Trump is strange. I sometimes think it is dementia … that and a slide back into a strange version of mercantilism … and a love of the Monroe Doctrine.
big picture, I’m just plain sad. I’m Canadian. I love the states. I loved Washington before the insanity … just a beautiful capital. So much history. Love your national parks. So many friends and family from California to Iowa to New York.
Laura—Trump is America’s gift to the world—we created/invented him through our versions of reality TV, tabloid newspapers, Fuax News…of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England… but is was Americans who lapped it up! For a year, and then he should have faded to black, but no, corporate NBC and their millions pumped it along for a few more seasons…and somehow, ignoring the facts, Donny-John, the Circus Barker was born! Raping and pillaging! Literally!
So I do judge what we continued, didn’t shut down, our sexism, racism, white nationalists, John Birch, the ill-named Heritage cabal, the tea-party, the maggits, and anti-science evangelicals all built on the foundational KKK.
Very American toxins. I love Canada too, and I’m sure we are good people but it happened on our watch!
This is too much our international brand these days instead of freedom and liberty.
We must take it back! To three short months ago when we were still civilized.
“of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England”
We also stole the foundations of our Constitution (common law concepts and John Locke’s ideas) from England. It’s shocking how so many of us have embraced the culturally foreign governing ideas of Eastern Europe while claiming to protect our heritage. And this is most evident among people who lived during the Cold War. We truly have lost our minds.
Not all of us who lived thru the Cold War embrace this insanity & I suspect those who do, ( my generation, of course) have failing memories & declining brains. Not to mention low education to start with. But I obtained 3 degrees with gov't loans in the days when one cd put oneself thru college & paid them back while practicing law for 36 yrs. I see what is happening, i d/n ever vote for a Repub for president & I am horrified & appalled at the subversion of our gov't. Never wd I have bel'd this possible. & why does any American still support this fool & his S. African clown?
That South African clown has a Canadian mother … I am ashamed of that and the idiots here that get enamoured with the faux mythology of trump and his rags to riches fake story.
True and they had find more fertile ground..Sky TV had a show called topless darts, watched it waiting for a plane in London, with my feminist mother…who laughing. It’s Reality TV, big brother, the apprentice…
But they could create, thanks to Newt, a media empire in the US on unregulated cable. And the death of the fairness doctrine opens up broadcast.
Agreed. Trump is what America dreamed up. A power-hungry, social-media driven Thing that can't seem to get enough attention, money or power. That's Trump's America.
Yes! It’s part of the drugification of media… racism, sexism drive fear and create the need for a cure…Fuax, X are the drug dealers who depend on misinformation, who distort the truth, who believe in shit that isn’t true! Or thing owning the libs as a tag line, a dopamine drip…Feminazies coming for your testicals was Rush’s favorite! Another little drip, and then you are addicted. Drug treatments exist but they went to drug treatment maybe would not have this problem…that JD’s book after all.
Yes, nailed it! FOX News and the rest of the alternative facts RW media produces (mostly manufactured) nonsense--like illegals eating beloved dogs and cats--which produces outrage. These emotional reactions trigger the release of cortisol, a stress hormone; that in turn raises blood sugar. Insulin is secreted to bring down blood sugar. Insulin is actually a highly addictive endogenous drug, that stimulates the brain's pleasure centers.
Again, I totally agree with both of you. I quit a lot of social media platforms after Trump's first election -- so many lies and so much crap generated by people I thought I knew better. I couldn't stand wasting so much time reading it all and reacting to it.
Today, I spend time reading reputable material -- and I'm not glued to a screen all day. I truly wonder, now, where and how so many people find the time to spend on social media! I am too busy for it.
Yes he’s very much Jerry, but maybe he confuses Falwell with Springer…both have evil smiles as they worked out their warped anger and frustration with the fact they were both just a-holes looking for work.
Nope: we in the UK got Rupert Murdoch from Australia very much via the US -- he did not originate here. And Fox News is very much a US / Murdoch product. But surprisingly, Rupert seems to have given a lot of editorial freedom to UK editors of The Sun and The Times newspapers after buying them.
It’s so much easier to understand Trump if one accepts that he is afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder. He epitomizes this particular mental and emotional derangement. He is mentally stuck in childhood and thrives on chaos. There is no underlying set of values except for self-preservation (and even then, the need for chaos can override that).
I'm a retired psychiatrist. This is too kind. I say Antisocial Personality Disorder (commonly known as "Sociopath".) There is quite a bit of overlap in traits. Perhaps also some neurologically weird brain that we don't have a name for (usually indicated by "X Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".)
Yes! That’s their superpower, they do not fucking care about people, what they think, what they need, their lives…the hurt, the fear, the hate just makes them laugh! I fact it look like his cabinet, and certainly VP, we’re picked for their delusions as well.
Mary Trump’s first book covered this quite well with the behind the doors look into her family. I’ve gifted her book so people better understand that man and the family. I highly recommend it. Likely available at half price stores too.
I'd go so far to say psychopathy, as he deliberately inflicts pain on others which pleases him. Additionally, at times he appears divorced from reality. Musk strikes as me as manic. I realized this as I watched him gleefully swing the chainsaw. His inability to control impulses and need for chaos. It certainly doesn't help to have mentally impaired people attempting to run a country.
I think both Musk and Trump have ADHD. That on top of anything else they have, or lack. Musk identifies as being autistic. Trump isn't/ But both he and Trump are so chaotic, so absolutely allergic to focus and deep consideration, that I see attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Musk said at CPAC, rather somberly, "my mind is a storm". And, proving that a dog can have both fleas AND ticks, both he and Trump LACK empathy for their fellow human beings--a sociopathic trait. Look up the story of how Musk behaved when he visited Auschwitz a few years ago.
Like you wd know? Psychiatrists are people, may retire from practice if they choose to. & as people they can recognize when a diagnosis is too kind. Your comment is ignorant, judgmental & just plain bizarre.
tRump also has a big dose of psychopathy. Add to that ravening greed and an IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Musk is the same kind of goods and is our unelected financial dictator. Together they are a good stand-in for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
It's not trump I can't understand, it's those who voted for him. & those who failed to bother to vote against him. A huge wave of guilt & shame should be washing over this country!
Millions of us cross our northern border regularly. I love to wander through the stores in St.Stephens and enjoy the food choices unavailable in down east Maine.
My dream is that the US splits up and Canada accepts a merger with the 5 west coast states, New England, the Middle Atlantic States down to Virginia, MI, WI, MN and IL. It would likely be the 2nd largest economy in the world and maybe even the largest. Our taxes would be less and we would have Universal Health Care. We could divide the new country into provinces/states/territories that make sense in today's world. And maybe even Greenland and Iceland would be interested in joining.
Clearly Americans elected the Orange Dufus and he is their man. And don't give me that tired excuse, "but I didn't vote for him." He's as American as apple pie. I used to like Americans (never loved 'em) but now that their corrupt system has allowed this mentally challenged tyrant to run amok, I don't like Americans at all. I would never admit any state into our beautiful country. Trust has been broken by the actions of a treaty-breaking liar, misogynist, felon and ugly fool. Trust that won't be restored in my life time. It's well past time for Americans to put out the dumpster fire they are apparently just fine with or live with the consequences ... a globally detested pariah state.
I am sorry to have inadvertently lost your esteem by unwilling association with my admittedly stupid countrymen. I will not be able to attempt to win it back probably for 4 yrs. & will likely never succeed, since we have now shown ourselves to have extremely poor judgment, be unreliable allies & trading partners & all around fools. I wd like to switch countries, but not an option. I apologize for us, collectively.
Yeah. We used to take the high road too. We were fond of sneering, we're better than those banana republics that let a dictator into power. We're exceptional. We're free. We have a great democracy. We're literate. We're upwardly mobile. Take heed, O Canada. You think, "It can't happen here" - and then it does. Lots of us voted and worked against the hard right, and we're not giving up. Feel free to damn an entire country of 340.1 million people by the actions of slightly less than half of the voters. Voters = 155,238,302. Harris won 48.32%. t rump got 49.80%. votes for Others amounted to 1.88%. After all, Prejudice fertilizes totalitarianism.
Pardon me for condemning your wonderful democracy. All this talk of "I didn't vote for him" and "more Americans didn't vote for him than didn't" means squat when despite that, you've got a monster in the White House (several actually). This is your democracy in action. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think it's getting pretty warm where you live. Fix your broken system and then we can have a civilized cconversation. In the mean time keep your Monroe Doctrine fool in check, if you can. What a system.
Actually, I'd love to see california secede from the country. As big as our economy is, I believe we could succeed. Either that our allow Denmark to adopt us.
This is super interesting map of cultural/origin regions in the US. I could see the country breaking up this way. I am from Buffalo NY, an hr from Toronto and 15 mins from the border, could easily imagine getting swept up by O Canada.
Like many of my fellow Canadians, I used to travel often and widely in the USA for both business and pleasure, vacations and visiting relatives and friends.
But alas, our countries have grown apart over many decades (I'm getting old) and such a dream realignment of national borders is sadly wildly unrealistic.
We differ in more ways than you probably see - not just in obvious ways like healthcare, taxes (we are more highly taxed) and gun ownership, but also areas of litigiousness, religion, immigration, diversity, openness, environmental considerations (despite the oil sands, sigh), labour law and many values based characteristics.
I value a constructive conversation, and don't mean ill will or condescension here.
I think there's still hope for Montana. let Utah swallow southern Idaho; then the only real question I'd have left is whether to do Ohio like the Romans did Carthage. (more or less)
This is not a crazy idea. Red states are a mortal threat to an educated populace. The red states are so far behind blue states in every important metric, they are a millstone around our necks and are pulling us under.
We need to rebuild our democracy without the threat of losing it again. This is practical self preservation. I’d happily join with Canadians as a new province because they share our values and have the same goal of a socially just, progressive society. That is not an option we will ever have here in our lifetimes.
Those of us who didn't vote for Trump... we truly love and admire Canada. Please remember that. We are so sad that this is happening. And embarrassed beyond belief.
Donnie's first term was embarrassing. This one has been sheer tragedy at every turn, with only faint sparks of tragicomedy when gaffes are observed in isolation from the bigger picture.
His incompetence and inaction caused at least 600,000 extra deaths if you compare us with Canada, 800,000 if you use South Korea. Why isn’t this more of an issue!? That’s a lot of people!
You are absolutely correct — I have too easily developed this habit of responding with the vanishing context of the opening months of each administration. (The first time i made a comment like the previous, it was referring specifically to the election result.) I should not refer to his first term (generally or as a whole) so flippantly.
