Claim OwnershipMallen Baker: Faultlines
Subscribed: 109Played: 5,462
Subscribe
© (c) Mallen Baker
Description
'Dangerously reasonable' analysis on politics, science, and particularly the bit where they bump into each other. I aim to give an independent, fact-focused, non-ideological take on the issues that matter.
514 Episodes
Reverse
In this news round-up for the week of 27 February 2026: If 2025 was about corporate cowardice and capitulation to the Trump revolution, 2026 is seeing more and more standing up to the bullying. So the AI company Anthropic - threatened with massive sanction by the Pete Hegseth's Pentagon - has regardless refused to give it the right to use its models for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. Netflix publicly defied President Trump over a board member not to his liking because, and walked away from a major merger deal after meeting the White House. And Nearly two thousand companies are looking for payback from Trump for his illegal tariffs, suing the government for refunds that it doesn't want to give, following the Supreme Court reversal. But are Trump's new tariffs similarly doomed to failure in the courts?
Today saw Hillary Clinton being quizzed in Congress about the man she never met, while President Trump, who is all over the files, faces no such pressure. We have news that certain key files, including testimony about Trump's alleged wrongdoing, is being withheld by the Department of Justice. Meanwhile, across Europe, real people are feeling much more robust repercussions for their own part in one of the worst scandals in modern history. Why is it one way in the US, and another way elsewhere? And what happens next? Let's discuss.
Trump promised that the State of the Union address 2026 would be 'long, because there's lots to talk about'. Some of that talk is likely to be peevish, complaining, even angry. After all, having started the year on a high, it's been pretty much a massive slog ever since. And especially with the huge setback on tariffs, that we have to pretend wasn't a setback at all, and the uncomfortable fact that having marched the US navy to Iran, he doesn't quite know what he wants them to do while they're there. And all his party wants him to talk about is the economy and the cost of living. Good luck with that.
In (yet another) moment of the truly surreal, President Trump announced this weekend that he is sending a hospital ship to Greenland to help with all the people getting sick there who are being left untreated. Which is odd, since that's not happening. It seems, on its face, to be the world's clumsiest attempt to curry favour with a people who you've literally just united against you by threatening to take them over by force. So what's going on? Let's discuss.
In this news roundup of the week for Friday February 20th 2026. The Supreme Court strikes down President Trump's emergency tariffs in the single biggest setback since he started his second term. We discover exactly why Trump flip-flopped yet again on the UK transferring ownership of the Chagos islands. And Trump makes a dramatic new announcement - about aliens.
Trump's Board of Peace had its first meeting today, and it was pretty much what you would have expected. Lots of praise for Trump, lots of big promises for the great future ahead of Gaza with all the development that will be coming - and relatively little attention to the tricky obstacle that none of it can happen until Hamas agrees to disarm, which they show little inclination to do. And while Trump and the assembled mostly-autocrats wax lyrical on peace, Trump is pondering the options for launching a military strike against Iran. Because that's what 'Peace Presidents' do in 2026. Let's discuss.
It would be entirely possible for President Trump, or A.N.Other autocrat, to seek to dismantle the guardrails of democracy in their country and all the rest of it, while still keeping a firm grasp of what is, or isn't reality, and dealing with it as needed. But that is not the current way, because Trump is determined to believe only his own version of reality, even when that is massively and easily contradicted by facts and events. The trouble is that if you insist on flying in the face of reality, it will often not end well. Let's look at the three biggest areas where the Trump operation is struggling and / or will inevitably struggle in the future, because that pesky reality thing just isn't going to do his bidding.
Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, and he made probably the most cogent and professional speech on behalf of the MAGA world view we've heard. Unfortunately, the sentiments it expressed stood in stark contrast to the words of his boss and the actions of the administration - a fact that was not lost on his audience. But the quality of the speech, and the way he handled the occasion, has some chattering with renewed vigour about the possibility of a Rubio presidential candidacy for 2028. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday February 13th 2026. As the Epstein Files revelations have continued to appear, the talk has turned to just how far-reaching the so-called Epstein Class has turned out to be - and it's feeding a real push for messaging around the midterm elections. The Trump administration abolishes the basis for most climate regulation in America. And Trump is staring Iran in the face, with his naval armada at his back, and yet it seems likely he will be the one to blink first.
