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.
Yes, but this is what 77 milion voters asked for, and I haven’t seen any convincing evidence that they’re sorry about it. It’s the 77 million who tanked the future, not the bozo they chose to do it. Trump is a crass, vindictive, farce. The 77 million are even worse.
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.
Most white Americans want what Fox gives them. If Fox stopped delivering it, they’d switch to Newsmax of something worse. Also, they like the Kardashians and other reality show trash. Unfortunately.
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."
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.
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?
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.
Roughly 60% of white voters voted for Trump. A majority of white voters have voted R in every presidential election since 1968, when Nixon/Atwater initiated the Republican Southern strategy used by every Republican presidential candidate since that time, except possibly McCain, although he had a running mate that kept the tradition alive even if it wasn’t central to that campaign like it was to the rest of the Republican campaigns. Futhermore, “anti-white racism” is a fantasy that white supremacists have been pushing for 300 years, evidence be damned.
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.
No. It’s worse. They did see it. Not all the foolish economic policies, but they saw what they wanted most: persecution of people they don’t like and preservation of systemic legal, economic and political advantages for white Americans.
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.
I share your weariness. Congress is of course the only entity that could stop Trump, especially now that the Roberts court, may they rot in hell, has given Trump permission to commit crimes at will with impunity. Congress won’t do that, of course because they get their power from the same 77 million louts (to put it mildly) who elected Trump. Besides, it would be easier for Trump to stop the little weasel, Johnson, than it would be for Johnson to stop Trump. It all goes back to the 77 million.
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?
I haven't seen ANY evidence whatsoever that this is what Trump or GOP voters asked for at all. Only those who read Project 2025 (which Trump claimed he'd ignore) and who knew about the rise of tech neofascists inside the GOP knew what he'd really do. The others falsely imagined voting for a competent businessmen against Democrats focused only on culture wars and whose big spending created huge inflation. Because that IS what their neofascist propaganda machine has made their voters believe, year after year.
It's time to wake up and see that these are not normal times at all. Obviously, Trump voters still support him, but try watching Fox: they continue to lie about what he and the GOP in Congress are actually doing!
The LAST thing we need right now is not even realizing that the way you are dehumanizing half of the electorate IS the kind of fuel fascism vitally needs to thrive. They NEED us to hate each other and imagine that The Other is SO evil/... that we won't even try to have a real, respectful debate with them.
And yet, if we want to restore democracy in the US, that's exactly what we will have to learn to do again. Or in MLK Jr.'s wise words: "love your enemies".
I’ll leave that to you. I’m working on getting out the votes to stop Trump’s minions. Converting even one of them to the ranks of decency, when it’s possible at all, requires hundreds of hours of professional therapy. The effort is much more effectively applied getting already decent people to the polls, in spite of the road blocks Republicans erect. We have enough potential voters on our side to win, just barely, but we can’t afford to leave many on tbe couch.
Only fascist cultures imagine that half of the population has no "decency".
As historians of fascism has shown, fascism at this stage of its development has ALREADY infested society as a whole. It never stays limited to its most brainwashed victims.
In the meantime, yes, if we can get the 10 million who voted for Biden in 2020 and stayed home last November to vote, we'll win the 2026 and 2028 elections. But again, fascism arrived at this late stage in its development is here to stay. This is no longer about simply winning an election, it's part of the social fabric now, so NOW is the time to tackle it right on, in ALL its dimensions.
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.
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.
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.
And there is NO evidence whatsoever suggesting that Biden would have dementia. In the meantime, all nonpartisan studies rank him at the very top of all US presidents in terms of achievements. He got more than one huge bill through Congress, for instance, and those were bipartisan bills that directly benefit the 99%. He also restored trust with America's longstanding allies after a disastrous first Trump term.
Finally, your idea that "socialism and islam" would somehow be a threat to Europe is... well, plainly ridiculous ;-). Try to back it up with some arguments and you'll see.
So you don't know why you throw around words like "socialism" or why Islam would suddenly be THE most important threat to Europe today - and not, for instance, Trump's insane 50% tariffs (Europe works with a meager 2% tariff on US exports...) and his even more insane decision to start empowering brutal dictator Putin instead of weakening him so that this war can finally end... ?
