The Mad King is destroying the economy that Biden left him. He is also destroying the infrastructure that allowed us to achieve so much in the way of advanced medical research and computer technology. His ignorance is astounding.
And, ironically enough, Trump is wrecking the global financial system that allowed him to earn huge sums of money via laundering the funds of Russia's kleptocrats through his international real-estates deals. Scrub-a-dub-dub, no more money in the tub for those guys, because Trump is hell-bent on destroying the tub!
You’ve got too many Fox buzzwords for anyone to take you seriously. Are you a liar or are you ignorant? Not that it matters much—because you’re irrelevant.
good god, a troll with obviously limited English skills commenting under a made-up white-sounding name. You're not paid enough to degrade yourself like this. Try having some self respect.
By less than 1.5% to a man who never cleared, even then, 50%. And the GOP’s narrow house lead got narrowed further. That doesn’t sound like “lost badly”; it was close! Only IMPACT, not the margin, was devastating, due to the high stakes. But while a win’s a win, a narrow one’s a narrow one—and can be reversed very easily next time with merely a hint of buyer’s remorse.
Hey I’d like to know why you think this. How have you been fairing economically and socially, the past 10 years. It’s a real question. What tangible effect has globalization had on you specifically for you to be so bitter and angry?
Brought to you by the party that keeps Trump in power, and Trump is doing nothing but enriching himself and his cronies. Let’s be clear about that. That party wants cheap labor, high crime and keeping everyone in fear, poor and undereducated. Every time Dems are in charge in the US we have to work our way out the debt that Republicans left us and get the economy back on its feet. We Dems fight for better wages and want to lower housing but the entrenched monied people want to keep things the way they are. I am fighting for a better future for my kids, and that’s what good people need to do. I believe in humanity and the goodness we all want for our children.
Crime used to be a lot higher in the 1990’s. And the only one attacking free speech right now are Donald and Ron. There’s a difference between individuals berating each other for their speech and GOVERNMENT trying to prosecute/sue/coerce on account of it.
Someone who lives in the UK has a different experience with immigration than people living on the other side of the ocean. US immigration is based on family reunion, about 70% of permanent immigrants come in that way. They are the fiancé/spouse, the parent, or a minor child, of a US Citizen. These can also sponsor Family Members - but have to sign they are responsible for them financially. Immigrants from certain countries face long waiting times, so only the really motivated come, as soon as they arrive they start working and saving.
The (temporary) workers allowed in, sponsored by an employer, need to have at least a bachelors degree. They are kept in check with the promise of a Green Card, a process that can take years (and years).
Illegal immigrants came until recently mainly from Middle-South America, often Catholics with strong family values. They either found a job quickly or started their own small business. They also try to be as law-abiding as possible as they hope that eventually, maybe, there will be a path to legal status.
Europe, and the UK, saw many immigrants arrive from war-torn countries in the middle-East. Or from countries that in the past were colonies. That makes for a completely different addition to the population than the US experienced. Especially the second and third generation newcomers in Europe/the UK can have a hard time finding their place in society.
John Beck writes from a different perspective than many USers have, when it comes to immigrants - I think.
EDIT: I tried to contribute to the back-and-forth, but the original poster deleted all his remarks.
To be fair, the mass media created Trump after giving us years of Kardashians and other mind numbingly idiotic personalities that became rich for all the wrong reasons. Right-wing led media that feeds off the emotionally driven shallowness of others has been perfected by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, who has probably done far more to destroy democracy than most give him credit for.
Fox "News" is programming designed for the ignorant, ill-informed, but vain white male, usually over the age of 50, to feed their base desires of hate and sex.
Yet a study where they took Fox News viewers and made them watch CNN for a month turned out to greatly educate those viewers to the point where they had become practically deprogrammed.
However - "Most of the CNN switchers stuck to the length of the task, according to the study. But once it was over, and the $15 an hour was taken away, “viewers returned to watching Fox News”, Kalla said."
We recently cut the cable-cord. But before that I would watch Fox around noon, they had a reasonable good news show. Just realize how they are slanted. All other programs on Fox are unwatchable IMHO.
How many people nowadays really watch cable TV - for how many is it just colored moving wall-paper?
Fox News and Trump are entertainment of the sort many Americans like: brash, self-assured, insulting, angry and really dumb. No honest Lefty can compete.
It's really unfair and unproductive to say "most white Americans want what Fox gives them." A lot of them, yes, but certainly not "most". And this type of comment brings water to the mill of the Trumpistanis who accuse the Democrats and the left of anti-white racism.
I keep saying the same thing. We always knew Trump is a dangerous idiot. The 77 million voters are even scarier and more dangerous because they didn't see it.
I talk to Maga from time to time. She began to say how people are too lazy to work. Then talked about welfare (and does not seem to remember that welfare was limited in the 1990s. - she is 56 so must have heard about it.
In just about every generation the older people complain about the younger people. (E.g. "too lazy to work.") Eventually, the younger people become the older people. And complain about the younger people.
They knew. Most of them. The rest don't understand what government does and are just looking for a lifeline, any lifeline. This is necessary because democrats have given up on progressivism.
I think that only goes for some of them. The majority is like many people I met here, they feel left behind in a country that says it is full of opportunities. In true US fashion they were looking for a Superman to fix the situation.
There won't be an updated version of profiles in courage with Mike Johnson or John Roberts. And yes the immunity ruling was astonishing and unnecessary. And what about Thomas and Alito. Thomas apparently was sad that he did not get offers from top firms after law school. Boo Hoo. When I got my MFA in 1976 (top student college and grad school) I did not get offers either. What an angry entitled asshole. And what is Sam Alito's problem? He and I are both Catholic ethnics and about the same age. What happened to him?
Okay. I agree with you. 75 million voted for Harris. The differential in popular vote in just three states (Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania) was less than 250k votes out of over 152 million cast. That is the difference between a triumph of democracy and a dictatorship fueled by mob rule.
