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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Eclectica [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-08
We begin today with Paul Krugman writing at his self-named Substack about Newark airport, Canada, tariffs, and Bangladesh.
Consider what we’ve learned about Trump as the negative fallout from his tariffs has started to become obvious. First, he’s invincibly ignorant. The collapse of imports from China has businesses terrified and warning both of soaring consumer prices and of looming shortages…[...] Second, when he’s in a hole, he just keeps digging. His talk about making Canada the 51st state had a decisive effect in Canada’s recent election, hugely bolstering anti-Trump forces. But yesterday, meeting with Prime Minster Mark Carney, who kept his office thanks to this backlash, Trump kept pushing the idea. [...] The best bet, then, is that the trade war will proceed, even intensify. There will be some winners, at least in terms of global influence, including China, which gains from America’s loss of credibility, and the European Union, which unlike Trump’s America can be trusted to honor its agreements. The United States will be a big loser, both politically and economically. But the biggest losers will be poor countries that have become less poor largely thanks to exports and are about to see their hopes of progress dashed.
“Invincibly ignorant” is impressive but does not surpass the sagacity of the “stunningly superficial” especially when that was accompanied by Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitious” (as a YouTube commenter noted).
In my opinion.
Moving right along...
James T. Keane writes for the Jesuit magazine America about that magazine’s history of covering papal conclaves.
There’s been some talk about the danger of someone unduly influencing the conclave’s result in the runup, either through politicking or misrepresenting a cardinal’s views. In case you were wondering if this concern was a new one, the second issue ever of America featured an editorial on papal conclaves in which the editors argued (wait for it) that Austria, France and Spain had no right to veto a papal conclave’s selection of a new pope. This was a thing? Yes: The emperor of Austria had apparently tried just that in the conclave of 1903, exercising his so-called “right of exclusion.” Pope Pius X had denied that there ever was such a right, the editors noted in 1909: “He once more repeats their denunciations of the pretension of any civil government to influence in any manner whatsoever the election of a sovereign pontiff.” The Vatican, the editors continued, “is simply protecting its own autonomy, and safeguarding the most sacred function that any human assembly can exercise from the intrusion of selfish, political and secular influences.” That was in 1909—a blink of an eye in the church’s life. The conclave...will be the 10th America has covered, but the first that involves a TikTok account. (Actually, I don’t know if we have a TikTok account, mostly because I don’t really know what TikTok is, but we definitely are on the ‘Gram.) A look back at America’s coverage of papal elections shows a certain continuity among conclaves, however. Both the 1914 and 1922 conclaves were preceded by explainers, the first by the aptly named Hector Papi, S.J., an Italian-born Jesuit with a flair for the dramatic: “A papal election is heard above the boom of cannon,” he wrote, “and no event can keep the public from following intently the proceedings of the most solemn deliberative body among the councils of men.”
And do peruse Íñigo Domínguez of El País in English and his summary of the more “earthy factors” that have decided the last 10 papal conclaves.
Christina Carrega of Capital B News reports on the acquittal of three Memphis police officers in the state trial involving the death of Tyre Nichols.
More than two years after Tyre Nichols died from injuries sustained during a brutal beating after a traffic stop, three former Memphis, Tennessee, police officers have been found not guilty of causing his death. [...] The nine-day state trial, which was also livestreamed, included emotional testimony from Nichols’ grieving mother, RowVaughn Wells, who said she didn’t learn about her son’s encounter with Memphis police officers until his death. A chief medical examiner also testified, describing Nichols’ body as covered in cuts and bruises, with severe brain injuries. “He never made it home to enjoy my sesame chicken,” Wells said of the night of Jan. 7, 2023. Following a day of deliberations, the all-white jury consisting of four men and eight women found Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith not guilty of second-degree murder and aggravated assault, as well as two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct, and one count of official oppression.
Even as a federal judge has blocked Trump’s deportations of Asian migrants to Libya, the sarcasm is strong in anarchist philosopher Crispin Sartwell’s column for Splice Today about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s new title (Rubio’s titles keep adding up!): Penal Colonizer.
The idea of offshoring the prison system has a long and distinguished history. And as Rubio has so passionately argued, it’s time to bring back the penal colony in all its glory and with a good conscience, as in the Ottoman empire or the glory that is North Korea. Rubio the penal (note: definitely not penile) colonialist would’ve been of service to either regime. He’d be comfortable, for example, as president/warden of Devil’s Island. For a century, the French government operated Devil’s Island off the South American coast of Guiana. They particularly liked to toss political prisoners and Jews such as Alfred Dreyfus in there. Prisoners who can communicate with the outside world are irksome, ridiculous though their pleas for justice or mercy might be. Penal colonialism is entering its new golden age. For example, the nation of Rwanda seems to be setting up as a prison-state, the better to serve the needs of the US and the UK. I have the feeling that we’ll be sending Latino deportees to El Salvador and black deportees to Rwanda. This is a kindness. People are happier with their own kind. Mass incarceration has been a problem in the US for decades, and it’s been racially oriented. Rwanda and in general the new penal colonialism is the answer we’ve waited for. Now we’ll never again hear from these people (whom we speculate are, or call, gang members), which will be a relief.