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 paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, Trump is not only stupider than you imagine, he is stupider than you can imagine. (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1249189)
Brilliantly funny Clarke quip, but I think the primary MAGA zeitgeist is spite, which when applied to executive orders manifests as stupid. Spite is the handmaiden of grievance and these ignoramus' believe they were sidelined by American liberalism not because they're mean-spirited, semi-educated nincompoops with chips on their shoulders, but because they were persecuted geniuses. We are never going to change this kind of mindset by reasoning with them, since, as the maxim goes, they didn't reason themselves into it.
What we, as a retrenching credible alternative to MAGA can do, is quit gnawing on non-mainstream cultural issues and focus on household pocket book costs that even low propensity voters will pick up on.
You need to provide a context for those pocketbook issues. That is, you have to give your target audience another enemy, because they have a paychological need for enemies. And what better example of that enemy could there be than Elon Musk? Maybe United Health Care's CEO?
IOW, "Eat the Rich". D party donors won't like it, but nothing else offers the chance to build a governing majority.
In a word - yes. Listen to recordings of him back in the 80s and 90s - he was no rocket scientist. While he could complete sentences, they were frequently full of braggadocio and fabulism. There was little to demonstrate information processing capacity. His business record speaks volumes. He plunges into things about which he has no knowledge or experience. For the first time in his life he can make wads of money from the force of his will - but back when it counted he had to be bailed out constantly. He was a low-IQ bully back then and now he is a low-IQ bully with advancing dementia.
Not “WE.” Millions of us did not, & would never vote for the twisted, sociopath, repeated business failure, lying mobster. His margin of victory was historically small. Unbelievable how luck & circumstance came together to give us & the world this walking, talking (sort of) bag of garbage.
Of course. But I still have a right to NOT claim responsibility for helping to put the disastrous Trump where he is & to distinguish myself from those who did. Especially since I’ve worked protesting, calling, donating since the election to support resistance to him.
Listening to him back then and realizing he'll be president is nauseating to say the least. He sounds like a goon, bragging non-stop, arrogant beyond belief, convinced he's an utter Adonis.
In addition, have you ever heard him say one smart thing, ever? Has he said any intelligent thing that was not scripted for his TV show?
It reminds me of that movie, "Being There" where people projected intelligence onto a man because he wore a fancy suit, only in this case, take away the "likability" of the character.
Anyway, this is all simply my opinion.
Like the big lie, as well, the more outrageous it is, and the more often it is repeated, the more people think something must be true in there somewhere, only in this case it seems like people also assume there must be more to the man in there somewhere, as well, because he is rich. However, he started out rich and inherited a company already staffed with people who took care of everything and when he weighed in and overspent the company went bankrupt.
The TV show created an image, and even a close friend of his on "Frontline the Choice 2016" said, when interviewed, that what actually mattered was that people (voters) simply "thought" he was a good businessman. The use of the word "thought" was revealing to me.
In this same Frontline episode, they interviewed a banker involved in his bankruptcy who had spoken with him at that time about the issues at hand and he said Trump seemed to know little to nothing at all about the basics. Is this the case, or feigned ignorance? I do not know.
All of these things have caused me to form an opinion in my own mind, and I have not found any countering evidence.
It is up to each person to form their own opinion, of course, and then it is just that, an opinion.
He repeats outrageous internet conspiracies, and seems to believe in them.
Basically, the man who suggested we inject bleach, a well known poison, seems to be the actual man in a nutshell (my opinion of course) and congress let him form a cabinet of a lot of inexperienced people who would struggle, as well (understatement).
What he does seem to know is what helps his bottom line, and when he finds something that works, he simply sticks with it...well, sort of. There have been a lot of wild failings, like steaks and an airlines, and University and maybe at least 4 lost court cases for fraud from schemes, and he seems to simply wing it, a lot. To me, this is not good when you have your fingers on the levers of the global economy and national security.
This is all my opinion, of course, and why I am using "it seems" repeatedly, but perhaps his lawyers could have used ignorance as an excuse in some of his court cases although it is not always a way to get out a pickle, since "ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law excuses not)" except maybe when intent is needed to be shown. Beats me, I am not a lawyer.
Once again, have you ever heard him say one smart thing?
One thing Trump has said is at least accurate: The media would go broke if he went away. Their greed at exploiting Trump as clickbait is the main reason he's in power.
