Some days are like sudden squalls at sea, arising unexpectedly and without apparent cause. So it is with the news of the past 24 hours, though not every wind blows from an unexpected quarter.
First, Fidel Trudeau abruptly canceled the emergency that he declared last week and that the Canadian Parliament approved just two days ago. Did a threat so severe that scotching it necessitated the invocation of martial law vanish within fewer than 48 hours? The most plausible answer is that there was never an emergency of that magnitude, as was pretty obvious to foreign (i. e., American) observers. One didn’t need to see pictures of smiling protesters lounging in hot tubs or distributing free food to the homeless to figure that out. The tip-off was that Fidel padded the alleged “insurrection” with talk of Nazi salutes and Confederate flags. One of his supporters declared that truckers who honked their horns were calling for the second coming of Adolf Hitler. (“Honk, honk” = HH = “Heil Hitler; “Elementary, my dear Justin.”) It was the empty rhetoric that demagogues resort to when they run out of facts.
Non-unexpectedly, the dictator of Canada didn’t explain his abdication by saying that it had all been a mistake and he was going to purge his shame by resigning. It was just “over”. Various theories are floating around: that the polls were looking terrible, that several of his party’s senators were about to denounce his actions, that the freezing of protesters’ accounts had sparked a run on Canadian banks. I doubt that we’ll ever get a straight account. Fidel has said that he’ll investigate why martial law was declared. I foresee that his hand-picked investigators will conclude that Donald Trump was about to invade but was stared down by the dauntless Trudeau.
Second, it looks like the former President won’t be indicted in New York on charges of loan fraud and tax evasion. If news accounts are accurate (they’re from the New York Times, anonymously sourced, so proceed with caution), the two lead prosecutors resigned after their boss, Manhattan’s pro-crime district attorney, decided that they won’t be able to put together a winnable case. Andrew McCarthy, who served as a federal prosecutor in New York, has drawn on his knowledge of the local criminal law enforcement scene to conclude that the DA is probably right. If so, that doesn’t prove that the Trump Organization has never cut a corner, but it suggests that due process may yet have some life in it.
Finally, the expected news: Russian “peacekeepers” have entered Ukraine to “protect” the pro-Russian enclaves that have been in revolt for the past eight years. Tsar Vladimir signaled that step earlier this week in a speech that was evidence of dementia or overweening confidence or unbridled contempt for the flaccid leaders of the Western democracies, or at least two out of three.
Just before the invasion (or will it be defined down to a “minor incursion”?) began, President Biden announced economic sanctions so feeble that they would barely deter Lichtenstein. House Republicans tweeted, “This is what weakness on the world stage looks like.” The inimitable Jim Treacher has collected left-wing responses from Bill Kristol, Jen Rubin et al. that share a theme: Criticizing Joe Biden’s soft-handed approach equals support for Vladimir Putin. The logic behind that conclusion emanates out of some universe where reason follows different laws from our own. I mention it only because it offers a dram of levity at a moment when the world could use it. (If you don’t want to pay five bucks a month get the daily Treacher newsletter, you can ask for a seven-day free trial that will get you past the pay wall.)
What will tomorrow bring? I’m not entirely sure that I want to know.
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