And Now, The View From Davos

... or Harvard or Berkeley or Cambridge or Sorbonne or Bonn. You know, those places where the really super duper smart people go and learn all kinds of things that we Normals could never in a gazillion years understand.

Well, all kinds of things that perfectly match the preconceived notions of the Elites like how men can become women and Western culture was built on slavery and socialism works. Those things.

Before I link to the article, let me say I loves me some Ted Anthony. He's an AP journalist who, in his infinite mercy, has decided to occasionally interact with me, a tinfoil-hat-wearing, Internet rando. God bless you, sir. At night, when I climb into my basement bomb shelter to sleep, right after I inventory my rice and beans cache, I pray to God that the government will control your brain last. The article I'm about to club like a baby seal came from his Twitter stream. Sorry, Ted.

On with the show.

If you want to read some classic NPR*-style chin stroking, you could hardly do better than this.

For American politics, it’s been a week for the ages: a bungled start to the 2020 presidential primary season, a State of the Union speech with partisanship on full display and a conclusion to the most contentious chapter of all — the nation’s third-ever impeachment trial.

Watching all this from afar are allies, foes and those who have looked to the United States for stability. Here, from AP correspondents in four regions, is a look at how some key American allies are eyeing the 2020 U.S. election and the jumbled months that precede it...

That's the setup. I'll be highlighting the weasel words straight out of the NPR Style Guide designed to give The People Who Want To Sound Like They Know What They're Talking About By Quoting NPR the feeling that the cherry-picked, qualitative judgments embedded in the piece are authoritative. Now let's get down to business.

It’s safe to say that many in France are viewing the U.S. election through their own prism — four years during which one of the world’s oldest international alliances has been bashed around.

“Since President Trump’s arrival, we’ve felt a considerable distance with dear America,” says Jacques Mistral, a French former prime ministerial and government economics adviser and former financial affairs adviser at the French Embassy in Washington. “He has alienated everybody.”

I'll bet, Jacques. Say, how's that not having babies and importing Muslims thing going?

“Uncertainty,” said Mistral, “is now permanent.”

No, dude, it isn't. In fact, there's not much uncertainty at all. When Celeste has one baby and Fatima has four, there's not a whole lot of uncertainty about where things are headed. I guess they didn't teach you how to extrapolate a first-order polynomial at the université. Oh well. Not to worry. As I understand it, math is racist.

Britain knows a thing or two about extreme polarization. Ever since the 2016 referendum in which the country voted to leave the European Union, political discourse in this island nation has been riven by division.

Now some here wonder: Can America still claim to be the beacon of democracy and fair play the world over? Or does an advancing tribalism erase the country’s longstanding claim to the title?

“People in Britain are wondering if America really stands for the values of liberal democracy,″ said Jeffrey William Howard, an associate professor of politics at University College London. “Is it capable of being the leader of the free world?″

Well, Jeff, let me suggest you first work out why the peasants decided not to let the Davos crowd tell them what to do from Berlin. And you experts were so good at running everyone's lives! I mean, when you look at the EU's decision to bind the stability of Germany's banking system to investments in Italy and Greece, that should have sealed the deal right there. Who could question your fitness to rule after that winner?

It would take geniuses to turn the biggest bank in Germany into a profligate, multiculti catastrophe. Fortunately, geniuses with all the right credentials were on hand to do just that. Please, tell me more about what you think.

The view from Israel is equally alarming.

But such a tight embrace has alienated many U.S. Jews, who lean Democratic, and has undermined the traditional bipartisan support Israel has enjoyed in Congress. Many in Israel fear a blowback if a Democrat is elected and Israel is too closely associated with the divisive Trump.

What's amazing is that there doesn't seem to be anyone who sees things differently. At least no one quoted in the article. Thanks, NPR Style Guide! Now we know what Smart People think. Now I are one, too, because I think the same way.

Finally, South Korea thinks the same as everyone else because, after all, who doesn't outside of the redneck troglodytes in Jesusville, Alabama?

You don't want to be grouped in with them, do you?

Here, we see what happens when one of the Super Smart Set with the finest credentials makes the mistake of leaving their gated compounds and accidentally mingles with the Normals.

* - NPR wasn't involved in this article, but I find them a convenient shorthand for the ideologically pure, yet practically incompetent aristocracy.