Day 1287

Recht präzise

Listen to Ursula lugubriously lip up Europe's latest black eye in the Der Spiegel - "quite precise plans" (as opposed to "pretty precise" - FT) for a multinational troop deployment to Ukraine, she says, with all the conviction of someone reading from a teleprompter while the building burns down behind her. The gist of the bit? A couple of wooly-headed Eurocrats responding to Donald's latest fit of foreign policy lunacy, dressed up as post-conflict security guarantees. That's it. Sustainable outcomes are now impossible. Typical prefab stroke material.

But Ursula takes it so seriously that she forgets there's ridicule already dripping from the confab (and that everyone in Washington's dank Trumpian circle-jerk has already ranted about it) and puts on the tired old threadbare diplomatic gloves to dance like an idiot. "President Trump reassured us that there will be [an] American presence as part of the backstop," she bleats, as if Trump's word has ever been worth the hot air it takes to …