Electing him once was at best a stupid mistake, but twice? That's on all of you. There are lots of citizens of the U.S. with good intentions but they are a minority (and shame on those who don't vote). But, his reelection tells the rest of the world what you really are. You're soft and incapable of fixing your very serious problems: totally undemocratic gerrymandering, more guns than people, do nothing about Sandy Hook, tolerate overt racism, out of control police forces, disgusting income and wage disparities, and Electoral College that is a travesty a totally dysfunctional Congress, a corrupt Supreme Court, and now this malevolent ignoramus as President. Pathetic.
Not entirely convinced there wasn’t vote tampering. When 47 stated “I have the votes” at one of his hate rallies, how could he possibly know that? F’Elon helped somehow. Meanwhile, the 2/3 of Americans who did not vote for this 💩show are stuck here. 🤬
I just read your comments. I do wish you would not hold back in your criticisms of the US:) We need endless, repetitious criticism of the many weaknesses or failures of my country. We have retained in our constitution for example reference to 3/5s people. Currently the 3/5 people I’ve seen or heard tend to be social media. tv commentators or elected officials. So it may be difficult to improve the US but constant criticism may help.
Laura: Thank you for your words of grace. A lot of Yanks are embarrassed and outraged by what our government has become, as I'm sure you'll know.
Also, only about 30% of American voters pulled the lever for Trump. Yes, the other 70% includes a fair number of non-voters, but even among those who voted, a majority voted *against* Donald Trump (that is, they voted either for Kamala Harris or a third party candidate). He won fair and square per the rules, of course, but it still feels like something of a coup to me. Why? Well, in addition to being opposed by a majority of the electorate, pretty clearly large numbers of the minority that voted Trump in didn't know what they were in for. Many, probably most voters aren't inclined to acquire detailed knowledge of public policy (I doubt US voters are even unique in that regard).
Paul Krugman is right: our government is now being held hostage by a mad king and his mad court jester.
Even charitably not calling it a coup/cheat (per how much the GQP has battered the VRA into less and less relevance at every opportunity), what it absolutely AIN'T is a "mandate".
We love Canada and have great memories of vacations in Quebec and on the St. Lawrence River (St. Lawrence Cruise Line!), the kindness and hospitality of our Canadian neighbors. Stay strong.
When I think of Canada it’s cities like Quebec and Montreal, a country of incredible physical beauty, the French-Canadian history, the Bay of Fundy and Poutine.
From Minnesota. So, maybe an honorary Canadian : ) Americans love Canada. From the Maritimes to Vancouver Island. Our clinically deranged leadership has no regard for the best neighbor the US could possibly have the good fortune of having.
scum-p has been showing clear signs of dementia for quite some time -- and those of us who took care of a parent with dementia (as I did) can see that he's getting worse. Dr. John Gartner, who was on the faculty of Hopkins med school, has been interviewed about this; James Fallows (a highly respected American journo and commentator) recently wrote about this. I hope that Dems are, at some point, able to regain a majority in both chambers, at which time they could pass a law requiring complete physical and mental examinations of any major-party candidate and of the sitting P and VP -- but I'm not hopeful.
Thank you very much for understanding that many of us here love our wonderful neighbor Canada, see the ways in which it's superior to the US, and are furious about what scum-p is saying and doing. Take care.
I think it is a lot Dementia, if you notice a lot of times in a rally he can't figure out what he is talking about or where he is at and then at times like his Debate with biden he was just as clear minded as ever. Its been reported that Trump has been on Adderall and Cocaine for years and his actions seem to berar that out. This reporting goes all the way back to his time on TV and that he has been wearing diapers all this time also and when you see him on the gold course the way his slacks bulge in the front and back would also go to back up that claim. It was also said that his Personel Body Guard had the name Wet Wipes because he was tasked with the job of cleaning the nasty bastard up. And just the same way Trump ignores that way the Russian State TV posted every naked picture of Trump's Communist born and raised wife, he says nothing about these claims either, almost as if adding credit to the claims and his efforts to try to keep it out of the news here.
There may be an overlay of dementia but Trump has clearly demonstrated a whole smorgasbord of personality disorder traits for decades. He’s practically a whole textbook exemplar — no other cases needed. As a physician but not knowing anything about Trump, I realized this when he came down the escalator on June 16, 2015 and I started looking into his background. If only psychiatrist Dr Bandi X. Lee could get him on her couch!
It is a sort of mental compulsive-obsessive disorder combined with pathological narcissism. I have no doubt any independent psychologist would disqualify him from any leadership role - in private or public service.
-But I don’t see how you can look at recent statements by Donald Trump and Elon Musk without concluding that both men have lost their grip on reality.-
You can look at this from putins perspective and it all seems normal
Exactly. You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end? A more interesting question, imho, is what makes people strongly believe in neofascism as the best system of governance. Because that is what Trump, Putin, Musk, Thiel (and his disciple Vance) all have in common, together with Kevin Roberts and the new MAGA Heritage Foundation (and its sister organization, America First... and of course, Fox News, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan etc).
Are they all insane? Or blind followers of just a few insane men (but who is actually following who here?)?
I think it's more helpful (and probably accurate) to think in terms of ideology and the "origins of totalitarianism". What characterizes them is a totally different perception of humanity and human nature. These are people who believe in the Hobbesian hypothesis that man will always be a "wolf" to other man. It's what Trump's father told him when he said that in this life, you're either a killer or a loser so be a killer. It's what Musk and Vance learned when their own parents became their worst torturers. But it's also what quite some people can easily begin to believe after two decades of neofascist propaganda spread through the official communication channels of a major political party, in this case the GOP.
After all, McConnell's attack on Obamacare was that it was "evil", with "the government" coming after your grandmother and killing her.
In the US, the idea that the government is evil has always been more popular than in most Western democracies (which is why health and education levels are so low). All fascist propaganda takes that as its core message, with "the government" being "the elites". And, as scholars of fascism have abundantly shown (and as pro-fascism philosophers such as Carl Schmidt have always argued), ideally, you can find an external enemy to scapegoat too (aside from "the enemy within"). In this case, that enemy is America's best allies, starting with Canada. The GOP is clearly doing what it has done for two decades: repeat again and again how evil Canada is, and more and more people will begin to believe it.
I'm quite certain that Trump knows perfectly well that he's LYING. But lying is how you remain a killer and don't become a loser, in his worldview...
The real man in charge here is Peter Theil another entitled, wounded tech baby. He and Elon have a lot of history. Their warped worldview and fascist fever dreams are music to drumphs ears, as an added plus Theil also has a strong resemblance to and
fosters a similar outlook to Roy Cohen one of drumphs favorite people. The worst boys club ever.
You and Krugman have almost said it all. How did we ever get to this point? Looking back we have been engaged in a struggle since our birth as a nation with wealthy elites who used democracy as a shield to amass wealth and power over ordinary working people. They convinced us to bring revolution and war wherever their status and freedom to exploit natural resources and cheap labor anywhere in the world was threatened. Social Security is such a tempting target. All that money just lying there and more coming in every month. Then there is all that glittering gold sitting in Ft. Knox. Now we have A.I. threatening to replace human labor in an overpopulated world. We are having a replay of the industrial revolution. Musk is the visionary, soon he will not need trump.
I couldn't agree more. What is happening today is not a bug in the system, it's a feature. Oligarchic fascism is always an inherent risk, in any democracy, but even more so in the US, with its Constitution written at a moment when the entire economy was slave-based.
And neofascists see fascism as the pinnacle of democracy, not its opposite. As the GOP tries to make its voters believe, when you vote for a president, he SHOULD have all the powers of government to do what you wanted him to do. Having to deal with Congress and the courts, which may not agree with the president and may represent other parts of the country, is seen as something that LOWERS the degree to which a democracy is truly a government "for the people".
Obviously, what is left out here is the fact that if it's not a government BY the people (which requires and active and independent Congress and judiciary), then it is impossible to have a government for ALL the people, you'll always end up with a corrupt system in which those who imagine to be superior to the 99% violently impose their will onto everyone else.
Each time fascists grab power, however, they are convinced that this time, things will be different. This time, THEY will be SO superior that they WILL know better than everyone else what's good for society as a whole. Even though history has proven again and again that such superior category of people doesn't exist...
A very coherent diagnosis of a national disease. The Heritage Foundation was usurped by an extreme anti-government ideologues who turned it into a mechanism to vomit up the horrible Project 2025 playbook explicitly aimed to destroy the federal government and to foster and implement an explicitly illiberal ideology—look at who they’ve had installed in key government offices— Vought, Bessent, Vance, et al, and then put loonies in other positions such as Ka$$ Patel. We the people have been assaulted by an extreme minority that is totally destructive of our democracy and fundamentally threatens our way of life — and our lives.
"You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end?" - in part to manage own expectations. Trump could have robbed your country blind under the guise of a corrupt, but relatively conventional government, and a lot of people still behave as if he were merely corrupt. It is the fact that he is not so much working on enriching himself, but is actively trying to destroy the mechanisms that create wealth that takes getting used to, and calling this "insane" is one way to remind yourself that this is a terrorist, not a thief. Also there seems to be disagreement on how to counter him, because every uttering of his is viewed as emanation of some evil but brilliant master plan that requires specific counter strategies, and so people berate each other over the proper way to resists instead of fighting against the actual issue. Remembering that stuff he says is mostly gibberish might help against overthinking strategy. The one thing one should not do is to assume anything has been actually accomplished by calling him insane, the actual work comes after that.
I suspect he doesn’t view his TV appearances and “truth social” propaganda machine to have facts and/or lies. Rather he uses his posts as transactions where he uses threats and endorsements to force people to pay homage, resources, and obedience to him for his own personal balance sheet.
Vox covered the whole "does he even care whether he's lying" part 8 years ago: "The Bullshitter-in-Chief". The noise has only gotten more outrageously wrong/hyperbolic/dogwhistley.
I think scum-p *doesn't* know that he's lying. Read about malignant narcissism.
One of my close relatives had narc. tendencies -- i.e., wasn't a full-blown narc., let alone a malig. narc. -- and they had a very fluid relationship with the truth, blithely saying whatever they thought the person with them wanted to hear, or saying whatever they thought would get them out of trouble when they'd screwed up.
Interesting and educational perspective. It seems true. However my question is this… is insanity, specifically sociopathy and/or pathological thoughts and behaviors, part of being or becoming a fascist and having a skewed vision. Is it a sort of joining together of the white male, malevolently narcissistic, patriarchal nature of our society?
