The Writing Maven

I was in my kitchen this morning with coffee going cold on the counter, scrolling on my phone, and I had that feeling again. The one I keep getting lately. None of this adds up unless you stop believing the old story. The old story was that America led by building things that lasted. Alliances, trust, showing up for your friends even when it cost you something. At the very least, pretending there was a difference between us and the strongmen we were always warning everyone about. Then you look at this week’s headlines and it doesn’t read like a superpower. It reads like a pawn shop. There are new visa bonds for people from dozens of countries. Want to visit your kid, close a deal, go to a wedding? Put money down first and prove you’ll leave. There are more carrier groups headed for the Middle East, because it’s always more ships. There are trade deals that, if you read the fine print, still have Russian diesel floating around in them. And then the big one, a trade truce with China push...