From a European standpoint, I think it's going to be a while before US can be trusted again, even if Trump were to resign today. Your system gives the president so much power, that a bad actor can wreak enormous havock. Until now everyone could assume they would be kept in check by convention and courts - but clearly not.
Trump resigning today would not change a single thing, because his voters would still be there and none the wiser.
You can't have trust in a country when half of its electorate wants authoritarianism, and it's literally a coin flip whether their president will be a "strongman" or sanity prevails.
You're partially correct here, however, I hasten to point out that the Orange MAGAmaggot King won a >plurality< - a little over one third of the electorate. Approximately another third voted for Harris, and the remaining third stayed home. Thus, it's quite a bit less than half of the electorate that wants an authoritarian.
We've already seen in Republican town halls across the country pissed off constituents who are now finally realizing what they voted for., so the tide is turning - and as Prof. Krugman points out, it's only the Orange Turd's and Skunk Musk's fifth week in power.
You and @Shauna are certainly right in that I did not use the word "electorate" correctly.
It would have been correct to say that 30% of the electorate voted for a sane candidate while 70% of the electorate refused to do so, resulting in an insane criminal as POTUS.
I'm not sure that this corrected diagnosis is any more uplifting or trust-inspiring. The Republican town halls are not trust-inspiring to me. It seems to me that their protests can be boiled down to "HEY, I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO HURT THE *OTHER* GUYS!!!1!", so it doesn't indicate that they have found moral or decency in their hearts.
People always stay home from the polls, and that is, of course, to be lamented. But the relevant statistics are that Trump won a narrow plurality of the vote ACTUALLY CAST. And, in fact, it was a bit less than 50% of the total vote cast, with the remaining small fraction going to 3rd party candidates. The point: it would not take that much of a shift is the ACTUAL VOTE for the Dems to win again. And that could happen in the 2026 mid-terms as far as Congress is concerned (more hope in the House than in the Senate), if Tusk has not prevailed by that time to cancel, or otherwise sabotage the mid-terms, something they are very hard at work on as we speak. And there is little reason to hope that the Roberts SCOTUS won't aid and abet them in this project. The resentment caucus (Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch) needs only Roberts or Barrett to side with them.
Actually even worse Trump got 30% of disUSA voting age population harris 29% or so; so 40% failed to vote giving the World to neo reaction MAGAistas. USA freely elected a criminal sex offender whom many believe is insane ( nonetheless a useful idiot to enable the fascism and misery to come).
No..it is NOT HALF THE COUNTRY WHAT SO EVER....then 1/3 (+) voted for trump...1/3( +) for Harris and the rest said.... I hate you both Im not voting OR voter fraud worked and they could not vote. YES there is a massive problem ....ie Britain today does NOT allow mis information on their main stream media... like the good old days here when things WERE FACT CHECKED here and must be again. The Red states have been lied to for 10 + years and it's worse today than ever. OK we have an explosion in the building and so most everything needs to be rebuilt again...we can do that. But that is IF WE DO NOT END UP AN AUTOCRACY ... then the problems we had will seem so so SMALL
We had a fairness doctrine that allowed checks on propaganda. Reagan ended it. That Fox "news" is allowed by the FCC to function as a news outlet instead of being recognized as an agitprop trumpet of the right shows how far behind other nations we are. When Fox applied to broadcast in the UK, it was prohibited specifically because it was seen for what it is=an agitprop tool.
In my view, Fox remains a propaganda machine and not a news outlet, but the UK has never banned it. In our battle against the constant lies of Trump and MAGA, we should be better than that.
You are right that it is significantly less than half of Americans who want an authoritarian government but wrong about the UK media not allowing misinformation. Rupert Murdoch and others on the right own the majority of the UK’s print media. GB television news is the UK’s version of Fox. Even the BBC was pressured by the Tory government with threats to funding and right wingers appointed to its oversight board. British conservative and right wing media helped sell Brexit based on blatant lies about the wonders it would bring the UK economy.
Brexit has led to a significant reduction of economic growth and the damage is so obvious the public finally saw through the lies and threw the Tories out.
Brexit disassociated GB from the EU and as we are now doing the same we will suffer the same consequences. It really is stupid, in modern times, to think a nation can prosper by going it alone.
We must be realistic about the situation there is a large depoliticised blob of voters in America who continue to side with Orange Man and his cronies but that is because it easily could have been left leaning Liberal Democrat’s from the 90s who created Trumps villain syndrome original story . We are going to have to ride out this hard right turn and course correct in 4 years . Who will fill the vacuum ? Ivanka Trump probably .
You are assuming there will be free and fair elections. These people believe "might makes right" and I don't think Musk will allow his side to lose.
If the ship doesn't right it's self soon we're going to sink.
Other countries have thrown off authoritarians, perhaps we will be able to do so in the future. Brazil refused to give Bolsanaro another shot at being King.
Most did not know what they were voting for. Remember, Trump distanced himself from project 2025 because it caused his polls to tank, yet that is what he is doing, so clearly he already knew that voters did not approve of that, but he is doing it anyway. Many seemed to think he could control inflation because they do not know how any of that works.
Farmers will whine about not having something to whine about.
They are a whiny bunch.
The cutting of their Federal bennies, deporting their manual laborers and taking their health care are going to really wind up the whine machine. They won't vote for Democrats, however, because of abortion and "the gays".
You can't do anything about willful ignorance and magical thinking. Most popular video/film shows a strong man making everything right again...Lord of the Rings sort of stuff. (I really enjoy the stories and movies.) I think it is something programed into our species. We can override it, but it's difficult.
The whole point of LoTR is that the world was saved by..an ordinry, inconspicous hobbit. A nobody, who found himself, propelled on a journey to save the world he barely new existed beyond the Shire.
All the "strong men" in the entire trilogy were there to distract the enemy from noticing Frodo and Samwise on their mission to Mt Doom.
I actually prefer the "Aliens" series as the metaphor..."No one listens to the smart lady until it's too late"
I think a significant amount of this magical thinking is generated by the large evangelical Christo-nationalist population and cultural influence. Why bother worrying about who to vote for when it's all in god's hands and/or it will get taken care of in the "next" life.
I doubt that a JD Vance, or anyone else, for that matter, could command the MAGA faithful like Trump does. It's a cult of personality, by and for Trump.
I suspect that Republicans in Congress might suddenly find their misplaced backbones if Trump were gone through whatever means.
We will see what happens in Wisconsin during their state Supreme Court election. Musk is dumping tons of money to get his person elected (Strict Scrutiny podcast - the best) . If you know anyone in Wisconsin, beg them to vote blue.
Yes, the Wisconsin election will be an early barometer, if only to see how much Musk’s money changes outcomes. If it does, we’re in even more trouble than we think because Republicans are terrified of being primaried if they show the slightest deviation from abject MAGA-dom, and Don Jr. and his henchmen are alert for any signs of independence. It was interesting that the GOP Senators defied Trump in choosing the majority leader to succeed McConnell - the vote was confidential, so they could not be bullied. Given Musk’s wealth, $1 million to fund a primary challenge - even the threat of it - is chump change, so it’s unrealistic to expect Republicans to grow a spine in the next four years. The more interesting question is, can Vance (or Don Jr) repeat Trump’s magic trick? Vance is undoubtedly smart, but he’s unlikeable. Don Jr. has the name but Steve Bannon (a malevolent but very smart guy) says he is as dumb as a rock. That will eventually come out. But there are an awful lot of smart, cynical, wealthy people who have a lot riding on being able to keep this train rolling. So far, the Democrats have been navel-gazing and bickering amongst themselves. There’s no sign of a Clinton or Obama emerging, and America still doesn’t seem ready for a female POTUS, sadly.
Yes I agree. I think the GOP could become quite vulnerable after Trump especially if the dems can cultivate some strong young leaders. All this destruction of government and worsening of economic woes for working people will come back and bite them for a long time
Yes, delaying is a primary Trump tactic. See the last several years criminal charges against Trump.
But the courts are pushing back against Trump - so far.
My question remains, what happens when that fails and Trump just tells the courts (paraphrasing Andrew Jackson), "You want me to stop, come and arrest me?"
There is a big difference between actually wanting authoritarianism and being tuned out or focussed on, diverted to, non-existential issues. Huge. Once people get what they have done by not voting or voting for change, they will get it. They will get what lying and demagoguery is, and how painful it can be.
Perhaps you are right, that we have been too self-absorbed, too glued to our social media feed, too NOT INVOLVED in our country and our governance.
Our country was designed for the people to run it, not for it to run itself. We need to be reminded of that - and the only sure way is for us to experience pain because we FORGOT that.
I expect that he will keep threatening tariffs and postponing them. That is already impacting the economy - Capitalism depends on the investment in capital, and that doesn't happen when the investors are seeing this sort of chaos - but the impacts aren't visible to most people.
I strongly suspect trump is the glue that holds everything together. That's why the techno-authoritarians like musk and others put so much money into buying his election. They understand his worth. In short, he commands a slavish cult, and shares their dystopian vision of enormous wealth for the "Cognitive Elite".
The genius of Trump has been that he knows ahead of time what he is up to and makes sure he accuses those he opposes of just that, i.e corruption, elites. Then people (and media) will just say "both sides" and tune out. Not this time. It's very clear where the corruption is and who are the elites.
Well, it wasn’t half of the country that wanted him. More people voted for someone other than trump. And with an unfortunately small proportion of eligible voters voting, what I have read in reliable places if that trump got approximately 32% of the vote eligible voters.
I don’t really think the authoritarians understand what authoritarianism really is. They think they’re just gutting gov workers, killing regs, and getting rid of brown people. They haven’t a fricking clue.
The constitution isn’t the problem, the problem is decades of media normalization of Republican extremism and the laziness of American voters who ignored that threat even after it was too obvious for anyone paying attention to miss. For example voters who paid attention in 2000 would have realized Gore was far more qualified than Bush yet thousands of people on the left threw their votes away on Nader, helping defeat Gore just because he wasn’t their perfect candidate. Nader got over 90,000 votes in Florida, a state Gore lost by less than 600 votes. It was Bush, not Trump, who appointed Roberts and Alito.
The extremist justices on our Supreme Court have no problem touting their “originalism” as they twist our constitution into something our founders would not recognize — money as speech, presidential power over the power of the legislature, unregulated guns, and more. None of those anti-democracy principles are in the constitution, it is just what their plutocratic, far right owners demand be the law of our land. For decades our mainstream “liberal” media treated that outright deception and corruption as normal.