Agree with all of that. But lots of nations have such people. I’m interested in the structural issues that has permitted such obvious lawlessness to proceed practically unhindered, and only feebly opposed by the political class, including it should be noted, the ‘official’ opposition Party. Disgraceful.
What exactly would you want Democrats to do? They are first of all democrats, so they'll respect the rule of law, and "we the people" just took away their power in DC. Imho, at a certain point we need to realize that a democracy is a government BY the people - that means: us. It's what is means by "ask what you can do for your country". Elected officials are lawmakers. It's their job to make new laws that represent what we want our country to become. If the country votes them out, they cannot make any laws anymore. And if the ruling party gives up the power of Congress and lets the president grab it, the only way for politicians to fight back is through the courts, which is exactly what Democrats are doing, for "we the people". And they're winning again and again, fortunately.
Now is the time for US to start talking with Trump voters, and engage in real, respectful debates, so that by 2026 an 2028, they understand why voting for the neofascist GOP was a huge mistake. This is always how preserving democracy is achieved...
Since it's so easy to accuse anyone of anything, the system is not designed to swiftly hammer down on amyone except the relatively powerless accused of the crimes that became exceptional since the execrable Patriot Act.
If you heard "lock her up" from Trump in 2016, and listed to what he actually said, it was enough for me to question his mental stability. Let's remember that an unstable divided US is just what Putin wants. The distraction would help him recreate the former empire. Russia would never want the US as an actual ally, that would be a constraint.
At some point (and I suspect it will happen soon and massively) reality will slam into into the "alternate reality" that has been constructed by Trump, Musk, MAGA and the Republican Party and absolute chaos will prevail. Nation-crippling chaos. Chaos that will finally reveal (despite the propaganda coming from FOX News and other right-wing media) that the MAGA Emperor has, in fact, no clothes, no mind, and no concern at all for the citizens of the nation he was elected to govern. When that does happen, I hope we all stay safe, attentive to one another's daily needs and crises, compassionate, kind, and speaking only truth to one another. The fury of the duped half of our population will be cataclysmic and dangerous. There is no knowing how they will finally react to the shattering of their delusions, but -- if we are to survive as a nation -- they will need to be slowly brought back to reason and sense... like divers re-surfacing after long submersion. Be vigilant and be of good hope. We can do this.
Me neither. Even if they come to realize all of this, new grifters (political, social media, etc) will swoop in with some new conspiracy. Feels like there’s no time these days to take a “breather” and make sense of the tsunami of lies before the next one hits. Our society has gone mad.
Agree. And I have seen too little grappling—both among pundits and politicians—with what the underlying motives and end game of this chaos are. Telling ourselves this is merely chaos and destruction for its own sake (or even the result of dementia or psychosis) is too easy, and ultimately a coping mechanism. And I fear it will be a failure of imagination if we don’t try to understand what the *point* of this chaos is. Increasingly I am concerned that what we’re witnessing comes out of Klein’s shock doctrine playbook, with the techno oligarchs engineering a crisis to their benefit.
However we all know he’s chomping at bit to declare martial law. It’s probably now being discussed, and why the dems with the exception of a few are fighting.
The Dems are being CHICKEN SHIT, and STILL think that they should have our votes!
The maggats over 50 just need to die out. For the rest there might be hope. I say MIGHT, because in German reunification we saw that anyone who was 30 or older when the wall came down was too shaped by the GDR to change. Some were traumatized, others were antagonized, most were just going along or even profiting. But 15-20 years after reunification you could still pick out immediately someone who was 30 or older in 1989. And yes, Angela Merkel is a perfect example. While Michael Ballack proves the point for those under 30 in 1989.
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to why the Left in the US always fails in trying to reach the right - it is more than them being abysmally bad at messaging, there are critical elements to the psychology of the right that most people don't recognize. I am just starting to write on parts of this that I have come to understand a bit. It's a really tough problem.
Penetrating the fog generated by Murdoch & Ailes media beasts, enhanced by celebrity stuntbosses like Reagan & Trump, fake "outsiders" like Dubya, and so on ... Is too much work for folks who were already primed for delusions like evangelical Christianity and "tradition" and "loyalty". All increasingly IdPol over RuleOfLaw.
Trump is delusional. Meaning he is convinced of things that are unreal fantasies. For Trump this has been the case since 2015 (or earlier). The Central Park Five was a delusion, one that Trump still clings to. Birtherism? Delusion. Tariffs? Delusion. Canada and Greenland? Delusions. Crime rampant? Delusion. Dangers of immigrants? Delusion. Mayhem destroying our cities? Delusion. The deep state? Delusion. The fitness of RFK jr, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought? Delusions? So many delusions, the list is long.
Trump is like the star of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The moral of said story was that so many fawning, spineless sycophants would pretend to share the emperor’s delusions, so as to curry favor and avoid the emperor’s wrath, even as they scorned him behind his back. So it is with the Republican party - everyone kowtowing to Trump and praising his delusions. He’s so brilliant, no? No. So tragic, so dangerous, so wrong.
Trump will be gone in 4 years (or hopefully earlier), but the people who have knowingly elected this delusional conman will remain and they will be looking for the next (less delusional) conman catering to their despicable biases
If he lives 4 more years, do you really imagine anything will pry him out of the White House? If you do, you’ve been seeing an entirely different Trump than I have. His fat ass is not going to leave just because someone says, ‘times up’.
That is actually not quite true. The record shows that in 1946 Nazi support was still at 15-20% (from a high vote of 40% at the last free election). It only significantly shrank when that generation started dying out and it increased again after reunification and especially after the end of the Soviet bloc, when a lot of right wing and fascist minds migrated to Germany from Russia and the Warsaw bloc.
I'll defer to your data but prepare for a regression analysis. There is no debate however that there was no notion of pride in German survivors. They were crushed and demoralized, my family was part of the occupation and saw.
Could be, but I think the situation is even worse. I think that Trump is not so much mad as treasonous. I think that much of what he is doing is directed by his handlers in Moscow, who are quite sane. And who are on a campaign of destruction of their long-time enemy.
I agree with that, except tRump is so thick (thick as a plank, as one Asian analyst tells me) that he does not know he is being handled. The cheapest compliments will get tRump to do their bidding.
"Mr. President, your idea last week. We thought about it. It is brilliant. All our analysts say it is beautiful and marvelous."
"Oh yeah? I have so many beautiful ideas every day, every minute I have new ones. -- So which of my many beautiful ideas are you talking about?"
"Oh, Mr. President - it is this, the strategy you laid out for your world domination. It goeslike this..."
I think he is insane. George Conway and a psychiatrist worked hard to get the news out but the MSM refused to bite. Trump will come after them regardless so it would be better to go down fighting.
If they have their way, it's entirely possible that DOGE's updates will create a huge rush of US bonds that are sold--with the money being flipped to cryptocurrency and siphoned out of the country. The US would be destroyed.
In a speech to the French Senate on Tuesday March 4 2025, Claude Malhuret referred to this administration as "the Court of Nero". That landed with this reader, as does your short piece this morning Mr. Krugman.
If it was just Trump, I would suggest it is a sign of dementia. Clinging to a single idea you learned decades back, and violent outbursts of paranoia because an addled brain can no longer understand the world around it and tries to reduce reality to a manageable level (i.e. "they want to hurt me, so I hurt them first") aligns with have I have seen in my first proper day job (in the geriatric ward of a mental facility) all these years ago. I just don't understand the people who go along for the ride, because surely they must have understood by now that burning down the world will not profit them. Whatever has eaten Trumps mind seems to be infectious (and alas it has long spread abroad and is now also rampant in my country, so if you eventually find a cure, metaphorically speaking, please share).
This has to be it, hasn't it. I understood that this is how billionaires feel. They really hate capitalism, because while it made them rich beyond belief, it provided also a decent living for, for lack of a better world, working people, and to really enjoy their wealth they would prefer reduce everyone else to nothing in some sort of feudal society, even if that means they only half or their billions left or whatever. I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires. This evil altruism that says "I am okay with being wiped out, as long as someone else suffers more" is outright bizarre, and then for a lot of them it turns out they are not even okay with it (sorry for venting, I realize that this does not really add new perspective to anything).
RE: “ I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires”
It doesn’t work for them if their goal is to have a long, healthy and happy life. Some people, however, don’t want that. My blue collar unionized coworkers in the mid-1980s made it clear they didn’t want that life as they explained why they voted for Reagan soon after he busted the air traffic controllers union and presided over a recession that gave us the Rust Belt. They explained their dads, grandads, and great grandads had short hard lives and they expected/wanted the same. An entertaining president was more important than one that would make them prosperous and healthy. They prioritized their ancestral identity above all else. The MAGA crowd echoes this mentality. Their ancestral identity is paramount. It could be the same in European countries experiencing a fascist revival.
"Surely almost everyone except Trump realizes that DOGE has been a bust...it has yet to come up with any credible major examples of waste or fraud."
That was never its true mission. They now have massive amounts of personal data on all of us - for sale to the highest bidder, or for their own nefarious use. They got what they wanted.
"...and is now insisting that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, showing that he hasn’t made any effort to understand how the bedrock of American retirement works."
He doesn't need to understand it to undermine it. He just wants to destroy it. Any excuse is sufficient - who's going to stop him?
It doesn't matter if Trump is insane; he has found enough citizens to vote for him, elect him, and run the government. And he runs the government with no blowback; in fact, he is a genius, of a sort. How such a vile creature can run the world must be down to mass psychosis. But no blowback from the Dems, even when they can - like not voting for Rubio! - and most American citizens mean that Trump has found a perfect target for what he's selling. It isn't helpful in the slightest for Americans now to say you didn't vote for him, unless you actively oppose him. This will not end well; and you already have blood on your hands. You obviously don't see what the USA has done to lose its allies in Europe and Canada. As the parody of Kipling went: If you can keep your mind when all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the situation.'
Tobias I was commenting on the observation that Terrence made about Trump being a genius. No matter how much Trump is despised for his low character it is a fact that he has achieved the highest office twice. So, we must give the devil (Trump) his due (respect) for achieving what at least 47 other good and decent native-born Americans have failed to do-twice.
Sort of like Ginger Rogers doing what Fred Astaire did only backwards in heels, if you know what I mean :-)
I can advise you to dedicate some quiet time for clear headed thinking about Television and it's role in all this. You believe everything you see and hear on TV, right? Trump is a TV actor and he likely leverages that. Trump was introduced at his Trump Tower in 2015 in front of a staged lobby with preplaced cameras and an audience waiting for him.
I've been warning about a military coup for years. My mind is stressed knowing no one is prepared.
