The World This Weekend
I am somewhat torn this weekend as to what to address. I had it in mind to go into the worsening authoritarian acts of the U.K. government in its efforts to suppress protests against the ongoing ethnic cleansing/genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, but find myself listening to the Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart podcast “The Rest Is Politics”, where they are discussing the Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska. So I’ll address both.
I say meeting rather than summit since nothing seems to have come of it, except the humiliation of President Trump by President Putin. This week Trump will meet President Zelenskyy and some of the leaders of the EU and the U.K. and we must wait and see how that goes. Will they persuade Trump to continue to support Ukraine or will he simply shut down any such ideas and push for Ukraine to accept a solution that will be a defeat in all but spoken words, a land swap in which Russia gets part of Ukraine and Ukraine gets nothing in return except a promise not to attack again, a promise that we all (except possibly Trump) know Putin won't think twice about breaking later.
© CNBC
Several things emerge about the Putin-Trump meeting, the red carpet laid out for Putin, Trump clapping Putin as he walked towards him along the red carpet laid out, as one American General said, by “members of the Marines on their hands and knees”; followed by that handshake and smiles of welcome; and then there was the fact that the guest, Putin, spoke first to the assembled press, speaking three times longer than the host, with Trump speaking second, a reversal of the usual protocol, and finally taking no questions from the press.
This was followed on Airforce 1 with Trump more concerned, nay delighted, with telling the assembled press that Putin had endorsed the proven lie, that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and hardly touching on the meeting he had just had with Putin, while incidentally, describing Russia as the second greatest country in the world (the Russian economy is roughly equal to the economy of Spain, for gawd's sake).
Actually, I could also be addressing the problem of false news aka conspiracy theories, as Trump touched on that particular conspiracy theory. It must surely be clear to anyone able to think that Putin knew exactly what to say to a man who craves above all praise, loyalty and endorsement of his every thought and action. Trump doesn't seem to have any idea how to argue or debate: it's his way or the highway, as the saying goes. I wonder if he even knows when he is lying or exaggerating. It is apparently a feature of advanced narcissism to be so sure of one's superiority to all other human beings as to have an unassailable self-belief, where everything you say or think is and must be true, despite any evidence against such a judgement. It makes discussion impossible, so the only thing to do is to play to the man's self-belief, and thus get him to agree to whatever he is asked for if his ego is sufficiently stroked. Putin is not a fool, he knows how to play people and playing Trump must be as easy as playing Snap with a four year old.
Thus the Russian invasion of Ukraine looks to go on with no discernible penalty to pay in increased sanctions or even a few harsh words. It is hard not to be persuaded that Putin has some kind of hold over Trump, be it kompromat or some other leverage. Maybe we will never know. The only existential threat to Trump is in the Epstein files scandal and whether or not the files are released, and whether or not they reveal something so horrendous even the MAGA crowd is unable to sustain their support for him; or he ups and dies, which is always a threat once you get past 70 or so (I am well past 70 now, so this is a threat I feel deep in my bones!).
So to the steady rise of authoritarian rule in Europe, especially in the U.K. my place of birth though I am glad to say I live in Ireland and am a citizen of this wonderful country where the government is still able to tolerate criticism, and which stands in solid support of the Palestinian victims of aggressive Israeli policies that must be described as ethnic cleansing at the very least. I am not inclined to call it genocide as the numbers are not yet on that scale, but that there are people in the Israeli government and population who would be happy to kill every Palestinian man, woman and child is clear: the Israeli newspaper Haretz ran a poll that put the number supporting this extreme policy at 47% of the population of Israel (that is around 4.7 million people thinking like that). It is so unconscionable an idea that it is hard to believe anyone would support it, let along 4.7 million people.
I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION - I OPPOSE ETHNIC CLEANSING
© theGuardian
It is simply incredible to me that the British government has designated a protest group as terrorists, putting them on a level with Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and Al Qaeda, because they damaged a couple of aeroplanes. They have never harmed a single person, their protests have always been peaceful, nowhere near as destructive as the suffragettes let alone those other true terrorist organisations. I chose that photograph to show just how ridiculously far the British police are ordered to go, indeed are apparently prepared to go to suppress these protests. These are not Palestine Action protests, but protests in support of them, which should not be illegal. But these days you can get arrested in Britain and Northern Ireland for wearing a t-shirt or carrying a poster that announces support for them. I have seen Muslim protests calling for the beheading of people who insult the prophet go on in London without any arrests being made or even threatened. What is going on??
The great shame is that the current government of the U.K. is a Labour government. This is a party that began in protest, that fought government forces to find their place among the legitimate parties contesting elections, and here they are acting like the servile government of a petty dictatorship. Keir Starmer and his cabinet should hang their heads in shame, and I am quite certain every previous government's ministers are spinning in their graves, or if they're still alive, shaking their heads (I should ask Alistair Campbell if he is shaking his). But more to the immediate point, who is supporting this government now? I wrote before about how modern politicians act like a queue in a doctor's waiting room, waiting for their turn and meanwhile being careful not to upset the receptionist for fear of being booted out. Starmer has already taken the party whip away from a number of his elected members, for no better reason than they disagreed with his policy on this or that question. The British might as well vote for AI avatars as for people who pretend to have opinions, only to surrender them after they win election. It's pathetic and it is anti-democratic.
© theGuardian
Democracy is in danger in the west, we all need to be ready to stand up, as those brave people in America are standing up against the ICE raids. A policing force of any kind that wears masks is the absolute nadir of policing as it should be in a free country. For now the British police and the PSNI in northern Ireland don't wear masks, and thank heavens for that, but keep your eye on them, they may yet go that extra authoritarian step.
Meanwhile, it is still a beautiful world, never lose faith in that!
