WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: TRUMP REDUX FIRST MONTH IN POWER IS ENDING WITH FROM BAD TO WORSE ACTIONS

In the ten days since the last post here, the world has only gotten more chaotic, and the political climate worsened, in the US and globally, due to the Trump regime.

The bizarrely authoritarian speeches and statements in Munich of all places, from top US officials, like the VP and Secretary of Defence, have managed to essentially dismantle the entire "rules-based order" established after WW2. As former British PM John Major observed today on the BBC, hundreds of thousands of Americans died to keep Europe free from fascism, but Mr Vance ignored the democratically-elected leader of Germany, in Germany, to seek out, meet and support, the leader of an extreme far-right party with ideological roots in the Hitler era. Meanwhile, Ukraine, an ally, was thrown under the bus, when Trump appeared to side with the Russians, in terms of negotiating an end to the war against Ukraine. VP Vance also attacked European nations for their lack of freedoms, while failing to mention or criticise actual authoritarian states, once.

Meanwhile, back home, the Trump regime fired the people responsible for the nuclear arsenal, and continued to dismantle all the checks and balances that support the US constitution. Trump even quoted tyrant Napoleon, indicating he was above the law.

Without exaggerating, this is the sign that an extreme, anti-immigrant, authoritarian group has taken over the levers of American power, and is currently taking American democracy apart, for the apparent benefit of its enemies - it is certainly not for the benefit of its allies. If, as this blog expects, Trump begins to ignore US court judgements openly, and sides ever-more closely with Russian plans; and continues to attack allies with taxes and invasion threats; and continues to fire the US employees that actually run the democratic society he abhors, then, you will have the end of The West as the bulwark concept that kept the world from becoming communist or fascist tyrannies since 1945. In other words, 80 years of History and massive effort down the drain.

The West (democratic liberal capitalism) was and is flawed, hypocritical, imperfect, and often violent; it started wars, and overthrew some elected governments; but it also led to massive improvements in health, and wealth, for billions of humans, and kept the world from fighting a full third world war, potentially killing billions in a thermo-nuclear nightmare. It has been the best worst option, unless you prefer Chinese communism, or the Soviet system, or nihilistic super-violent kleptocracies.

If Trump's revolution signalled the start of a new and magnanimous plan for lands of milk and honey, and had a moral or humane basis, this could be a new golden age. Instead, it is a Godfather-style portioning of the loot, the territories. Some get Ukraine, some Taiwan, some Gaza, Panama, Canada or Greenland. It's bizarre, misaligned, vulgar, and cruel, but that's the way the chips are falling.

To say this blog is in shock, or dismayed, is an understatement. But that doesn't really matter. The steamroller continues.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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