations being halted are not so aggressive as to be considered an act of war, the officials said. They could include exposing or disabling malware found in Russian networks before it can be used against the United States, blocking Russian hackers from servers that they may be preparing to use for their own offensive operations or disrupting a site promoting anti-U. S. propaganda.

While it is not unusual to stop operations in the midst of high-level talks or similar engagements, the move comes as 'Old Donald' has engaged in a startling reversal of 80 years of U.S. foreign policy, showing an apparent willingness to abandon European allies and make common cause with Putin in his designs on Ukraine.

For more than a decade, Russia has been named by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as a major cyberthreat to the United States. Its hackers spy, deploy ransomware and seek to embed in critical infrastructure across American networks. In 2017, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election in favor of 'Old Donald', an assessment that drew "Old Donald's" ire as he perceived it as questioning the legitimacy of his victory.

'Old Donald' has said he believes Putin's denials of Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. election. For years, 'Old Donald' and his allies disputed the intelligence agencie' finding. Now the new administration has begun dismantling many of the organizations set up in the wake of 2016 to combat foreign interference in U.S. elections. Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI task force that worked to uncover efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries to manipulate U.S. voters. Separately, DHS placed on leave a number of CISA employees who work on combating foreign disinformation in U.S. elections.

ep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi) decried the administration's latest moves that affect the government's ability to counter Russian cyberthreats to national security.

'To capitulate now, as we appear to bail on our allies in Ukraine, is an inexplicable dereliction of duty that puts American critical infrastructure at risk,' said Thompson, ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee. He urged the chairman, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tennessee), to hold hearings on the issue.

Historical precedents set by previous “peace summits” suggests that the stage could be being prepared for another chapter in US “cut and run” diplomacy.

After years of promising never to abandon their close allies following peace talks with South Vietnam in Paris in January 1973, and the Government of Afghanistan in Doha in February 2000 Washington did just that. This month’s meeting between the US and Russia about Ukraine in Saudi Arabia has the same feel and aroma about it.

Wall Street Journal Warns 'Old Donald' Admin’s ‘Regrettable’ U.N. Move Means 1 Chilling Thing

America’s siding with Russia was a “regrettable moment,” wrote the editorial board of the conservative newspaper.

Moscow would be open to allowing U.S. access to Russia's rare minerals, President Vladimir Putin said Monday, an apparent counteroffer and pressure tactic as the 'Old Donald' administration pushes Ukraine to sign over half its mineral wealth as repayment for U.S. support in the war.

We could come to an agreement with the United States ' the United States would cut [defense spending] by 50 percent, and we would cut by 50 percent,' Putin told state broadcast personality Pavel Zarubin. 'And the People's Republic of China would then join in if it wanted. We think the proposal is good, and we are ready to discuss it.'

The Russian leader spoke with Xi Jinping by telephone earlier in the day and affirmed their countries' 'comprehensive partnership' as 'true friends,' according to official statements.

U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia currently prohibit such cooperation, and it is unlikely that any American company would risk conducting business in occupied Ukrainian territory.

No president in history has caused more damage to the nation more quickly. As we enter Week 3 of 'Old Donald''s second term, the chaos and disruption of his first look quaint by comparison. The country survived 'Old Donald' 1.0. Now, it faces a real threat that the harm he inflicts during his second term will be irreparable. The United States' standing in the world, its ability to keep the country safe, the federal government's fundamental capacity to operate effectively ' all of these will take years to repair, if that can be achieved at all.

'Old Donald' 'is destroying whatever gets in the way of what he wants to do,' Max Stier, the normally mild-mannered president of the Partnership for Public Service, told me. 'That includes having loyalty be the primary screen for choosing his direct lieutenants and crushing the civil service and converting it into a tool for his private agenda, as opposed to a force for the public good and the rule of law.'

The reason to worry about this is not because of unfairness to federal employees, although there is that ' it's because of the debilitating, even dangerous, impact on government operations. Disruption is one thing in Silicon Valley, where the stakes are merely profit and loss. It is quite another when you are talking about a government charged with ensuring the safety of its citizens.