“Threw away their votes”, do you not understand how problematic that statement is? A majority of the political issues we face in this country are a result of a 2 party system that works together to keep 3rd parties out. It’s elitism like that that gave Bush the win over Gore.
"For example voters who paid attention in 2000 would have realized Gore was far more qualified than Bush"
I'm a science fiction reader, so I sometimes play this "alternate history" game in my head, what would have the past 20 years have looked like if Gore v. Bush had been decided in favor of Gore? I think for starters, the 9/11 attacks would have been prevented. That would have NOT resulted in Afghanistan and Iraq. Etc.
The streaming TV series "For All Mankind" does a good job of re imagining our history of the past 50 years. I think the next season is just now getting to the early 21st century.
May depend on bad people are hurting. Europe has strong social safety nets because of the destruction of WWII. Shame it may take something similar happening in the US to see the light. MuT is doing its best to destroy the US government, the military (I fear that it will be turned onto its citizens), and of course destroying our relationship with allies.
Article V - The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress.
So, skipping to the last clauses, any amendment must be approved by the Legislatures of at least 38 States.
It isn’t our system that’s the problem it’s the growth of rightwing populist ideology aided by Russian propaganda. The Tory Party’s Boris Johnson led the deeply dishonest push for the Brexit referendum which has badly damaged the UK’s relationship with Europe.
True but it’s a disaster Republicans created — with the help of our media. For example Carter was roundly mocked for rejecting the symbols of the imperial presidency and got no credit for his good government innovations — for example instituting Inspectors General and making presidential records public. His good government efforts were mocked as “goo-goo”.
Iran Contra proved that Reagan and his VP Bush had no problem violating the separation of powers with that reckless conspiracy yet both were held in higher esteem by our media than Carter.
I was saying 4 years ago when Biden became president that Europe shouldn't trust the US. At the time, I knew the situation was not settled and that Europe should build up whatever it thinks it needs to defend itself. Part of the mistake people make is thinking Trump is the problem. It is half the people of this country who are the problem, and Trump is a symptom.
Europe should depend on itself. It breaks my heart to say it, because I value our former friendship with Europe. But, this is the reality.
It goes back longer than that. This distrust is why France and the United Kingdom both have nuclear weapons. They realized that the US would not defend them if the USSR threatened to nuke NYC for interfering in an invasion of Europe.
Well, clearly, they haven't taken it far enough then as evidenced by their scrambling now to figure out what to do having an inadequate standing army.
But, really, I was denoting a sea change in American commitment that wasn't there before - realizing that isolationist populism was on the rise and not going away very soon, I knew we were likely not going to defend Europe very soon and would have previously.
I’m not of the opinion that we can ever be trusted again, and I don’t think our neo-Nazis running the government care one iota. They will take our country down completely, mayhem will ensue, and I’m cynically doubting there will be another election. Trump has his goons in the armed services, FBI and every other agency ready to defend his every wish. He’s 78 years old, must believe he will live forever, or he wouldn’t waste his/our time selling his fraudulent gadgets to the public while he was elected to run the country, not sell garbage to the public. Conflicts of interest everywhere.
The weakness in the American system should not be understated. One corrupt individual should not be able to do what the orange menace has done and appears to be headed to do. There are obviously powerful forces supporting him behind the scenes, which is all the more reasons we need stronger systems than it appears we have. Let's hope that that strength and resilience is already there, and we just don't see it yet.
As an American of the United States, I want to express my profound regret about the way the U.S. government has so hideously morphed. We did not do enough to stop it. Maybe we still can.
I don't think that our system, which was mostly designed in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, took into account the possibility of a mentally ill individual, a corrupt individual, or a group with the means to wield outsize influence over the rest of us.
I read an article several weeks ago that suggested that the US will have to reconsider it's constitution in the wake of Trump. I have read enough analysis that scares the [stuff] out of me that there is truly nothing (at least legally) in place that can stop someone like a Trump.
And the republicans in congress that have the duty to protect and work for their constituents’ wellbeing sided with trump/musk the whole way. trump, president musk, and the republican congress had it all planned. They sold the American People for goods, enrichment , power, and perks of our government and taxpayer’s funds. If only the US leaders would of taken action back when trump left office in 2020 after we lived through a number of trump’s malefic actions that rang the alarm for us. But I guess our leaders took it for granted, were to complacent and naively thought nothing bad will happen again or trump won’t run or win elections again. Well, too late— “could of, would of, should of.” The US is doomed—and no Congress to protect our citizens. Let’s see which leaders wake up to place guardrails for the next elections… But, but will there be elections??? This nation is trapped.
The presidential system is clearly inferior to a parliamentary system, where the prime minister can be kept from going off the rails by the directly elected legislature.
Congress has the constitutional power to do this. The Republican party abandoned their responsibilities long ago. McConnell could've put Trump in the dustbin duing his first term, but was more loyal to party than to country.
Of course. But Trump would have had to get elected to Congress in 2016, and then be elected Prime Minister by fellow Republican members of Congress. I doubt that would have happened.
Also: the two-thirds supermajority requirement for Senate removal is a far higher bar (especially when FPTP entrenches two parties) than the government losing a confidence vote with a simple majority — another safety mechanism of the parliamentary system.
As an American, I do not trust us and it is good to see some sanity in the world. We are a country that has had an un-metastasized cancer of greed, bigotry, racism, elitism and religious nationalism metastasize that is destroying our remaining healthy corpus.
I hope Canada, a rising power, remains strong and aligns itself with Continental Europe and diminishes its contact with the sick UK so they can immunize themselves from not only them but from us.
It is certainly appropriate for Europe to consider the future well. The US system has demonstrated how little understanding of human nature the US Constitution contains. Or, perhaps then, as now, there was no way apply stronger guidance over the objections of extreme elements. In any case, those in Europe have for more in common with each other than they do with the people of the US, who have yet to see how empires evolve with failure.
At the time the US Constitution was an extraordinary document.
Unfortunately some concessions were made at the time due to slavery which are coming back to haunt us today. Then there was the poor implementation that didn't match the words for the vast majority of Americans that lived under that Constitution.
As a country we have been fixing the gap between the words and actions, but the festering sores that the concessions to slaveholding states created are eating us alive and are unfixable due exactly to those concessions.
The US is clearly a broken country with no easy way out. Maybe it will take a hard lesson like Trump to shake us up enough to fix it.
If there were time I might be optimistic. Unfortunately we are also confronting global problems that will almost certainly erase all forms of human governance in cataclysms of our own making.
What;s with the word trust - Biden and the new world order play book/ covid scam and other denigrative policies intentionally made the American economy unsustainable. Trump has to wreak enormous havock to (try) and save his beloved country from bankruptcy.. Duh.....
Am I correct that back in the '90s the US (and others) signed an agreement to guarantee Ukraine's independence, in exchange for which Ukraine gave up it's nuclear weapons?
Yep. The US and Russia both guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty. Of course Putin, being a nasty little KGB snake, had no intention of honoring it. Obama, along with some of our other allies, began the process of arming ang training Ukraine's military after the initial Russian invasion in 2014. Which assistance was strongly opposed by our GOP, btw.
That's why everything Trump runs goes bankrupt. Unlike real estate purchases, many businesses also rely on repeat business. Yes, one can use a power imbalance to extract short-term concessions - but in the long run, they'll find someone else to do business with. Example: it's hard to run a restaurant if the butchers and greengrocers think you won't pay your bills, and stop selling you the raw ingredients for your menu items.
These were assurances in 1994 but not a treaty. Russia/Putin broke/breached the agreement and everything- this war- flowed from that. Had Ukraine kept its nukes, we would be in a different place obviously. The US ( and the UK-still) in helping Ukraine were keeping to the assurances,.
We here in the US are caught by the betrayals of the GOP, power grabbing, attempted regime change, some say a coup-- whatever we call it. It should be seen that way by the world. Most of us do not want this. We will see.
Our system has been gamed by the GOP for decades to get to this place, partisans loyal to the party. And Trump walked in and took over. Trump finished the process that Nixon/Reagan began.
But any treaty or agreement is only so good as the leadership in place, not the signatories. The GOP behaved for years sort of. Then began the serious power grabbing.
We relied on norms. Now with Trump, norms have eroded and laws mean next to nothing, if not nothing. The legal system is burdened with saving us. The GOP Congress has abdicated.
This can happen to any country.. and has.
The world has looked to us, relied on us since WW2 and we reveled in our power. I don't know if we deserved that reputation to begin with having come in at the end of the war. But we saved the day- we usedthe bomb! Putin still points to that.
It's time Europeans woke up, well past this time. Europe is basically strong and potentially very strong. I want the Euros to prevail now. We here need to fix a lot, to put it mildly. People here need to wake up. We do not want autocracy and won't stand for it once this is understood. We have become complacent, conned and lulled.. getting and spending. It's beginning to hit more. 250 years on, we must keep our democracy and make it better.
Those assurances were established at Yalta in 1943. When the USSR collapsed in '89 due to its own odiousness; but then began to rebuild, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, etc. literally BEGGED for admission to NATO. Because they knew that a revanchist Russia would conquer them if they didn't.
There were no such assurances even... nothing formal about NATO expansion. This is myth taken mistakenly from one on one conversations, non binding, nebulous. The truth never got its pant on with that one. Look it up. There are several articles about this.. here is one: https://hls.harvard.edu/today/there-was-no-promise-not-to-enlarge-nato/
Keep in mind when we bring Gorbachov into this it was before the dissolution of the USSR. There were hopes it would become more democratic or modify and join Europe eventually. The US and the others were not pushing for the breakup. That happened internally..Yeltsin etc.. Russia took over, inherited the nukes (but not Ukraine's nukes) after and Putin began his autocratic regime. Many of the former USSR members, the Eastern Europeans wanted out.
Thanks for the reference. I wasn’t aware of all this.
I realise that the breakup of the Soviet Union was internal, not caused the US or other external forces.
I also understand that there was the expectation that the USSR would evolve to a more democratic govt.
For the statement of Gorbachev, maybe he was trying to say that there was no formal agreement, although from your reference there was certainly the expectation from the Soviet side that there would be no expansion eastward. On the question of the 3 Baltic states, most if not all western govts never recognized Soviet annexation of them, so it is easy to see how they would want to join NATO.
Considering that WW2 started with the partition of Poland by Hitler & Stalin, it is expected that they would want the security of NATO membership.
I don’t remember the evolution of the other central European states joining NATO.
Yalta was a de facto giveaway to Stalin, that subjected all of Eastern Europe to nearly half a century of utter crap. It established 'zones of influence' as per diplomatic boundaries. But no more. Gorbachov--speaking from a deck chair on the the sinking and soon-to-be-defunct USSR, was merely uttering wish-speak regarding his soon to be ex-Warsaw Pact members.
