Day: January 27, 2026

In this week’s Future View, students discuss the divide between Generation Z men and women on public affairs and culture.
on.wsj.com/3NICR6Y

— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) Jan 28, 2026

Of course, Europe can defend itself.
Doesn’t Rutte know how weak Russia is both militarily & economically?
More importantly, the US under Trump considers Europe its main enemy, so what?!Gandalv (@Microinteracti1)Mark Rutte Should Apologize for Mocking Europe’s Ability to Defend Itself

Ukraine has held Russia at bay for four years under constant fire, with fewer people, less industry, and far weaker air power than Europe. That fact alone exposes the lie at the heart of the claim that real military power belongs only to the United States.

Europe has roughly 740 million people, a vast industrial base, advanced technology, and armed forces that together rival the United States in manpower, equipment, and overall capacity. To argue that such a continent cannot defend itself is a political story designed to keep Europe psychologically small, strategically dependent, and permanently insecure.

For 60 years, Europe accepted a model of dependency. It was comfortable, it was familiar, and it was sold as the price of peace. America led, Europe followed, and the arrangement became habit. But Europe has its eyes open now, and it knows that era is over. The world has changed, the US political mood has changed, and the threat environment has changed. Europe can no longer treat its security as an outsourced service. That is why Mark Rutte’s remark in the European Parliament, telling those who believe Europe can defend itself to “keep on dreaming,” is not just offensive but strategically corrosive. It attempts to reframe Europe back into the old posture: grateful, subordinate, dependent.

Europe recognizes why this message is repeated. A Europe that doubts itself keeps outsourcing responsibility, keeps buying American weapons, and keeps accepting being talked about as irrelevant. This is dependency management. And when the NATO Secretary General performs it with a sneer, Europeans see it for what it is and find it strongly criticizable. No serious continent accepts being mocked into obedience, least of all one that has watched Ukraine do the impossible for four years while Europe debates its own adulthood.

And look at who this narrative talks down to. The UK and France, both nuclear powers with global reach. The Nordics and Finland, whose defense models are built on readiness, resilience, and a sober understanding of Russia. Poland, building one of Europe’s strongest land forces and acting while others debated. Germany, with immense industrial depth now rearming at scale. To tell these countries to stop dreaming is not honesty. It is contempt. And it is an attempt to fold Europe back into a subordinate role again, as if 740 million people should behave like a dependent ward.

The only acceptable message from NATO leadership is therefore obvious: Europe must be able to defend itself, fully and independently, even if the United States is distracted or chooses to focus on the Western Hemisphere. Anything else is a demand that Europe remain a junior partner forever, paying more while being treated as less. That era is ending, whether some officials like it or not. Europe is done being managed by fear. It is done being spoken to like a vassal. And it is done accepting reframing efforts that try to drag it back into submission.

Stay connected,
Follow Gandalv  @Microinteracti1—  https://x.com/Microinteracti1/status/2016040204168040565

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) Jan 28, 2026

How can any of these 4 people hold any public top position in a country that still considers itself democratic?
None of them has displayed any democratic values in their abundant public statements.Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES)”Together, they have lit the US Constitution on fire, abused the American people with fantastical lies and brutal violence. They are gangsters and fascists. They are venomous clowns and broken children. They are the worst of the worst when it comes to patriotism, decency and loyalty to the greatest achievement in the history of human civilization, the American Republic.”

open.substack.com/pub/steves…—  https://x.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/2016169616960102503

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) Jan 28, 2026

Interesting. Stephen Miller is Trump’s Goebbels.
Does he really think that he needs to pay attention to any law?CNN (@CNN)Stephen Miller says federal agents “may not have been following” proper protocol in Minneapolis before Alex Pretti was killed.
cnn.it/4bmzdtd—  https://x.com/CNN/status/2016313749947232470

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) Jan 28, 2026

5. Trump has severely damaged US health care.
6. He has sharply reduced the freedom of speech.
7.  He has cut university freedom & research.
Trump is autocracy & kleptocracy über Alles.

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) Jan 28, 2026

Nobody has caused more damage to the US in one single year than Donald Trump:
1. He has abolished the rule of law.
2. He has made the US more corrupt to his benefit than ever.
3. He promotes extreme crony capitalism.
4. He has sharply cut science financing. /1

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) Jan 28, 2026

Trump says ‘Cuba will be failing pretty soon’  reut.rs/3NGtuVi  reut.rs/3NGtuVi

— Reuters (@Reuters) Jan 28, 2026