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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 7 — NATO Spending and the Wedge of Unrealistic Demands
In his September 23 UN address, Trump returned to one of his favorite tools of division: NATO burden-sharing. He claimed that at the June...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 6 — The UN as Boondoggle and the Politics of the Security Council Veto
Trump’s September 23 UN address included a lengthy tirade against the institution itself. He mocked the organization as feckless,...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 5 — Gaza, Hostages, and the Weaponization of Recognition
After migration, crime, climate, and Ukraine, Trump turned to Gaza. In his September 23 UN address, he framed the ongoing war not as a...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 4 — Ukraine, Oil Buyers, and the Tariff Threat
Having struck at migration, crime, and climate, Trump turned next to the war in Ukraine. In his September 23 UN address, he did not frame...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 3 — Climate, Energy, and the War on Europe’s Competitiveness
After migration and crime, Trump’s third cudgel in his September 23 UN address targeted climate policy and energy. Where Part 1 exposed...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 2 — Crime, Migration, and the Fertile Ground for Populism
Trump’s September 23 UN address opened with migration as the spearhead of his attack. In Part 1, we saw how he portrayed the UN as...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Decoding Trump’s UN Speech: Part 1 — UN-Funded Migration as a Political Weapon
President Trump’s September 23 address to the United Nations was not a policy speech so much as a weaponized performance. He selected...
john raymond
Sep 242 min read
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Methods Matter: Why NATO Cannot Treat Trump’s Capture as Mere Narcissism
Vlad Vexler and I reach the same conclusion about President Trump’s latest posture on Ukraine: it is nothing to celebrate, because it...
john raymond
Sep 243 min read
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The Capstone Part 3—To Prove That NATO Has Learned Its Lesson, Rutte Must Resign His Commission
NATO cannot fully move into its capstoned phase while burdened by leadership that failed the critical tests caused by Trump 2.0. Mark...
john raymond
Sep 232 min read
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In His Rush to Do His Master’s Bidding, Trump’s Cartoonish Levels of Evil Has Allowed the Coalition of the Willing to Capstone
President Trump’s descent into cartoonish spectacle has had an unintended effect: it has delivered the capstone to the alliance’s...
john raymond
Sep 233 min read
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Disney Crossed an Inviolate Line—Now It Must Be Broken Up
Disney has crossed an inviolate line, and the price must now be paid: it must be broken up. The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel was not some...
john raymond
Sep 223 min read
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Dear Stephen Miller, Men of Power Act, They Do Not Bluster
Let us begin with three premises. First, Ukraine is on the cusp of punishing Putin on a scale yet unseen, as drone warfare strips away...
john raymond
Sep 222 min read
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Dear James Comey, Are You Only Mildly Nauseated by What Is Happening Now?
James Comey has tried to frame his intervention in the 2016 election as a tragic but dutiful act, accompanied by his admission of feeling...
john raymond
Sep 223 min read
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Why Ukraine Can Trust Me: I Need Them to Win as Badly as They Need to Win
The essence of durable alliance is mutual need reinforced by mutual respect. Ukraine can trust me because my survival is inseparably tied...
john raymond
Sep 212 min read
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Splitting a Nuclear Pin: Defeat Trump by First Defeating Putin
Orientation: game theory as the frame What we are seeing with Trump-Putin is a two-king game on a nuclear chessboard. The first king...
john raymond
Sep 213 min read
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EU Finally Does the Most Obvious Thing: Uses Loan Instruments to Excavate Capital from Seized Russian Assets
The debate over how to leverage the hundreds of billions in immobilised Russian sovereign assets has always been defined less by...
john raymond
Sep 212 min read
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American Dependence Is a Myth — the EU Does Not Need the U.S.
Thesis — The myth that the European Union and loyal NATO members are irretrievably dependent on the United States for defense is false in...
john raymond
Sep 195 min read
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The Vacuum Above the Base: Why an Authentic Anti-Authoritarian Candidacy Would Reshape U.S. Politics
Three propositions can hold simultaneously. First, citizens who wish to preserve the republic must refuse to vote for candidates that...
john raymond
Sep 194 min read
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Why It Is Good That Jake Broe Has Gone Scorched Earth on Trump
In moments of historical peril, clarity is a moral obligation. When democracy is threatened from within and allies are under siege...
john raymond
Sep 182 min read
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Charlie Kirk’s Death Doesn’t Matter, Because History Will Not Remember His Work
The assassination of Charlie Kirk has provoked uproar, grief, and denunciations across the American political landscape. Yet beyond the...
john raymond
Sep 183 min read
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