Day 1,953: conflagration, glib, reassuring, contempt, scam, scrounge

These conflagrations would test Mr Trump in a way that his first term did not. His glib promises to bring peace to Ukraine in a day, and his open-ended encouragement of Israel’s offensives, are not reassuring. Even worse is his contempt for alliances. Although these are America’s greatest geopolitical strength, Mr Trump sees them as scams that let weak countries scrounge off its military power.

A second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks

Artwork of the day 
Reassuring Thomas (Fragment)
Duccio
Date: 1308 - 1311
Style: Proto Renaissance
Series: Maesta
Genre: religious painting
Media: wood, tempera

Word of the day 
conflagration: a large fire that causes a lot of damage
glib: speaking or spoken in a confident way, but without careful thought or honesty:
reassuring: making you feel less worried:
contempt: a strong feeling of disliking and having no respect for someone or something:
scam: a dishonest plan for making money or getting an advantage, especially one that involves tricking people:
scrounge: to get things, especially money or food, by asking for them instead of buying them or working for them:

Quote of the day
“Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956