Well Thomas, me, too. However, I think that while it well might open the door on some pretty dire outcomes, it is also possible that the military might be our last resort. As the daughter of a high military officer (now deceased) I can testify by experience that many such officers are deeply loyal to our Constitution, as their vows attest. And yes, some might become corrupted if they should command emergency powers in order to save us, might become as bloated and egomaniacal as our current POTUS, as power is like a drug for some. But which is the better path, a declaration of emergency requiring martial law, or continuing to tolerate the manifestly malign and crazy machinations of men like Trump, Musk, and their shadowy puppet masters? I honestly wonder.
Leigh, I don’t (wonder, that is). However noble its motivations, however necessary its actions, a military intervention would be an unmitigated disaster. I don’t need to spell it out; just ponder on the implications, domestically with the public already bitterly divided (assuming they’re even paying attention) and internationally with friends and enemies alike.
What good is it to avoid civil war at all cost, when the result is the same terror and unfreedom with or without civil war. At least "with" gives subjugated half a fighting chance.
I think you have to add in social media's effect on the population. The disinformation is readily available to any unthinking person that will swallow it.
As I’ve said here before, and been met with some hostility, Trump, and now Musk, are seriously psychologically deranged individuals. Trump has the added element of probably suffering from dementia.
Anyone familiar with the humorously titled, but totally serious, podcast called “Shrinking Trump” would come to the same conclusion. Trump has been deranged for years but the addition of Musk, who clearly is a manic sociopath, has enabled Trump to drive his sadistic tendencies to new levels.
Like with Hitler in the 1930’s, the questions also revolve around how our a large portion of our society, particularly the Republican Party itself, continues to support something so obviously destructive.
The destruction will need to affect the Reps directly before they begin to doubt. The way muskrat and tRump are going, it should only be a month or two. I'd love it to be sooner!
Am an applied mathematician. What I’ve consistently observed, from looking at a lot of data over many years, it’s inevitable that the worst person will get any job. Then, that person will do as much damage as the job allows and they’re allowed to do. (Can I quantify this? Probably.) My point: Trump is the symptom of a broken American democracy.
Trump, I’m certain, will fail. He’s too stupid and the damage he’s causing hurts his followers as well as those who are against him. Eventually, however, a smarter version of Trump will be elected. So, although it’s not part of the popular discussion around Trump and the GOP — as far I know — the way the American government gives power to the president and how his power is restrained has to be changed. I’d like the discussion to begin. But I suspect that it will only start when Trump, or a more dangerous version of him, makes it evident that it’s not a corrupt and dangerous politician that’s the problem but a system that allows it.
If Trump has the ability to stop or interfere with an election, then this validates my point that the system of American democracy is broken. If he doesn’t, this doesn’t invalidate my point. I’m simply referring to a debate where American democracy can prevent what’s happening and other problems. It’s no more dependent on an election than our original revolution was.
I think this may be a long way down the road. The smarter version is the 2025 Christian Nationalists. They have hidden their agenda from the general public who are more in the barstool Republican mode. In decades their theocracy would weaken through infighting and lack of popular support.
Open Primaries and an end to gerrymandering would make a big difference. The current system where the election is mostly determined in the primaries encourages radicals.
Yes (unfortunately) exactly. One other data set that's informative of the weakness of American democracy is the extreme influence that American Christians, almost all of whom are on the far-right, have politically.
The dataset set I'm referring to is from the Pew Center. It shows: 1) as Christianity has become less widespread and influential in the US, American Christians have become much more politically extreme (to the right, that is). 2) There's a strong linear correlation between being a pious Christian and being on the far-right. The inverse, interestingly, is also true. The less likely you are to believe in Christianity, the more likely you are to be on the left.
So, reform of American democracy, imo, is more than just open primaries, etc. It would need to isolate the influence of extreme groups, such as pious Christians. One way would be through a parliamentary system. That is, there would be more political parties. The effect of this would be to change the winner-take-all American system, where only two political parties are effectively functional.
But, as you mentioned, this is indeed a long way down the road.
Mitch the bitch was an essentiel stone on which this fascist coup was built. Impeachments, scotus nominations etc. Was he already insane? Maybe not but deranged and demented he is. And the true biggest ponzi scheme remains the junk US treasury bonds.
DITTO. They really are barking mad. And that means not only delusional in their desires and beliefs, it also mean they both have extreme character disorders characterized by massively inflated egos, disdain for other people, an inability to ever say enough is enough when it comes to acquiring money, etc, AND it is more than possible that both men abuse and or are actually addicted to drugs, adderal in the case of Trump, and Ketamine in the case of Musk. And all of the above means, at a deep level, that they are irrational actors. They must be removed from the halls of government by any legitimate, legal ends possible. And fast. Millions of us are being put at serious risk by their words and deeds.
Yes and yes. And anyone who is paying attention can see that they are criminals, with the malign intentions of criminals, driven by greed and amorality. But there seems to be no entity to enforce our laws against them. A flaw in our Constitution might be that impeachment is a paper tiger if Congress is supine.
The maniac that runs your country needs to understand that the "artificial line" is called a border and on the other side of it is a sovereign nation. That sovereign nation has 41 million people that will NEVER, under any circumstances, join the US. We are a PROUD people who can be, when pushed, very FIERCE.
If the maniac wants us, he will have to send the Marines (like Putin did to Ukraine). Then there will be lots of body bags coming home to the US.
Do you really want this? Take action now to, in the words of a former Prime Minister, "Stop this nonsense"!!!
I don't think Canada is under any real threat of physical invasion...yet. At this time, it's a bridge way too far. I'd venture a guess that you'd be lucky if you could come up with 5% of the truly QAnon crazies to support the idea.
I wonder how, or if FOX is treating the issue. I can't stand to watch it myself, but I'd guess that they treat it like Trump is trolling for a "truly great" trade deal, rather than a real threat. Or he's trolling to own the libs.
I do think economic attacks are very likely. I can see Trump and Co thinking that the Canadians will cave under economic pressure. People who's highest value is held in monetary terms don't understand those of us who have values of honesty, loyalty, honor...that exceed those of money.
Don’t pay attention to his noise, he’s using that as a tactic to get attention, he’s done this before, wild accusations and comments, it’s his madman strategy to throw everyone off balance, keep you head, be stronger, calmer, don’t fold, he’s actually a very weak man child.
Trump is strange. I sometimes think it is dementia … that and a slide back into a strange version of mercantilism … and a love of the Monroe Doctrine.
big picture, I’m just plain sad. I’m Canadian. I love the states. I loved Washington before the insanity … just a beautiful capital. So much history. Love your national parks. So many friends and family from California to Iowa to New York.
We love you too Canada! Please don’t judge us by him!
Laura—Trump is America’s gift to the world—we created/invented him through our versions of reality TV, tabloid newspapers, Fuax News…of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England… but is was Americans who lapped it up! For a year, and then he should have faded to black, but no, corporate NBC and their millions pumped it along for a few more seasons…and somehow, ignoring the facts, Donny-John, the Circus Barker was born! Raping and pillaging! Literally!
So I do judge what we continued, didn’t shut down, our sexism, racism, white nationalists, John Birch, the ill-named Heritage cabal, the tea-party, the maggits, and anti-science evangelicals all built on the foundational KKK.
Very American toxins. I love Canada too, and I’m sure we are good people but it happened on our watch!
This is too much our international brand these days instead of freedom and liberty.
We must take it back! To three short months ago when we were still civilized.
“of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England”
We also stole the foundations of our Constitution (common law concepts and John Locke’s ideas) from England. It’s shocking how so many of us have embraced the culturally foreign governing ideas of Eastern Europe while claiming to protect our heritage. And this is most evident among people who lived during the Cold War. We truly have lost our minds.
Not all of us who lived thru the Cold War embrace this insanity & I suspect those who do, ( my generation, of course) have failing memories & declining brains. Not to mention low education to start with. But I obtained 3 degrees with gov't loans in the days when one cd put oneself thru college & paid them back while practicing law for 36 yrs. I see what is happening, i d/n ever vote for a Repub for president & I am horrified & appalled at the subversion of our gov't. Never wd I have bel'd this possible. & why does any American still support this fool & his S. African clown?
That South African clown has a Canadian mother … I am ashamed of that and the idiots here that get enamoured with the faux mythology of trump and his rags to riches fake story.
You are surprised he has ‘Mommy Issues?’ He’s a middle school boy, on a good day…thinking that wonderfully weird Doors song…This is the End….
The Murdocks are from Australia, though their media companies have behaved much the same in the UK as in the US.
True and they had find more fertile ground..Sky TV had a show called topless darts, watched it waiting for a plane in London, with my feminist mother…who laughing. It’s Reality TV, big brother, the apprentice…
But they could create, thanks to Newt, a media empire in the US on unregulated cable. And the death of the fairness doctrine opens up broadcast.
You forgot Roger Ailes whose brain-child Fox propaganda channel was, Murdoch was merely the money man.
https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created
Agreed. Trump is what America dreamed up. A power-hungry, social-media driven Thing that can't seem to get enough attention, money or power. That's Trump's America.
Yes! It’s part of the drugification of media… racism, sexism drive fear and create the need for a cure…Fuax, X are the drug dealers who depend on misinformation, who distort the truth, who believe in shit that isn’t true! Or thing owning the libs as a tag line, a dopamine drip…Feminazies coming for your testicals was Rush’s favorite! Another little drip, and then you are addicted. Drug treatments exist but they went to drug treatment maybe would not have this problem…that JD’s book after all.
Yes, nailed it! FOX News and the rest of the alternative facts RW media produces (mostly manufactured) nonsense--like illegals eating beloved dogs and cats--which produces outrage. These emotional reactions trigger the release of cortisol, a stress hormone; that in turn raises blood sugar. Insulin is secreted to bring down blood sugar. Insulin is actually a highly addictive endogenous drug, that stimulates the brain's pleasure centers.
Yes, they are Anger-addicts a condition I call "pout-rage." Since the things they are outraged about are mostly myths.
Again, I totally agree with both of you. I quit a lot of social media platforms after Trump's first election -- so many lies and so much crap generated by people I thought I knew better. I couldn't stand wasting so much time reading it all and reacting to it.
Today, I spend time reading reputable material -- and I'm not glued to a screen all day. I truly wonder, now, where and how so many people find the time to spend on social media! I am too busy for it.
Ryan - you are right and our love of howling spectacle and debasement (think Jerry Springer) as well as narcissism and greed have contributed.
Yes he’s very much Jerry, but maybe he confuses Falwell with Springer…both have evil smiles as they worked out their warped anger and frustration with the fact they were both just a-holes looking for work.