If the media can't report on a mountain, they will make one out of a molehill, so no worries. Trump is not needed there, either.
Trump is overstating his importance, in my view, but what is new?
What is true, however, is that they are focusing more on him due to his outrageousness than on other important topics, but it is not like there isn't plenty that would dominate the news, otherwise. He is just sucking the air out of the attention given to other events.
Communication and gossip and a need to know what is going on in our world seems to be an insatiable need for humans.
So Trump, as a mountain of outrageousness, rather than a molehill, is not necessary for their success. They will find a way.
They existed long before him and were often profitable, and the same will be true after.
What will remain will be this horrific episode in our history, and his enablers, especially those who clearly knew better, will be more than footnotes.
My advice is that if you are a GOP politician and do not want people trimming off branches on your family tree on ancestry out of embarrassment, take a stand.
Please see this 2020 article from the Columbia Journalism review. The headline: "Cable news profits from its obsession with Trump. Viewers are the only victims."
From the article:
"Trump has been great for business. The Times saw a record spike in subscriptions over the course of the 2016 election cycle, due largely (in the Times’ own accounting) to the mutual antagonism between Trump and the paper of record."
Maybe we should have. If he can "disappear" people without due process on little to no notice to foreign lands into dangerous prisons... what may come next?
People who knew more about him kept their mouth shut - because either they had a (financial) interest in his dealings or they were muzzled by an NDA.
(He never suggested injecting bleach directly, he suggested inventing an injectable medication based on it.)
The people who really suffer from his "policies" are immigrants either on TPS, or in a procedure to get status, or long time here law-abiding/tax-paying, who are now deported. Often to (for them) dangerous regions or a gulag.
His suggesting injecting bleach was live on TV in one of the covid press conferences, so I do not know what an NDA has to do with this. He did not use your odd excuse when confronted, but later pretended he was joking. So clearly it was not as you suggest or he would have said so and used that excuse to explain what he meant.
Anyone watching certainly knew he was not joking and what he meant.
In addition, he also suggested one somehow shine UVC light into the body which is also deadly and dangerous. When one uses such bulbs to disinfect, they have to wear special glasses to protect against blindness and cover their skin. Often the object is placed in a closed space.
Today, 5 yrs later, they have now invented a less harmful version to be used in rooms needing disinfecting that people can enter, but it did not exist then and is just now beginning to be produced. It would also would not be something one could use in a body.
I wrote two separate sentences ! NDA's prevented people working on The Apprentice who had seen him stumbling, making mistakes, etc. to talk about this during his election campaigns. Others made a load of money from his - heavily edited - TV appearances. They did not spill the beans either.
Fact Check. THE PRESIDENT (April 2020): Thank you very much. So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: We'll get to the right folks who could.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you're going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
Four minutes later, a journalist responded to Trump's disinfectant comments by asking whether there was any scenario in which cleaning products like bleach and isopropyl alcohol would be injected into people. Bryan replied first, saying: "No, I'm here to talk about the findings that we had in the study. We won't do that within that lab, our lab."
Trump then clarified his own remarks, adding: "It wouldn't be through injection. We're talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work. But it certainly has a big effect if it's on a stationary object."
I think Fran Lebowitz said it best: “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
She's right, but Trump makes up for his sheer stupidity with street smarts, New York City Mafia-style street smarts, which should never be underestimated.
The motives of Trump's tariffs have never been economic. They are driven by an insatiable ego. Worse yet, the tariffs are a cudgel Trump uses to control the oligarchs. We saw this recently with Trump's threats against Apple products. By threatening the sources of wealth for the 1%, Trump can keep them in line as Mussolini did.
It's all about the grift for Trump. What's much more concerning to me are his supporters. The team that backs him are sinister and are clearly using him to attack others.
I don't think Trump has ever been considering "does it make sense?" in his decisions. His only desire is to terrorize/intimidate/humiliate people, countries, institutions so they prostrate themselves to him. If they are unwilling he wants to destroy them even at the detriment of his own country.
For some odd reason our media has an aversion to addressing the mental competence of Republicans. They still don’t like to tell people that Reagan slipped so much mentally that his staff seriously considered invoking the 25th Amendment.
The media also has an aversion to addressing Biden's competence as president. All nonpartisan studies rank his presidency at the very top, in terms of achievements. It's because corporate media systematically silenced this fact and went for clickbait headlines instead that Harris and America's democracy lost he 2024 election.