When Russia began to recover economically from the breakup of the USSR in the 'aughts, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, etc. BEGGED for admission to NATO and the EU. Because they knew Russia would have done to them EXACTLY what it's doing--or trying to do--with Ukraine.
Being under NATOs nuclear umbrella was a vital decision for these Eastern European countries at the time and borne out in time. Ukraine should not have settled for vague assurances in 1994 -hindsight.This war upon Ukraine is proving that nuclear weapons are necessary to have or be under an umbrella to survive. This painful lesson Zelensky knows well now.
True to an extent, but nothing was ever put down in any sort of treaty. Hardly makes a difference though due to Russia having the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
this is long and you and others need patience to get the detailed story straight.
*Russia, the present form of the country, came into the story when the USSR dissolved.* The "assurances" from NATO members such as they were- were never firm or formal... more like conversations between parties. The hope was that the USSR would modify itself and join Europe. We and the Euros did not want more conflict after the Cold War. NATO is a defensive, not an aggressive organization. After the USSR dissolution Putin had other ideas for himself and for Russia.. He wanted his own sphere based on autocratic (kleptocratic) rule with Russia leading.
BTW don't forget that the five-power agreement that stopped Iran's nuke development was already in effect when it was killed by Trump. Of course, the US media immediately and unanimously did forget: when Iran responded sensibly by resuming production of near-weapons-grade U235, they kept up a barrage of "OOOH, that evil Iran, stepping up its production of nukes!!!"
BTBTW, Iran is a horrid theocracy, hardly better than Trump, but it still has notional interests and pursues them.
From the US State Department website (which hasn't yet been erased):
"The United States established diplomatic relations with Ukraine in 1991, following its independence from the Soviet Union. The United States attaches great importance to the success of Ukraine as a free and democratic state with a flourishing market economy. U.S. policy is centered on supporting Ukraine in the face of continued Russian aggression as it advances reforms to strengthen democratic institutions, fight corruption, and promote conditions for economic growth and competition. The United States does not, and will not ever, recognize Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea, and continues to work with our partners to seek a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in eastern Ukraine. The U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership highlights the importance of the bilateral relationship and the continued commitment of the United States to support enhanced engagement between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine."
OK, but it's news to me that " U.S. policy is centered on supporting Ukraine in the face of continued Russian aggression". Where have you been since that old long-forgotten 2024?
Paul, you're again spot on. Here in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the sense of the US betraying our continent, our common values, is felt deep in organisations, the media, and huge parts of the population. That just in a couple of weeks the US have chosen to collude with North Korea and Russia in the UN: we are stunned, bewildered. Everybody here will say farewell to the old friend, which liberated us from the Nazis, just 80 years ago. We are finally on our own. We will use our competitive and economic power to stand up to MAGA-Trump. And never accept lying and deceit. The US government 'a Putin-loving thuggery'. Who would have thought that......
Those of us here, stunned over these months that our own neighbors and countrymen would betray our values, are crushed by these horrifying weeks, heartbroken in being associated with such thuggery and malice. We’re here, we’re trying to find routes back. My immigrant father would have been crushed by this turn of the country he trusted to at least be true to its words with its friends…at the very least.
Trump has been connected to Putin since the 1980's and the plan to have him elected began I guess around 2014-15....and HERE we are. A TRAITOR is sitting in the White House..breaking all guardrails...it is ugly and it is real
It’s just as hard for us to believe here at home. When I told people at political events this was coming, even twenty years ago, they said it was impossible, it couldn’t happen here. But the signs have been coming actually since the end of WWII with the advent of the John Birch Society and their followers. The Kochs and their cohorts are now getting exactly what they planned for back then.
Yes. It’s what I’ve been fighting all of my life. So sad to see it come to fruition. But I’m still going to fight. I’ll never ever bend knee to this evil regime.
Rather than an apology, we need unity, a unified stance against the destruction of our fragile democracy. If all minorities see what’s being done to every one of them, including women, we could unite in power.
Well, Pres. Macron is having none of it, as he was masterfully taking the piss, while tRump sat there like a rotting yam, periodically rousing his head, smirking, then lapsing into sullen silence. Finally, Euro leaders are pulling the curtain back, thence to reveal a naked Emperor with a decerebrate's incomprehension of the world around him.
Please understand that Trump is a totally ignorant and uneducated man with no sense of history. I doubt he's read a book in his life (JMO), but to many of us here, he's an embarrassment, a person who would do anything to steal an election, as he will do again the 26 mid-terms by taking millions of minorities and women off the voter rolls.
If the Europeans really want to stick it to the US and to Trump they would cancel ALL deals with US military contractors. No guns, no planes, no bullets, no shells, no nothing. Shift all of those purchases to European or other suppliers. The CEOs of Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing and all the rest will be in the Oval Office in a half a heartbeat whining, crying and demanding Trump change course.
I don't know that anyone is in a vindictive mood right now. But you don't need a vindictive mood either.
Sine ira et studio you can come to the conclusion that it's too big of a security risk to rely on the US who has no compunction to renege on any contract at whim.
This has not been generally true about the US and certainly not with regard to Ukraine. We- Obama, Biden, even Trump prior to 2022, were helping Ukraine which actually was complying with the Budapest agreement 1994 spurred by Putin's breach of it in 2014 (and prior).
We are now dealing with a power grab here.
Hopefully the Euros will take over. It's well past when they already should have. Trump lit the fire. Euros have to protect themselves.
We have existential issues here with this anti-democratic scourge upon us. A lot of us are deeply sympathetic to and supporting Ukraine understanding that this battle must be won. It must be won not only for Ukraine against Putin and Trump, but for the well being of the world, the international order. This is existential.
All of those people whose security detail was stripped from them were probably the guardrails keeping Trump prior to 2022 from doing Putin's bidding. News reports vaguely ascribe it to advice given to Trump re: Iran....bombing of one of it's generals by a drone, but perhaps advising detrimental to Trump's interests with Russia is the real reason.
Make haste slowly. Europeans must first build munitions factories and expand the ones they have. But they definitely need to quit buying munitions like F-16s from a country that refuses to grant them permission to use them.
As best I can tell from the Ukraine War, European weapons are at least as effective as American ones, are generally far cheaper and more practical to use. If the EU builds up and consolidates their defense industry, they can do to the US what Airbus did to Boeing. Also, this would help boost a lackluster EU economy and improve their high tech capabilities.
I’m no longer sure this scenario would play out. Until the past few months, it was laughable to think an anti-science anti-vaxxer would prevail over the pharmaceutical lobby to become the head of HHS. When Big Pharma no longer has the lobbying clout to prevent an appointment that directly affects its bottom line, can we really be sure other historically powerful industries would prevail?
Yes, for example, Canada has an F35 program in place, but with no deliveries so far. We should take the hit and buy from Europe today. Same thing with a few subs. Get a French sub or 3 and patrol the arctic. Let's buy Turkish and Ukrainian drones which seem to be very effective.
PS, I bet the Australians are pleased as punch that they whacked the French sub deal and went with the US/UK sub. Which will now cost more due to tariffs on steel and aluminum. And will be subject to US whims on where they can be used.
Trumps latest post of the AI video of his vision for Gaza sets a new low in degeneracy and the utter absence of any decent values. The disgrace, shame and stain on America and Americans reputation will last for decades. Ive looked through Project 2025 and can see where this going.
It is some consolation to read your articles Paul and those of Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich. Being reminded that there are decent, appalled Americans.
But it needs millions to be vocal and active and we’ve not seen that yet.
And yes I have family in the USA about whom I worry. Living in a dystopian combination of Margaret Attwood’s Handmaids Tale and Charlie Brookers Black Mirror.
My greatest fear right now is that we're potentially going to witness an ethnic cleansing in Gaza with real time footage from social media, and MAGA and israeli extremists openly cheering on it.
I don't see any scenario in which how it wouldn't end in a conflagration / extreme violence.
I don’t know if the following makes sense. However, if I look at American businesses they don’t like rivals; if there is a threat they buy them up or destroy them. China is a threat, but as shown Russia is just annoying. The EU, if it ever properly comes together, could be a threat, already some of its regulatory actions show independence. Therefore it makes sense from a right wing business perspective to break the EU up.
The other thing is, the US in some sense defines itself by its optimism and its Constitution/rule of law. MAGA is saying the US is weak and hopeless, in other words is attacking optimism: everyone is ripping us off, we need tariffs to protect ourselves and so on. The Constitution/rule of law: well, obviously attacking that. So Trump is attacking America’s fundamental identity. Talk about the enemy within. Utterly astonishing.
EU hasn’t had any problem holding US companies to task. US businesses go where the money is and will conform to their laws especially if the countries can’t be bought off. The citizens of EU have no qualms about standing up for their rights. I admire these people greatly.
In his first term, DonnyJon actually said he wanted to break the EU up. He said he preferred to deal with each country separately, instead of having deal with the whole EU.
I'm not sure how banning US tourism would alleviate any terrorism worries. Unless you redefine the brash behavior of the proverbial "ugly American" to be terrorism.
Thanks. Thank you for your enlightening analysis, and the occasional ray of hope. From the other side of the pond, what America is becoming, and its global repercussions, is very distressing to witness. I do hope that Europe, the de-facto now "good guys", will raise to the challenge
Good grief, Trump's lack of knowledge is really embarrassing.
Every time Trump talks, the first thing that pops into my head was that Rex Tillerson, the energy executive, who was Trump's first Secretary of State in his first administration, called Trump a "Fucking Moron."
Just about everyone who ever worked closely with him said he was unfit for office and several even said he was a Fascist. Only a couple remained in his camp, like Miller, or a "co-conspirator" or two.
The Europeans have provided far more assistance to Ukraine than we have, and this has been the case for quite awhile now (not a recent development) and unlike us, are still committing to do so.
They have also taken in refugees from Ukraine, and Ukraine for its own defense has paid with its soldiers and the destruction to its cities and towns and is holding the line protecting the continent.
Russia has been greatly weakened by all of this. Not only is Russia's economy relatively small, much smaller than even the state of CA, but as Krugman points out, they have been weakened by the war, so much so, that they had to go to China and N Korea for help.
Prior to asking for assistance from N. Korea and China, Russia was severely on the ropes having lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in their cannon fodder approach (far more than Ukraine) and using up a lot of their military capability.
It was exactly at Russa's weakest point, when Ukraine had begun initially to take back some territory, that the House, under Trump's outside influence, stalled, kicked out McCarthy and refused to fund Ukraine for 6 months, or pass a budget, allowing Russia to regroup and run to China and N. Korea.