These Purple States better start choosing wisely, better start showing up to vote and better stop with the petty shit-for-brains grievances that allowed this Asshole to win and shove it up our collective asses.
A recent poll (I forget which) asked voters who’d they support if they could do last year’s election over—they picked Kamala Harris. Granted, the MAGA folk would follow DJT to rise and ruin, but the swing voters—in an election decided by under a point and a half—are pragmatic. And they know why they’re hurting NOW.
More voted for Harris or someone else than voted for Trump. Too many people sat home and did not vote. They are even more at fault than those who voted for Trump.
Television portrayed Donald Trump as a very successful real-estate tycoon. The Apprentice showed him as savvy and resourceful. But that was all in the editing. People working on the show knew the truth, but they had all signed NDA's. So maybe there should be a rule to void NDA's when the information is about a person who will be elevated to a position crucial to US interest.
Europe is more pro-active than you might think; they just do it more quietly. The European Research Council has added funds for wooing US collaborators and many universities are actively recruiting US researchers. One big issue, though, are the huge salaries top US academics get as compared with Europe. There are national salary bands and less private funds for topping them up. That is part of why a university education is so much cheaper over here. So to enjoy European quality of life, US brains must quit being so beholden to financial rewards. There are opportunities to have private companies co-invest, but the world would be such a better place if we could wipe out greed.
>So to enjoy European quality of life, US brains must quit being so beholden to financial rewards.<
I'd phrase that "to enjoy European-style freedom of inquiry and sane politics" because your sentence make it sound as if compensation cannot buy "quality of life" in the US. Unfortunately for European recruiters, that's not the case.
I'm aware that there are lifestyle advantages to the European model (I hold citizenship in an EU nation as well as the USA; and grateful I am!). But if we're really talking "quality of life" as that term is generally understood, top American academics and researchers do just fine, because their salaries allow them to inhabit the most desirable communities America has to offer. The cream of the crop can easily command salaries in excess of $300k annually (moreover most such people, of course, belong to dual income couples). I know the US is often viewed as a dystopian sea of sprawl to non-Americans, but for the affluent, locations like Palo Alto, Cambridge, Seattle and Manhattan offer a perfectly lovely "quality of life" (low crime, significant walkability, cultural amenities, fine dining, etc). It's not the same as Toulouse or Dublin or Copenhagen, no. But it's not necessarily inferior, either.
I know we're seeing the beginnings of a flow of American talent away from the US, but unless those hoping to poach such professionals can up their game in terms of compensation, I suspect the exodus might, in the end, prove underwhelming. After all, Trump won't be around forever, and a lot of highly compensated Yanks in the country's most pleasant blue enclaves will calculate waiting him out beats upending one's life en route to a very large salary cut.
This is very true. Some of the best years of my life were spent in Cambridge, MA, when I was a PhD student. It was not even necessary to have much money to enjoy a good life.
Now the same is true in Europe. The one thing driven researcher need most is time, not huge amounts of money. Not too much time lost teaching, not too much time spent on looking for grants or administrative tasks. This the EU can deliver.
Oh I know that is the case as I spent years of my life in Seattle. I left because I got tired of needing to walk to my car with keys laced in my fingers. And there is a different sensibility. Anyway, long and short is that Europe is doing some things to attract US talent, but probably not enough for the top talent. A philosophical shift is needed that is unlikely to happen.
I do resent Paul's tendency to accuse Ireland of being a tax haven "the EU should crack down on Ireland’s role as a tax haven" We are not. Having low corporation tax, 15%, does not a tax haven make. The manner in which US corporations profit transfer is an issue for US tax law not Irish.
That’s actually interesting. I didn’t know. The double-Dutch though - that’s something that Europe has erected, no? Same with Luxembourg, and European countries overseas territories?
My AI assistant tole me: "The scheme involves setting up two Irish subsidiaries and a Dutch company. Intellectual property rights are held by one Irish company, which licenses them to the Dutch company. The Dutch company then sells products or services in high-tax countries. Profits are routed back to the Irish holding company, leveraging Ireland's lower tax rate, and can then be transferred to a tax haven, e.g. Bermuda, for further tax reduction or elimination."
These historical loopholes have been closed. US companies in Ireland pay Irish corporation tax at 15%. Apple had to pay back taxes of $15B to the Irish state.
Well, the way Trump is going, the choice will be between earning a modest salary as a professional in Europe and earning minimum wage on an assembly line in the southern US.
Whether or not to stay in the US should not be a unique financial consideration. It is exemplary of the thoroughly materialistic attitude of Americans that the financial argument always comes first. Whoever stays is complicit in the new Trump doctrine. Whoever has the luxury of continuing his scientific career elsewhere is therefore faced with the choice: will I become a collaborator with a neo-fascist regime (stay and be effectively muzzled) or will I contribute to the free development of science. (run) Europe is not the only option. My advice is Run! A third option is to stay and fight uncensored and fearlessly and criticize every wrong move and lie of Trumpism. That is only possible if you are independent of any employer. Paul Krugman is a good example, although I have also caught him in some patriotic subordinate clauses in his articles that he wrote when he was recently in Europe. In order to be able to return safely! Even he is already (unconsciously) muzzling himself!!
By the way I thank him for this kind letter to my complicated and beloved Europe and for his powerfull fight against Trumpism and for his humor. Paul thank you so much.
There is a history in the US of academe agreeing to be muzzled, I think back in the 1800s. The problem is the focus on quality of life must be bought. I’ve been very happy here but have not retired as wealthy as my US colleagues. Fine by me!
Conquer greed , I think you’d beat Krugman out of his Pulitzer Prize and easily win the Nobel peace prize. Checks and balances aren’t working today because the gentlemen who created the constitution and imagined them were actually civilized human beings not greedy corporations.
