The World Is Holding Its Breath

 The President of Ukraine had to stand next to a Russo-phile Putin apologist and nod along like that idiot was making sense. As Chait notes, Trump's basic framework for understanding war is as a form of business transaction. A hostile takeover, if you will. The idea that Trump could "make a deal" an end the war is only true if "make a deal" means selling out Ukraine and the international standard that invasions and seizing another country's territory are perhaps the most egregious offense outside of genocide.

Speaking of "genocide", we have Israel's strike on Hezbollah, which is both absolutely justified by Hezbollah's actions and a demonstration that Israel really doesn't give a fuck about civilian casualties. The merits of that position - we have to kill some children to kill the really bad guys - would seem to be morally indefensible...but tactically sound. The IDF has kicked the living hell out of those that would do Israel harm. In 1943, no one would've batted an eye at this behavior.

However, the US has been working for almost a full year to prevent the spread of the war into Lebanon. They apparently had assurances from Israel that there wouldn't be anything of this scale, and Israel went ahead and did it anyway. 

Biden's prioritization of good relations with Israel - a misbehaving ally - has been blinkered, especially since Netanyahu seems to be actively working to help elect Trump. If we can somehow get to President Harris, I hope she cuts off aid to Israel as long as it's being led by a man who is both a war criminal and regular criminal.

Anyone paying attention to Trump recently can see how mentally unwell he is. He's making cognitive gaffes that would have caused the press to call for Biden's immediate resignation. He's perseverating on crowd size and other totems of his damaged ego. I have a hunch the internal polling is a lot more dire than the Times/Sienna polls. Trumpists are so invested in their Golden Calf that they can't see it, but I guarantee the rest of the world - unpolluted by Fox News, NewsMaxx and OAN - are looking at this creature and are agog that the fate of the free world is this tenuous.