On tariff wars; a farce in Belarus; an honest congressman; Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl; and more
As a rule, this column has a language item or two, and those items are usually down at the bottom. Why don’t we put one up top? In English, as you know, virtually every noun becomes a verb, sooner or later. It’s how we roll. Only in the last half-year have I heard “to tariff.” Regularly, Donald Trump threatens “to tariff” some nation.
Well, here is a headline from PCMag (“PC” standing for “personal computer”): “Trump to Tariff Chips Made In Taiwan, Targeting TSMC.” (“TSMC” stands for “Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.”) Find that article here.
You would have thought Taiwan had enough problems, with the PRC bearing down on it. Taiwan needs the help of its great ally, the United States. In multiple ways, these are terribly nervous times for the Taiwanese.
How long can they survive as a nation?
• In general, the nature of international trade is peaceful. My impression is, most people don’t realize this. If you live in San Diego, do you realize the weather is nice? Or is it simply normal?
When trade wars are on, minds are concentrated. People, or at least some of them, miss international trade and its nature.
I thought of this basic point when reading this news article. It begins,
Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister who is running to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister, said Monday Canada needs to release a “retaliation list” of goods the country would target if U.S. president Donald Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods.
Freeland said, “Being smart means retaliating where it hurts. Our counterpunch must be dollar-for-dollar — and it must be precisely and painfully targeted: Florida orange growers, Wisconsin dairy farmers, Michigan dishwasher manufacturers, and much more.”
• Dictators feel the need to have democratic fig leaves. They have “parliaments.” They hold “elections.” On Monday, I published a piece about Syria: the rise and fall of the Assads. Did you know that Bashar won four elections? “Presidential” elections? He did: with 99.7 percent of the vote, 99.8 percent of the vote, 92.2 percent, and 95.2. He was a real vote-getter, Bashar al-Assad.
Alexander Lukashenko is the same kind of “vote-getter” in Belarus. He is that country’s mini-Putin. He has staged another election, as this report tells you:
Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election on Sunday that Western governments rejected as a sham.
An exit poll broadcast on state TV projected that Lukashenko would take nearly 88 percent of the vote. The close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: “I don’t give a damn about the West.”
The EU, collectively, wanted to condemn the latest farce in Belarus. But the usual happened. “Viktor Orbán blocks EU statement denouncing Belarus election.” The subheading of that report reads, “Hungary’s PM had also threatened to veto EU sanctions if he can’t get Russian gas.”
Orbán perpetually runs interference for Putin, China, et al. He is a favorite leader of the Right here in America — the Heritage Foundation, CPAC, and so on. This is a grim fact of our age.
• Hanna Liubakova, the sterling Belarusian journalist (in exile), quoted Alexander Lukashenko the other day. He said that a woman cannot rule Belarus. “I am categorically against burdening a woman with such work; a woman cannot be a dictator.” I wanted to confirm with Hanna: Did he really use that word “dictator”? The Belarusian equivalent? Yes, she said. He uses that word regularly — unblushingly.
Good for him, in a way. I mean: no pretensions.
• An ongoing story, an ongoing outrage: “Hong Kong activist, 19, fears kidnap by bounty hunters.” That headline is from the Times of London. “Chloe Cheung, who lives in the UK, is on a list of wanted dissenters but says the police have offered her minimal protection despite the risks she faces.” The story is here.
A vicious, vicious state, the PRC. (Like so many.)
• Here is a question: Would you want to know? “Dutch delve into family pasts as the names of accused Nazi collaborators released.” (Article here.)
• Stewart Rhodes is the founder of “Oath Keepers.” He was convicted in the January 6 attack. On January 10 (2021), he said, “My only regret is, they should have brought rifles. We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost.” President Trump has now sprung Rhodes, of course, along with the 1,500 or so others.
Today, VIP seating:
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is at Trump’s speech in Las Vegas, just days after Trump commuted his 18-year sentence.
Rhodes has VIP seating on the stage where President Trump is about to take the stage to promote his “no tax on tips” proposal. pic.twitter.com/ZZFTJq34Dp
— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) January 25, 2025
• Enrique Tarrio was the head of the Proud Boys. He is among Trump’s pardonees. He says that he represents “the new conservative movement.” If the Proud Boys and their like get the word “conservative” — violence has been done to the language, as well as the Capitol.
• For The Dispatch, Nick Catoggio has written an excellent column: “The Shame of It All: The coming rehabilitation of the January 6ers.” (I think it has come already.) His title put me in mind of a well-known book, from 2002 — a book with a haunting title: The Pity of It All. That is the book by Amos Elon about Jews in Germany, from 1743 to 1933.
• If I could, I would introduce Diogenes to Congressman Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.). Burchett is quoted in a report from Reuters, headed “House Republicans divided over how to pay for Trump’s tax cuts.” Says Burchett:
“We’re lying to ourselves, and we’re lying to the public. We go home and say, ‘We’re going to do these things.’ And then we come up here and wink and nod and sell the people down the river. And we go home and get reelected. It’s a crazy system.”
!
• Let me recommend an obit, by Dylan Loeb McClain, for the New York Times. It is an utterly engrossing obit — of Martin Karplus, a chemist who shared the Nobel Prize in 2013. Mr. Karplus has died at 94.
He was born in Vienna on March 15, 1930. On the day of the Anschluss, he was eight years old minus three days. The family managed to get out. And to America.
I will quote from McClain’s obit:
Accepted to Harvard University, he concentrated on chemistry and physics. As he was finishing his undergraduate degree in 1950, both the University of California at Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, accepted him for graduate studies.
Unsure where to go, he visited his brother, Robert, who by then was working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Robert showed him around, introducing him to Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer . . .
The obit continues,
Dr. Oppenheimer recommended Caltech, where he had been a professor, calling it “a shining light in a sea of darkness,” according to Dr. Karplus’s biography. Decision made.
There is so much more in this obit — so much more that is fascinating. But let me say something about Caltech.
Readers may remember that I interviewed, and wrote about, Vernon L. Smith last year. He is the economist, a classical liberal, who was born in 1927 and shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in 2002. He grew up in Kansas — in a hardscrabble way.
Let me quote from my piece:
But his parents expected him to go to college, and he expected to go too. His parents had an eighth-grade education, only. Nobody knew anything about how to choose a college. So, Vernon went to the Wichita City Library and found a book on the subject. The book said, right up front, that the best college in the United States was Caltech. So, Vernon didn’t read any more of the book. He figured he should go to Caltech.
In due course, he did.
• The Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl again. Presumably, Taylor Swift will be present again, rooting on her boyfriend. Remember when she was a Pentagon psy-op, designed to get America to vote Democratic? My question: Is she still? Or is she now just a pop star who dates a Chief?
An America without conspiracy theories, I’m afraid, would not be America at all.
• The bitter, bone-chilling cold has now lifted in New York City. But winter is far from prepared to relinquish its grip. A quick shot of Central Park:
• In the park, a little boy fell down. His father said, “You’re all right.” The little boy seemed unsure. He stayed there, lying on the concrete path. His mother then said, “Falling down is one thing, but getting up is far more rewarding.”
A lesson for life. Thank you for joining me, my friends, and I’ll catch you soon.
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