I guess that attempting to send Asian deportees to Libya is the latest version of “the weave?” Or something.
Kate Sosin of The 19th News reports that two LGBTQ+ organizations are going to D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to block the tacky shoe salesman’s transgender military ban.
Two LGBTQ+ organizations sent a brief to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday night urging it to block President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. The letter came hours after the Supreme Court allowed the administration’s executive order barring trans people from the military to go into effect while the case is argued in federal court. Experts say it is a longshot effort. Queer rights groups have won two nationwide injunctions against the trans military ban from different judges. The Supreme Court lifted only the second injunction, in the case known as Shilling v. Trump. But the first injunction, in Talbott v. Trump, issued by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, remains legally untouched. In that case, a federal judge ruled that the government’s argument for barring transgender service members was ripe with “unadulterated animus.” Tuesday night’s brief, sent by GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), argues that the ruling from the Supreme Court has no bearing on the injunction in the first case, which they are fighting in court. Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR and a lead attorney on Talbott v. Trump, told The 19th that the Trump administration has continued to display hostility toward transgender service members even while claiming in court that the policy was not discriminatory.
Arun Prakash writes for Indian Express about the Indian rationale for Operation Sindoor; India’s latest military mission against Pakistan.
The only way of re-establishing conventional deterrence at the level of this so-called “asymmetric warfare” is to inflict pain and punishment on those who conceive, support and operationalise it – the Pakistani “deep state”. This is the unholy nexus of the army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, which exercises oversight and full control of Pakistan’s dummy political executive. Having incarcerated popular politician Imran Khan, the military/deep state guides the foreign and domestic policies of this benighted country. Lately, Pakistan’s public has demonstrated increasing evidence of its deep resentment against the military’s involvement in governance, contributing to a fast-deteriorating economy and mishandled domestic insurgencies. An inflammatory and unsoldierly public talk recently delivered by the Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir seems to be evidence of the military’s hope that a showdown with India may serve to restore some of its lost sheen. Against this backdrop, India’s response to the Pahalgam carnage has been apt and timely. When General Munir inappropriately referred to Kashmir as “Pakistan’s jugular vein”, he obviously forgot that its actual jugular vein are the five rivers controlled by an upper-riparian India. India can thus re-establish conventional deterrence vis-à-vis Pak provided Indian security planners are mindful of two factors. First, the initial wave of kinetic strikes may need to be followed up with more, and the public should be prepared for attrition, loss of life and the distinct possibility of escalation. At the same time, while public opinion may demand a “jaw for a tooth”, our military leadership should remain wary of the “escalation” ladder — easy to step on but difficult to jump off. Given the nuclear shadow that hangs over the Subcontinent, Indian planners have taken care to send clear signals of India’s non-escalatory intent by using only aircraft-launched weapons and not ballistic missiles, and also, by avoiding Pak military units/establishments and targeting only terrorist hubs. Additionally, we must convey — internationally as well as across the border — that our aim is limited to a commitment from the Pakistan deep state to dismantle the terror network, and guarantee cessation of cross-border armed activity.
Clea Caulcutt, Giovanna Faggionato, Jon Stone, and Marion Solletty of POLITICO Europe say that behind the scenes, French diplomats continue to play “hardball” with the Brits on quite a few issues.
From defense to fisheries, France’s diplomats have been playing hardball, according to officials from both sides. So while governments are optimistic that Britain and Europe can rekindle some kind of relationship in the wake of Donald Trump’s less-than-subtle attempt to turn his back on them, it’s certainly not turning out to be a painless process. Just as Paris played bad cop during the negotiations over the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU and subsequent trade deal between 2016 and 2020, it's putting in a repeat performance now the Brits want to get closer again, with a crucial London summit less than two weeks away. [...] In the last few months, the warming relations have seen Starmer hosting and being invited to leader-level discussions on Ukraine and U.K. ministers participating in EU meetings. The most recent of these was Wednesday's gathering of EU foreign ministers in Poland attended by Foreign Secretary David Lammy. [...] But a lot can still go wrong, not least because Starmer is under increased pressure following big wins by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in local elections last week. Farage was one of the most vocal supporters of Brexit and is railing against any government attempt to push the U.K. back into the European fold.
Finally today...ummm…(and I don’t even really follow the NBA like that!)
Everyone have the best possible day that you can!
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