Paradigm Shift

I can't find where I read it the other day, but I came across a comment about how we are watching the old ideology-based paradigm of the Cold War (and, I would add, globalism) coming to an end, to be replaced with an approach to diplomacy and trade based around self-interest. If you watched President Trump's State of the Union address last night, you saw it front and center: tariffs to punish those countries undermining the United States or taking advantage of the United States; regaining control of the Panama Canal to prevent it from falling under China's control; prying Greenland away from Europe; the Realpolitik moment the President revealed that Zelenskyy of Ukraine had reversed course and (seemingly) is now willing to accede to Trump's plan to end the Ukraine War. 

    It bears repeating that those who are invested in the old system are going to fight tooth and nail against these changes. Not because they believe in spreading democracy, but because they enjoy the money and power that came with the old order. And that is what the old order had degenerated to: a means to scam the American taxpayer, as the following from Stephen Green about the cuts to USAID illustrates (emphasis added):

    ... Reuters reported today that Nicholas Enrich, USAID's acting assistant administrator for global health, released a seven-page letter complaining that "political leadership" — the Trump administration — "had made it impossible to deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance around the world."

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    Oh, spare me the sob stories. Of the $4 billion earmarked for Haiti, almost half of it never went much farther than the D.C. beltway. More than half went to "other." About 2% went to Haitian firms. Six houses were built.

    There's a case to be made that charitable people like us should help feed the hungry and provide disaster relief to those who can't afford it. But USAID ain't it.

    How did we get here?

    Ostensibly created as an international development agency (it's right there in the name), USAID quickly morphed (some would say it was from the start) into an off-the-books intelligence operation and, from there, into a multibillion-dollar slush fund for the well-connected whose finances were already very highly developed.

    To call the relationship between USAID — i.e., your tax dollars — and the Democrat-Media Complex "incestuous" would be an insult to people with only two grandparents.