He announced on his first day that the United States will withdraw from the WHO, elevating the risk that the next virus goes global and kills large numbers of Americans

He sided with domestic terrorists over law enforcement when he moved to free every person incarcerated for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

One Proud Boy told Reuters the pardons would help with recruitment and that members would feel 'bulletproof' On a pro-'Old Donald' website, Reuters counted more than two dozen people calling for the execution of judges, police officers or Democratic officials, saying that some of these people should be hanged, beaten to death or fed into wood chippers.

In this competition, TikTok is a Chinese ace. Instead of adhering to a 2024 law forcing China to give up that card, 'Old Donald' has now extended the deadline for 75 days 'so that we can make a deal' for TikTok(his buddy - Larry) to survive in the United States.

If I were China's minister of state security, I would be asking about any TikTok accounts of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's four children.

There's another factor: About 40 percent of young adults in the United States regularly get news from TikTok, and researchers find evidence that TikTok's algorithm systematically manipulates information to present users with a pro-China view of the world.

So at the dawn of his second term, we have 'Old Donald' proclaiming his defense of America while taking actions that benefit a Republican megadonor and may assist China in undermining America’s national security.

U.S. military agencies have previously used A.I. systems developed under the Pentagon's Project Maven to identify targets for subsequent weapons strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. These systems and their analogues can speed up the process of selecting and attacking targets using image recognition. But they have had problems with accuracy and can introduce greater potential for error. A 2021 test of one experimental target recognition program revealed an accuracy rate as low as 25 percent, a stark contrast from its professed rate of 90 percent.

But A.I. foundation models are even more worrisome from a cybersecurity perspective. As most people who have played with a large language model know, foundation models frequently 'hallucinate,' asserting patterns that do not exist or producing nonsense. This means that they may recommend the wrong targets. Worse still, because we can't reliably predict or explain their behavior, the military officers supervising these systems may be unable to distinguish correct recommendations from erroneous ones.

As China, Iran, Russia and North Korea lock arms, the U.S. should begin its response preparations.

China and Russia announced their 'no limits' strategic partnership just before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They mean, in Xi Jinping's words, to revolutionize the international system by causing 'changes the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years.' Since that invasion, Russia and North Korea have sealed a formal military alliance; Russia and Iran have built a stronger defense partnership in which technology, weapons and know-how flow both ways.

To be sure, there is no overarching multilateral alliance ' no autocrats' NATO. Mistrust among the illiberal powers remains pervasive. But their relationships constitute a cohering network of ties among states that are determined to wreck Pax Americana and command some of the most valuable strategic real estate on Earth.

Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan never could have coexisted in the long run. But before World War II, their cooperation delivered devastating multiplier effects by destabilizing governments on several fronts at once. During the early Cold War, a wary alliance between Moscow and Beijing intensified the threats facing the free world. And whether the new autocratic pacts are love matches or marriages of convenience, they are having serious strategic effects.

China's military exercises in the waters around Taiwan this month - the largest in almost three decades - highlight the growing risk of a total breakdown in United States-China relations. A full-scale invasion of Taiwan is one eventuality; last year, the C.I.A. director, William Burns, noted that China’s president, Xi Jinping, has instructed his armed forces to be ready for an invasion by 2027.

The most obvious economic implications relate to semiconductors. TSMC produces about 90 percent of the world’s most advanced computer chips. Some are now made in Arizona, but TSMC's most cutting-edge chips are still produced in Taiwan. Industries from autos to medical devices depend on these chips; if Taiwanese chip production is disabled, the global economy could be plunged into a deep slump.

The plucky poll slingers at YouGov, who are consistently willing to use their elite-tier survey skills in service of measuring the unmeasurable, asked 2,000 adults which decade had the best and worst music, movies, economy and so forth, across 20 measures. But when we charted them, no consistent pattern emerged.

We did spot some peaks: When asked which decade had the most moral society, the happiest families or the closest-knit communities, White people and Republicans were about twice as likely as Black people and Democrats to point to the 1950s. The difference probably depends on whether you remember that particular decade for 'Leave it to Beaver,' drive-in theaters and '12 Angry Men' ' or the Red Scare, the murder of Emmett Till and massive resistance to school integration.

