Professor Krugman: as Hannah Arendt wrote in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism: “Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.”
In this case, cutting science funding is a two-fer: pandering to anti-Darwin religionists; and the let's-deny-climate-change-science fossil fuel executives.
Oh wait, it's actually a three-fer, because the $30 billion in research funding just axed are being given as OBBB tax cuts to Jeffie and other billionaires to buy new yachts.
From the progressive press, so much on economic risks, on war on science. OK, I'm sitting in Canada, but the OBBB has given obscene amounts of funding to a Gestapo and concentration camps. The resistance should be 'concentrated' there first. How can the home of the brave, land of the free not fight against that with every fibre...?
The security state has been growing like a cancer for at least a century, and the home of the brave and land of the free's response to it has usually been to word-vomit a whole lot of stupid about Our Brave Boys In Blue.
Not that ICE isn't something new and worse, but it fits a very long trend. Attempts to rein in the security state have usually been short-lived and reversible, and the root of the problem is that the average American treats cops and feds like they're freaking infallible.
I think in a hundred years or so, Osama Bin Laden will be remembered the same way Gavrilo Princip is today - not a criminal mastermind, just the idiot who happened to light a powderkeg that was always going to go up one way or another.
Assigning priorities in this situation is futile. In a landslide everything moves downhill at once, so there's no advantage to trying to find the best place to stand. What this should tell us is that everyone is free to dig in and fight wherever they are.
Good point. For some, trying to reverse bad economic policy can be more important. Certainly the WH's war on science is terrible. But to me the state funding a massively expensive Gestapo in order to arrest *anyone* on the streets without judicial review, is a whole other astroplane of unacceptable.
It's understandable that given human history the idea of illegitimate force is reprehensible. That's one easy way to see how disturbed the people now in charge of the federal government are. But they are spread thin in their ignorant extremism. That's why confronting them on the broadest front possible will cause them to falter and collapse. The true tragedy is that fanatics like them all over the world seem to see this as a moment to realize their dreams. Their threat exists mostly because they are successfully diverting everyone from the real existential problems of climate upheaval and ecological collapse. Paired with the usual tendency to ignore human impacts on the world, this diversion all but assures the worst outcome possible.
It's trickle down theory all over again: make the rich richer and we'll all be better off. After all, they're the job creators, aren't they? And by implication, you're the job takers. This ruse needs to be renamed for what it is: trickle down trickery.
Or "the trickle on effect". While the corporate golden boys get their golden parachutes, the rest of us get the golden showers. So how about it America, do feel trickled on enough yet?
The GOP enablers & influencers didn't even mention the supposed wonders of Trickle-Down this time. Not that I've seen, anyway. Which means either they're lazy, or they don't give a sweet shit any more over any criticism of the GOP's prime function: Pandering to Billionaires.
THIS latter explanation is how Epstein was able to continue to prey on young teen girls for DECADES after that Vanity Fair article first came out in the early Aughts. And exactly why the GOP's Alex Acosta prosecuted him on merely a *single* count of soliciting a teen prostitute--despite having compiled massive amounts of testimony from DOZENS of teens and their families. Epstein paid GOP to play.
This was the same Alex Acosta that Trump1 made Secretary of Labor, a fricking cabinet position.
I worked on the biochemistry of sexually transmitted diseases for years in a clinical setting, and there is a peculiar demographic that stands out in STD data.
The demographic consists of older men having sex with younger women. Data further indicates that this phenomenon as widespread and interestingly high frequency. There is a case for it going back millennia.
Closer to home, it would not be unusual for a 65-year-old man to have caught, say, gonorrhea, from a 16-year-old Aurora Ave. North prostitute when the case trace got done.
As squalid as the reality of it is when it emerges into the daylight, none of this is new. Epstein's crew were high rollers, not juvenile streetwalkers and their pimps, but not in any case was Epstein archetypically unusual.
When the Republicans invented this mythology a popular way that opponents explained it is that it means feeding more oats to the horse so that a few more come out the other end.
I see it as a four-fer -- monetizing government-funded science, especially weather, even more. Never mind that government-funded science is what makes monetization of weather products, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, etc., possible.
What are weather corporations like AccuWeather going to buy if NOAA and the NWS are sufficiently crippled and gutted? Where will they get the accurate data they are now reselling if the science and scientists are sidelined? This one I don't get at all.
Fires and floods already. Next up, hurricanes, which may be the phenomena for which rapidly updated information is most crucial, given the large geographic swathes of danger, new hazards such as rapid intensification, and the logistical complications of mass evacuations.
Oh, and we now know that FEMA is overseen by an unqualified, indifferent moron who waited a week to go to the Texas floods, crucial days after frantic search and rescue operations had sadly become recovery operations. He in turn reports to a narcissistic poseur who burns money that exceeds her budget assembling an authoritarian secret police force, delights in cruelty, and bragged about shooting her rambunctious puppy in a gravel pit.
They want both. They want it >all<. They won't know what to do with themselves if they actually get it. That's when they'll start cannibalizing each other.
