ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Saudi Arabia has mutual defense pacts with Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan. Iran keeps attacking the Kingdom, and all three partners have stood aside. The real security work gets done by Israel, a country Riyadh won’t formally recognize. Stability in the Middle East rests on alliances nobody will say out loud. Japan’s prime minister asked the UN to strike Japan from its enemy-state language, 80 years after the war, and the UN is dragging its feet. Add the Security Council seat Russia holds, and the point lands: large bureaucracies can’t move on even the simplest request.
China is no ordinary rising power. The distinction that matters is authoritarian versus totalitarian, and Xi has jailed an estimated two million opponents, disappeared dozens of generals, and seen six of the eight members of the top party council lose their posts in a year. A birth rate of 1.2 after decades of the one-child policy leaves an aging population it cannot support. Misread an adversary and you invite the conflict you were trying to avoid. On Iran, the rial trades near 2.7 million to the dollar, Hormuz oil flows are back to pre-war levels without Iranian barrels, and about $18 billion in crude still at sea is the last cash coming in. A regime that can’t pay its proxies is a regime close to cracking.
At home, adult children are cutting off their parents on the advice of therapists, an estrangement community has 4.2 million social followers, and the fifth commandment gets quietly retired. Humanities PhDs that cost universities $700,000 to $1 million each are producing graduates with no jobs. A Boston lesbian bar held a mask mandate until two weeks ago, then offered one mask-optional night to stay open and was met with threats and tears. A woman was fired after screaming insults at a Jewish man in a New York gym. A podcaster called Trump-voting Christians a cancer to be eradicated or jailed. A pop star’s opening act went on an antisemitic rant, a stadium owner pulled the show, and the headliner ended up in tears apologizing to fans. Dehumanizing your opponent is the first step to doing anything to them.
Equal treatment under the law is the test. Every Democrat voted against conditional immunity for an aide to Anthony Fauci who knows what happened to the documents, after demanding total disclosure on Epstein. A Virginia prosecutor is accused of steering DACA recipients charged with drunk driving into lesser charges while citizens take the full hit. Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan helped an illegal immigrant dodge ICE, was convicted of a felony, and got a $5,000 fine, no prison, and no license suspension. Rights and rules that bend to politics stop being rights or rules.
The power and corruption file is its own category. Bernie Sanders filed a bill for a corporate death penalty and 20 years in prison for AI developers. About 860,000 phantom Obamacare enrollees and 850,000 COVID relief fraud cases point to a $100 billion problem. Some 300 of 400 Civil Rights Division lawyers quit rather than carry out the administration’s priorities, which beats staying and stalling. Biden accepted a Planned Parenthood award while calling himself a proud Catholic. DOJ sued a California city over gun permit fees priced to deter buyers. AI executives asking for regulation want two things, no competition and no lawsuits. Convictions are cheap until they cost something.
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