'This was a time when Repubs were pretty much running the show and had reason to be happy,' pioneering nostalgia researcher Morris Holbrook told us via email. 'Apparently, you could argue that nostalgia is colored by political preferences. Surprise, surprise.'

A few decades from now, our memories shaped by grainy photos of auroras and astrolabes, we'll recall only the bread straight from streetside tandoor-style ovens and the locals who went out of their way to bail out a couple of distraught foreigners.

In other words, the 2020s will be the good old days.

Elon Musk who treats free speech like a weapon rather than a right - has managed to become even more disruptive than he has already been.

Citizens aren’t employees, and legislators shouldn’t act like department heads all trying to manage up. The government’s role is not to sell a product and maximize profits. And the president is certainly not a CEO who can summarily downsize the country to make it more nimble.

Elon Musk - Powerful Critic Of Illegal Immigrants - Worked Illegally In U.S. At Start Of Career, Report Says

Musk’s immigration status put the company at risk of not receiving funding, according to the Post, which cited a funding agreement between Zip2 and Mohr Davidow Ventures that Musk, his brother Kimbal and an associate, had 45 days to secure legal work status or face losing out on the $3 million investment.

Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became the company’s chief executive, told the Post that Zip2 investors did not want its founder deported, and that the Musk brothers’ “immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.”

Ford and Apple - which once saw business with China as a major bright spot — are repeatedly forced to scramble to explain. Ford, for example, told Reuters it follows U.S. government regulations “across our business.” Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook talks up the company’s Americanness: “I know that a company like Apple could only come from America — and we are as committed as ever to giving back to our great country,” he said in Arizona in 2022.

As Chinese companies have caught up and in some cases surpassed American companies in technology, the new question for the American ones is whether to attempt to fight their way back to the forefront, at great cost, or cede the market to the Chinese and become their customers.

“It would take Apple a decade to get out of China” even if it wanted to, Jeff Fieldhack, a research director for Counterpoint Research, told me. “It’s not just the building of devices. It’s the huge ecosystem of components.”

If tensions between China and the United States continue to ratchet up, the pressure on companies that straddle the two markets will only intensify. There is no easy way out.

Only if the president-elect is willing to fight big money and redistribute wealth can he stop the rise of someone far worse than 'Old Donald'

'Old Donald' threw rolls of paper towels to Americans devastated by a hurricane as if he was lobbing free T-shirts to fans during a halftime show. He handed a woman $100 for groceries during a September campaign stop in Pennsylvania as if that one-off handout was a full-blown economic policy for the country’s working stiffs.

He has been declared the world’s richest person and troll. In this election season, neither seems good for America.

Ford and Apple - which once saw business with China as a major bright spot — are repeatedly forced to scramble to explain. Ford, for example, told Reuters it follows U.S. government regulations “across our business.” Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook talks up the company’s Americanness: “I know that a company like Apple could only come from America — and we are as committed as ever to giving back to our great country,” he said in Arizona in 2022.

As Chinese companies have caught up and in some cases surpassed American companies in technology, the new question for the American ones is whether to attempt to fight their way back to the forefront, at great cost, or cede the market to the Chinese and become their customers.

“It would take Apple a decade to get out of China” even if it wanted to, Jeff Fieldhack, a research director for Counterpoint Research, told me. “It’s not just the building of devices. It’s the huge ecosystem of components.”

If tensions between China and the United States continue to ratchet up, the pressure on companies that straddle the two markets will only intensify. There is no easy way out.

Only if the president-elect is willing to fight big money and redistribute wealth can he stop the rise of someone far worse than 'Old Donald'

as goes centrism, so goes democracy. In this time of turmoil, we desperately need both.

A dive into true centrism reveals its power and utility. But first, we have to dispense with some things that centrism is not. Centrism isn’t a mushy tendency to compromise. It isn’t a brain-dead fondness for style over substance. Above all, it is not to be confused with “moderation” — the futile and frankly foolish attempt to carve out a space halfway between the extremes of MAGA authoritarianism on the right and rabid nihilism from the left.