I’m just observing the FACT that democracy lost and fascism won on Nov. 5. And yes, many fascisms have eventually been defeated. But now is the time to defeat is, since the GOP is installing it day after day.
Remember, this was the guy who said, during the 2016 election season, "I know more about ISIS than the generals".
A playboy trust-fund baby New York real-estate investor and failed casino magnate knows more about a Middle-Eastern terrorist organization than the U.S. military.
Y'know the old expression about how the more you know the less you know? The smartest people have intellectual humility. Trump has none. He's a perfect example of the Dunning Kruger effect.
His secret is that he doesn't usually sweat his stupidity. Looking dumb just stokes the grievance he's always nurtured due to the NY elite never fully accepting him (because they knew).
So he lashes out with bluster and tough talk, provoking hoots and wails of approval from his even dumber followers, which makes him more arrogant, convincing him he's got nothing to learn.
Trump and his followers are a match made in fascist heaven. Both respond to being looked down upon by doubling down on the very behaviors responsible for them being looked down upon in the first place. They enable each other.
And people who know better are cowed by this, ironically in part by their own intellectual humility, which impels them to navel-gaze and explore their own self-doubt. Who knows! Maybe Trump is right and they're wrong. Gotta at least consider it.
The time for humility is over; smart people need to trust themselves. Trump's success is built on a foundation of lies, and those who back him have placed a short bet against reality.
When Trump is gone, the one thing I'll miss is almost always being right.
Trump is acting on the orders of the (t/b)illionaires that are making him and his family fabulously wealthy. He's won the prize for being a most convincing sort - and so those rich people are using him like a tool. In any case, they win, the rest of us lose. (and incidentally, if you don't think Putin is a trillionaire, then you should seek immediate medical attention.)
Trump does not stand alone!!! His enablers are hog tied to him!! Further, his mega wealthy ($$ greedy) backers think they are safe from the crippling of our economy…if we go down the drain…no well be spared
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.
He should consider himself lucky he WON’T be facing the voters again in 2028 like he did in 2020–because he learned nothing from losing except how to deny it. (And yes, he knows he’s out in 4 years—else why the big rush on everything? He knows he’s a lame duck—he simply dare not say so publicly lest he look weak. But then, he’s always been a weak man posing as a strong one. Which is why we should all stand up to him: He only has the power we believe him to have.)
"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!
What I would like to add is that The EU should welcome Canada and Mexico into an Annex of the EU, like EU+. With the dollar seeming to be losing its footing, and BRICS on the rise, The EU and the Euro need to be the pillars of the West, and Canada and Mexico should be included in that consortium.
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.
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.
Yes, but this is what 77 milion voters asked for, and I haven’t seen any convincing evidence that they’re sorry about it. It’s the 77 million who tanked the future, not the bozo they chose to do it. Trump is a crass, vindictive, farce. The 77 million are even worse.
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.
Most white Americans want what Fox gives them. If Fox stopped delivering it, they’d switch to Newsmax of something worse. Also, they like the Kardashians and other reality show trash. Unfortunately.
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."
That’s interesting. The participants made progress towards decency but regressed at their earliest opportunity.
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.
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?
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.
Roughly 60% of white voters voted for Trump. A majority of white voters have voted R in every presidential election since 1968, when Nixon/Atwater initiated the Republican Southern strategy used by every Republican presidential candidate since that time, except possibly McCain, although he had a running mate that kept the tradition alive even if it wasn’t central to that campaign like it was to the rest of the Republican campaigns. Futhermore, “anti-white racism” is a fantasy that white supremacists have been pushing for 300 years, evidence be damned.
There are, alas, many voters, Black, Latino, and Asian, who also voted for Trump and who watch FOX.
“Many” is far from “most.” White voters caused this catastrophe. It’s on them.
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!
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.
No. It’s worse. They did see it. Not all the foolish economic policies, but they saw what they wanted most: persecution of people they don’t like and preservation of systemic legal, economic and political advantages for white Americans.
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.
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
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.
No, on those who MADE them feel this way and believe all these false ideas: the GOP and its media ecosystem!