The main sticking point in budget and leadership negotiations was the Freedom Caucus who were closely allied with Trump who had just become the front runner in the GOP primary.
Prior to Trump becoming the GOP frontrunner in the primary, the House had no problem funding Ukraine.
Once Russia secured the added assistance, suddenly, the House was able to come up with leadership and a budget.
Coincidence?
So, it is no surprise that Trump is still helping Russia in all of this, or that now the US, under Trump, even voted with Russia and N Korea in Russia's defense on an international stage the other day.
The Europeans are right not to trust Trump, who should not be trusting Russia.
Russia’s economy is smaller than Chile’s. Yes, Tillerson as Secretary of State but also all the generals and chiefs of staff. Scott Bessent is a smart guy who is destroying his reputation by behaving like a mafia goon; Marco Rubio was a reputable senator, now he’s a parody. I’d predict that they will not last, but such fanatics as Miller, Patel & Kennedy will do so. Opportunists such as Hegseth, Gebbard and Lutkin will be exposed as incompetent, corrupt or merely out of favour. A carnival of clowns who can still do a lot of damage.
Well then, to put in even better perspective, "...European Union, which he (Trump) is insulting and threatening with trade war, has 9 times Russia’s GDP.."
This is from Krugman's post today, 2/28, called "Chaos is bad for Business."
The point is that Russia's economy "relatively speaking" is not huge.
EUROPE BECOMING STRONG COUNTER FORCE AFTER TRUMP ABANDONMENT
At 91 I have witnessed massive swings in global economic and geopolitical strength including:
1) Hitler way up, then gone;
2) Japan: massive empire, then gone;
3) Stalin: awesome, then gone;
4) British, French, and other European empires: dwindling, then gone;
5) American: 45% of world’s GDP after WW II and massive military power;
6) Europe: NATO, Common Market, European Union, Brexit;
7) Japan: rising giant, then ebbing;
8) Russia: brief post-Cold War era, then Putin authoritarianism;
9) China: sleeping giant awakes with fangs and upward economy;
10) Trump abandons Western allies and embraces Putin;
11) Europeans seek a counter force after Trump abandonment
As a former Foreign Service Officer, (and the person who in 1974 initiated international bond ratings at Moody’s) I am gobsmacked at how Trump has shattered our traditional ties with Europe (NATO and European Union) and has re-bromanced with Putin.
By my Foreign Service criteria, Trump is a traitor to core American principles. The Marshall Plan, which reconstructed much of post-WW II Europe, was the most magnificent act of generosity (and self interest) in American history.
Trump’s recent Putinesque bromances and abandonment of our military, political, and economic ties to Europe are the most sordid acts by an American president that I have ever witnessed.
I hope, post-Trump, that again America will become integrated with Europe. Meanwhile, Europe, on the front lines with Putin’s ‘Greater Russia’, is evolving as an independent entity on the global scene.
I deeply regret, at least for the moment, that Europe is obliged to view Trump’s America far more as an enemy than as an ally. Putin and XI must be chuckling.
I'm a Canadian. But my country is threatened daily by the US, with tariffs and annexation. Still, I am open to your suggestions about how this situation can be remedied, particularly if the Armed Services are loyal to Trump, not the Constitution. Does the citizenry just play dead (as they've mostly been doing)? There might not ever be another election.
There might not. DonnyJon told a religious crowd before the election, "If you vote for me, you'll never have to vote again." I expect he meant "you'll never GET to vote again."
It may be encouraging for you to read a most recent Reddit blog on "President Krasnov" and the many current and former service members' comments to it.
There are protests all over the US almost every day (Rachel Maddow is profiling them) but you don’t see it in legacy media. People are showing up to town halls. Agree need to get more people involved. MuT is F-ing up the economy so a lot more people will have time to participate.
I was in Europe the day of and shortly after the election. Anyone I spoke to pretty much said the same thing: we are on our own now and will have to step up. The US while important is not THAT important despite what you hear in the corporate media. The Professor verifies the awakening that I saw on the ground in November. PS - who is to say that US arms manufacturers won't continue to SELL their wares to, say the Europeans? Those arms manufacturers have to make a profit somehow and if DOGE cuts funds so that we shift funds to "the border" or "the wall" from DOD they have to get their $ from somewhere, especially if the Europeans move ahead and actually seize those Russian assets....
You underestimate the power of commerce in the US. US corporations find a way to sell to anyone tbh , albeit Iran or Russia. If there's a $ there's a way. King Trump is owned by the billionaires who are in his cabinet, on the front row of his inauguration or even the guy in his dacha near Sochi.
That last sentence means he serves multiple masters with competing interests which will ultimately cost him if he doesnt die first. Trump ran to (a) stay out of jail and (b) exact retribution on the people who properly prosecuted him. Otherwise the billionaires and Project 2025 run his policy which serves to make the wealthy wealthier, including the arms manufacturers.
Great points, thanks. I trust the last statue-musing was tongue-in-cheek. It’s also worth noting about the health of Germany’s democracy (vs. ours) that voter turnout Sunday was 80+%, evidently the highest since reunification. Moreover, the ratio of roughly sane to roughly crazy votes cast was something like 70% to 25% — in contrast to the approximate coin flips of our recent past.
They've been getting ready for this for weeks, and rightly so. Ukraine is a part of Europe, regardless of NATO or EU status. The new German chancellor is Trump proofing Germany as we speak, in a great hurry, before the new right-wing parliament is seated and they can block him. The United States, at least for the next four years, has become an Eastern Bloc nation and no one in Europe has any illusions otherwise.
Tulsi Gabbard, in early morning news, in her first actions as DNI, has fired employees who did naughty browsing. Curious, considering there are more important threats to worry about and, just maybe, they were trying to catch pervs? Who knows...
Rubio has turned out to be a full MAGAt. Unlike the first Trump administration, in which cabinet members put the brakes on Trump, he's embraced it all, nasty attitude included.
Some Republicans are resentful of Musk and they're all getting earfuls from constituents. One wonders whether self-preservation and growing a Musk-averse spine will become a thing just before reconciliation of the budget between the two houses of Congress? Yesterday's first pass at a new budget included some arm twisting at the last minute.
On the corporate side, between the slowdown in public spending and other issues, many corporations are shedding workers. Some are closing up shop entirely. I expect to see more failures. With the new management at BLS, who knows when we will have real unemployment numbers again.
On health policy, today's news brings some insights into what RFK is starting to do. Not good. His first acts target children who need psychiatric meds.
The world is weary of US and shielding itself. That means China and others will benefit at our deficit. Get ready for some strange times ahead, not good ones.
PS: Trump posted one crazy golden video last night...
From a European standpoint, I think it's going to be a while before US can be trusted again, even if Trump were to resign today. Your system gives the president so much power, that a bad actor can wreak enormous havock. Until now everyone could assume they would be kept in check by convention and courts - but clearly not.
Trump resigning today would not change a single thing, because his voters would still be there and none the wiser.
You can't have trust in a country when half of its electorate wants authoritarianism, and it's literally a coin flip whether their president will be a "strongman" or sanity prevails.
You're partially correct here, however, I hasten to point out that the Orange MAGAmaggot King won a >plurality< - a little over one third of the electorate. Approximately another third voted for Harris, and the remaining third stayed home. Thus, it's quite a bit less than half of the electorate that wants an authoritarian.
We've already seen in Republican town halls across the country pissed off constituents who are now finally realizing what they voted for., so the tide is turning - and as Prof. Krugman points out, it's only the Orange Turd's and Skunk Musk's fifth week in power.
You and @Shauna are certainly right in that I did not use the word "electorate" correctly.
It would have been correct to say that 30% of the electorate voted for a sane candidate while 70% of the electorate refused to do so, resulting in an insane criminal as POTUS.
I'm not sure that this corrected diagnosis is any more uplifting or trust-inspiring. The Republican town halls are not trust-inspiring to me. It seems to me that their protests can be boiled down to "HEY, I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO HURT THE *OTHER* GUYS!!!1!", so it doesn't indicate that they have found moral or decency in their hearts.
A phrase like ‘moral decency’ does not have any meaning in this country.
People always stay home from the polls, and that is, of course, to be lamented. But the relevant statistics are that Trump won a narrow plurality of the vote ACTUALLY CAST. And, in fact, it was a bit less than 50% of the total vote cast, with the remaining small fraction going to 3rd party candidates. The point: it would not take that much of a shift is the ACTUAL VOTE for the Dems to win again. And that could happen in the 2026 mid-terms as far as Congress is concerned (more hope in the House than in the Senate), if Tusk has not prevailed by that time to cancel, or otherwise sabotage the mid-terms, something they are very hard at work on as we speak. And there is little reason to hope that the Roberts SCOTUS won't aid and abet them in this project. The resentment caucus (Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch) needs only Roberts or Barrett to side with them.
Actually even worse Trump got 30% of disUSA voting age population harris 29% or so; so 40% failed to vote giving the World to neo reaction MAGAistas. USA freely elected a criminal sex offender whom many believe is insane ( nonetheless a useful idiot to enable the fascism and misery to come).
And so, as through all history, those with unopened eyes will continue to do nothing as the rising swamp drowns those with eyes wide open.
Ah, but some will open their eyes. Some already are.
No..it is NOT HALF THE COUNTRY WHAT SO EVER....then 1/3 (+) voted for trump...1/3( +) for Harris and the rest said.... I hate you both Im not voting OR voter fraud worked and they could not vote. YES there is a massive problem ....ie Britain today does NOT allow mis information on their main stream media... like the good old days here when things WERE FACT CHECKED here and must be again. The Red states have been lied to for 10 + years and it's worse today than ever. OK we have an explosion in the building and so most everything needs to be rebuilt again...we can do that. But that is IF WE DO NOT END UP AN AUTOCRACY ... then the problems we had will seem so so SMALL
We had a fairness doctrine that allowed checks on propaganda. Reagan ended it. That Fox "news" is allowed by the FCC to function as a news outlet instead of being recognized as an agitprop trumpet of the right shows how far behind other nations we are. When Fox applied to broadcast in the UK, it was prohibited specifically because it was seen for what it is=an agitprop tool.
Fox claimed it was an “opinion” media, not news during the Dominion (sp?) lawsuit.
Snopes (a US fact checker) did an extensive investigation of this claim and judged that it is "False".
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/england-banned-fox-news/
In my view, Fox remains a propaganda machine and not a news outlet, but the UK has never banned it. In our battle against the constant lies of Trump and MAGA, we should be better than that.