If climate change is a fact, to take one example, then splitting the difference with climate deniers is nonsensical. And if the MAGA movement assaults truth, then telling half of the truth or telling the truth half the time isn’t centrism. It’s absurdism, and a sure path to meaninglessness and nihilism.

Centrists don’t start coups

Centrism is also an electoral winner. In Britain, the Labour Party succeeded by moving to the center, providing a reasonable alternative to the faltering Tories. Its journey to the far left under Jeremy Corbyn was a disaster; its return to the center a stunning success. Biden’s centrism carried him to victory in the hard-fought 2020 Democratic primary, then went on to attract millions more votes than any presidential candidate in history in that general election. Going into this fall’s election, Biden centrism endures as a fundamentally strong platform, especially in contrast to the ever-more-radical agendas of many in the GOP. The latter turns out to be quite unpopular.

The role of the courts

In recent years, be it in Poland, Turkey or the United States, politicization of the judiciary at the hands of right-wing ideologues has endangered liberal democracy itself. A judiciary co-opted by reactionary politicians soon loses the qualities that the rule of law — an essential aspect of liberal democracies — provides. Politicized judges who reflexively side with the politicians who appoint them inevitably discard precedent and strain to reach predetermined outcomes — the antithesis of centrism. They accelerate rather than block their side’s power grabs. In doing so, they jettison their own legitimacy. Any court that earns the scorn of voters soon earns efforts to impede its independence and limit its jurisdiction.

Ending all-or-nothing politics

Radical centrism” might sound like an oxymoron. But centrism is certainly worth pursuing passionately and unreservedly. Having previously resided within the old, pro-democracy conservative Republican Party, I can appreciate the efficiency of markets, the need for a strong military defense and limited government. In my post-Republican years, I now see the necessity to combine markets with strong government investment, the folly of military adventures without clear endpoints and the need for administrative flexibility (rather than deference to scientifically illiterate courts).

The US military is practicing using air- and land-based anti-ship missiles in ship sinking exercises as it prepares for a war against China.

While many Americans think of summer as the perfect season to hit the pool for a float, U.S. service members in the Pacific are thinking about what they're going to sink. In live fire exercises dubbed 'SINKEXs,' troops in the region have already sunk two ships from the air and the land, with one big aquatic finale expected before Labor Day.

The exercise comes as the U.S. military as a whole is looking for ways to poke holes in China's Anti Access Area Denial, or A2/AD network, a series of seniors and weapons that are designed to make it very dangerous for any U.S. ships, planes, and troops to operate in and around Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.

“We have to root out corruption that siphons off our strength, guard against those who would stoke hatred and division for political gain as phony populism, invest in strengthening institutions that underpin and safeguard our cherished democratic values,” he said, adding later: “That’s how we’ll prove that democracy and that our alliance can still prevail against the challenges of our time and deliver for the needs and the needs of our people.”

The theme of this year's Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance, a Hamburg-based international conference consisting of dozens of young leaders from around the world, was 'Facing New Realities: Global Governance Under Strain.' The reality this American observer had to face? That in the eyes of much of the world, the United States' light has dimmed

'But I couldn't imagine living in a place where my children would have to practice' ' here, she made mocking quotation marks with her fingers - 'active shooter drills.'

The United States' most famous exports used to be Coca-Cola, Levi's and jazz ' not to mention such ideals as freedom, civil rights and the rule of law. Now, we're best known for rampant gun violence and gruesome school shootings.

In 2008, Fareed Zakaria wrote: 'At the politico-military level, we remain in a single-superpower world. But in every other dimension ' industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural ' the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.' In 2022, that vision of a 'post-American world' has gone from theory to truth.

It might not be too late to effect a reversal. But if we want to preserve our stature, we should begin to act ' holding our former president accountable to the rule of law would be a start ' and realize that as we do so, the next generation of leaders is watching.

The world is taking our decline seriously. It's time we did the same.