Where do we go from here?

This lede paragraph below from a story in Politico made me laugh because it is so ludicrous and so true, while being a perfect encapsulation of the delusions, bewilderment and complete aloofness from reality that binds Earth’s global elite. Davos is the only place on Earth where humans are afforded a view of the Earth from another planet. The world apart is failing to grasp the moment at hand, and so is much of the media that assigns magical powers to small groups, who have no more power to hold back the tides than does a boat on the sea. Though they are wealthy, they are lost and blind, but perfectly seen by much of the world. 

DAVOS, Switzerland — For more than a decade, forces on the ideological extremes have torn at the global political fabric. And for just as long, the luminaries at the World Economic Forum have fretted about how dangerous that phenomenon is — for the businesses they lead and the countries they govern.

But years into the transnational struggle with resurgent populism, the corporate leaders in Davos appear to have no serious solutions.

Politico’s Nahal Toosi concludes that the world’s elite don’t have a solution to the rising tide of global fascism:

But even as they long for moderate forces to rise above the extremes, there appears to be little sense of how the business community can help make that happen. I kept asking for specific solutions that companies could offer to reduce societal polarization, but I received no concrete responses.

If she means by that there is no coherence around what to do to stop a looming catastrophe now, that is correct. 

However, there should be no confusion around what the “solution” will be when the catastrophe comes. They will all get in line. That is the solution. Each of them will follow Jamie Dimon’s lead. In the following commentary, I speak about the awful Sean Strickland, whom I wrote about on Friday, but also react to Dimon’s comments about Donald Trump during a CNBC ‘Squawk Box’ interview from Davos:

There was another story that caught my eye from The Washington Post.  I watched the event play out on video, and am shocked this account is what was “reported” in the newspaper. There are three key words in the lede paragraph below that are almost exactly the opposite of what transpired:

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley on Saturday aggressively questioned former president Donald Trump’s mental fitness, seizing on a flub at a rally in which Trump repeatedly called Nancy Pelosi by Haley’s name when attacking the former House speaker. Trump’s mix-up Friday night came as he repeated unsubstantiated claims that he made a “recommendation for troops” to be brought in to quell the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol while Pelosi was derelict in her duties as speaker when it came to keeping the complex safe. Instead of targeting Pelosi by name, as he has in the past, Trump repeatedly referred to “Nikki Haley” during his remarks in Concord, N.H., ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

The words are “aggressively,” “flub” and “unsubstantiated.”  The words matter here because they are descriptive in the sense of what would be required if a police officer needed an eyewitness account of a robbery. 

Nikki Haley didn’t respond to Trump “aggressively.” Trump’s rantings were not a “flub,” and “unsubstantiated” is not an accurate depiction of Trump’s delusional, purposeful and poisonous prevarications.  If indeed the police were looking for an account of the robbery, most people would have identified an overweight elderly man with small hands, skin hued strangely orange, shocking swirls of combed over hair, and a tie three inches too long. Yet The Post saw a kangaroo.

Donald Trump is too old to be president, and he is mentally unfit. 

Nikki Haley didn’t say it even though it is true. She pulled her “punch” as always, which is the opposite of aggressive in the kabuki primary that is being staged by the MAGA party. Here is what Haley said in reaction to Trump’s comments:

Do we really want to go into an election with two fellas that are going to be president in their 80s?

We see that Biden has changed so much over two years. But last night Trump is at a rally, and he’s going on and on mentioning me multiple times as to why I didn’t [handle] security during the Capitol riot, why I didn’t handle January 6th better. I wasn’t even in D.C. on January 6th. I wasn’t in office then.

The concern I have is, I’m not saying anything derogatory, but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.

You know, my parents are up in age, and I love them dearly. But when you see them hit a certain age, there is a decline. That’s a fact, ask any doctor, there is a decline. And this is a situation where our country is very vulnerable right now.

This is not personal. Y’all know I voted for him twice. I was proud to serve in his administration. This is the fact that we have a country in disarray and a world on fire. And we need to know that we are not giving our kids options of two 80-year-olds going into a presidency.

What Donald Trump did was not a “flub.” He was profoundly confused, and thus crazed, because his venom was intersecting with phantoms swirling around his head. He was like a deranged and defanged cobra spitting at the air striking for nothing other than an instinct from fading memories. Donald Trump gets lost in the fog when he is under pressure. He is fading and failing, while winning and consolidating power. His instinct for cruelty is the last thing Donald Trump will forget. It’s important to remember that. 

No matter what happens in New Hampshire there is a question at hand for Nikki Haley. The lack of any answer spells her doom, and fates the nation to Trump on the ballot in November.

Question: where does she win next? 

Answer: nowhere.

---

---