All the biggest challenges of our time are transnational:
mass migration, growing wealth inequality, [inflation,] the onset of ecological Armageddon.
It's arguable that the politics of the nation state have become at best irrelevant, and at worst a hindrance, to tackling such global challenges.
The outlook is grim.
Democracy and Truth, A Short History: Sophia Rosenfeld
In every region of the world, democracy is under attack by populist leaders and groups that reject pluralism and demand unchecked power to advance the particular interests of their supporters, usually at the expense of minorities and other perceived foes.
Freedom House
... the alignment of Republican support behind autocratic right-wing leaders across the globe long predates Trump’s elevation to the presidency,
an investigation in partnership with Type Investigations reveals. For years, Republican members of Congress, lobbyists, and political consultants have worked
to forge bonds with far-right leaders across Europe—in Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Macedonia, and beyond.
You might call this loose federation of fellow travelers for the nativist global right the strongman caucus.
Sarah Posner in the New Republic (3/25/2019)
A rich country with millions of poor people. A
country that prides itself on being the land of opportunity, but in
which a child’s prospects are more dependent on the income and
education of his or her parents than in other advanced countries. A
country that believes in fair play, but in which the richest often pay
a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than those less well off.
A country in which children every day pledge allegiance to the flag,
asserting that there is “justice for all,” but in which, increasingly,
there is only justice for those who can afford it. These are the
contradictions that the United States is gradually and painfully
struggling to come to terms with as it begins to comprehend the
enormity of the inequalities that mark its society—inequities that are
greater than in any other advanced country. Joseph
Stiglitz
As of now, NATO is effectively over. Why would any of our allies share intelligence with us when the head of National Intelligence is effectively in bed with Putin. https://t.co/p83WQq4fPo
Years from now, the Trump administration’s wholesale withdrawal from international agreements, its “unsigning” of treaties, and its weakening of international organizations will stand out from the lies, the corruption, the incompetence, and the breaking of norms as one of its most damaging features. A partial list includes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, NAFTA, the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran nuclear deal, the Arms Trade Treaty, and, most recently, the World Health Organization.
Among these, withdrawals in the nuclear arena may prove to be especially harmful.
The New Nuclear Threat
Having a leader who is neither trusted by our erstwhile friends nor feared by our foreign rivals reduces our global influence in ways we’re just starting to see.
Trump’s trade war didn’t achieve any of its goals, but it did succeed in making America weak again.
How Trump Lost His Trade War, On speaking loudly and carrying a small stick. Paul Krugman (12/16/2019)
So, JD Vance is saying US support for NATO and the US' commitment to European security depends on the EU's regulatory posture towards Elon Musk.. ? US/EU relations about to enter a very new worldhttps://t.co/xtqaWN97YM
"We will let Russians bomb the EU into oblivion if you try to limit Elon Musk's disinfo blitz on the minds of your people. Sincerely, The US Government " pic.twitter.com/dQrivQz2ab
Trump has already destroyed America's global leadership and reputation.
Now he's announced he's pulling the U.S. out of the WHO in the middle of a pandemic, all because he needs a scapegoat for his own failed COVID-19 response.
The most powerful country in the world is being run by a sundowning demagogue whose oceanic ignorance is matched only by his gargantuan ego. The United States has been lucky that things have hung together as much as they have, save the odd government shutdown or white nationalist terrorist attack. But now, in foreign affairs as in the economy,
the consequences of not having a functioning American administration are coming into focus.
Michelle Goldberg (8/16/2019)
Now the UK falls. Boris Johnson. Donald Trump. Viktor Orban. Vladimir Putin. Andrzej Duda. Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Demagogues, dictators, right-wing peddlers of ethno-nationalist hatred and xenophobia are in the ascendancy.
"America's
relations with the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world are clearly in
trouble. If America is not careful,
its relations with 1.3 billion Chinese could be heading the same way.
In strategic terms, it would be unwise for the 290 million Americans to
have a difficult relationship simultaneously with two groups of people
who, combined, have a population almost ten times that of America's.
Their minds enveloped in the current mood of hubris,
it is difficult for some key American thinkers to accept the suggestion
that a little bit of prudence should be injected into
American policies." Kishore Mahbubani: Beyond the Age of Innocence
pg 95.
“ in the eyes of much of the world, in fact, the
prime rogue state today is the United States. ” Robert Jarvis
“From 1945 to 2003, the United States attempted to overthrow more than forty foreign governments and to crush more than thirty populist-nationalist movements fighting against intolerable regimes.
In the process, the U.S. bombed some twenty-five countries, caused the end of life for several million people and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair.”
William Blum, former State Department employee.
"TeleSur" - An international poll found that the
United States is ranked far in the lead as “the biggest threat to world
peace today,” far ahead of second-place Pakistan, with no one else even
close. (1/17/2015)
or (10/21/2014)
Sometimes I really feel like I am losing it as the evidence piles up about the connections between Trump 2016 and Brexit and Russia interfering across Europe and no one in power cares to focus on the big picture... https://t.co/wQgndL7KmB
The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country
is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.
Washington Post (5/11/2018)
#Russia's state TV mocks Trump for blaming Obama w/ respect to the situation that led Turkey to purchase S-400, says that Trump still fails to realize that “Turkey has had it with Washington” & “spits on its threat of sanctions.” Host concludes that "everyone is sick of America." pic.twitter.com/xKVOGSWqxC
" ...since work at the United Nations began in 1985
on a treaty seeking, as its title declares, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer
Space, the U.S. has not supported it. Canada, Russia and China have
been leaders in urging passage of this PAROS treaty, and there has been
virtually universal backing from nations around the world. But by
balking, U.S. administration after administration has prevented its
passage. With the Trump administration, more than non-support of the PAROS
treaty is probable. A drive by the U.S. to weaponize space appears in
the offing." Counterpunch
Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are
among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on
earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which
measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates,
and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries ---
Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands -- all have high
degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countries at the bottom of the
index, all
are intensely religious." Greg Graffin and Steve Olson: Anarchy,
Evolution, Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God
Change in confidence in US president from Obama in 2016 to Trump in 2018 (Pew)
(October 31,2008) 147 states at the
United Nations voted overwhelmingly to move forward with work on an Arms Trade Treaty. Only the US and
Zimbabwe voted against it. Code
of Conduct For Arms Sales
From president to president, we do not continue the same foreign policy.
Ever since the end of the Cold War we have been on this rollercoaster ride of idiocy with regard to President Here and President There,
Democrat versus Republican and so forth. There's no longer any continuity in US policy. I bring you back again to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
with regard to Iran. That was negotiated by President Obama. It is now going to be abrogated in May by the President of the United States,
who happens to be a Republican. This is idiocy. Lawrence Wilkerson