Our friend Ruthanne sent this link to a rousing and intelligent speech by a French senator, Claude Malhuret, about the future of Europe and the United States.
Claude Malhuret
Europe is at a critical turning point. The American shield is vanishing, and it seems that Ukraine may be abandoned and Russia strengthened.
Washington now looks like the court of Nero, with a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fuelled buffoon in charge of purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States.
The message from Trump is that there is no point in being his ally: he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territory while at the same time supporting the dictatorships invading you. The ‘king of the deal’ is demonstrating the art of the submissive deal. He thinks he will intimidate China by prostrating himself before Putin; Xi Jinping, however, seeing his subservience, is probably speeding up preparations to invade Taiwan.
Never has any President of the United States surrendered to the enemy, nor supported an aggressor against a US ally. None has trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, at a single stroke dismissed senior military staff, weakened all the checks and balances, and taken control of social media. Worse than an illiberal drift, this president is initiating a capture of democracy. We should remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.
Read the rest here.