You are right that it is significantly less than half of Americans who want an authoritarian government but wrong about the UK media not allowing misinformation. Rupert Murdoch and others on the right own the majority of the UK’s print media. GB television news is the UK’s version of Fox. Even the BBC was pressured by the Tory government with threats to funding and right wingers appointed to its oversight board. British conservative and right wing media helped sell Brexit based on blatant lies about the wonders it would bring the UK economy.
Brexit has led to a significant reduction of economic growth and the damage is so obvious the public finally saw through the lies and threw the Tories out.
Brexit disassociated GB from the EU and as we are now doing the same we will suffer the same consequences. It really is stupid, in modern times, to think a nation can prosper by going it alone.
We must be realistic about the situation there is a large depoliticised blob of voters in America who continue to side with Orange Man and his cronies but that is because it easily could have been left leaning Liberal Democrat’s from the 90s who created Trumps villain syndrome original story . We are going to have to ride out this hard right turn and course correct in 4 years . Who will fill the vacuum ? Ivanka Trump probably .
You are assuming there will be free and fair elections. These people believe "might makes right" and I don't think Musk will allow his side to lose.
If the ship doesn't right it's self soon we're going to sink.
Other countries have thrown off authoritarians, perhaps we will be able to do so in the future. Brazil refused to give Bolsanaro another shot at being King.
Most did not know what they were voting for. Remember, Trump distanced himself from project 2025 because it caused his polls to tank, yet that is what he is doing, so clearly he already knew that voters did not approve of that, but he is doing it anyway. Many seemed to think he could control inflation because they do not know how any of that works.
Most chose to not know what they were voting for in regards to Trump
I think some want to shake things up…but not their things. So now you have whinny farmers.
I grew up in Iowa.
Farmers will whine about not having something to whine about.
They are a whiny bunch.
The cutting of their Federal bennies, deporting their manual laborers and taking their health care are going to really wind up the whine machine. They won't vote for Democrats, however, because of abortion and "the gays".
I grew up in Iowa also. You are absolutely correct.
You can't do anything about willful ignorance and magical thinking. Most popular video/film shows a strong man making everything right again...Lord of the Rings sort of stuff. (I really enjoy the stories and movies.) I think it is something programed into our species. We can override it, but it's difficult.
The whole point of LoTR is that the world was saved by..an ordinry, inconspicous hobbit. A nobody, who found himself, propelled on a journey to save the world he barely new existed beyond the Shire.
All the "strong men" in the entire trilogy were there to distract the enemy from noticing Frodo and Samwise on their mission to Mt Doom.
I actually prefer the "Aliens" series as the metaphor..."No one listens to the smart lady until it's too late"
I think a significant amount of this magical thinking is generated by the large evangelical Christo-nationalist population and cultural influence. Why bother worrying about who to vote for when it's all in god's hands and/or it will get taken care of in the "next" life.
I don’t buy this at all. Sorry.
I doubt that a JD Vance, or anyone else, for that matter, could command the MAGA faithful like Trump does. It's a cult of personality, by and for Trump.
I suspect that Republicans in Congress might suddenly find their misplaced backbones if Trump were gone through whatever means.
If they do, it’ll be too late. The Republicans need to go. They can’t be trusted to fulfill their oath to our constitution.
ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY AGREE.
Republicans have shown themselves completely unfit to govern and are totally untrustworthy.
I don't expect Republicans to have a credible turnaround from where they have landed under Trump.
Democrats don't fill me with a lot of confidence either. I don't know what the solution is, re: political parties in the US.
We will see what happens in Wisconsin during their state Supreme Court election. Musk is dumping tons of money to get his person elected (Strict Scrutiny podcast - the best) . If you know anyone in Wisconsin, beg them to vote blue.
Yes, the Wisconsin election will be an early barometer, if only to see how much Musk’s money changes outcomes. If it does, we’re in even more trouble than we think because Republicans are terrified of being primaried if they show the slightest deviation from abject MAGA-dom, and Don Jr. and his henchmen are alert for any signs of independence. It was interesting that the GOP Senators defied Trump in choosing the majority leader to succeed McConnell - the vote was confidential, so they could not be bullied. Given Musk’s wealth, $1 million to fund a primary challenge - even the threat of it - is chump change, so it’s unrealistic to expect Republicans to grow a spine in the next four years. The more interesting question is, can Vance (or Don Jr) repeat Trump’s magic trick? Vance is undoubtedly smart, but he’s unlikeable. Don Jr. has the name but Steve Bannon (a malevolent but very smart guy) says he is as dumb as a rock. That will eventually come out. But there are an awful lot of smart, cynical, wealthy people who have a lot riding on being able to keep this train rolling. So far, the Democrats have been navel-gazing and bickering amongst themselves. There’s no sign of a Clinton or Obama emerging, and America still doesn’t seem ready for a female POTUS, sadly.
Yes I agree. I think the GOP could become quite vulnerable after Trump especially if the dems can cultivate some strong young leaders. All this destruction of government and worsening of economic woes for working people will come back and bite them for a long time
I agree.
My only questions are:
1. What will that look like?
2. What will the wounded animal Trump do in response?
You seem to be assuming there will be more 'free' elections in USA.
That is clearly not the 2025 plan.
No, I don't assume that.
Everyone keeps talking about 2026 midterm elections. That's a long way off with a lot of things that can happen.
Trump hasn't yet gotten to the point of ignoring court orders. That could still happen. The courts are pushing back against Trump's delaying.
My concern is what happens when all legal means to stop Trump have been exhausted?
Given the speed of bizarre stuff in the first month midterms are eons away with plenty of time to demolish democracy and world order.
But isn't he, tho, already ignoring? albeit in the form of counter-suits and filing paperwork that slows the process to a crawl.
Yes, delaying is a primary Trump tactic. See the last several years criminal charges against Trump.
But the courts are pushing back against Trump - so far.
My question remains, what happens when that fails and Trump just tells the courts (paraphrasing Andrew Jackson), "You want me to stop, come and arrest me?"
There is a big difference between actually wanting authoritarianism and being tuned out or focussed on, diverted to, non-existential issues. Huge. Once people get what they have done by not voting or voting for change, they will get it. They will get what lying and demagoguery is, and how painful it can be.
Perhaps you are right, that we have been too self-absorbed, too glued to our social media feed, too NOT INVOLVED in our country and our governance.
Our country was designed for the people to run it, not for it to run itself. We need to be reminded of that - and the only sure way is for us to experience pain because we FORGOT that.
We got lazy
The best hope is that Trump’s foolish tariffs will impact the economy enough to wake up some of the MAGAs about Trump’s leadership capabilities.
I expect that he will keep threatening tariffs and postponing them. That is already impacting the economy - Capitalism depends on the investment in capital, and that doesn't happen when the investors are seeing this sort of chaos - but the impacts aren't visible to most people.
Hopefully sooner rather than later. We need a dramatic drop in support.
I hope so… we don’t have Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch to guide any awakening
I strongly suspect trump is the glue that holds everything together. That's why the techno-authoritarians like musk and others put so much money into buying his election. They understand his worth. In short, he commands a slavish cult, and shares their dystopian vision of enormous wealth for the "Cognitive Elite".
The genius of Trump has been that he knows ahead of time what he is up to and makes sure he accuses those he opposes of just that, i.e corruption, elites. Then people (and media) will just say "both sides" and tune out. Not this time. It's very clear where the corruption is and who are the elites.
Well, it wasn’t half of the country that wanted him. More people voted for someone other than trump. And with an unfortunately small proportion of eligible voters voting, what I have read in reliable places if that trump got approximately 32% of the vote eligible voters.
Let’s all remember that every day.
I don’t really think the authoritarians understand what authoritarianism really is. They think they’re just gutting gov workers, killing regs, and getting rid of brown people. They haven’t a fricking clue.
They think they’re “owning the libs.”
What shall we do about it?
Start killing each other?
We here in the U.S. used to believe that too. Clearly, we need to amend our constitution to put stronger guard rails up.
We've got our work cut out for us.
The constitution isn’t the problem, the problem is decades of media normalization of Republican extremism and the laziness of American voters who ignored that threat even after it was too obvious for anyone paying attention to miss. For example voters who paid attention in 2000 would have realized Gore was far more qualified than Bush yet thousands of people on the left threw their votes away on Nader, helping defeat Gore just because he wasn’t their perfect candidate. Nader got over 90,000 votes in Florida, a state Gore lost by less than 600 votes. It was Bush, not Trump, who appointed Roberts and Alito.
The extremist justices on our Supreme Court have no problem touting their “originalism” as they twist our constitution into something our founders would not recognize — money as speech, presidential power over the power of the legislature, unregulated guns, and more. None of those anti-democracy principles are in the constitution, it is just what their plutocratic, far right owners demand be the law of our land. For decades our mainstream “liberal” media treated that outright deception and corruption as normal.
“Threw away their votes”, do you not understand how problematic that statement is? A majority of the political issues we face in this country are a result of a 2 party system that works together to keep 3rd parties out. It’s elitism like that that gave Bush the win over Gore.
Theodora, you got it all right, we got it all wrong. The Bush wars also exploded our national debt.
Well, yeah, that's true.
"For example voters who paid attention in 2000 would have realized Gore was far more qualified than Bush"
I'm a science fiction reader, so I sometimes play this "alternate history" game in my head, what would have the past 20 years have looked like if Gore v. Bush had been decided in favor of Gore? I think for starters, the 9/11 attacks would have been prevented. That would have NOT resulted in Afghanistan and Iraq. Etc.
The streaming TV series "For All Mankind" does a good job of re imagining our history of the past 50 years. I think the next season is just now getting to the early 21st century.
A lot of work there for you, 38 states approving the amendment.
May depend on bad people are hurting. Europe has strong social safety nets because of the destruction of WWII. Shame it may take something similar happening in the US to see the light. MuT is doing its best to destroy the US government, the military (I fear that it will be turned onto its citizens), and of course destroying our relationship with allies.
or 34?
Even so, it still won't be easy.
Nope, that is a purely German thing. Part of the German constitution I believe, which should require a 2/3 majority in parliament to be overturned.
Article V - The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress.
So, skipping to the last clauses, any amendment must be approved by the Legislatures of at least 38 States.
Yeah, it won't be easy, that's for sure.
Humans need to vote at their physical precinct immediately after passing a DNA test — election security beyond paper ballots!
It isn’t our system that’s the problem it’s the growth of rightwing populist ideology aided by Russian propaganda. The Tory Party’s Boris Johnson led the deeply dishonest push for the Brexit referendum which has badly damaged the UK’s relationship with Europe.