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
I share your weariness. Congress is of course the only entity that could stop Trump, especially now that the Roberts court, may they rot in hell, has given Trump permission to commit crimes at will with impunity. Congress won’t do that, of course because they get their power from the same 77 million louts (to put it mildly) who elected Trump. Besides, it would be easier for Trump to stop the little weasel, Johnson, than it would be for Johnson to stop Trump. It all goes back to the 77 million.
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?
I haven't seen ANY evidence whatsoever that this is what Trump or GOP voters asked for at all. Only those who read Project 2025 (which Trump claimed he'd ignore) and who knew about the rise of tech neofascists inside the GOP knew what he'd really do. The others falsely imagined voting for a competent businessmen against Democrats focused only on culture wars and whose big spending created huge inflation. Because that IS what their neofascist propaganda machine has made their voters believe, year after year.
It's time to wake up and see that these are not normal times at all. Obviously, Trump voters still support him, but try watching Fox: they continue to lie about what he and the GOP in Congress are actually doing!
The LAST thing we need right now is not even realizing that the way you are dehumanizing half of the electorate IS the kind of fuel fascism vitally needs to thrive. They NEED us to hate each other and imagine that The Other is SO evil/... that we won't even try to have a real, respectful debate with them.
And yet, if we want to restore democracy in the US, that's exactly what we will have to learn to do again. Or in MLK Jr.'s wise words: "love your enemies".
YES WE CAN!
I’ll leave that to you. I’m working on getting out the votes to stop Trump’s minions. Converting even one of them to the ranks of decency, when it’s possible at all, requires hundreds of hours of professional therapy. The effort is much more effectively applied getting already decent people to the polls, in spite of the road blocks Republicans erect. We have enough potential voters on our side to win, just barely, but we can’t afford to leave many on tbe couch.
Only fascist cultures imagine that half of the population has no "decency".
As historians of fascism has shown, fascism at this stage of its development has ALREADY infested society as a whole. It never stays limited to its most brainwashed victims.
In the meantime, yes, if we can get the 10 million who voted for Biden in 2020 and stayed home last November to vote, we'll win the 2026 and 2028 elections. But again, fascism arrived at this late stage in its development is here to stay. This is no longer about simply winning an election, it's part of the social fabric now, so NOW is the time to tackle it right on, in ALL its dimensions.
I wish you the of luck on your project. I’m going to put my efforts elsewhere.
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.
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.
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.
Define "universalit globalist".
And there is NO evidence whatsoever suggesting that Biden would have dementia. In the meantime, all nonpartisan studies rank him at the very top of all US presidents in terms of achievements. He got more than one huge bill through Congress, for instance, and those were bipartisan bills that directly benefit the 99%. He also restored trust with America's longstanding allies after a disastrous first Trump term.
Finally, your idea that "socialism and islam" would somehow be a threat to Europe is... well, plainly ridiculous ;-). Try to back it up with some arguments and you'll see.
Any evidence to back up this latest claim?
Also, does that mean that you can't define any of the words you used (universalist globalist, socialism), since you didn't answer my questions?
So you don't know why you throw around words like "socialism" or why Islam would suddenly be THE most important threat to Europe today - and not, for instance, Trump's insane 50% tariffs (Europe works with a meager 2% tariff on US exports...) and his even more insane decision to start empowering brutal dictator Putin instead of weakening him so that this war can finally end... ?
“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?
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.
Is Trump really this stupid?
To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, Trump is not only stupider than you imagine, he is stupider than you can imagine. (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1249189)
Brilliantly funny Clarke quip, but I think the primary MAGA zeitgeist is spite, which when applied to executive orders manifests as stupid. Spite is the handmaiden of grievance and these ignoramus' believe they were sidelined by American liberalism not because they're mean-spirited, semi-educated nincompoops with chips on their shoulders, but because they were persecuted geniuses. We are never going to change this kind of mindset by reasoning with them, since, as the maxim goes, they didn't reason themselves into it.
What we, as a retrenching credible alternative to MAGA can do, is quit gnawing on non-mainstream cultural issues and focus on household pocket book costs that even low propensity voters will pick up on.
The resentment and spite are regularly reinforced by propagandistic media sources.
It’s largely MAGA that
makes a big deal of this
culture stuff—as a “weapon
of mass distraction”
Cf. PK’s *”The Conscience
Of A Liberal”*, 2007
You need to provide a context for those pocketbook issues. That is, you have to give your target audience another enemy, because they have a paychological need for enemies. And what better example of that enemy could there be than Elon Musk? Maybe United Health Care's CEO?
