Attention to the Unseen

Peter Beinart writes: In 1945, the United States stood at the apex of its global dominance. It comprised half the world’s GDP, owned 80% of its hard currency, and possessed the only nuclear weapons on earth. So, it’s hardly surprising that, in the spring of that year, Americans designed the logo for the new organization tasked with keeping world peace: the United Nations. With diplomats from across the globe set to arrive in San Francisco for the UN’s inaugural meeting,…

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Another day, another outrage. How Hitler used outrageous behavior to distract the German establishment. Google’s AI offers this overview: Hitler utilized a strategy of manufactured crises, constant scandalous behavior, and extreme rhetoric to disorient, distract, and eventually dominate the traditional German establishment—including conservative politicians, military leaders, and the press—between 1930 and 1934. By creating an atmosphere of perpetual chaos, Hitler compelled the elite to react to immediate “emergencies,” preventing them from organizing effective opposition to his true goal of dismantling…

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Jonathan V. Last, after summarizing the events immediately leading up to the Civil War’s pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, writes: It’s not clear why the Trump regime chose to invade Minneapolis. Maybe it was animus toward the city’s Somali population. Maybe it was because Gov. Tim Walz had run against Trump and Vance. Maybe it was because they believed the state’s welfare fraud investigations made Minneapolis favorable terrain on which to fight. But when the regime’s forces occupied the city they were surprised…

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Jonathan Rauch writes: Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and…

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Garrett M. Graff writes: America has never seen a moment in modern history like the federal occupation of Minneapolis. Thousands of masked federal officers with uncertain authority are rampaging through the region, assaulting protesters and innocent people, abusing constitutional safeguards, staking out daycares and schools, snatching people off the streets in unmarked vans based on the color of their skin or their accent, and recklessly, relentlessly provoking violent confrontations with civilians—all against the loud, repeatedly expressed wishes of local and…

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The Guardian reports: A greatcoat worn by the senior US border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations across the country, has raised eyebrows in German media with some commentators saying it resembled a fascist aesthetic. Bovino has been an increasingly recognisable figure during the raids in Minneapolis for the brass-buttoned, calf-length olive green coat, which is unlike the fatigues and body armor worn by many of the federal agents. Along with his close-shorn haircut, the media…

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Ivan Krastev writes: For the Trump Administration, the question is what role NATO has when America no longer views the European Union as an American project but still wants to retain the Old Continent within its sphere of influence. It is a vision where America seeks to replace the Cold War West, which was described as the “free world” and defined by shared liberal values, with a cultural West rooted in Christianity and whiteness. For Europeans, the stakes are different…

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John M. Owen IV writes: In trying to make sense of Donald Trump’s second presidential administration, analysts have looked near and far for models and sources. Near at hand is William McKinley, the twenty-fifth US president, a Republican fond of tariffs and empire. Farther afield is Carl Schmitt, a German legal theorist who died in 1985 and was notorious for his anti-liberal arguments and his membership in the Nazi Party. Trump likely has never heard of Professor Schmitt, but some…

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Osita Nwanevu writes: It’s garnered less attention than the other events of our already wretched new year. But to understand why Renee Nicole Good was killed on Wednesday, why the White House has designs on Greenland, and why the people of Venezuela may soon be governed, in effect, by a junta of oil companies backed by the US military, we should also consider an email Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M, received about his course Contemporary Moral Problems…

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The Guardian reports: The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, follow a long history of interventions in South and Central America and the Caribbean over the past two centuries. But they also mark an unprecedented moment as the first direct US military attack on a South American country. At a press conference after Maduro’s capture, Donald Trump said that “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again”. But since the mid-19th…

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Matthew Purdy writes: A power-hungry president had twisted the government into a tool for his personal political benefit. His aides kept an “enemies list” of opponents to be punished. His cronies ran the Justice Department and he made puppets of other agencies that were meant to be independent. Corporations that wanted favorable treatment from the White House were pressured to make illegal contributions to the president’s political coffers. As revelations of rot in the Nixon administration tumbled out through the…

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