The rightwing movement is the bad actor of the moment. Too much power in the executive branch was a disaster waiting to happen, though.
True but it’s a disaster Republicans created — with the help of our media. For example Carter was roundly mocked for rejecting the symbols of the imperial presidency and got no credit for his good government innovations — for example instituting Inspectors General and making presidential records public. His good government efforts were mocked as “goo-goo”.
Iran Contra proved that Reagan and his VP Bush had no problem violating the separation of powers with that reckless conspiracy yet both were held in higher esteem by our media than Carter.
And Russian propaganda is selling better than Communism ever did.
The US is trying a Molotov Ribbentrop moment with Russia, and there aren't many voices in the Republican side actively doing something against it.
Future relations with non far-right Europe looks gloom indeed.
You can be there aren't many naive enough to see that in Europe. Many are very careful in their statements, but everyone sees it for what it is.
I was saying 4 years ago when Biden became president that Europe shouldn't trust the US. At the time, I knew the situation was not settled and that Europe should build up whatever it thinks it needs to defend itself. Part of the mistake people make is thinking Trump is the problem. It is half the people of this country who are the problem, and Trump is a symptom.
Europe should depend on itself. It breaks my heart to say it, because I value our former friendship with Europe. But, this is the reality.
It goes back longer than that. This distrust is why France and the United Kingdom both have nuclear weapons. They realized that the US would not defend them if the USSR threatened to nuke NYC for interfering in an invasion of Europe.
Well, clearly, they haven't taken it far enough then as evidenced by their scrambling now to figure out what to do having an inadequate standing army.
But, really, I was denoting a sea change in American commitment that wasn't there before - realizing that isolationist populism was on the rise and not going away very soon, I knew we were likely not going to defend Europe very soon and would have previously.
Our system doesn’t give the President this much power.
A corrupt and incompetent Congress does.
I’m not of the opinion that we can ever be trusted again, and I don’t think our neo-Nazis running the government care one iota. They will take our country down completely, mayhem will ensue, and I’m cynically doubting there will be another election. Trump has his goons in the armed services, FBI and every other agency ready to defend his every wish. He’s 78 years old, must believe he will live forever, or he wouldn’t waste his/our time selling his fraudulent gadgets to the public while he was elected to run the country, not sell garbage to the public. Conflicts of interest everywhere.
The weakness in the American system should not be understated. One corrupt individual should not be able to do what the orange menace has done and appears to be headed to do. There are obviously powerful forces supporting him behind the scenes, which is all the more reasons we need stronger systems than it appears we have. Let's hope that that strength and resilience is already there, and we just don't see it yet.
As an American of the United States, I want to express my profound regret about the way the U.S. government has so hideously morphed. We did not do enough to stop it. Maybe we still can.
I don't think that our system, which was mostly designed in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, took into account the possibility of a mentally ill individual, a corrupt individual, or a group with the means to wield outsize influence over the rest of us.
I read an article several weeks ago that suggested that the US will have to reconsider it's constitution in the wake of Trump. I have read enough analysis that scares the [stuff] out of me that there is truly nothing (at least legally) in place that can stop someone like a Trump.
And the republicans in congress that have the duty to protect and work for their constituents’ wellbeing sided with trump/musk the whole way. trump, president musk, and the republican congress had it all planned. They sold the American People for goods, enrichment , power, and perks of our government and taxpayer’s funds. If only the US leaders would of taken action back when trump left office in 2020 after we lived through a number of trump’s malefic actions that rang the alarm for us. But I guess our leaders took it for granted, were to complacent and naively thought nothing bad will happen again or trump won’t run or win elections again. Well, too late— “could of, would of, should of.” The US is doomed—and no Congress to protect our citizens. Let’s see which leaders wake up to place guardrails for the next elections… But, but will there be elections??? This nation is trapped.
The presidential system is clearly inferior to a parliamentary system, where the prime minister can be kept from going off the rails by the directly elected legislature.
Congress has the constitutional power to do this. The Republican party abandoned their responsibilities long ago. McConnell could've put Trump in the dustbin duing his first term, but was more loyal to party than to country.
Of course. But Trump would have had to get elected to Congress in 2016, and then be elected Prime Minister by fellow Republican members of Congress. I doubt that would have happened.
Also: the two-thirds supermajority requirement for Senate removal is a far higher bar (especially when FPTP entrenches two parties) than the government losing a confidence vote with a simple majority — another safety mechanism of the parliamentary system.
As an American, I do not trust us and it is good to see some sanity in the world. We are a country that has had an un-metastasized cancer of greed, bigotry, racism, elitism and religious nationalism metastasize that is destroying our remaining healthy corpus.
I hope Canada, a rising power, remains strong and aligns itself with Continental Europe and diminishes its contact with the sick UK so they can immunize themselves from not only them but from us.
It is certainly appropriate for Europe to consider the future well. The US system has demonstrated how little understanding of human nature the US Constitution contains. Or, perhaps then, as now, there was no way apply stronger guidance over the objections of extreme elements. In any case, those in Europe have for more in common with each other than they do with the people of the US, who have yet to see how empires evolve with failure.
At the time the US Constitution was an extraordinary document.
Unfortunately some concessions were made at the time due to slavery which are coming back to haunt us today. Then there was the poor implementation that didn't match the words for the vast majority of Americans that lived under that Constitution.
As a country we have been fixing the gap between the words and actions, but the festering sores that the concessions to slaveholding states created are eating us alive and are unfixable due exactly to those concessions.
The US is clearly a broken country with no easy way out. Maybe it will take a hard lesson like Trump to shake us up enough to fix it.
If there were time I might be optimistic. Unfortunately we are also confronting global problems that will almost certainly erase all forms of human governance in cataclysms of our own making.
The USA probably have to get the bad and hard lesson like Europe about how evil fascism is.
Our courts were politicized years ago and we failed to act to prevent it.
Today there are nine people who determine who wins elections, or at least what that president can do if they do win.
This Supreme Court how did Biden historical losses. Trump? Not so much.
The nine people of our courts and the members of the federal judiciary, cannot be fired, and they are not elected.
They have lifetime positions.
The Supreme Court and the federal judiciary is the closest thing we have to royalty.
And now we have a king.
What;s with the word trust - Biden and the new world order play book/ covid scam and other denigrative policies intentionally made the American economy unsustainable. Trump has to wreak enormous havock to (try) and save his beloved country from bankruptcy.. Duh.....
Am I correct that back in the '90s the US (and others) signed an agreement to guarantee Ukraine's independence, in exchange for which Ukraine gave up it's nuclear weapons?
Yep. The US and Russia both guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty. Of course Putin, being a nasty little KGB snake, had no intention of honoring it. Obama, along with some of our other allies, began the process of arming ang training Ukraine's military after the initial Russian invasion in 2014. Which assistance was strongly opposed by our GOP, btw.
Hey why did we create NATO again?
To surrender Ukraine and Taiwan to a pair of Communist dictatorships?
He’s being sarcastic.
Satire is too often unappreciated.
political promises.
Trump doesn't believe in honoring agreements. To him it's just a temporary strategy to extract something he wants.
That's why everything Trump runs goes bankrupt. Unlike real estate purchases, many businesses also rely on repeat business. Yes, one can use a power imbalance to extract short-term concessions - but in the long run, they'll find someone else to do business with. Example: it's hard to run a restaurant if the butchers and greengrocers think you won't pay your bills, and stop selling you the raw ingredients for your menu items.
Right -
And if he gets the US military to go along with him , it won’t matter what the voters want
or what the constitution says.
If. I think we can expect some percentage to break away. Either way it'll be ugly.
These were assurances in 1994 but not a treaty. Russia/Putin broke/breached the agreement and everything- this war- flowed from that. Had Ukraine kept its nukes, we would be in a different place obviously. The US ( and the UK-still) in helping Ukraine were keeping to the assurances,.
We here in the US are caught by the betrayals of the GOP, power grabbing, attempted regime change, some say a coup-- whatever we call it. It should be seen that way by the world. Most of us do not want this. We will see.
Our system has been gamed by the GOP for decades to get to this place, partisans loyal to the party. And Trump walked in and took over. Trump finished the process that Nixon/Reagan began.
But any treaty or agreement is only so good as the leadership in place, not the signatories. The GOP behaved for years sort of. Then began the serious power grabbing.
We relied on norms. Now with Trump, norms have eroded and laws mean next to nothing, if not nothing. The legal system is burdened with saving us. The GOP Congress has abdicated.
This can happen to any country.. and has.
The world has looked to us, relied on us since WW2 and we reveled in our power. I don't know if we deserved that reputation to begin with having come in at the end of the war. But we saved the day- we usedthe bomb! Putin still points to that.
It's time Europeans woke up, well past this time. Europe is basically strong and potentially very strong. I want the Euros to prevail now. We here need to fix a lot, to put it mildly. People here need to wake up. We do not want autocracy and won't stand for it once this is understood. We have become complacent, conned and lulled.. getting and spending. It's beginning to hit more. 250 years on, we must keep our democracy and make it better.
You're singing my song. It's also time for Americans to wake up. Way past time in fact.
Well said.
There were also assurances (not treaties) that NATO would not enlarge beyond Germany. When it did, Russia got nervous.
Those assurances were established at Yalta in 1943. When the USSR collapsed in '89 due to its own odiousness; but then began to rebuild, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, etc. literally BEGGED for admission to NATO. Because they knew that a revanchist Russia would conquer them if they didn't.
Basically yes.. but no assurances in 1943. read my below.
There were no such assurances even... nothing formal about NATO expansion. This is myth taken mistakenly from one on one conversations, non binding, nebulous. The truth never got its pant on with that one. Look it up. There are several articles about this.. here is one: https://hls.harvard.edu/today/there-was-no-promise-not-to-enlarge-nato/
If there were such assurances, why did Gorbachev say there was no such agreement ?
I believe you are sincere in your question. Do you have patience to read this?
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Keep in mind when we bring Gorbachov into this it was before the dissolution of the USSR. There were hopes it would become more democratic or modify and join Europe eventually. The US and the others were not pushing for the breakup. That happened internally..Yeltsin etc.. Russia took over, inherited the nukes (but not Ukraine's nukes) after and Putin began his autocratic regime. Many of the former USSR members, the Eastern Europeans wanted out.
Thanks for the reference. I wasn’t aware of all this.
I realise that the breakup of the Soviet Union was internal, not caused the US or other external forces.
I also understand that there was the expectation that the USSR would evolve to a more democratic govt.