IOW, "Eat the Rich". D party donors won't like it, but nothing else offers the chance to build a governing majority.
The original quote is just magnificent! 👍
In a word - yes. Listen to recordings of him back in the 80s and 90s - he was no rocket scientist. While he could complete sentences, they were frequently full of braggadocio and fabulism. There was little to demonstrate information processing capacity. His business record speaks volumes. He plunges into things about which he has no knowledge or experience. For the first time in his life he can make wads of money from the force of his will - but back when it counted he had to be bailed out constantly. He was a low-IQ bully back then and now he is a low-IQ bully with advancing dementia.
"He was a low-IQ bully back then and now he is a low-IQ bully with advancing dementia."
And a lot of unchecked power. Houston, we have a problem.
Unfortunately Houston has been fired, replaced by two new hires named Dunning and Kruger
Which of course means we >really< have a problem.
And alas, power that we have given him.
Not “WE.” Millions of us did not, & would never vote for the twisted, sociopath, repeated business failure, lying mobster. His margin of victory was historically small. Unbelievable how luck & circumstance came together to give us & the world this walking, talking (sort of) bag of garbage.
Oh sure: Not me, I didn't do it.
We're all part of this society, and have some role in the way the wind blows.
Of course. But I still have a right to NOT claim responsibility for helping to put the disastrous Trump where he is & to distinguish myself from those who did. Especially since I’ve worked protesting, calling, donating since the election to support resistance to him.
Listening to him back then and realizing he'll be president is nauseating to say the least. He sounds like a goon, bragging non-stop, arrogant beyond belief, convinced he's an utter Adonis.
He has been clueless from the get go.
I feel like this question can only be rhetorical.
Yes
"Stupid is as stupid does."
In addition, have you ever heard him say one smart thing, ever? Has he said any intelligent thing that was not scripted for his TV show?
It reminds me of that movie, "Being There" where people projected intelligence onto a man because he wore a fancy suit, only in this case, take away the "likability" of the character.
Anyway, this is all simply my opinion.
Like the big lie, as well, the more outrageous it is, and the more often it is repeated, the more people think something must be true in there somewhere, only in this case it seems like people also assume there must be more to the man in there somewhere, as well, because he is rich. However, he started out rich and inherited a company already staffed with people who took care of everything and when he weighed in and overspent the company went bankrupt.
The TV show created an image, and even a close friend of his on "Frontline the Choice 2016" said, when interviewed, that what actually mattered was that people (voters) simply "thought" he was a good businessman. The use of the word "thought" was revealing to me.
In this same Frontline episode, they interviewed a banker involved in his bankruptcy who had spoken with him at that time about the issues at hand and he said Trump seemed to know little to nothing at all about the basics. Is this the case, or feigned ignorance? I do not know.
All of these things have caused me to form an opinion in my own mind, and I have not found any countering evidence.
It is up to each person to form their own opinion, of course, and then it is just that, an opinion.
He repeats outrageous internet conspiracies, and seems to believe in them.
Basically, the man who suggested we inject bleach, a well known poison, seems to be the actual man in a nutshell (my opinion of course) and congress let him form a cabinet of a lot of inexperienced people who would struggle, as well (understatement).
What he does seem to know is what helps his bottom line, and when he finds something that works, he simply sticks with it...well, sort of. There have been a lot of wild failings, like steaks and an airlines, and University and maybe at least 4 lost court cases for fraud from schemes, and he seems to simply wing it, a lot. To me, this is not good when you have your fingers on the levers of the global economy and national security.
This is all my opinion, of course, and why I am using "it seems" repeatedly, but perhaps his lawyers could have used ignorance as an excuse in some of his court cases although it is not always a way to get out a pickle, since "ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law excuses not)" except maybe when intent is needed to be shown. Beats me, I am not a lawyer.
Once again, have you ever heard him say one smart thing?
One thing Trump has said is at least accurate: The media would go broke if he went away. Their greed at exploiting Trump as clickbait is the main reason he's in power.
If the media can't report on a mountain, they will make one out of a molehill, so no worries. Trump is not needed there, either.
Trump is overstating his importance, in my view, but what is new?
