V-J Day in the UK, MAGA Californication, and the Summit in the Last Frontier
August 15 AD2025: History, U.S. Politics, and World Politics
He really is good at this.
King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Canada, and his other realms celebrated V-J Day with commemorations, wreath laying, and a review of his troops. He also gave a very short and personal message of remembrance. "The War is Over," so said King George VI in 1945. Charles III, his grandson, spoke about the importance of that message and the final victory in the Pacific, and how his great-uncle, Admiral Lord Mountbatten, led the campaign against the Japanese Empire and its allies in Southeast Asia. The troops of that British force considered themselves the "Forgotten Army" due to the focus on the war in Europe. It is worth a listen below.
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, born Prince Louis of Battenberg, (1900–1979) became Supreme Allied Commander, South-East Asia in 1943, coordinating British, Indian, American, and Chinese forces to reverse Japanese gains in Burma and retake Rangoon, Malaya, and Singapore. He accepted Japan's Southeast Asian surrender in Singapore on September 12, 1945, in Operation Tiderace. After the war, he served as the last Viceroy and first Governor-General of independent India. Later in life, he mentored the young Prince Charles and became, according to the prince, the grandfather he never had. Lord Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in 1979.
California - Disrespect, Contempt, and Political Menacing
The State of Texas plans to redraw its United States House of Representatives districts in a blatant attempt to deprive Democratic Party supporters of representation in Congress. The Republican-controlled legislature drew the maps in 2021, and now they are redrawing a map they drew themselves. If there was a mistake, they are the ones who made it, and no one believes or pretends otherwise. The tradition has been that maps are drawn once a decade unless there is something wrong with them. By violating this simple and understood principle, the Texas Republican Party reveals that it is not conservative and that it does not believe voters should choose their representatives, but is solidly behind the idea that representatives should elect their people. In response, California Governor Gavin Christopher Newsom has revealed a counterstrike: California will retaliate by redrawing its maps to give Democrats a widely disproportionate advantage in its U.S. House map.
The California plan is strictly retaliatory. It will go into effect only if Texas goes through with their violation of census redistricting tradition. At the California press conference announcing the move to respond to Texas, U.S. Border Patrol agents showed up armed and masked. They claimed they were conducting an operation and that they did not know the governor of California was there.
The timing appears highly strategic rather than coincidental. Border Patrol agents conducted operations directly outside Governor Newsom's press conference about redistricting—a move that LA Mayor Karen Bass characterized as deliberately provocative and disrespectful. Such a move makes the Border Patrol a political entity rather than an apolitical law enforcement agency.
The move also gives credence to the charge that the Republican administration of Donald John Trump engages in deliberately racially offensive moves to demonstrate impunity against non-whites who have done nothing to provoke such action. The Border Patrol operation took place in Little Tokyo, in the context of a press conference about state redistricting, which has nothing to do with immigration enforcement nor involves the presidency. The governor's press conference was at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum. The museum is known for dealing with how Japanese Americans were forced to report for internment during WWII. Behaving in a menacing manner hurts immigration enforcement efforts, and the behavior may demonstrate the thin talent pool of the Republican administration and lack of strategic governing competence.
The idea of a political movement should be to make its biggest agenda items palatable to citizens. Turning up at the governor's press conference led to at least one Japanese American community leader to associate the location and the timing of the Border Patrol move with intimidation inherent in the policy of Japanese internment. Such a move does not help the cause of immigration enforcement. Polls now consistently show that the Trump administration has turned half—or more than half—of Americans against their border enforcement methods through their behavior and attitude. In effect, they are ruining what was a consensus issue.
Governor Newsom now also has an issue with which to rally Democrats. The Democrats need Newsom as their leaders on Capitol Hill continue to demonstrate a lack of ability and the DNC does not inspire its base. The Republicans will begin to lose more and more independents if they continue to overstep the line on redistricting and provocative law enforcement. After the deployment of the National Guard to LA, and now the deployment of the Guard to Washington, D.C.—despite the fact that crime has gone down in the national capital—the impression is building that the GOP is now behaving in the manner they accused Obama administration official and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel of doing when he said to never let a good crisis go to waste. The GOP then accused Emanuel of advocating for the exploitation and possible invention of crises. Many voters now think that is what the GOP is doing.
This is especially true with the bombshell report that DOGE, formerly led by Elon Musk, lied about how much money they saved U.S. taxpayers. It now appears that they saved only 5% of the claimed amount from cancelled government contracts. After all the headlines and drama, it appears only $1.5 billion was saved, and that money will be returned to agencies that were supposed to spend it and will have no impact on the deficit—not that $1.5 billion would help much even if it all went to debt reduction.
However, in the end, what this week reveals is that the Democrats' desire for push back against the Trump administration is undergoing Californication. Governor Newsom's retaliatory redistricting plan represents a new willingness among Democratic leaders to abandon traditional norms in response to Republican norm-breaking. The Border Patrol's provocative show of force at his press conference only strengthens this dynamic, providing Democrats with a powerful symbol of federal overreach to rally their base. What we're witnessing is the acceleration of a tit-for-tat political cycle where each side's escalation justifies the other's retaliation, with California leading the Democratic charge toward more aggressive political tactics. Whether this represents necessary resistance or dangerous democratic backsliding may depend entirely on one's political perspective, but it undeniably marks a new chapter in America's increasingly polarized political landscape. One needlessly provoked by the Lone Star State.
Russia Summit
To end this week's analysis, I will briefly mention the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the American leader, Donald Trump. They met in the U.S. state of Alaska, which was purchased from the Russian Empire by U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward. "Seward's Folly" was the derisive nickname critics gave to the 1867 purchase of Alaska. The American government bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cents an acre, and many Americans mocked it as a frozen, worthless "icebox." It later proved hugely valuable for its resources—gold, oil, fisheries—and strategic location. Wealth for America, folly for Russia. Imagine the Cold War with the Soviets bordering Canada and Washington State.
While the two leaders met one-on-one for about three hours, no deal was announced. It is likely we will need to wait until next week to gauge the real importance of the meeting. The U.S. leader wants peace now, and the Russian leader wants to walk away with a victory in a war that has lasted more than three years and which the Russians expected to last no more than a month. It has now been 11 years since the U.S.-backed EuroMaidan movement overthrew the President of Ukraine and provoked Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. EuroMaidan, also called the "Revolution of Dignity," was a mass protest movement in Ukraine from November 2013 to February 2014 centered on Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). It began after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended plans to sign an EU Association Agreement, and quickly grew into broader demands for closer ties with Europe, an end to corruption, and accountable government. After violent police clashes with protesters, Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Ukrainian Parliament voted to return to the previous Constitution. What happened immediately afterwards remains in dispute with Yanukovych claiming he was shot at and that the security forces abandoned protecting him and his family so he had to flee and his opposition claiming that Yanukovych left the country and abandonded his post as president and therefore did a “self-removal” from office.
Trump and MAGA long claimed that it was the West's meddling in EuroMaidan that led to the present war in Ukraine. However, it should be noted that no U.S. officials involved in the EuroMaidan activities have been arrested by the Trump administration.
PS it is the Emperor Napoleon’s birthday, (born August 15 1769) so I am going to finally force myself to watch the extended edition of the Ridley Scott movie.
I am dreading it.