And wage war over fresh water. The last man standing will be on the summit of a large hill, pumping his fist and declaring "Yes! I win!" before he too croaks, rendering humanity extinct.
The more dangerous idea is based upon the fundamental meanings: science is the search for truth, and all searches for truth are sciences in one way or another.
It is truth that is being attacked. Call it what it is: an attack on truth itself.
Now, why would they do that?
It is almost unbelievable that there even is a contest between truth and falsehood, and that the lie is winning by dictatorial degree and rewriting history. What a time we live in!
The fundamentalist (Christian) 50% of the GOP Base are staunch Creationists, and view most scientific enquiry with...suspicion.
Big Oil/Coal/Gas is perhaps the second most important GOP constituency, and is responsible for Trump2 dismantling and/or damaging NOAA, and anything to do with climate science.
The MAGA rank-and-file are extremely skeptical--if not outright hostile--to vaccines and applied immunology.
This is why cults try to limit all outside influence and why the GOP call objective fact based reporting "fake news." It is to keep the truth from poking holes in the disinformation which would set these folks free.
You would think it would dawn on those who subscribe to this nonsense that it is rather illogical to assume that what is largely being reported globally and by most, because they are simply reporting objective reality, is somehow "fake news" and assume instead that their isolated and politically affiliated preferred programing is somehow the truth and not the actual source of distortions and propaganda.
Just think of the stress and cognitive dissonance people are experiencing right now who believed in both Trump and also the Epstein conspiracies. They have invested so much in both and now must choose which to believe. However, accepting that they are being duped on some level either way (and Trump himself also helped fan the conspiracies) is tough for them to swallow but they can't believe in both at this point.
They also seem to believe that educated elites are far more capable than they are (like MTGs assumption of liberals controlling weather) leading to bizarre and wild conspiracies like some sci-fi fantasy or Bond movie) or that that at the same time and in the reverse that science is somehow flimsy and based on assumptions and not useful.
The best thing about more people being able to attend college, is that once they do, it helps to dispel the myth making of James Bond super villain capabilities able to be acquired by educated elites, and thus dispel wild conspiracies based on that (like weather control or space lasers) and at the same time, it teaches people that scientific information acquired within its framework of a scientific method is objective and useful and accurate. It also teaches people where one can find useful information and how to tell the difference.
The people who go to college are not necessarily smarter or different on average than those who don't, in my view, but they end up with first hand knowledge of what the possibilities actually are or are not and thus how bizarre and silly she sounds (most of them anyway).
They have seen the "man behind the curtain" and he is merely human but has some good tools at his disposal based on, and limited by, science.
Far fewer would get sucked into conspiracies if they had the ability to remove the curtain by attending college, even if it is for just a year or two.
This was a critical step in the ‘drugification’ of media, the well named Rush tapped this vein and Fuax followed! The ‘fake news’ are drug dealers and too many are addicted…
"And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up" -Rush Limbaugh
Then he got caught being addicted to prescription opiates. Then he changed his tune!
P&J: sadly, I think you are mistaken putting so much faith in a college education. I agree that many many non-college folks are pretty smart and switched on, but I myself know so many people with Ivy League graduate degrees who are MAGA or sympathisers. Look no further than Hawley, Bannon, Vance, Miller, Hegseth…
I know logical thinking skills do not end up reaching everyone, for one also needs to be both willing and able, but it dramatically increases the probability.
In a democracy where it is a numbers game to reach a majority and win elections and pass legislation, simply having "more" rational folks with good tools to assess accurate information and to understand what is probable is important.
Trump played the numbers by cobbling together a wide variety of conspiracy types and why he needed RFK Jr. in the mix and others. Trump simply cobbled together enough minority fringes to win and social media drove conspiracies and fear, as well.
Some on the left (who did not study science in college) tend to have their own share of healthcare fringe types, who believe in pseudo-science that might "sound smart" but isn't proven. This is driven by the desire for health and fear of illness and death and need for perfection. Thus, some will cling to any excuse for not being "this or that" or perfect.
One example of a non-science notion that has become mainstream on the left is the notion of repressed memories for which there is zero scientific evidence at all. None. In fact, all evidence actually suggests the opposite.
Even introductory psychology textbooks point out that nothing Freud said was supported by any real evidence, and after decades, there still is not one shred of evidence for any of this. They mention that he is no longer taken seriously, but is notable for suggesting the brain plays a role, yet a lot of what was considered nonsense persists, and it is damaging.
Scientific studies have shown the opposite of memory suppression, and that traumatic events are far more likely to be remembered (no evidence they are forgotten) as a survival technique. We also know through scientific studies that memories are very suggestible, like the eye witness testimony experiments have proven. So, is therapy being used to retrieve so-called repressed memories for which there is no evidence for, or is it instead creating them though suggestion? All evidence points to the latter, none to the former.
Another example is that a lot of the health informercials during PBS pledge drives are loosely based on incomplete science or maybe even just a few mouse studies or they my make leaps in their conclusions from science that has actually been well done.