Nope: we in the UK got Rupert Murdoch from Australia very much via the US -- he did not originate here. And Fox News is very much a US / Murdoch product. But surprisingly, Rupert seems to have given a lot of editorial freedom to UK editors of The Sun and The Times newspapers after buying them.
It’s so much easier to understand Trump if one accepts that he is afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder. He epitomizes this particular mental and emotional derangement. He is mentally stuck in childhood and thrives on chaos. There is no underlying set of values except for self-preservation (and even then, the need for chaos can override that).
I'm a retired psychiatrist. This is too kind. I say Antisocial Personality Disorder (commonly known as "Sociopath".) There is quite a bit of overlap in traits. Perhaps also some neurologically weird brain that we don't have a name for (usually indicated by "X Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".)
I'm a lay person, but I know that sociopaths are those with zero empathy. Trump plainly fits that bill.
As does Musk
Yes! That’s their superpower, they do not fucking care about people, what they think, what they need, their lives…the hurt, the fear, the hate just makes them laugh! I fact it look like his cabinet, and certainly VP, we’re picked for their delusions as well.
This is wrong!
It needs to stop!
Now!
The GOP fucked it up and they should own it!
Americans fucked up & shd own it! Sociopaths happen but we elected them, fully knowing what & who he is!
Mary Trump’s first book covered this quite well with the behind the doors look into her family. I’ve gifted her book so people better understand that man and the family. I highly recommend it. Likely available at half price stores too.
Or your local public library.
X disorder certainly fits!
I'd go so far to say psychopathy, as he deliberately inflicts pain on others which pleases him. Additionally, at times he appears divorced from reality. Musk strikes as me as manic. I realized this as I watched him gleefully swing the chainsaw. His inability to control impulses and need for chaos. It certainly doesn't help to have mentally impaired people attempting to run a country.
Manic with a side of drug addiction. Who knows what he takes now but the WSJ did a big dive into his drug use in the past
I think both Musk and Trump have ADHD. That on top of anything else they have, or lack. Musk identifies as being autistic. Trump isn't/ But both he and Trump are so chaotic, so absolutely allergic to focus and deep consideration, that I see attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Musk said at CPAC, rather somberly, "my mind is a storm". And, proving that a dog can have both fleas AND ticks, both he and Trump LACK empathy for their fellow human beings--a sociopathic trait. Look up the story of how Musk behaved when he visited Auschwitz a few years ago.
And also "Snake Oil Salesman"
"Tesler Snake Oil/Used Car Salesman"
Get lost!
Like you wd know? Psychiatrists are people, may retire from practice if they choose to. & as people they can recognize when a diagnosis is too kind. Your comment is ignorant, judgmental & just plain bizarre.
I asked how wd you know. You are just repeating yourself. Perhaps you are the faker.
tRump also has a big dose of psychopathy. Add to that ravening greed and an IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Musk is the same kind of goods and is our unelected financial dictator. Together they are a good stand-in for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
This is spot on. Anyone who has suffered narcissistic abuse understands the narcissist’s playbook.
It's not trump I can't understand, it's those who voted for him. & those who failed to bother to vote against him. A huge wave of guilt & shame should be washing over this country!
Yes. We got sloppy and lazy with our country.
Millions of us cross our northern border regularly. I love to wander through the stores in St.Stephens and enjoy the food choices unavailable in down east Maine.
My dream is that the US splits up and Canada accepts a merger with the 5 west coast states, New England, the Middle Atlantic States down to Virginia, MI, WI, MN and IL. It would likely be the 2nd largest economy in the world and maybe even the largest. Our taxes would be less and we would have Universal Health Care. We could divide the new country into provinces/states/territories that make sense in today's world. And maybe even Greenland and Iceland would be interested in joining.
Okay if you add Alaska and Hawaii there are five west coast states.
Clearly Americans elected the Orange Dufus and he is their man. And don't give me that tired excuse, "but I didn't vote for him." He's as American as apple pie. I used to like Americans (never loved 'em) but now that their corrupt system has allowed this mentally challenged tyrant to run amok, I don't like Americans at all. I would never admit any state into our beautiful country. Trust has been broken by the actions of a treaty-breaking liar, misogynist, felon and ugly fool. Trust that won't be restored in my life time. It's well past time for Americans to put out the dumpster fire they are apparently just fine with or live with the consequences ... a globally detested pariah state.
I am sorry to have inadvertently lost your esteem by unwilling association with my admittedly stupid countrymen. I will not be able to attempt to win it back probably for 4 yrs. & will likely never succeed, since we have now shown ourselves to have extremely poor judgment, be unreliable allies & trading partners & all around fools. I wd like to switch countries, but not an option. I apologize for us, collectively.
Yeah. We used to take the high road too. We were fond of sneering, we're better than those banana republics that let a dictator into power. We're exceptional. We're free. We have a great democracy. We're literate. We're upwardly mobile. Take heed, O Canada. You think, "It can't happen here" - and then it does. Lots of us voted and worked against the hard right, and we're not giving up. Feel free to damn an entire country of 340.1 million people by the actions of slightly less than half of the voters. Voters = 155,238,302. Harris won 48.32%. t rump got 49.80%. votes for Others amounted to 1.88%. After all, Prejudice fertilizes totalitarianism.
Pardon me for condemning your wonderful democracy. All this talk of "I didn't vote for him" and "more Americans didn't vote for him than didn't" means squat when despite that, you've got a monster in the White House (several actually). This is your democracy in action. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think it's getting pretty warm where you live. Fix your broken system and then we can have a civilized cconversation. In the mean time keep your Monroe Doctrine fool in check, if you can. What a system.
Apparently you missed the irony.
1st part ironic. 2nd part not ironic. There's that.
Add Colorado please.
I understand Harriet and agree. Also New Mexico.
Should we have let them leave in 1861?
Leaving millions in chattel slavery? I hope not.
Good point.
Saving the Union was Lincoln's mistake. The sociopathy that characterized the slaveholders wasn't a concept that was understood then.
A VP who effectively annulled Lincoln's legacy with the rollback of reconstruction was his mistake, chosen by him, but under pressure.
Actually, I'd love to see california secede from the country. As big as our economy is, I believe we could succeed. Either that our allow Denmark to adopt us.
I believe California could succeed as an independent country.
It certainly could. It’s the fifth largest economy in the world.
Actually 4th after Germany's abysmal 2024.
I think Denmark offered to change California to Hans Christian Andersenland if adopted.
This is super interesting map of cultural/origin regions in the US. I could see the country breaking up this way. I am from Buffalo NY, an hr from Toronto and 15 mins from the border, could easily imagine getting swept up by O Canada.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lauraskov/p/why-is-america-like-this-anyway?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4mswh
Like many of my fellow Canadians, I used to travel often and widely in the USA for both business and pleasure, vacations and visiting relatives and friends.
But alas, our countries have grown apart over many decades (I'm getting old) and such a dream realignment of national borders is sadly wildly unrealistic.
We differ in more ways than you probably see - not just in obvious ways like healthcare, taxes (we are more highly taxed) and gun ownership, but also areas of litigiousness, religion, immigration, diversity, openness, environmental considerations (despite the oil sands, sigh), labour law and many values based characteristics.
I value a constructive conversation, and don't mean ill will or condescension here.
I'm just sad about the whole damn situation.
I think there's still hope for Montana. let Utah swallow southern Idaho; then the only real question I'd have left is whether to do Ohio like the Romans did Carthage. (more or less)
This is not a crazy idea. Red states are a mortal threat to an educated populace. The red states are so far behind blue states in every important metric, they are a millstone around our necks and are pulling us under.
We need to rebuild our democracy without the threat of losing it again. This is practical self preservation. I’d happily join with Canadians as a new province because they share our values and have the same goal of a socially just, progressive society. That is not an option we will ever have here in our lifetimes.
Thank goodness you included IL!
Dem voter and MI resident. I’m on board with this idea. Sign me up!
Those of us who didn't vote for Trump... we truly love and admire Canada. Please remember that. We are so sad that this is happening. And embarrassed beyond belief.
Donnie's first term was embarrassing. This one has been sheer tragedy at every turn, with only faint sparks of tragicomedy when gaffes are observed in isolation from the bigger picture.
His incompetence and inaction caused at least 600,000 extra deaths if you compare us with Canada, 800,000 if you use South Korea. Why isn’t this more of an issue!? That’s a lot of people!
You are absolutely correct — I have too easily developed this habit of responding with the vanishing context of the opening months of each administration. (The first time i made a comment like the previous, it was referring specifically to the election result.) I should not refer to his first term (generally or as a whole) so flippantly.
Electing him once was at best a stupid mistake, but twice? That's on all of you. There are lots of citizens of the U.S. with good intentions but they are a minority (and shame on those who don't vote). But, his reelection tells the rest of the world what you really are. You're soft and incapable of fixing your very serious problems: totally undemocratic gerrymandering, more guns than people, do nothing about Sandy Hook, tolerate overt racism, out of control police forces, disgusting income and wage disparities, and Electoral College that is a travesty a totally dysfunctional Congress, a corrupt Supreme Court, and now this malevolent ignoramus as President. Pathetic.
Not entirely convinced there wasn’t vote tampering. When 47 stated “I have the votes” at one of his hate rallies, how could he possibly know that? F’Elon helped somehow. Meanwhile, the 2/3 of Americans who did not vote for this 💩show are stuck here. 🤬
And don’t forget stupidity.
I just read your comments. I do wish you would not hold back in your criticisms of the US:) We need endless, repetitious criticism of the many weaknesses or failures of my country. We have retained in our constitution for example reference to 3/5s people. Currently the 3/5 people I’ve seen or heard tend to be social media. tv commentators or elected officials. So it may be difficult to improve the US but constant criticism may help.
Laura: Thank you for your words of grace. A lot of Yanks are embarrassed and outraged by what our government has become, as I'm sure you'll know.
Also, only about 30% of American voters pulled the lever for Trump. Yes, the other 70% includes a fair number of non-voters, but even among those who voted, a majority voted *against* Donald Trump (that is, they voted either for Kamala Harris or a third party candidate). He won fair and square per the rules, of course, but it still feels like something of a coup to me. Why? Well, in addition to being opposed by a majority of the electorate, pretty clearly large numbers of the minority that voted Trump in didn't know what they were in for. Many, probably most voters aren't inclined to acquire detailed knowledge of public policy (I doubt US voters are even unique in that regard).
Paul Krugman is right: our government is now being held hostage by a mad king and his mad court jester.
Which is the king and which is the jester?
Who is driving the Clown Car? Elon?
This is worth asking every single day and at every single PR.