As the Munich Security Conference kicks off this year - the same one that was made famous last year thank's to JD Vance's speech telling Europeans to shape up - NATO is conducting exercises in Greenland. The official story is that this is all about reassuring US President Trump that the country is defended against the nefarious Russians and Chinese. But it is obviously widely understood that it's not about REASSURING Trump, but more about deterring him. This comes as several scenario planning exercises suggest that NATO would crumble quickly in contact with a Russian incursion - thanks to Trump's unlikeliness to stand by America's Article 5 commitment. Let's discuss.
President Trump has attacked Canada again, and this time said that he will prevent the opening of a new bridge between the two countries. And this is ostensibly because of a long list of supposed grievances, up to and including something about China banning ice hockey. But the real story is more prosaic, and one that seems unlikely to go away any time soon. As much to do with the quiet but determined role prime minister Mark Carney has played in reflecting reality in his recent speeches, and the fact that Canada refused to bow down to Trump in order to get a supposed trade deal. Let's discuss.
Greenland was the pivotal moment. Before then, appeasement was the only game in town. But now, Europeans are increasingly joining Canadians in resisting Trump's America in the ways that are available to them, and governments are frantically seeking to reduce their exposure, and to "derisk" their integration, with the US economy. This is going to take time, but it's worth noting some of the ways that we can see this taking place. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday February 6th 2026, President Trump is getting very focused on the mid-term elections. We discuss what that’s likely to mean. And because he likes to share the love, the Trump state department Is allocating pots of cash for subverting European democracy - Or ‘spreading American values’ as they describe it. And bad news if you’re fed up of hearing about Trump, because If he has his way, just about every damn thing is going to be named after him. Or else. Also, I reply to a viewer question.
Out of all the names that have come out in the latest massive tranche of Epstein files, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, and all the others - not one of them are that of Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer. And yet, right now he is seriously at risk of the scandal sinking his premiership as many of his own MPs turn against him. And it all comes down to his appointment of Peter Mandelson - who is all over said Epstein files - to the position of US ambassador. But what's interesting about the story is as much what ISN'T being said right now as what is. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for January 30th 2026 - Trump's string of humiliating retreats in recent days continued with this week's abject U-turn on the subject of ICE operations in Minnesota, and the killings there of protestors. The Trump administration also is caught out having meetings with Albertan separatists, looking for support to break up Canada. And the UK risks enraging Trump by striking deals with China. But it's all happening as China's Xi Jinping has been purging the top ranks of his military - which seems significant.
From the start of his second term, President Trump has been 'flooding the zone' with large numbers of major norm-breaking initiatives. The strategy was intended to overwhelm the opposition, exhaust the watchdogs, to get as much done as possible in the shortest time. The problem with that strategy, especially when so many of the initiatives are frankly misconceived, is that the consequences will eventually outpace the intensity and quantity of the original actions. We're starting to see that happen now. So let's review just a few of the unintended consequences we noticed in the last few days.
European leaders have become clear post-Greenland crisis that Europe needs to disentangle itself from President Trump's America. But Mark Rutte, Secretary-General of NATO, and most famously the 'Trump-whisperer', has other ideas - arguing that purely on a practical basis, Europe is incapable of defending itself without the central participation of the United States. But does that really hold up - when the debate is no longer whether Trump will WALK AWAY from Europe, rather it is how many ways will Trump ACTIVELY ATTACK Europe? Let's discuss.
The yawning gulf between the claims made by the Trump administration after the shooting of Alex Pretti and the events shown by the video evidence widely seen since, has put the US into a major pivot point. Moreso than after the first event, which could have been dismissed as a one-off, an aberration, now all Americans, including GOP senators, including former presidents, and including an awful lot of people who have been taking to the streets, have to decide whether this is the point where the line gets drawn. Or does America follow the downward spiral further towards the unhappy place this obviously takes it. Well, let's discuss.
We already knew President Donald Trump was irritated that Canada's Mark Carney's speech got rave reviews at Davos. And that it plainly laid out - in words that other leaders have not been daring to voice out loud - how Trump has changed the world, and what medium powers should be doing collaboratively to deal with it. Now, Trump is venting big time by threatening 100% tariffs against Canada should it go ahead with its agreed trade deal with China. But, of course, that's not the real reason Trump's taking action. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 23rd, 2026 - Trump's America has a major armada of military force currently heading for Iran. Trump says it's "just in case", but then similar type messages were made about Venezuela. Mark Carney is disinvited from Trump's Board of Peace, which deprives him of the chance to sit down with autocrats and even war criminals from across the world. And Trump sparks yet more fury across the NATO allies by suggesting that their military - some of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice - were kept away from the action. Plus, I reply to a few comments.
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States
👎