What is true, however, is that they are focusing more on him due to his outrageousness than on other important topics, but it is not like there isn't plenty that would dominate the news, otherwise. He is just sucking the air out of the attention given to other events.
Communication and gossip and a need to know what is going on in our world seems to be an insatiable need for humans.
So Trump, as a mountain of outrageousness, rather than a molehill, is not necessary for their success. They will find a way.
They existed long before him and were often profitable, and the same will be true after.
What will remain will be this horrific episode in our history, and his enablers, especially those who clearly knew better, will be more than footnotes.
My advice is that if you are a GOP politician and do not want people trimming off branches on your family tree on ancestry out of embarrassment, take a stand.
The media were doing fine before he came along so no, he's lying about that too. Obviously.
Please see this 2020 article from the Columbia Journalism review. The headline: "Cable news profits from its obsession with Trump. Viewers are the only victims."
From the article:
"Trump has been great for business. The Times saw a record spike in subscriptions over the course of the 2016 election cycle, due largely (in the Times’ own accounting) to the mutual antagonism between Trump and the paper of record."
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0527/1515167-investors-are-taco-trading-in-us-markets/
He also said he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it ( words to that effect). We didn’t take him seriously back then.
Maybe we should have. If he can "disappear" people without due process on little to no notice to foreign lands into dangerous prisons... what may come next?
November 2026,
to say nothing about
November 2028,
can’t come soon
enough for us!
“Wouldn’t lose
Any voters”
To be exact
Smart talk from Felon4547? No.
And vanishingly seldom a smile that isn't a grimace, a statement that isn't a lie.
All he knows is destruction, ambition, lies and malevolence.
That he was allowed to be the President is to our horror and our national shame. This test of our resolve WILL end.
But it will not end well, and the longer it goes on, the worse it will end.
People who knew more about him kept their mouth shut - because either they had a (financial) interest in his dealings or they were muzzled by an NDA.
(He never suggested injecting bleach directly, he suggested inventing an injectable medication based on it.)
The people who really suffer from his "policies" are immigrants either on TPS, or in a procedure to get status, or long time here law-abiding/tax-paying, who are now deported. Often to (for them) dangerous regions or a gulag.
His suggesting injecting bleach was live on TV in one of the covid press conferences, so I do not know what an NDA has to do with this. He did not use your odd excuse when confronted, but later pretended he was joking. So clearly it was not as you suggest or he would have said so and used that excuse to explain what he meant.
Anyone watching certainly knew he was not joking and what he meant.
In addition, he also suggested one somehow shine UVC light into the body which is also deadly and dangerous. When one uses such bulbs to disinfect, they have to wear special glasses to protect against blindness and cover their skin. Often the object is placed in a closed space.
Today, 5 yrs later, they have now invented a less harmful version to be used in rooms needing disinfecting that people can enter, but it did not exist then and is just now beginning to be produced. It would also would not be something one could use in a body.
I wrote two separate sentences ! NDA's prevented people working on The Apprentice who had seen him stumbling, making mistakes, etc. to talk about this during his election campaigns. Others made a load of money from his - heavily edited - TV appearances. They did not spill the beans either.
Fact Check. THE PRESIDENT (April 2020): Thank you very much. So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: We'll get to the right folks who could.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you're going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
Four minutes later, a journalist responded to Trump's disinfectant comments by asking whether there was any scenario in which cleaning products like bleach and isopropyl alcohol would be injected into people. Bryan replied first, saying: "No, I'm here to talk about the findings that we had in the study. We won't do that within that lab, our lab."
Trump then clarified his own remarks, adding: "It wouldn't be through injection. We're talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work. But it certainly has a big effect if it's on a stationary object."
He’s now bleeding
support even on
immigration.
Deja vu from 2017.
Yes, but whatever happens in that regard, it is for a number of people too late. And many USers do still agree with him.
I think Fran Lebowitz said it best: “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
She's right, but Trump makes up for his sheer stupidity with street smarts, New York City Mafia-style street smarts, which should never be underestimated.
Remember what happened
to John Gotti?
The motives of Trump's tariffs have never been economic. They are driven by an insatiable ego. Worse yet, the tariffs are a cudgel Trump uses to control the oligarchs. We saw this recently with Trump's threats against Apple products. By threatening the sources of wealth for the 1%, Trump can keep them in line as Mussolini did.