Oh I know that is the rub, as they say. Capitalism feeds off greed. Of course, we could also argue whether people really have changed in the past 300 years, or if technology has allowed more voices to be heard, for good and bad. At the same time, socialism did not work because people were still greedy. I do like the social-democratic model of the Nordic countries, but even they are struggling with far-right push back.
Yes Bernie sanders had made this mistake years ago. It’s democratic socialism ( Bernie just said socialism which is easily confused with communism) that seems to do the best job in Nordic countries.
But People will have to get used to a few things first. High high taxes but many benefits that come along with it. Guaranteed education medical housing training, so many more things that Americans are paying for right now and not receiving, the failure of so many social services in America is witness to a system infected by capitalism and scurrilous middlemen gaming the government’s system for personal profit. Laughing all the way youths bank. Beware of capitalism and its faults one big one is greed , the Sevices corruption, the third is failure to have compassion for those who don’t or can’t make a living.
"I buy lots of stuff from my bodega, but I don't think they subscribe to my substack" What a brilliant way to communicate the situation to people like me! Thank you again! And thank you for Ode to Joy. I hope Europe reads your letter and takes it on board.
Yes, Europe can and should rise to the times and succeed. It probably will. As a Canadian living in Europe for almost 13 years, what really hurts,cand hurts Americans here too, is what Trump has done to my dollar. It is the weakest it has ever been, falling in actual exchange from around 1.30 in 2012 to 1.70 today! As it's pensions, I can't move it, but it really affects me. . .
Canada and the EU have a comprehensive trade agreement. I don't think the two entities are likely to get any closer - and it does not do as much as some would hope at lessening the economic integration of Canada with the US.
"...falling in actual exchange from around 1.30 in 2012 to 1.70 today."
(1) You need a different FOREX service; Wise is currently offering Euros at 1.56 CAD.
(2) In 2012, the Euro zone was still struggling after the Great Recession. It was wonderful to buy Euros at around 1.2 CAD in those few years. Euro was typically around 1.6 CAD in earlier years of this century, e.g. 1.66 on 15 June 2004.
This is good advice to the EU, to which I would add Trump’s actions are really not about trade. Trump’s interest is the exercise of power through extortion. Succumbing to extortion never removes the threat. It only encourages more demands.
As Harvard understood. You can let him bleed you dry, or you can take a stand. Our institutions—bruised and battered as they are (and will be)—will exist long after Donald is compost for the ravens. The only question is, at what cost in the meantime?
"How should foreign countries and especially American allies react to Donald Trump? For some time, American allies treated Trump as an aberration of domestic American politics. So a confrontation with Trump was avoided. Now when Trump's plans are well understood, Trump should be dealt in strongest of terms. We have to understand the mental pathology of Trump. Trump thinks he's the center of universe and everything will bow to him. Trump threatens, berates, bully and extort foreign nations due to this thinking. But other nations showed calculated restraint because they don't wanna jeopardize standing relationships. It's time foreign nations should deal with Trump's policy in harshest of terms. Most of Trump's threats are based on bluffs, blackmails and his delusions that he has some magical powers to control the world. Once the world stands up against him, Trump will be exposed as impotent idiot. Trump is a rooster who thinks he controls the sun.
Trump has already shot himself in the foot by raising prices in his own country due to tariffs. No matter how foolishly Trump claims that tariffs are a tax on China, the American consumers will soon know the reality when they feel the pinch of higher prices for goods in local stores. Foreign nations should also impose tit-for-tat sanctions like tariffs on American agriculture goods and other items. In fact, foreign nations especially American allies (Canada, Mexico, Europe) should co-ordinate a response strategy to Trump's trade war with a plan to impose economic cost on American consumer as well as American plutocrats. This policy is necessary to counter Trump's bullying and aggressiveness. American allies can make it clear that tit-for-tat policies are a response to trade war which Trump has unnecessarily and unilaterally declared on the world. When US economy worsens and American population steadfastly disposes Trump in elections, new political government can come in and patch up relationship with allies. Normalcy can be restored with sensible diplomacy and understanding."
I would also add that EU should start considering sanctions for Tesla, Amazon etc & investigations against Facebook and X for subverting EU democracies.
The contest between the US and EU has become one between a dictator and a committee, a very large committee that moves very slowly until consensus is reached, if ever. The solution is obvious: the EU should delegate its confrontation with Trump to one person who has the authority to go toe to toe with him.
That's a staggering misunderstanding of how Barnier had to spend a huge amount of time and diplomatic capital going from Member-State to Member-State trying to square circles. The reality is the EU is rudderless but was outshone in its incompetence by the UK political system and establishment. To say the EU doesn't need real reform in its outdated institutions based still on 1992 framework, and with no clear powers for the legislative (the EP, which is a circus as Qatarigate and other scandals have shown), an opaque executive that also serves as a regulator and a legislative actor (the Commission, which Von Der Leyen runs as a micromanager demanding powers it doesn't have like defense industry intiatives) - and then finally the Council that as the Greek crisis shows can basically just create ad hoc legal realities out of thin air when consensus is reached, but can also have just 1 Member-State hijack necessary change of course (like Hungary has been doing for ages while being a quasi-dictatorship.
Europe absolutely needs a new set of Treaties, clear political choices when electors go to vote in EU elections, and I actually think it'd be beneficial to shed a few members that act like mafia states - Hungary, Malta, Cyprus to cite just 3
Brexit has been one big British fiasco; you can’t just upend decades of treaties and relationships just like that—as they’ve learned the hard way. It should have been a vote on REFORMING the UK/EU relationship instead of a binary Renain/Leave thing. People handle all-or-nothing scenarios poorly! Small wonder there’ve been so many UK governments in so few years. But I’ll save my criticism of parliamentary democracy, as opposed to fixed-schedule election democracy, for another time.
Trump is like the lazy, well fed lion in a zoo. He wakes and roars because he can. Roaring makes him feel manly, King of that zoo. But the other animals….. wait. You, Europe are very mighty. Use your courage. Please.