Thank you Charles … thank you everyone. Very very kind.
Even charitably not calling it a coup/cheat (per how much the GQP has battered the VRA into less and less relevance at every opportunity), what it absolutely AIN'T is a "mandate".
🇨🇦🇺🇸✊
No, he is just a mean, greedy, disgusting human.
It's malignant narcissism, diagnosed by psychiatrists.
https://substack.com/@michaelsecomb/note/c-97045993?r=4mzfmy
You Canadians might have to burn Washington again, I'm afraid.
Ha! Nah…we’d never be able to say sorry ;)
Trump will pardon us at least!
Just political expression!
https://youtu.be/T7cyP8h30_E?si=-O2TEoRBwPW6Pg7r
Never give in and never give up - do whatever you need to do (closer ties to China, join the EU, whatever works). Maybe you can keep democracy alive.
We love Canada and have great memories of vacations in Quebec and on the St. Lawrence River (St. Lawrence Cruise Line!), the kindness and hospitality of our Canadian neighbors. Stay strong.
When I think of Canada it’s cities like Quebec and Montreal, a country of incredible physical beauty, the French-Canadian history, the Bay of Fundy and Poutine.
You forgot Toronto, and Victoria, I lived in B.C. the Canadian Rockies are stunning, there's so much more than Quebec.
From Minnesota. So, maybe an honorary Canadian : ) Americans love Canada. From the Maritimes to Vancouver Island. Our clinically deranged leadership has no regard for the best neighbor the US could possibly have the good fortune of having.
scum-p has been showing clear signs of dementia for quite some time -- and those of us who took care of a parent with dementia (as I did) can see that he's getting worse. Dr. John Gartner, who was on the faculty of Hopkins med school, has been interviewed about this; James Fallows (a highly respected American journo and commentator) recently wrote about this. I hope that Dems are, at some point, able to regain a majority in both chambers, at which time they could pass a law requiring complete physical and mental examinations of any major-party candidate and of the sitting P and VP -- but I'm not hopeful.
Thank you very much for understanding that many of us here love our wonderful neighbor Canada, see the ways in which it's superior to the US, and are furious about what scum-p is saying and doing. Take care.
I believe one of those men worked with George Conway to get the word out. But our MSM didn’t want the word out.
I think it is a lot Dementia, if you notice a lot of times in a rally he can't figure out what he is talking about or where he is at and then at times like his Debate with biden he was just as clear minded as ever. Its been reported that Trump has been on Adderall and Cocaine for years and his actions seem to berar that out. This reporting goes all the way back to his time on TV and that he has been wearing diapers all this time also and when you see him on the gold course the way his slacks bulge in the front and back would also go to back up that claim. It was also said that his Personel Body Guard had the name Wet Wipes because he was tasked with the job of cleaning the nasty bastard up. And just the same way Trump ignores that way the Russian State TV posted every naked picture of Trump's Communist born and raised wife, he says nothing about these claims either, almost as if adding credit to the claims and his efforts to try to keep it out of the news here.
There may be an overlay of dementia but Trump has clearly demonstrated a whole smorgasbord of personality disorder traits for decades. He’s practically a whole textbook exemplar — no other cases needed. As a physician but not knowing anything about Trump, I realized this when he came down the escalator on June 16, 2015 and I started looking into his background. If only psychiatrist Dr Bandi X. Lee could get him on her couch!
It is a sort of mental compulsive-obsessive disorder combined with pathological narcissism. I have no doubt any independent psychologist would disqualify him from any leadership role - in private or public service.
-But I don’t see how you can look at recent statements by Donald Trump and Elon Musk without concluding that both men have lost their grip on reality.-
You can look at this from putins perspective and it all seems normal
Exactly. You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end? A more interesting question, imho, is what makes people strongly believe in neofascism as the best system of governance. Because that is what Trump, Putin, Musk, Thiel (and his disciple Vance) all have in common, together with Kevin Roberts and the new MAGA Heritage Foundation (and its sister organization, America First... and of course, Fox News, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan etc).
Are they all insane? Or blind followers of just a few insane men (but who is actually following who here?)?
I think it's more helpful (and probably accurate) to think in terms of ideology and the "origins of totalitarianism". What characterizes them is a totally different perception of humanity and human nature. These are people who believe in the Hobbesian hypothesis that man will always be a "wolf" to other man. It's what Trump's father told him when he said that in this life, you're either a killer or a loser so be a killer. It's what Musk and Vance learned when their own parents became their worst torturers. But it's also what quite some people can easily begin to believe after two decades of neofascist propaganda spread through the official communication channels of a major political party, in this case the GOP.
After all, McConnell's attack on Obamacare was that it was "evil", with "the government" coming after your grandmother and killing her.
In the US, the idea that the government is evil has always been more popular than in most Western democracies (which is why health and education levels are so low). All fascist propaganda takes that as its core message, with "the government" being "the elites". And, as scholars of fascism have abundantly shown (and as pro-fascism philosophers such as Carl Schmidt have always argued), ideally, you can find an external enemy to scapegoat too (aside from "the enemy within"). In this case, that enemy is America's best allies, starting with Canada. The GOP is clearly doing what it has done for two decades: repeat again and again how evil Canada is, and more and more people will begin to believe it.
I'm quite certain that Trump knows perfectly well that he's LYING. But lying is how you remain a killer and don't become a loser, in his worldview...
The real man in charge here is Peter Theil another entitled, wounded tech baby. He and Elon have a lot of history. Their warped worldview and fascist fever dreams are music to drumphs ears, as an added plus Theil also has a strong resemblance to and
fosters a similar outlook to Roy Cohen one of drumphs favorite people. The worst boys club ever.
👆🎯He is the brains behind the tech-bros.
You and Krugman have almost said it all. How did we ever get to this point? Looking back we have been engaged in a struggle since our birth as a nation with wealthy elites who used democracy as a shield to amass wealth and power over ordinary working people. They convinced us to bring revolution and war wherever their status and freedom to exploit natural resources and cheap labor anywhere in the world was threatened. Social Security is such a tempting target. All that money just lying there and more coming in every month. Then there is all that glittering gold sitting in Ft. Knox. Now we have A.I. threatening to replace human labor in an overpopulated world. We are having a replay of the industrial revolution. Musk is the visionary, soon he will not need trump.
I couldn't agree more. What is happening today is not a bug in the system, it's a feature. Oligarchic fascism is always an inherent risk, in any democracy, but even more so in the US, with its Constitution written at a moment when the entire economy was slave-based.
And neofascists see fascism as the pinnacle of democracy, not its opposite. As the GOP tries to make its voters believe, when you vote for a president, he SHOULD have all the powers of government to do what you wanted him to do. Having to deal with Congress and the courts, which may not agree with the president and may represent other parts of the country, is seen as something that LOWERS the degree to which a democracy is truly a government "for the people".
Obviously, what is left out here is the fact that if it's not a government BY the people (which requires and active and independent Congress and judiciary), then it is impossible to have a government for ALL the people, you'll always end up with a corrupt system in which those who imagine to be superior to the 99% violently impose their will onto everyone else.
Each time fascists grab power, however, they are convinced that this time, things will be different. This time, THEY will be SO superior that they WILL know better than everyone else what's good for society as a whole. Even though history has proven again and again that such superior category of people doesn't exist...
Bravo George! See just about any speech made by Theodore Roosevelt.
Two decades? With a few notable exceptions Republicans have been working on the fascist angle since at least Herbert Hoover.
Eisenhower wasn’t so bad according to my history books.
I was thinking of Ike and HW specifically Cass. Both stand up guys who along with John McCain knew what the founders were talking about.
A very coherent diagnosis of a national disease. The Heritage Foundation was usurped by an extreme anti-government ideologues who turned it into a mechanism to vomit up the horrible Project 2025 playbook explicitly aimed to destroy the federal government and to foster and implement an explicitly illiberal ideology—look at who they’ve had installed in key government offices— Vought, Bessent, Vance, et al, and then put loonies in other positions such as Ka$$ Patel. We the people have been assaulted by an extreme minority that is totally destructive of our democracy and fundamentally threatens our way of life — and our lives.
"You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end?" - in part to manage own expectations. Trump could have robbed your country blind under the guise of a corrupt, but relatively conventional government, and a lot of people still behave as if he were merely corrupt. It is the fact that he is not so much working on enriching himself, but is actively trying to destroy the mechanisms that create wealth that takes getting used to, and calling this "insane" is one way to remind yourself that this is a terrorist, not a thief. Also there seems to be disagreement on how to counter him, because every uttering of his is viewed as emanation of some evil but brilliant master plan that requires specific counter strategies, and so people berate each other over the proper way to resists instead of fighting against the actual issue. Remembering that stuff he says is mostly gibberish might help against overthinking strategy. The one thing one should not do is to assume anything has been actually accomplished by calling him insane, the actual work comes after that.
100%
Hitler, it explains alot of the capitulations, what ever their underlying reasons. Constant daily gaslighting for the Country !
Well said, sadly.
I suspect he doesn’t view his TV appearances and “truth social” propaganda machine to have facts and/or lies. Rather he uses his posts as transactions where he uses threats and endorsements to force people to pay homage, resources, and obedience to him for his own personal balance sheet.
Vox covered the whole "does he even care whether he's lying" part 8 years ago: "The Bullshitter-in-Chief". The noise has only gotten more outrageously wrong/hyperbolic/dogwhistley.
I think scum-p *doesn't* know that he's lying. Read about malignant narcissism.
One of my close relatives had narc. tendencies -- i.e., wasn't a full-blown narc., let alone a malig. narc. -- and they had a very fluid relationship with the truth, blithely saying whatever they thought the person with them wanted to hear, or saying whatever they thought would get them out of trouble when they'd screwed up.
Interesting and educational perspective. It seems true. However my question is this… is insanity, specifically sociopathy and/or pathological thoughts and behaviors, part of being or becoming a fascist and having a skewed vision. Is it a sort of joining together of the white male, malevolently narcissistic, patriarchal nature of our society?
Agree with all of that. But lots of nations have such people. I’m interested in the structural issues that has permitted such obvious lawlessness to proceed practically unhindered, and only feebly opposed by the political class, including it should be noted, the ‘official’ opposition Party. Disgraceful.
What exactly would you want Democrats to do? They are first of all democrats, so they'll respect the rule of law, and "we the people" just took away their power in DC. Imho, at a certain point we need to realize that a democracy is a government BY the people - that means: us. It's what is means by "ask what you can do for your country". Elected officials are lawmakers. It's their job to make new laws that represent what we want our country to become. If the country votes them out, they cannot make any laws anymore. And if the ruling party gives up the power of Congress and lets the president grab it, the only way for politicians to fight back is through the courts, which is exactly what Democrats are doing, for "we the people". And they're winning again and again, fortunately.