For the statement of Gorbachev, maybe he was trying to say that there was no formal agreement, although from your reference there was certainly the expectation from the Soviet side that there would be no expansion eastward. On the question of the 3 Baltic states, most if not all western govts never recognized Soviet annexation of them, so it is easy to see how they would want to join NATO.
Considering that WW2 started with the partition of Poland by Hitler & Stalin, it is expected that they would want the security of NATO membership.
I don’t remember the evolution of the other central European states joining NATO.
Yalta was a de facto giveaway to Stalin, that subjected all of Eastern Europe to nearly half a century of utter crap. It established 'zones of influence' as per diplomatic boundaries. But no more. Gorbachov--speaking from a deck chair on the the sinking and soon-to-be-defunct USSR, was merely uttering wish-speak regarding his soon to be ex-Warsaw Pact members.
When Russia began to recover economically from the breakup of the USSR in the 'aughts, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, etc. BEGGED for admission to NATO and the EU. Because they knew Russia would have done to them EXACTLY what it's doing--or trying to do--with Ukraine.
Being under NATOs nuclear umbrella was a vital decision for these Eastern European countries at the time and borne out in time. Ukraine should not have settled for vague assurances in 1994 -hindsight.This war upon Ukraine is proving that nuclear weapons are necessary to have or be under an umbrella to survive. This painful lesson Zelensky knows well now.
NATO has never attacked another country. NATO has never pushed its political position on anyone who didn’t want it.
Russia on the other hand, I refer you to history.
True to an extent, but nothing was ever put down in any sort of treaty. Hardly makes a difference though due to Russia having the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
Nonsense. Absolute gibberish, there were no assurances ever given. Period.
this is long and you and others need patience to get the detailed story straight.
*Russia, the present form of the country, came into the story when the USSR dissolved.* The "assurances" from NATO members such as they were- were never firm or formal... more like conversations between parties. The hope was that the USSR would modify itself and join Europe. We and the Euros did not want more conflict after the Cold War. NATO is a defensive, not an aggressive organization. After the USSR dissolution Putin had other ideas for himself and for Russia.. He wanted his own sphere based on autocratic (kleptocratic) rule with Russia leading.
This is about those early so called "assurances".
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Yes, it's called The Budapest Memorandum.
Lesson #1 - keep your nukes, or get them if you can. It's the last best guarantee of independence and freedom. "Was you ever stung by a dead bee?"
Independence guaranteed, or double your money back!
And with that, NYT reports today that Iran is vastly upgrading their uranium enrichment program.
BTW don't forget that the five-power agreement that stopped Iran's nuke development was already in effect when it was killed by Trump. Of course, the US media immediately and unanimously did forget: when Iran responded sensibly by resuming production of near-weapons-grade U235, they kept up a barrage of "OOOH, that evil Iran, stepping up its production of nukes!!!"
BTBTW, Iran is a horrid theocracy, hardly better than Trump, but it still has notional interests and pursues them.
Trump forgets .. by cancelling the agreement, he was accepting that Iran develops nuclear weapons.
Oops, "national" rather than "notional". But I sort of like the effect.
AI at its best.
Yes because Trump is coming and it’s been proven that nukes are protection.
Maybe not.
I'll tell that to my friend the Ayatollah :)
From the US State Department website (which hasn't yet been erased):
"The United States established diplomatic relations with Ukraine in 1991, following its independence from the Soviet Union. The United States attaches great importance to the success of Ukraine as a free and democratic state with a flourishing market economy. U.S. policy is centered on supporting Ukraine in the face of continued Russian aggression as it advances reforms to strengthen democratic institutions, fight corruption, and promote conditions for economic growth and competition. The United States does not, and will not ever, recognize Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea, and continues to work with our partners to seek a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in eastern Ukraine. The U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership highlights the importance of the bilateral relationship and the continued commitment of the United States to support enhanced engagement between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine."
Hard to believe this hasn’t been taken down yet!
OK, but it's news to me that " U.S. policy is centered on supporting Ukraine in the face of continued Russian aggression". Where have you been since that old long-forgotten 2024?
YUP...trust us...you can trust us....come into my cottage Red Riding Hood...I have some cookies for you...but what large EYES you have Grand Mother
If this is not a rhetorical question, you might want to google "Budapest Memorandum."
Yes
Absolutely correct!
correct
Paul, you're again spot on. Here in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the sense of the US betraying our continent, our common values, is felt deep in organisations, the media, and huge parts of the population. That just in a couple of weeks the US have chosen to collude with North Korea and Russia in the UN: we are stunned, bewildered. Everybody here will say farewell to the old friend, which liberated us from the Nazis, just 80 years ago. We are finally on our own. We will use our competitive and economic power to stand up to MAGA-Trump. And never accept lying and deceit. The US government 'a Putin-loving thuggery'. Who would have thought that......
Those of us here, stunned over these months that our own neighbors and countrymen would betray our values, are crushed by these horrifying weeks, heartbroken in being associated with such thuggery and malice. We’re here, we’re trying to find routes back. My immigrant father would have been crushed by this turn of the country he trusted to at least be true to its words with its friends…at the very least.
Trump has been connected to Putin since the 1980's and the plan to have him elected began I guess around 2014-15....and HERE we are. A TRAITOR is sitting in the White House..breaking all guardrails...it is ugly and it is real
This American loves Europe and hopes that you will succeed.
Me too.
It’s just as hard for us to believe here at home. When I told people at political events this was coming, even twenty years ago, they said it was impossible, it couldn’t happen here. But the signs have been coming actually since the end of WWII with the advent of the John Birch Society and their followers. The Kochs and their cohorts are now getting exactly what they planned for back then.
Yes. It’s what I’ve been fighting all of my life. So sad to see it come to fruition. But I’m still going to fight. I’ll never ever bend knee to this evil regime.
Me neither. I have eight grandkids and have fought this hatred and stupidity all my life. Hopefully, my grandkids will now get in the good fight.
Rather than an apology, we need unity, a unified stance against the destruction of our fragile democracy. If all minorities see what’s being done to every one of them, including women, we could unite in power.
Well, Pres. Macron is having none of it, as he was masterfully taking the piss, while tRump sat there like a rotting yam, periodically rousing his head, smirking, then lapsing into sullen silence. Finally, Euro leaders are pulling the curtain back, thence to reveal a naked Emperor with a decerebrate's incomprehension of the world around him.
Call the bastard's bluff and watch him fold.
Yes, Macron was calm, cool and collected, and certainly not intimidated. Beautiful to see.
Please understand that Trump is a totally ignorant and uneducated man with no sense of history. I doubt he's read a book in his life (JMO), but to many of us here, he's an embarrassment, a person who would do anything to steal an election, as he will do again the 26 mid-terms by taking millions of minorities and women off the voter rolls.
If the Europeans really want to stick it to the US and to Trump they would cancel ALL deals with US military contractors. No guns, no planes, no bullets, no shells, no nothing. Shift all of those purchases to European or other suppliers. The CEOs of Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing and all the rest will be in the Oval Office in a half a heartbeat whining, crying and demanding Trump change course.
The EU must arm itself and companies between Canada and Mexico are made unreliable by Trump: no hatred, retaliation or spite but destroyed trust.
No one buys a unitedstates rifle knowing that the king of New York can block the sale of bullets on a whim.
He is >not< the king of New York. Remember, we rejected him - that's why he moved to Florida. He is the king of Mar-a-Lago.
I don't know that anyone is in a vindictive mood right now. But you don't need a vindictive mood either.
Sine ira et studio you can come to the conclusion that it's too big of a security risk to rely on the US who has no compunction to renege on any contract at whim.
This has not been generally true about the US and certainly not with regard to Ukraine. We- Obama, Biden, even Trump prior to 2022, were helping Ukraine which actually was complying with the Budapest agreement 1994 spurred by Putin's breach of it in 2014 (and prior).
We are now dealing with a power grab here.
Hopefully the Euros will take over. It's well past when they already should have. Trump lit the fire. Euros have to protect themselves.
We have existential issues here with this anti-democratic scourge upon us. A lot of us are deeply sympathetic to and supporting Ukraine understanding that this battle must be won. It must be won not only for Ukraine against Putin and Trump, but for the well being of the world, the international order. This is existential.
All of those people whose security detail was stripped from them were probably the guardrails keeping Trump prior to 2022 from doing Putin's bidding. News reports vaguely ascribe it to advice given to Trump re: Iran....bombing of one of it's generals by a drone, but perhaps advising detrimental to Trump's interests with Russia is the real reason.
Make haste slowly. Europeans must first build munitions factories and expand the ones they have. But they definitely need to quit buying munitions like F-16s from a country that refuses to grant them permission to use them.
As best I can tell from the Ukraine War, European weapons are at least as effective as American ones, are generally far cheaper and more practical to use. If the EU builds up and consolidates their defense industry, they can do to the US what Airbus did to Boeing. Also, this would help boost a lackluster EU economy and improve their high tech capabilities.
I’m no longer sure this scenario would play out. Until the past few months, it was laughable to think an anti-science anti-vaxxer would prevail over the pharmaceutical lobby to become the head of HHS. When Big Pharma no longer has the lobbying clout to prevent an appointment that directly affects its bottom line, can we really be sure other historically powerful industries would prevail?
Yes, for example, Canada has an F35 program in place, but with no deliveries so far. We should take the hit and buy from Europe today. Same thing with a few subs. Get a French sub or 3 and patrol the arctic. Let's buy Turkish and Ukrainian drones which seem to be very effective.
PS, I bet the Australians are pleased as punch that they whacked the French sub deal and went with the US/UK sub. Which will now cost more due to tariffs on steel and aluminum. And will be subject to US whims on where they can be used.
Maga this is all on you. I hope that banning a few boys from girls sports was worth it.
Well, they also get all of the blacks and women out of the officer level of the military. I suppose they'll let them stay in as grunts.
HIDING behind the rhetoric
This analysis is the best. Cogent , factual , rational , and well written.
+1. Glad to be reading your thoughtful work Paul
Trumps latest post of the AI video of his vision for Gaza sets a new low in degeneracy and the utter absence of any decent values. The disgrace, shame and stain on America and Americans reputation will last for decades. Ive looked through Project 2025 and can see where this going.
It is some consolation to read your articles Paul and those of Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich. Being reminded that there are decent, appalled Americans.
But it needs millions to be vocal and active and we’ve not seen that yet.
And yes I have family in the USA about whom I worry. Living in a dystopian combination of Margaret Attwood’s Handmaids Tale and Charlie Brookers Black Mirror.
The keyword here is "yet". It's growing, and it's rate of growth is accelerating.