Trump is more like the Cowardly Lion, who acts mean to hide his fear, which shows itself when anyone stands up to him (like little Dorothy) or, better/worse yet, bullies back!
The whole deficit fiction is just that, fiction. Those service industries don't even pay their full taxes in europe, like Amazon, Google etc. and even if there is a deficit in goods, those service companies and the HUGE benefits being the leader and policy decider for the whole western world for a century makes it the other way around, really. The deficit is in favor of the US in this case, like people always believed and said before Trump had this brainfart.
Regarding the EU politicians, they know how strong the EU is and can be but we have whole lot of Putin apologists and peaceniks without any sense they see the need to "tip toe" around because they get a good amout of voter support, for reasons both sad and selfish/stupid.
At first blush this looks like one of those instances where, if the Europeans would only A) obsequiously flatter and B) grease his palm via crypto or whatever grift he seems most interested in, Trumps TACO tariffs would suddenly go poof.
Only Trump is a cheesy-movie mafia lord who doesn’t know, like REAL mobsters, how to use dog-whistles and allegory to conceal his plans from FBI wiretappers. Remember, “…find me 11,080 votes…” never thinking he might be recorded? If this were sci-fi he’d be riffed on MST3K.
The structure of the EU is one reason I don’t expect them to make concessions to Trump. The EU has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. The easiest negotiating position for the EU to take is that the U.S. and the EU should mutually remove the tariffs, and repeatedly say “no” to U.S. proposals that don’t move the US/EU relationship in that direction. Anything else would have to be worked out between the 27 EU national governments, and there are probably too many people who share Krugman’s views to build a consensus in favor of caving to Trump.
Your article “A Letter to Europe” powerfully underscores the EU’s capacity to resist Trump’s trade bluster, particularly your critique of his misguided attacks on European VAT. You rightly argue that VAT is not a protectionist tool, as it applies equally to domestic and imported goods. This neutrality dismantles Trump’s false narrative of “unfair” trade practices.
However, there is a subtle but important technical inaccuracy in your framing. You state that “U.S. producers have to pay, for example, 19 percent to sell to German consumers”—a phrasing that risks reinforcing Trump’s flawed rhetoric. In reality, VAT is paid by the European consumer (or importer) at the point of sale or customs clearance, not by the U.S. producer. While the importer’s payment of VAT may indirectly affect the final price and demand for U.S. goods, the producer themselves does not bear this cost. German producers face the same VAT burden when selling domestically, which preserves competitive parity.
This distinction matters because conflating who pays the tax (consumers) with who bears its economic effects (market competitiveness) could unintentionally lend credence to Trump’s protectionist claims. Your broader argument—that VAT is neither a tariff nor a barrier—remains valid, but clarifying this mechanism would strengthen your rebuttal. It reinforces that VAT is a consumption tax, not a punitive measure against foreign producers.
That said, your core message stands firm: Europe need not appease Trump’s delusions. Correcting this nuance only sharpens your case, ensuring that even technical mischaracterizations do not cloud an otherwise incisive critique.
The Mad King is destroying the economy that Biden left him. He is also destroying the infrastructure that allowed us to achieve so much in the way of advanced medical research and computer technology. His ignorance is astounding.
Trump is destroying the economy Biden helped build after the pandemic because it makes him look incompetent. Which he is.
Not to mention destroying democracy and everything that made America great, ironically.
It is amazing isn't it.
And, ironically enough, Trump is wrecking the global financial system that allowed him to earn huge sums of money via laundering the funds of Russia's kleptocrats through his international real-estates deals. Scrub-a-dub-dub, no more money in the tub for those guys, because Trump is hell-bent on destroying the tub!
He’s also making a fortune on his crypto $Trump.
What happens if/when the
Crypto bill comes due?
You’ve got too many Fox buzzwords for anyone to take you seriously. Are you a liar or are you ignorant? Not that it matters much—because you’re irrelevant.
good god, a troll with obviously limited English skills commenting under a made-up white-sounding name. You're not paid enough to degrade yourself like this. Try having some self respect.
Forgot Black.
By less than 1.5% to a man who never cleared, even then, 50%. And the GOP’s narrow house lead got narrowed further. That doesn’t sound like “lost badly”; it was close! Only IMPACT, not the margin, was devastating, due to the high stakes. But while a win’s a win, a narrow one’s a narrow one—and can be reversed very easily next time with merely a hint of buyer’s remorse.
Infantile. Idiotic ranting from a man filled with hate.
A typo is a sign of hate? How far did you get in school again?
“Eejit”?? What the hell is that?!
Hey I’d like to know why you think this. How have you been fairing economically and socially, the past 10 years. It’s a real question. What tangible effect has globalization had on you specifically for you to be so bitter and angry?
Brought to you by the party that keeps Trump in power, and Trump is doing nothing but enriching himself and his cronies. Let’s be clear about that. That party wants cheap labor, high crime and keeping everyone in fear, poor and undereducated. Every time Dems are in charge in the US we have to work our way out the debt that Republicans left us and get the economy back on its feet. We Dems fight for better wages and want to lower housing but the entrenched monied people want to keep things the way they are. I am fighting for a better future for my kids, and that’s what good people need to do. I believe in humanity and the goodness we all want for our children.
You make a lot of assumptions about what I think. Maybe that’s part of the problem.
Crime used to be a lot higher in the 1990’s. And the only one attacking free speech right now are Donald and Ron. There’s a difference between individuals berating each other for their speech and GOVERNMENT trying to prosecute/sue/coerce on account of it.
Someone who lives in the UK has a different experience with immigration than people living on the other side of the ocean. US immigration is based on family reunion, about 70% of permanent immigrants come in that way. They are the fiancé/spouse, the parent, or a minor child, of a US Citizen. These can also sponsor Family Members - but have to sign they are responsible for them financially. Immigrants from certain countries face long waiting times, so only the really motivated come, as soon as they arrive they start working and saving.