You all know what happened to Il Duce? Assassinated by his own people. BTW, that was also the fate of DJT’s beloved Pres. Bill McKinley.
It's all about the grift for Trump. What's much more concerning to me are his supporters. The team that backs him are sinister and are clearly using him to attack others.
I don't think Trump has ever been considering "does it make sense?" in his decisions. His only desire is to terrorize/intimidate/humiliate people, countries, institutions so they prostrate themselves to him. If they are unwilling he wants to destroy them even at the detriment of his own country.
You really have to ask? He keeps proving it on a daily basis. Every time he opens his mouth.
And they say Biden is the frail one
For some odd reason our media has an aversion to addressing the mental competence of Republicans. They still don’t like to tell people that Reagan slipped so much mentally that his staff seriously considered invoking the 25th Amendment.
The media needs Trump. He is their primary source of income. There is no way they will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Unless the eggs begin
to look BROWN, then
they’ll close in for the
KILL.
The media also has an aversion to addressing Biden's competence as president. All nonpartisan studies rank his presidency at the very top, in terms of achievements. It's because corporate media systematically silenced this fact and went for clickbait headlines instead that Harris and America's democracy lost he 2024 election.
You’ve already
written America’s
democracy off?
I wouldn’t even write
KH off. A lot of people
wrote Tricky Dick off
in 1960 (and 1962),
then a few years later…
I’m just observing the FACT that democracy lost and fascism won on Nov. 5. And yes, many fascisms have eventually been defeated. But now is the time to defeat is, since the GOP is installing it day after day.
Remember, this was the guy who said, during the 2016 election season, "I know more about ISIS than the generals".
A playboy trust-fund baby New York real-estate investor and failed casino magnate knows more about a Middle-Eastern terrorist organization than the U.S. military.
Y'know the old expression about how the more you know the less you know? The smartest people have intellectual humility. Trump has none. He's a perfect example of the Dunning Kruger effect.
His secret is that he doesn't usually sweat his stupidity. Looking dumb just stokes the grievance he's always nurtured due to the NY elite never fully accepting him (because they knew).
So he lashes out with bluster and tough talk, provoking hoots and wails of approval from his even dumber followers, which makes him more arrogant, convincing him he's got nothing to learn.
Trump and his followers are a match made in fascist heaven. Both respond to being looked down upon by doubling down on the very behaviors responsible for them being looked down upon in the first place. They enable each other.
And people who know better are cowed by this, ironically in part by their own intellectual humility, which impels them to navel-gaze and explore their own self-doubt. Who knows! Maybe Trump is right and they're wrong. Gotta at least consider it.
The time for humility is over; smart people need to trust themselves. Trump's success is built on a foundation of lies, and those who back him have placed a short bet against reality.
When Trump is gone, the one thing I'll miss is almost always being right.
Fran Leibowitz: "You don't know anyone stupider than Donald Trump. You just don't."
I dunno, who is the greater fool, the fool or the fool who follows him?
Is The Force with you?
Trump is acting on the orders of the (t/b)illionaires that are making him and his family fabulously wealthy. He's won the prize for being a most convincing sort - and so those rich people are using him like a tool. In any case, they win, the rest of us lose. (and incidentally, if you don't think Putin is a trillionaire, then you should seek immediate medical attention.)
YES
Trump does not stand alone!!! His enablers are hog tied to him!! Further, his mega wealthy ($$ greedy) backers think they are safe from the crippling of our economy…if we go down the drain…no well be spared
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.
It seems Trump sees no difference between swinging at a piñata and a hornet nest. What could possibly go wrong.
He should consider himself lucky he WON’T be facing the voters again in 2028 like he did in 2020–because he learned nothing from losing except how to deny it. (And yes, he knows he’s out in 4 years—else why the big rush on everything? He knows he’s a lame duck—he simply dare not say so publicly lest he look weak. But then, he’s always been a weak man posing as a strong one. Which is why we should all stand up to him: He only has the power we believe him to have.)
"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!
What I would like to add is that The EU should welcome Canada and Mexico into an Annex of the EU, like EU+. With the dollar seeming to be losing its footing, and BRICS on the rise, The EU and the Euro need to be the pillars of the West, and Canada and Mexico should be included in that consortium.
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.