Now is the time for US to start talking with Trump voters, and engage in real, respectful debates, so that by 2026 an 2028, they understand why voting for the neofascist GOP was a huge mistake. This is always how preserving democracy is achieved...
Since it's so easy to accuse anyone of anything, the system is not designed to swiftly hammer down on amyone except the relatively powerless accused of the crimes that became exceptional since the execrable Patriot Act.
Don't even need to read their statements. Watch the White House Tesla infomercial!
The king bought a TE卐LA! Woo hoo!
King Krasnov is following his orders to the letter.
We just do not share THEIR reality with them. It’s our fault - LOL!
Gaslighting - not ALL are vulnerable
You nailed it!!
That’s some truth right there
If you heard "lock her up" from Trump in 2016, and listed to what he actually said, it was enough for me to question his mental stability. Let's remember that an unstable divided US is just what Putin wants. The distraction would help him recreate the former empire. Russia would never want the US as an actual ally, that would be a constraint.
Maybe not normal, but useful.
At some point (and I suspect it will happen soon and massively) reality will slam into into the "alternate reality" that has been constructed by Trump, Musk, MAGA and the Republican Party and absolute chaos will prevail. Nation-crippling chaos. Chaos that will finally reveal (despite the propaganda coming from FOX News and other right-wing media) that the MAGA Emperor has, in fact, no clothes, no mind, and no concern at all for the citizens of the nation he was elected to govern. When that does happen, I hope we all stay safe, attentive to one another's daily needs and crises, compassionate, kind, and speaking only truth to one another. The fury of the duped half of our population will be cataclysmic and dangerous. There is no knowing how they will finally react to the shattering of their delusions, but -- if we are to survive as a nation -- they will need to be slowly brought back to reason and sense... like divers re-surfacing after long submersion. Be vigilant and be of good hope. We can do this.
We have to do this, but I don’t quite see how.
Me neither. Even if they come to realize all of this, new grifters (political, social media, etc) will swoop in with some new conspiracy. Feels like there’s no time these days to take a “breather” and make sense of the tsunami of lies before the next one hits. Our society has gone mad.
23rd Amendment. I agree with Paul Krugman that Trump is losing his mind.
You really think VANCE will right the ship? Johnson? Who's after that ...
25th amendment?
Correct. My bad.
Agree. And I have seen too little grappling—both among pundits and politicians—with what the underlying motives and end game of this chaos are. Telling ourselves this is merely chaos and destruction for its own sake (or even the result of dementia or psychosis) is too easy, and ultimately a coping mechanism. And I fear it will be a failure of imagination if we don’t try to understand what the *point* of this chaos is. Increasingly I am concerned that what we’re witnessing comes out of Klein’s shock doctrine playbook, with the techno oligarchs engineering a crisis to their benefit.
"Hey, Slick" has a massive-picture view of the situation. Ain't pretty, of course.
Oh wow. Down that rabbit hole I go… thanks for the rec
From your lips to god's ears.
However we all know he’s chomping at bit to declare martial law. It’s probably now being discussed, and why the dems with the exception of a few are fighting.
The Dems are being CHICKEN SHIT, and STILL think that they should have our votes!
If they vote for this budget resolution then we need a new party, built from the ground up. Democratic leadership has failed us entirely.
The maggats over 50 just need to die out. For the rest there might be hope. I say MIGHT, because in German reunification we saw that anyone who was 30 or older when the wall came down was too shaped by the GDR to change. Some were traumatized, others were antagonized, most were just going along or even profiting. But 15-20 years after reunification you could still pick out immediately someone who was 30 or older in 1989. And yes, Angela Merkel is a perfect example. While Michael Ballack proves the point for those under 30 in 1989.
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to why the Left in the US always fails in trying to reach the right - it is more than them being abysmally bad at messaging, there are critical elements to the psychology of the right that most people don't recognize. I am just starting to write on parts of this that I have come to understand a bit. It's a really tough problem.
Penetrating the fog generated by Murdoch & Ailes media beasts, enhanced by celebrity stuntbosses like Reagan & Trump, fake "outsiders" like Dubya, and so on ... Is too much work for folks who were already primed for delusions like evangelical Christianity and "tradition" and "loyalty". All increasingly IdPol over RuleOfLaw.
👆👆👆🎯Yes some just want a celebrity to idolize, no matter how vapid.
Sad but true. THIS is the way.
hear hear
Trump is delusional. Meaning he is convinced of things that are unreal fantasies. For Trump this has been the case since 2015 (or earlier). The Central Park Five was a delusion, one that Trump still clings to. Birtherism? Delusion. Tariffs? Delusion. Canada and Greenland? Delusions. Crime rampant? Delusion. Dangers of immigrants? Delusion. Mayhem destroying our cities? Delusion. The deep state? Delusion. The fitness of RFK jr, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought? Delusions? So many delusions, the list is long.
Trump is like the star of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The moral of said story was that so many fawning, spineless sycophants would pretend to share the emperor’s delusions, so as to curry favor and avoid the emperor’s wrath, even as they scorned him behind his back. So it is with the Republican party - everyone kowtowing to Trump and praising his delusions. He’s so brilliant, no? No. So tragic, so dangerous, so wrong.
It certainly seems that way, but have you noticed his delusions always conveniently brought him increasing power?
Like the Pied Piper he lures with false promises.
Trump will be gone in 4 years (or hopefully earlier), but the people who have knowingly elected this delusional conman will remain and they will be looking for the next (less delusional) conman catering to their despicable biases
If he lives 4 more years, do you really imagine anything will pry him out of the White House? If you do, you’ve been seeing an entirely different Trump than I have. His fat ass is not going to leave just because someone says, ‘times up’.
I am counting on Melania poisoning him so he has horrible diarrhea continuously
🤔 rumor has it that he’s in diapers
Unlikely she would be able to poison him, as they don't even live in the same state, let alone the same house.
If you count on this 4 quid ho you are delusional yourself.
There wasn't a German in 1946 who remembered how they voted.
Let's see how many Americans remember how THEY voted in 2024...
There won't be many driving around in convoys with Trump flags.
That is actually not quite true. The record shows that in 1946 Nazi support was still at 15-20% (from a high vote of 40% at the last free election). It only significantly shrank when that generation started dying out and it increased again after reunification and especially after the end of the Soviet bloc, when a lot of right wing and fascist minds migrated to Germany from Russia and the Warsaw bloc.
I'll defer to your data but prepare for a regression analysis. There is no debate however that there was no notion of pride in German survivors. They were crushed and demoralized, my family was part of the occupation and saw.
John Ranta. I'm glad to see someone else sees the similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's story.
I agree. But I think many see it. It's just too obvious to even mention it.
Stevie Wonder "Superstition".
Could be, but I think the situation is even worse. I think that Trump is not so much mad as treasonous. I think that much of what he is doing is directed by his handlers in Moscow, who are quite sane. And who are on a campaign of destruction of their long-time enemy.
I agree with that, except tRump is so thick (thick as a plank, as one Asian analyst tells me) that he does not know he is being handled. The cheapest compliments will get tRump to do their bidding.
"Mr. President, your idea last week. We thought about it. It is brilliant. All our analysts say it is beautiful and marvelous."
"Oh yeah? I have so many beautiful ideas every day, every minute I have new ones. -- So which of my many beautiful ideas are you talking about?"
"Oh, Mr. President - it is this, the strategy you laid out for your world domination. It goeslike this..."
"Thanks for reminding me, Vlad. I'm brilliant."
And Putin sits back and says pass the popcorn as he tears the country apart.
I think he is insane. George Conway and a psychiatrist worked hard to get the news out but the MSM refused to bite. Trump will come after them regardless so it would be better to go down fighting.
If they have their way, it's entirely possible that DOGE's updates will create a huge rush of US bonds that are sold--with the money being flipped to cryptocurrency and siphoned out of the country. The US would be destroyed.
In a speech to the French Senate on Tuesday March 4 2025, Claude Malhuret referred to this administration as "the Court of Nero". That landed with this reader, as does your short piece this morning Mr. Krugman.
Yes. Anyone trying to make sense of the felon in chief’s pronouncements has chosen the wrong analytic model.
That was an incredible speech but of course the back drop is horrifying.
If it was just Trump, I would suggest it is a sign of dementia. Clinging to a single idea you learned decades back, and violent outbursts of paranoia because an addled brain can no longer understand the world around it and tries to reduce reality to a manageable level (i.e. "they want to hurt me, so I hurt them first") aligns with have I have seen in my first proper day job (in the geriatric ward of a mental facility) all these years ago. I just don't understand the people who go along for the ride, because surely they must have understood by now that burning down the world will not profit them. Whatever has eaten Trumps mind seems to be infectious (and alas it has long spread abroad and is now also rampant in my country, so if you eventually find a cure, metaphorically speaking, please share).
They go along with it because even if they are hurting their neighbor will hurt even more. This pleases them.
This has to be it, hasn't it. I understood that this is how billionaires feel. They really hate capitalism, because while it made them rich beyond belief, it provided also a decent living for, for lack of a better world, working people, and to really enjoy their wealth they would prefer reduce everyone else to nothing in some sort of feudal society, even if that means they only half or their billions left or whatever. I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires. This evil altruism that says "I am okay with being wiped out, as long as someone else suffers more" is outright bizarre, and then for a lot of them it turns out they are not even okay with it (sorry for venting, I realize that this does not really add new perspective to anything).
That is Peter Theils concept. Read about him. Only they deserve the spoils!
Sometimes we need to vent.
RE: “ I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires”
It doesn’t work for them if their goal is to have a long, healthy and happy life. Some people, however, don’t want that. My blue collar unionized coworkers in the mid-1980s made it clear they didn’t want that life as they explained why they voted for Reagan soon after he busted the air traffic controllers union and presided over a recession that gave us the Rust Belt. They explained their dads, grandads, and great grandads had short hard lives and they expected/wanted the same. An entertaining president was more important than one that would make them prosperous and healthy. They prioritized their ancestral identity above all else. The MAGA crowd echoes this mentality. Their ancestral identity is paramount. It could be the same in European countries experiencing a fascist revival.
Well, ancestry (usually expressed as blood) is a key part of the fascist's talking points, so MAGA tends to attract those who respond to the argument.
It's kind of like a zombie apocalypse. The only cure is decapitation.
Ha ha? This might become a great rallying cry.