The (temporary) workers allowed in, sponsored by an employer, need to have at least a bachelors degree. They are kept in check with the promise of a Green Card, a process that can take years (and years).
Illegal immigrants came until recently mainly from Middle-South America, often Catholics with strong family values. They either found a job quickly or started their own small business. They also try to be as law-abiding as possible as they hope that eventually, maybe, there will be a path to legal status.
Europe, and the UK, saw many immigrants arrive from war-torn countries in the middle-East. Or from countries that in the past were colonies. That makes for a completely different addition to the population than the US experienced. Especially the second and third generation newcomers in Europe/the UK can have a hard time finding their place in society.
John Beck writes from a different perspective than many USers have, when it comes to immigrants - I think.
EDIT: I tried to contribute to the back-and-forth, but the original poster deleted all his remarks.
“We conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecution of Mr Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors.”
Must’ve been some DEI commie prosecutor. What’s this reasonable doubt crap?
To be fair, the mass media created Trump after giving us years of Kardashians and other mind numbingly idiotic personalities that became rich for all the wrong reasons. Right-wing led media that feeds off the emotionally driven shallowness of others has been perfected by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, who has probably done far more to destroy democracy than most give him credit for.
Anger provides an adrenaline rush. That feels good. Murdoch simply produced media that keep people angry. He and his are not the only ones out there.
I'm not a physician, but I'm sure the body pays a price for this eventually.
But Trump was like the Kardashians - a cartoon.
It is sad that so many Americans want to feed on garbage.
Karoline Kardashian the spokesblonde is my Favorite Fashionable Fascist!
Fox "News" is programming designed for the ignorant, ill-informed, but vain white male, usually over the age of 50, to feed their base desires of hate and sex.
If FOX News is news, then cow pies are pies.
Thanks! I’ll use that line, if I
May.
Yet a study where they took Fox News viewers and made them watch CNN for a month turned out to greatly educate those viewers to the point where they had become practically deprogrammed.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/11/fox-news-viewers-watch-cnn-study
However - "Most of the CNN switchers stuck to the length of the task, according to the study. But once it was over, and the $15 an hour was taken away, “viewers returned to watching Fox News”, Kalla said."
We recently cut the cable-cord. But before that I would watch Fox around noon, they had a reasonable good news show. Just realize how they are slanted. All other programs on Fox are unwatchable IMHO.
How many people nowadays really watch cable TV - for how many is it just colored moving wall-paper?
Fox News and Trump are entertainment of the sort many Americans like: brash, self-assured, insulting, angry and really dumb. No honest Lefty can compete.
That underlines the power of Fox News in their dark arts and psyops
I cannot watch CNN either, nor MSNBC. Too many (stupid) ads and too often that special "we know better" tone of voice.
It's really unfair and unproductive to say "most white Americans want what Fox gives them." A lot of them, yes, but certainly not "most". And this type of comment brings water to the mill of the Trumpistanis who accuse the Democrats and the left of anti-white racism.
There are, alas, many voters, Black, Latino, and Asian, who also voted for Trump and who watch FOX.
I keep saying the same thing. We always knew Trump is a dangerous idiot. The 77 million voters are even scarier and more dangerous because they didn't see it.
Or even scarier, they did see it and are hoping to use it to their advantage. Deliberate Neo-Nazis.
You can’t always join the Reich. Sometimes they pass you by.
And neither did the voters who sat home or who voted for a third-party candidate to "send a message."
Or they didn't care
The
I talk to Maga from time to time. She began to say how people are too lazy to work. Then talked about welfare (and does not seem to remember that welfare was limited in the 1990s. - she is 56 so must have heard about it.
They were incurious is school and now misled.
In just about every generation the older people complain about the younger people. (E.g. "too lazy to work.") Eventually, the younger people become the older people. And complain about the younger people.
It is not only older people watching FOX. Stop giving younger folk a pass on the stupidity.
I've noticed that many of the people on Substack are older. They do not watch FOX.
Who are the people "they do not like?" Please be more specific.
I have met enough white people at the bottom of the food chain, who work hard for little. They teeter on the edge between have and have-not.
They knew. Most of them. The rest don't understand what government does and are just looking for a lifeline, any lifeline. This is necessary because democrats have given up on progressivism.
Yes. Another commenter noted that MAGA followers are full of spite. They want to inflict pain and misery on others, and Trump is their chosen weapon.
Put the blame where it belongs: on thise who willingly voted for Trump.
I think that only goes for some of them. The majority is like many people I met here, they feel left behind in a country that says it is full of opportunities. In true US fashion they were looking for a Superman to fix the situation.
I am tired of those who voted for MAGA. It is hard to value who is worse. But don't forget the Mike Johnson's who could stop Trump tomorrow.
https://open.substack.com/pub/terrymckenna/p/fuck-the-iowa-farmer?r=1t8ls&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
There won't be an updated version of profiles in courage with Mike Johnson or John Roberts. And yes the immunity ruling was astonishing and unnecessary. And what about Thomas and Alito. Thomas apparently was sad that he did not get offers from top firms after law school. Boo Hoo. When I got my MFA in 1976 (top student college and grad school) I did not get offers either. What an angry entitled asshole. And what is Sam Alito's problem? He and I are both Catholic ethnics and about the same age. What happened to him?
Okay. I agree with you. 75 million voted for Harris. The differential in popular vote in just three states (Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania) was less than 250k votes out of over 152 million cast. That is the difference between a triumph of democracy and a dictatorship fueled by mob rule.
These Purple States better start choosing wisely, better start showing up to vote and better stop with the petty shit-for-brains grievances that allowed this Asshole to win and shove it up our collective asses.
A recent poll (I forget which) asked voters who’d they support if they could do last year’s election over—they picked Kamala Harris. Granted, the MAGA folk would follow DJT to rise and ruin, but the swing voters—in an election decided by under a point and a half—are pragmatic. And they know why they’re hurting NOW.
