By From the bin (nom de guerre) the author had a long-standing column in Neighbourhood News in the 1990s and early 2000s

It’s a cliche now to say that the curse of “Interesting times” is upon us.But I can think of no more suitable way to describe the frantic first days of the 2nd Trump Presidency. If there is a historical time somewhat close to what we are going through, I would suggest the aftermath of 23 of August 1939 when Stalin signed a peace deal with Hitler. That act caused enormous confusion and demoralization among the Left throughout the world. They had just fought heroically in Spain against the Fascists and there was their leader signing a treaty with the Fascists.

This time however the confusion and demoralization is having the most impact on the Right. The denizen of the Bin will confess to not a little schadenfreude here. The strategy of the Right was very simple. The hordes of Grim Rimmers of the Right had a formula, seemingly for all seasons.- “All the way with the USA” & that included Israel. True. Of course there was a little hiccup. “All the way with the USA” meant ignoring a genocide but what’s a little genocide between friends and allies and the special relationship? And if there were some sensitive types who were horrified at the sight of the slaughter of thousands and thousands of children, well we could just call them ‘antisemitic’ and that would shut them up.

I admit here that the right had a lot of help. The Gaza Genocide coincided with the election of the most amoral and craven of all Labor Governments. “What genocide? I see no genocide?” was the policy position throughout the ranks of the Labor Government.

It was easier though for the Right to rally around Ukraine. To invade a country, as Clausewitz points out, constitutes a moral and psychological liability. There was enormous initial sympathy for Ukraine and the Right took full advantage of that.

But then came Trump – the real estate agent who sees the world through the lens of doing property deals. He does not care about morality. Of course he courts the Religious Right & markets his Bibles everywhere. But organized Religion has only lip service to pay to any moral imperative. Trump wants to do a deal with Putin. He hopes to break up the Russia-China alliance that the stupidity of the Biden team had enabled.

To close the deal Trump has to betray his allies. So what? He sits down with Putin. But Zylensky (who?) and Europe leaders (who?) are told they could piss off. Panic on the Right: absolute panic on the Right.

The sorry bunch of losers who pass for European Leaders constitute the most demoralised and frightened group since the Left saw Molotov shake hands with Ribbentrop. They must now either put up or shut up. Trump has taken off the clown’s mask and he is now the rent collector. Worse times are to follow. “All the way with the USA” looks like the path to perdition.

Interesting times indeed