Don't zombies do a Sleepy Hollow thing?
That's the general idea.
So, they get decapitated and climb on a horse?
Vought and Project 2025 still believe they can achieve their goals by way of this presidency.
Their goals are raging madness as well.
Those bastards need to be dealt with.
"Surely almost everyone except Trump realizes that DOGE has been a bust...it has yet to come up with any credible major examples of waste or fraud."
That was never its true mission. They now have massive amounts of personal data on all of us - for sale to the highest bidder, or for their own nefarious use. They got what they wanted.
"...and is now insisting that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, showing that he hasn’t made any effort to understand how the bedrock of American retirement works."
He doesn't need to understand it to undermine it. He just wants to destroy it. Any excuse is sufficient - who's going to stop him?
He's readying the country for Putin to destroy it.
It doesn't matter if Trump is insane; he has found enough citizens to vote for him, elect him, and run the government. And he runs the government with no blowback; in fact, he is a genius, of a sort. How such a vile creature can run the world must be down to mass psychosis. But no blowback from the Dems, even when they can - like not voting for Rubio! - and most American citizens mean that Trump has found a perfect target for what he's selling. It isn't helpful in the slightest for Americans now to say you didn't vote for him, unless you actively oppose him. This will not end well; and you already have blood on your hands. You obviously don't see what the USA has done to lose its allies in Europe and Canada. As the parody of Kipling went: If you can keep your mind when all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the situation.'
Giving the devil his due is wise policy.
I heard this before. But cannot quite comprehend. Please elaborate.
Tobias I was commenting on the observation that Terrence made about Trump being a genius. No matter how much Trump is despised for his low character it is a fact that he has achieved the highest office twice. So, we must give the devil (Trump) his due (respect) for achieving what at least 47 other good and decent native-born Americans have failed to do-twice.
Sort of like Ginger Rogers doing what Fred Astaire did only backwards in heels, if you know what I mean :-)
I can advise you to dedicate some quiet time for clear headed thinking about Television and it's role in all this. You believe everything you see and hear on TV, right? Trump is a TV actor and he likely leverages that. Trump was introduced at his Trump Tower in 2015 in front of a staged lobby with preplaced cameras and an audience waiting for him.
I've been warning about a military coup for years. My mind is stressed knowing no one is prepared.
Well Thomas, me, too. However, I think that while it well might open the door on some pretty dire outcomes, it is also possible that the military might be our last resort. As the daughter of a high military officer (now deceased) I can testify by experience that many such officers are deeply loyal to our Constitution, as their vows attest. And yes, some might become corrupted if they should command emergency powers in order to save us, might become as bloated and egomaniacal as our current POTUS, as power is like a drug for some. But which is the better path, a declaration of emergency requiring martial law, or continuing to tolerate the manifestly malign and crazy machinations of men like Trump, Musk, and their shadowy puppet masters? I honestly wonder.
Leigh, I don’t (wonder, that is). However noble its motivations, however necessary its actions, a military intervention would be an unmitigated disaster. I don’t need to spell it out; just ponder on the implications, domestically with the public already bitterly divided (assuming they’re even paying attention) and internationally with friends and enemies alike.
Not if it was supported by both parties.
What good is it to avoid civil war at all cost, when the result is the same terror and unfreedom with or without civil war. At least "with" gives subjugated half a fighting chance.
Fair point, and you’re right, if both parties said Yes it would have more legitimacy. Do you think the Republicans would, though?
Alexander Haig? Michael Flynn?
We need people like your late father's friends to make sure all the services know their duty to refuse illegal orders.
I recall reading that Trump wasn't actually doing too well financially by the time of the Apprentice and was basically saved by that show.
"Hi, I'm not a real successful businessman, but I play one on TV"
I think you have to add in social media's effect on the population. The disinformation is readily available to any unthinking person that will swallow it.
Here is a famous poem from Dutch resistance, widely and illegally spread during the occupation of the Nazi's in the 40's. Again very applicable today.
The translation into English is not as elegant and at the same time heartbreaking as the original, but here goes:
We stand together before the choice between good or evil.
A nation that yields to tyrants,
will lose more than life and property,
then the light goes out.
As I’ve said here before, and been met with some hostility, Trump, and now Musk, are seriously psychologically deranged individuals. Trump has the added element of probably suffering from dementia.
Anyone familiar with the humorously titled, but totally serious, podcast called “Shrinking Trump” would come to the same conclusion. Trump has been deranged for years but the addition of Musk, who clearly is a manic sociopath, has enabled Trump to drive his sadistic tendencies to new levels.
Like with Hitler in the 1930’s, the questions also revolve around how our a large portion of our society, particularly the Republican Party itself, continues to support something so obviously destructive.
The destruction will need to affect the Reps directly before they begin to doubt. The way muskrat and tRump are going, it should only be a month or two. I'd love it to be sooner!
Am an applied mathematician. What I’ve consistently observed, from looking at a lot of data over many years, it’s inevitable that the worst person will get any job. Then, that person will do as much damage as the job allows and they’re allowed to do. (Can I quantify this? Probably.) My point: Trump is the symptom of a broken American democracy.
Trump, I’m certain, will fail. He’s too stupid and the damage he’s causing hurts his followers as well as those who are against him. Eventually, however, a smarter version of Trump will be elected. So, although it’s not part of the popular discussion around Trump and the GOP — as far I know — the way the American government gives power to the president and how his power is restrained has to be changed. I’d like the discussion to begin. But I suspect that it will only start when Trump, or a more dangerous version of him, makes it evident that it’s not a corrupt and dangerous politician that’s the problem but a system that allows it.
You are assuming some future fair elections. Not at all a given.
If Trump has the ability to stop or interfere with an election, then this validates my point that the system of American democracy is broken. If he doesn’t, this doesn’t invalidate my point. I’m simply referring to a debate where American democracy can prevent what’s happening and other problems. It’s no more dependent on an election than our original revolution was.
That is why Peter Thiel's operatives slotted JD Vance into place. Trump won't live forever.
I'm not proud to say things like that, but It's a shame that the virus that went around in the 1980s and 1990s spared Peter Thiel.
I think this may be a long way down the road. The smarter version is the 2025 Christian Nationalists. They have hidden their agenda from the general public who are more in the barstool Republican mode. In decades their theocracy would weaken through infighting and lack of popular support.
Open Primaries and an end to gerrymandering would make a big difference. The current system where the election is mostly determined in the primaries encourages radicals.
Yes (unfortunately) exactly. One other data set that's informative of the weakness of American democracy is the extreme influence that American Christians, almost all of whom are on the far-right, have politically.
The dataset set I'm referring to is from the Pew Center. It shows: 1) as Christianity has become less widespread and influential in the US, American Christians have become much more politically extreme (to the right, that is). 2) There's a strong linear correlation between being a pious Christian and being on the far-right. The inverse, interestingly, is also true. The less likely you are to believe in Christianity, the more likely you are to be on the left.
So, reform of American democracy, imo, is more than just open primaries, etc. It would need to isolate the influence of extreme groups, such as pious Christians. One way would be through a parliamentary system. That is, there would be more political parties. The effect of this would be to change the winner-take-all American system, where only two political parties are effectively functional.
But, as you mentioned, this is indeed a long way down the road.
When did Trump actually succeed? I don't mean elections which had interference to get him in.
Trump has never achieved his goals but he has not let that get in the way.
One thing most people see is that it's hatred that drives his thinking, if one could call it that, and hate as a motivator cuts in all directions.
The idea that he has a grand plan or even a concept of that is the drink of the perpetual sucker. The one that swallowed the propaganda.
Mitch the bitch was an essentiel stone on which this fascist coup was built. Impeachments, scotus nominations etc. Was he already insane? Maybe not but deranged and demented he is. And the true biggest ponzi scheme remains the junk US treasury bonds.
Mitch is cold, calculating and not insane. Just evil.
Let us not forget that his wife is at least a mega-millionaire, and maybe a card carrying member of the Bloated Billionaire Club.
Did you ever notice he has lifeless eyes like a shark?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUuH4TEmgLo
Dead eyes.
Yes. And this is diagnostic of psychopathy.
DITTO. They really are barking mad. And that means not only delusional in their desires and beliefs, it also mean they both have extreme character disorders characterized by massively inflated egos, disdain for other people, an inability to ever say enough is enough when it comes to acquiring money, etc, AND it is more than possible that both men abuse and or are actually addicted to drugs, adderal in the case of Trump, and Ketamine in the case of Musk. And all of the above means, at a deep level, that they are irrational actors. They must be removed from the halls of government by any legitimate, legal ends possible. And fast. Millions of us are being put at serious risk by their words and deeds.
You mean they're psychopaths.
Any method of removal is legitimate. They're literally criminals.
Yes and yes. And anyone who is paying attention can see that they are criminals, with the malign intentions of criminals, driven by greed and amorality. But there seems to be no entity to enforce our laws against them. A flaw in our Constitution might be that impeachment is a paper tiger if Congress is supine.
In Trump's second impeachment, wouldn't enough GOP Senators have voted to convict except for the fact that MAGA thugs threatened their families?
The threats are there now everyday for the Republicans to feel. tRump is a mob boss, period.
That's one of many flaws in our Constitution. Article II is another big one.
The maniac that runs your country needs to understand that the "artificial line" is called a border and on the other side of it is a sovereign nation. That sovereign nation has 41 million people that will NEVER, under any circumstances, join the US. We are a PROUD people who can be, when pushed, very FIERCE.
If the maniac wants us, he will have to send the Marines (like Putin did to Ukraine). Then there will be lots of body bags coming home to the US.
Do you really want this? Take action now to, in the words of a former Prime Minister, "Stop this nonsense"!!!
I don't think Canada is under any real threat of physical invasion...yet. At this time, it's a bridge way too far. I'd venture a guess that you'd be lucky if you could come up with 5% of the truly QAnon crazies to support the idea.
I wonder how, or if FOX is treating the issue. I can't stand to watch it myself, but I'd guess that they treat it like Trump is trolling for a "truly great" trade deal, rather than a real threat. Or he's trolling to own the libs.
I do think economic attacks are very likely. I can see Trump and Co thinking that the Canadians will cave under economic pressure. People who's highest value is held in monetary terms don't understand those of us who have values of honesty, loyalty, honor...that exceed those of money.
Don’t pay attention to his noise, he’s using that as a tactic to get attention, he’s done this before, wild accusations and comments, it’s his madman strategy to throw everyone off balance, keep you head, be stronger, calmer, don’t fold, he’s actually a very weak man child.
Ummm, except he has the Insurrection Act of 1807 on his side and he's going to use it.