More voted for Harris or someone else than voted for Trump. Too many people sat home and did not vote. They are even more at fault than those who voted for Trump.
That is true.
Don't demonize voters who voted for Trump (or didn't vote) as many if not most did not expect the chaos.
Focus on encouraging them to choose a better option next time.
A lot of it is education. But without talking down to the many who simply don't understand the issues, or don't really care.
Television portrayed Donald Trump as a very successful real-estate tycoon. The Apprentice showed him as savvy and resourceful. But that was all in the editing. People working on the show knew the truth, but they had all signed NDA's. So maybe there should be a rule to void NDA's when the information is about a person who will be elevated to a position crucial to US interest.
Europe is more pro-active than you might think; they just do it more quietly. The European Research Council has added funds for wooing US collaborators and many universities are actively recruiting US researchers. One big issue, though, are the huge salaries top US academics get as compared with Europe. There are national salary bands and less private funds for topping them up. That is part of why a university education is so much cheaper over here. So to enjoy European quality of life, US brains must quit being so beholden to financial rewards. There are opportunities to have private companies co-invest, but the world would be such a better place if we could wipe out greed.
the choice is between earning less but in a country where health care and education are public, food is healthy or ending up in an extermination camp.
>So to enjoy European quality of life, US brains must quit being so beholden to financial rewards.<
I'd phrase that "to enjoy European-style freedom of inquiry and sane politics" because your sentence make it sound as if compensation cannot buy "quality of life" in the US. Unfortunately for European recruiters, that's not the case.
I'm aware that there are lifestyle advantages to the European model (I hold citizenship in an EU nation as well as the USA; and grateful I am!). But if we're really talking "quality of life" as that term is generally understood, top American academics and researchers do just fine, because their salaries allow them to inhabit the most desirable communities America has to offer. The cream of the crop can easily command salaries in excess of $300k annually (moreover most such people, of course, belong to dual income couples). I know the US is often viewed as a dystopian sea of sprawl to non-Americans, but for the affluent, locations like Palo Alto, Cambridge, Seattle and Manhattan offer a perfectly lovely "quality of life" (low crime, significant walkability, cultural amenities, fine dining, etc). It's not the same as Toulouse or Dublin or Copenhagen, no. But it's not necessarily inferior, either.
I know we're seeing the beginnings of a flow of American talent away from the US, but unless those hoping to poach such professionals can up their game in terms of compensation, I suspect the exodus might, in the end, prove underwhelming. After all, Trump won't be around forever, and a lot of highly compensated Yanks in the country's most pleasant blue enclaves will calculate waiting him out beats upending one's life en route to a very large salary cut.
This is very true. Some of the best years of my life were spent in Cambridge, MA, when I was a PhD student. It was not even necessary to have much money to enjoy a good life.
Now the same is true in Europe. The one thing driven researcher need most is time, not huge amounts of money. Not too much time lost teaching, not too much time spent on looking for grants or administrative tasks. This the EU can deliver.
Oh I know that is the case as I spent years of my life in Seattle. I left because I got tired of needing to walk to my car with keys laced in my fingers. And there is a different sensibility. Anyway, long and short is that Europe is doing some things to attract US talent, but probably not enough for the top talent. A philosophical shift is needed that is unlikely to happen.
Definitely can’t beat that American smugness, that’s for sure!
Oh, in the smugness department we Europeans easily equal (and typically surpass) the Yanks. By a country mile.
https://www.reddit.com/r/expats/comments/1c6rk9t/what_are_some_quality_of_life_changes_you/
I had one French friend say that the French and Americans are arrogant, but the French resent that the Americans are better at it.
I do resent Paul's tendency to accuse Ireland of being a tax haven "the EU should crack down on Ireland’s role as a tax haven" We are not. Having low corporation tax, 15%, does not a tax haven make. The manner in which US corporations profit transfer is an issue for US tax law not Irish.
That’s actually interesting. I didn’t know. The double-Dutch though - that’s something that Europe has erected, no? Same with Luxembourg, and European countries overseas territories?
My AI assistant tole me: "The scheme involves setting up two Irish subsidiaries and a Dutch company. Intellectual property rights are held by one Irish company, which licenses them to the Dutch company. The Dutch company then sells products or services in high-tax countries. Profits are routed back to the Irish holding company, leveraging Ireland's lower tax rate, and can then be transferred to a tax haven, e.g. Bermuda, for further tax reduction or elimination."
These historical loopholes have been closed. US companies in Ireland pay Irish corporation tax at 15%. Apple had to pay back taxes of $15B to the Irish state.
Thank you for adding this information.
Yes as much as I enjoy his essays, I still think he very much carries s US view.
Well, the way Trump is going, the choice will be between earning a modest salary as a professional in Europe and earning minimum wage on an assembly line in the southern US.
Whether or not to stay in the US should not be a unique financial consideration. It is exemplary of the thoroughly materialistic attitude of Americans that the financial argument always comes first. Whoever stays is complicit in the new Trump doctrine. Whoever has the luxury of continuing his scientific career elsewhere is therefore faced with the choice: will I become a collaborator with a neo-fascist regime (stay and be effectively muzzled) or will I contribute to the free development of science. (run) Europe is not the only option. My advice is Run! A third option is to stay and fight uncensored and fearlessly and criticize every wrong move and lie of Trumpism. That is only possible if you are independent of any employer. Paul Krugman is a good example, although I have also caught him in some patriotic subordinate clauses in his articles that he wrote when he was recently in Europe. In order to be able to return safely! Even he is already (unconsciously) muzzling himself!!
By the way I thank him for this kind letter to my complicated and beloved Europe and for his powerfull fight against Trumpism and for his humor. Paul thank you so much.
There is a history in the US of academe agreeing to be muzzled, I think back in the 1800s. The problem is the focus on quality of life must be bought. I’ve been very happy here but have not retired as wealthy as my US colleagues. Fine by me!