There will be a 50501 protest on Tuesday, 3/4. Watch for it, or better yet, attend.
https://events.pol-rev.com/events/a6aaef30-8f4b-43e2-af80-b166e52f1c44
My greatest fear right now is that we're potentially going to witness an ethnic cleansing in Gaza with real time footage from social media, and MAGA and israeli extremists openly cheering on it.
I don't see any scenario in which how it wouldn't end in a conflagration / extreme violence.
For those who missed it - https://youtu.be/PslOp883rfI?si=GyxMtuJS9cG__tg7
OMG.
I don’t know if the following makes sense. However, if I look at American businesses they don’t like rivals; if there is a threat they buy them up or destroy them. China is a threat, but as shown Russia is just annoying. The EU, if it ever properly comes together, could be a threat, already some of its regulatory actions show independence. Therefore it makes sense from a right wing business perspective to break the EU up.
The other thing is, the US in some sense defines itself by its optimism and its Constitution/rule of law. MAGA is saying the US is weak and hopeless, in other words is attacking optimism: everyone is ripping us off, we need tariffs to protect ourselves and so on. The Constitution/rule of law: well, obviously attacking that. So Trump is attacking America’s fundamental identity. Talk about the enemy within. Utterly astonishing.
EU hasn’t had any problem holding US companies to task. US businesses go where the money is and will conform to their laws especially if the countries can’t be bought off. The citizens of EU have no qualms about standing up for their rights. I admire these people greatly.
In his first term, DonnyJon actually said he wanted to break the EU up. He said he preferred to deal with each country separately, instead of having deal with the whole EU.
EU should declare the US a terrorist state and ban US tourism.....
I'm not sure how banning US tourism would alleviate any terrorism worries. Unless you redefine the brash behavior of the proverbial "ugly American" to be terrorism.
OTOH, I'd investigate whether closing Ramstein Air Base (https://www.ramstein.af.mil/) and Landstuhl Regional Mecial Center (https://landstuhl.tricare.mil/) might make sense for Germany, if only for security reasons.
But whinny Americans would then have cause to pressure their elected officials.
Horses whinny, humans are whiny. But you do provide a little levity to the conversation.
If you're going to do that, then you need to declare Russia a terrorist state first.
Thanks. Thank you for your enlightening analysis, and the occasional ray of hope. From the other side of the pond, what America is becoming, and its global repercussions, is very distressing to witness. I do hope that Europe, the de-facto now "good guys", will raise to the challenge
Good grief, Trump's lack of knowledge is really embarrassing.
Every time Trump talks, the first thing that pops into my head was that Rex Tillerson, the energy executive, who was Trump's first Secretary of State in his first administration, called Trump a "Fucking Moron."
Just about everyone who ever worked closely with him said he was unfit for office and several even said he was a Fascist. Only a couple remained in his camp, like Miller, or a "co-conspirator" or two.
The Europeans have provided far more assistance to Ukraine than we have, and this has been the case for quite awhile now (not a recent development) and unlike us, are still committing to do so.
They have also taken in refugees from Ukraine, and Ukraine for its own defense has paid with its soldiers and the destruction to its cities and towns and is holding the line protecting the continent.
Russia has been greatly weakened by all of this. Not only is Russia's economy relatively small, much smaller than even the state of CA, but as Krugman points out, they have been weakened by the war, so much so, that they had to go to China and N Korea for help.
Prior to asking for assistance from N. Korea and China, Russia was severely on the ropes having lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in their cannon fodder approach (far more than Ukraine) and using up a lot of their military capability.
It was exactly at Russa's weakest point, when Ukraine had begun initially to take back some territory, that the House, under Trump's outside influence, stalled, kicked out McCarthy and refused to fund Ukraine for 6 months, or pass a budget, allowing Russia to regroup and run to China and N. Korea.
The main sticking point in budget and leadership negotiations was the Freedom Caucus who were closely allied with Trump who had just become the front runner in the GOP primary.
Prior to Trump becoming the GOP frontrunner in the primary, the House had no problem funding Ukraine.
Once Russia secured the added assistance, suddenly, the House was able to come up with leadership and a budget.
Coincidence?
So, it is no surprise that Trump is still helping Russia in all of this, or that now the US, under Trump, even voted with Russia and N Korea in Russia's defense on an international stage the other day.
The Europeans are right not to trust Trump, who should not be trusting Russia.
Russia’s economy is smaller than Chile’s. Yes, Tillerson as Secretary of State but also all the generals and chiefs of staff. Scott Bessent is a smart guy who is destroying his reputation by behaving like a mafia goon; Marco Rubio was a reputable senator, now he’s a parody. I’d predict that they will not last, but such fanatics as Miller, Patel & Kennedy will do so. Opportunists such as Hegseth, Gebbard and Lutkin will be exposed as incompetent, corrupt or merely out of favour. A carnival of clowns who can still do a lot of damage.
CA has the 5th largest economy in the world.
Well then, to put in even better perspective, "...European Union, which he (Trump) is insulting and threatening with trade war, has 9 times Russia’s GDP.."
This is from Krugman's post today, 2/28, called "Chaos is bad for Business."
The point is that Russia's economy "relatively speaking" is not huge.
EUROPE BECOMING STRONG COUNTER FORCE AFTER TRUMP ABANDONMENT
At 91 I have witnessed massive swings in global economic and geopolitical strength including:
1) Hitler way up, then gone;
2) Japan: massive empire, then gone;
3) Stalin: awesome, then gone;
4) British, French, and other European empires: dwindling, then gone;
5) American: 45% of world’s GDP after WW II and massive military power;
6) Europe: NATO, Common Market, European Union, Brexit;
7) Japan: rising giant, then ebbing;
8) Russia: brief post-Cold War era, then Putin authoritarianism;
9) China: sleeping giant awakes with fangs and upward economy;
10) Trump abandons Western allies and embraces Putin;
11) Europeans seek a counter force after Trump abandonment
As a former Foreign Service Officer, (and the person who in 1974 initiated international bond ratings at Moody’s) I am gobsmacked at how Trump has shattered our traditional ties with Europe (NATO and European Union) and has re-bromanced with Putin.
By my Foreign Service criteria, Trump is a traitor to core American principles. The Marshall Plan, which reconstructed much of post-WW II Europe, was the most magnificent act of generosity (and self interest) in American history.
Trump’s recent Putinesque bromances and abandonment of our military, political, and economic ties to Europe are the most sordid acts by an American president that I have ever witnessed.
I hope, post-Trump, that again America will become integrated with Europe. Meanwhile, Europe, on the front lines with Putin’s ‘Greater Russia’, is evolving as an independent entity on the global scene.
I deeply regret, at least for the moment, that Europe is obliged to view Trump’s America far more as an enemy than as an ally. Putin and XI must be chuckling.
I'm a Canadian. But my country is threatened daily by the US, with tariffs and annexation. Still, I am open to your suggestions about how this situation can be remedied, particularly if the Armed Services are loyal to Trump, not the Constitution. Does the citizenry just play dead (as they've mostly been doing)? There might not ever be another election.
There might not. DonnyJon told a religious crowd before the election, "If you vote for me, you'll never have to vote again." I expect he meant "you'll never GET to vote again."
It may be encouraging for you to read a most recent Reddit blog on "President Krasnov" and the many current and former service members' comments to it.
Hope they are critical of Krasnov.
They are indeed.
There are protests all over the US almost every day (Rachel Maddow is profiling them) but you don’t see it in legacy media. People are showing up to town halls. Agree need to get more people involved. MuT is F-ing up the economy so a lot more people will have time to participate.
I was in Europe the day of and shortly after the election. Anyone I spoke to pretty much said the same thing: we are on our own now and will have to step up. The US while important is not THAT important despite what you hear in the corporate media. The Professor verifies the awakening that I saw on the ground in November. PS - who is to say that US arms manufacturers won't continue to SELL their wares to, say the Europeans? Those arms manufacturers have to make a profit somehow and if DOGE cuts funds so that we shift funds to "the border" or "the wall" from DOD they have to get their $ from somewhere, especially if the Europeans move ahead and actually seize those Russian assets....
No one european, buys a US rifle knowing that the king of New York can block the sale of bullets on a whim.
You underestimate the power of commerce in the US. US corporations find a way to sell to anyone tbh , albeit Iran or Russia. If there's a $ there's a way. King Trump is owned by the billionaires who are in his cabinet, on the front row of his inauguration or even the guy in his dacha near Sochi.
That last sentence means he serves multiple masters with competing interests which will ultimately cost him if he doesnt die first. Trump ran to (a) stay out of jail and (b) exact retribution on the people who properly prosecuted him. Otherwise the billionaires and Project 2025 run his policy which serves to make the wealthy wealthier, including the arms manufacturers.
Great points, thanks. I trust the last statue-musing was tongue-in-cheek. It’s also worth noting about the health of Germany’s democracy (vs. ours) that voter turnout Sunday was 80+%, evidently the highest since reunification. Moreover, the ratio of roughly sane to roughly crazy votes cast was something like 70% to 25% — in contrast to the approximate coin flips of our recent past.
They've been getting ready for this for weeks, and rightly so. Ukraine is a part of Europe, regardless of NATO or EU status. The new German chancellor is Trump proofing Germany as we speak, in a great hurry, before the new right-wing parliament is seated and they can block him. The United States, at least for the next four years, has become an Eastern Bloc nation and no one in Europe has any illusions otherwise.
Tulsi Gabbard, in early morning news, in her first actions as DNI, has fired employees who did naughty browsing. Curious, considering there are more important threats to worry about and, just maybe, they were trying to catch pervs? Who knows...
Rubio has turned out to be a full MAGAt. Unlike the first Trump administration, in which cabinet members put the brakes on Trump, he's embraced it all, nasty attitude included.
Some Republicans are resentful of Musk and they're all getting earfuls from constituents. One wonders whether self-preservation and growing a Musk-averse spine will become a thing just before reconciliation of the budget between the two houses of Congress? Yesterday's first pass at a new budget included some arm twisting at the last minute.
On the corporate side, between the slowdown in public spending and other issues, many corporations are shedding workers. Some are closing up shop entirely. I expect to see more failures. With the new management at BLS, who knows when we will have real unemployment numbers again.
On health policy, today's news brings some insights into what RFK is starting to do. Not good. His first acts target children who need psychiatric meds.
The world is weary of US and shielding itself. That means China and others will benefit at our deficit. Get ready for some strange times ahead, not good ones.
PS: Trump posted one crazy golden video last night...
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My continuously updated daily news post
Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 37
https://rimaregasblog42.substack.com/p/things-musk-and-trump-did-day-37