Good point. But if you figured that out how to
Conquer greed , I think you’d beat Krugman out of his Pulitzer Prize and easily win the Nobel peace prize. Checks and balances aren’t working today because the gentlemen who created the constitution and imagined them were actually civilized human beings not greedy corporations.
Oh I know that is the rub, as they say. Capitalism feeds off greed. Of course, we could also argue whether people really have changed in the past 300 years, or if technology has allowed more voices to be heard, for good and bad. At the same time, socialism did not work because people were still greedy. I do like the social-democratic model of the Nordic countries, but even they are struggling with far-right push back.
Socialism is a word with different meanings for different people. Dems see Canada; Reps see Cuba.
Yes Bernie sanders had made this mistake years ago. It’s democratic socialism ( Bernie just said socialism which is easily confused with communism) that seems to do the best job in Nordic countries.
But People will have to get used to a few things first. High high taxes but many benefits that come along with it. Guaranteed education medical housing training, so many more things that Americans are paying for right now and not receiving, the failure of so many social services in America is witness to a system infected by capitalism and scurrilous middlemen gaming the government’s system for personal profit. Laughing all the way youths bank. Beware of capitalism and its faults one big one is greed , the Sevices corruption, the third is failure to have compassion for those who don’t or can’t make a living.
"I buy lots of stuff from my bodega, but I don't think they subscribe to my substack" What a brilliant way to communicate the situation to people like me! Thank you again! And thank you for Ode to Joy. I hope Europe reads your letter and takes it on board.
Agree aside from the Ode to Joy part. Surely Schiller and Beethoven are turning in their graves over this butchery.
A Letter to Europe:
You’re stronger than you think. Act like it.
A Letter to the U.S.:
You're stranger than you think. No one likes it.
"The Latest Scam Numbers With A 970 Area Code Reported To The FTC"
I love the Bodega example. I’ll have to use that in my class. Thanks!
And I like Rancho Zaveca, Omen and Carnivor but I cannot buy it now
Trump should be in a retirement home. His intelligence and mental capabilities are limited. I feel sorry for you guys. Greetings from The Netherlands.
Yes, Europe can and should rise to the times and succeed. It probably will. As a Canadian living in Europe for almost 13 years, what really hurts,cand hurts Americans here too, is what Trump has done to my dollar. It is the weakest it has ever been, falling in actual exchange from around 1.30 in 2012 to 1.70 today! As it's pensions, I can't move it, but it really affects me. . .
Canada could join the EU in some form...
They can do a Norway I suppose.
Canada and the EU have a comprehensive trade agreement. I don't think the two entities are likely to get any closer - and it does not do as much as some would hope at lessening the economic integration of Canada with the US.
I agree. And I don't think it wise for the EU to grant membership to countries that are not, in fact, European. Or, at least, very close neighbors.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-denmark-reach-hans-island-deal-after-50-year-dispute-1.6487325
You must be unaware of the Canada Danish border
Two countries united in bacon.
"...falling in actual exchange from around 1.30 in 2012 to 1.70 today."
(1) You need a different FOREX service; Wise is currently offering Euros at 1.56 CAD.
(2) In 2012, the Euro zone was still struggling after the Great Recession. It was wonderful to buy Euros at around 1.2 CAD in those few years. Euro was typically around 1.6 CAD in earlier years of this century, e.g. 1.66 on 15 June 2004.
This is good advice to the EU, to which I would add Trump’s actions are really not about trade. Trump’s interest is the exercise of power through extortion. Succumbing to extortion never removes the threat. It only encourages more demands.
"once you have paid him the Danegeld/ You never get rid of the Dane."
As Harvard understood. You can let him bleed you dry, or you can take a stand. Our institutions—bruised and battered as they are (and will be)—will exist long after Donald is compost for the ravens. The only question is, at what cost in the meantime?
My advice to Europe was -
"How should foreign countries and especially American allies react to Donald Trump? For some time, American allies treated Trump as an aberration of domestic American politics. So a confrontation with Trump was avoided. Now when Trump's plans are well understood, Trump should be dealt in strongest of terms. We have to understand the mental pathology of Trump. Trump thinks he's the center of universe and everything will bow to him. Trump threatens, berates, bully and extort foreign nations due to this thinking. But other nations showed calculated restraint because they don't wanna jeopardize standing relationships. It's time foreign nations should deal with Trump's policy in harshest of terms. Most of Trump's threats are based on bluffs, blackmails and his delusions that he has some magical powers to control the world. Once the world stands up against him, Trump will be exposed as impotent idiot. Trump is a rooster who thinks he controls the sun.
Trump has already shot himself in the foot by raising prices in his own country due to tariffs. No matter how foolishly Trump claims that tariffs are a tax on China, the American consumers will soon know the reality when they feel the pinch of higher prices for goods in local stores. Foreign nations should also impose tit-for-tat sanctions like tariffs on American agriculture goods and other items. In fact, foreign nations especially American allies (Canada, Mexico, Europe) should co-ordinate a response strategy to Trump's trade war with a plan to impose economic cost on American consumer as well as American plutocrats. This policy is necessary to counter Trump's bullying and aggressiveness. American allies can make it clear that tit-for-tat policies are a response to trade war which Trump has unnecessarily and unilaterally declared on the world. When US economy worsens and American population steadfastly disposes Trump in elections, new political government can come in and patch up relationship with allies. Normalcy can be restored with sensible diplomacy and understanding."
I would also add that EU should start considering sanctions for Tesla, Amazon etc & investigations against Facebook and X for subverting EU democracies.
https://takeindiaforward.blogspot.com/2025/03/trumps-unilateral-economic-aggression.html
The contest between the US and EU has become one between a dictator and a committee, a very large committee that moves very slowly until consensus is reached, if ever. The solution is obvious: the EU should delegate its confrontation with Trump to one person who has the authority to go toe to toe with him.
This is what happened during Brexit and it was very effective.
That's a staggering misunderstanding of how Barnier had to spend a huge amount of time and diplomatic capital going from Member-State to Member-State trying to square circles. The reality is the EU is rudderless but was outshone in its incompetence by the UK political system and establishment. To say the EU doesn't need real reform in its outdated institutions based still on 1992 framework, and with no clear powers for the legislative (the EP, which is a circus as Qatarigate and other scandals have shown), an opaque executive that also serves as a regulator and a legislative actor (the Commission, which Von Der Leyen runs as a micromanager demanding powers it doesn't have like defense industry intiatives) - and then finally the Council that as the Greek crisis shows can basically just create ad hoc legal realities out of thin air when consensus is reached, but can also have just 1 Member-State hijack necessary change of course (like Hungary has been doing for ages while being a quasi-dictatorship.
Europe absolutely needs a new set of Treaties, clear political choices when electors go to vote in EU elections, and I actually think it'd be beneficial to shed a few members that act like mafia states - Hungary, Malta, Cyprus to cite just 3
Brexit has been one big British fiasco; you can’t just upend decades of treaties and relationships just like that—as they’ve learned the hard way. It should have been a vote on REFORMING the UK/EU relationship instead of a binary Renain/Leave thing. People handle all-or-nothing scenarios poorly! Small wonder there’ve been so many UK governments in so few years. But I’ll save my criticism of parliamentary democracy, as opposed to fixed-schedule election democracy, for another time.
Do not expect us to buy American cars, they are simply too big to park or drive on our streets !
and don't buy American food. It's vastly inferior to what we ate in Europe when we visited.
Trump is like the lazy, well fed lion in a zoo. He wakes and roars because he can. Roaring makes him feel manly, King of that zoo. But the other animals….. wait. You, Europe are very mighty. Use your courage. Please.
I'd say he's more like a sewer rat wearing a lion costume.
Trump is more like the Cowardly Lion, who acts mean to hide his fear, which shows itself when anyone stands up to him (like little Dorothy) or, better/worse yet, bullies back!
The whole deficit fiction is just that, fiction. Those service industries don't even pay their full taxes in europe, like Amazon, Google etc. and even if there is a deficit in goods, those service companies and the HUGE benefits being the leader and policy decider for the whole western world for a century makes it the other way around, really. The deficit is in favor of the US in this case, like people always believed and said before Trump had this brainfart.
Regarding the EU politicians, they know how strong the EU is and can be but we have whole lot of Putin apologists and peaceniks without any sense they see the need to "tip toe" around because they get a good amout of voter support, for reasons both sad and selfish/stupid.
At first blush this looks like one of those instances where, if the Europeans would only A) obsequiously flatter and B) grease his palm via crypto or whatever grift he seems most interested in, Trumps TACO tariffs would suddenly go poof.
For completeness:
TACO = Trump Always Chickens Out
A popular term on Wall Street these days.
And I thought naming my new shelter pup (in 2015) "Chiquita" was progressive...
Thanks!
This acronym should be better known. Trump would eventually learn of it and it would make him mad.
He's already mad.
hahahah
Thanks for sharing this. I found an article about "TACO trading" today.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0527/1515167-investors-are-taco-trading-in-us-markets/
Yes, that is what Trump wants. But...
He will only "pause" the tariffs and later come back asking for more. You can't appease an extortionist.
Point taken!
for 30 days or so. Then he'd come back for more.
Think mafia boss in a pinstriped suit and an ill-fitting fedora that just barely conceals his gigantic shiny bald pate.
Only Trump is a cheesy-movie mafia lord who doesn’t know, like REAL mobsters, how to use dog-whistles and allegory to conceal his plans from FBI wiretappers. Remember, “…find me 11,080 votes…” never thinking he might be recorded? If this were sci-fi he’d be riffed on MST3K.
I thank my lucky stars every day for the fact of Trump's basic stupidity, lack of curiosity and discipline and his cardiac issues.
I don't disagree but you forget the EU isn't a single nation. Yes, co-ordination is possible, but it requires a lot of time and discussion.
The structure of the EU is one reason I don’t expect them to make concessions to Trump. The EU has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. The easiest negotiating position for the EU to take is that the U.S. and the EU should mutually remove the tariffs, and repeatedly say “no” to U.S. proposals that don’t move the US/EU relationship in that direction. Anything else would have to be worked out between the 27 EU national governments, and there are probably too many people who share Krugman’s views to build a consensus in favor of caving to Trump.
I agree but they're not a united front yet. We can encourage them, but they make the ultimate decision.
Your article “A Letter to Europe” powerfully underscores the EU’s capacity to resist Trump’s trade bluster, particularly your critique of his misguided attacks on European VAT. You rightly argue that VAT is not a protectionist tool, as it applies equally to domestic and imported goods. This neutrality dismantles Trump’s false narrative of “unfair” trade practices.
However, there is a subtle but important technical inaccuracy in your framing. You state that “U.S. producers have to pay, for example, 19 percent to sell to German consumers”—a phrasing that risks reinforcing Trump’s flawed rhetoric. In reality, VAT is paid by the European consumer (or importer) at the point of sale or customs clearance, not by the U.S. producer. While the importer’s payment of VAT may indirectly affect the final price and demand for U.S. goods, the producer themselves does not bear this cost. German producers face the same VAT burden when selling domestically, which preserves competitive parity.
This distinction matters because conflating who pays the tax (consumers) with who bears its economic effects (market competitiveness) could unintentionally lend credence to Trump’s protectionist claims. Your broader argument—that VAT is neither a tariff nor a barrier—remains valid, but clarifying this mechanism would strengthen your rebuttal. It reinforces that VAT is a consumption tax, not a punitive measure against foreign producers.
That said, your core message stands firm: Europe need not appease Trump’s delusions. Correcting this nuance only sharpens your case, ensuring that even technical mischaracterizations do not cloud an otherwise incisive critique.