Fortunately, the worst they tend do in the end, is suggest you eat more veg and fiber and exercise and avoid most already known unhealthy things. So, they are not inherently harmful. The worst case scenario is that they might create a gassy following of farting fans who are eating healthier and that is a good thing. Also, although some conclusions may be a stretch or exaggerated, at least there is some science involved, so there is always the possibility that they may be proven correct or party so, at some point in the future, and if not, no one is often harmed for eating healthier.
Yes, for some they belong to a community of followers, with a leader like a pastor, and thus it simply may feel more natural and at home for them to not question things as much, and to look for this type of leader, simply based on that. However, faith should be reserved for religion, not politics or much of anything else. My opinion, anyway.
This is why I balk at treating loyalty as a *virtue*.
From Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:
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We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow.
----
(David Cross comically addressed the incongruity of those "patriots" who complain about the state of America while attacking any liberal criticism of it.)
Trump and MAGA have put the United States on the path to a second-rate nation. Why? Because dictators prefer to rule a poor country than share power in an affluent one.
I hate to say it: but we elected him, we get what we deserve as a nation. I did not vote for him but I did vote. I believe that indifference, a failure to participate in our democratic system, bears a great responsibility for what is coming next. We did not choose what is best, we gave it away by indifference. The majority did not vote at all. We failed to speak in the present, we may not be asked to speak in the future. If you didn’t bother to speak in the past you have no real right to complain in the future.
Absolutely right, Deanna. “We did not choose what is best, we gave it away by indifference. The majority did not vote at all. We failed to speak in the present, we may not be asked to speak in the future.”
As voters, we carry responsibility for who is elected. Not enough research and news reporting is focused on the eligible voters who do not vote. Most commonly, I hear them say, “nothing changes.” I think the media and Democrats fail to take the message of political engagement to those people. We don’t seem to be able to reach them and to help them see benefits in their neighborhoods that government policies have made, such as health insurance. The Republicans cleverly made sure the cuts to Medicaid would not go into effect until after 2026 elections. After the Biden legislation was passed, there seemed to be no plan for Congress people to talk about the different elements of the legislation in their states and districts and how it would affect people.
But what will be done about it when we have irrefutable proof that the republicans cheated in the swing states in 2024? The feckless Dems have showed that they don't have the stones for the necessary fight. If We the People try to follow Jefferson's advice in the Declaration of Independence, the newly created and massively empowered Schutzstaffel will not hesitate to put us down like dogs. I am livid, but I really don't see a way out of what's happening here and elsewhere other than WW3.
That more registered voters voted for neither candidate, an outcome that usually happens over the past couple cycles but did NOT when Biden won, is quite depressing.
On the margin the bomb scares in heavily Dem districts mattered, BUT when Sen. Slotkin can win a statewide race that Harris lost that's concerning.
Tougher sledding in 2026. Far more physical voter suppression will be in play.
Hopefully Donnie crashes the economy AND he and the GOP get blamed for it.
I’ve thought there was vote rigging from the 2024 results. Not only did Trump claim he was confident Musk was fixing the outcomes by fixing the vote counting machine. Trump also simply stopped campaigning at his rallies well in advance of Election Day and simply swayed with his music. Who simply stops running ahead of the election? A lazy moronic crook, that’s who!
Worse! ‘Look at how much more warm beach front we can develop! climate change will make the Earth so much nicer, for golf, for making money!” Yes he said this, really!
To the extent that there's any rational thought behind their stance on global warming, I think they think they know that we've passed the point of no return, and even draconian efforts will only make things marginally less worse, even as the effects of past emissions continue to warm the planet. And they may be right. The tech billionaires think Mars is the (idiotic) answer. Or spraying particulates into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, China (long the oilmen's excuse for why it's pointless for us to act) is taking it far more seriously. And maybe (given their size and current pollution levels) that's enough to cancel out the damage of our inaction - give or take an "industry of the future" or two that were ceding to them in the process.
Yes so true. All the Magas can visit the future Trump Resort, in Gaza, once his mates have displaced or killed what left of the Palestinians. I just keep hoping for Kama and all his properties are taken out - by Global Warming consequences. Although I hate the thought see all his immigrant workers get wiped out, as they will have no warning to get out in time - as no more weather forecasting.
And it seems there are a lot who believe this stuff in disUSA already including other stuff such as that there is a Dems paedo filled HQ under a garage somewhere. Epsteinesque Bondi-ng?
These disgraceful cuts will affect virtually all of us in a multitude of ways: the next time you board a plane your safety as well as comfort will depend on the predictable weather for your pilots to assess and to avoid etc etc. SHAME on every Republican in Congress other than only two in the House and three in the Senate! SHAME on each and every one who voted for this disastrous bill!
Not just the cuts, it's the malevolent incompetence as well. Noem is a fuck up with hair extensions who so badly botched the Texas response that she should be fired and deported. Duffy presides over an air traffic system so broken that planes are already falling from the sky. And don't even get me started on Hegseth or Rubio. It will take a century for us to recover from this, if ever.
The attack on science is similar to the attack on the media, the attack on higher education, the attack on the courts, the promotion of religion, the promotion of crypto, the militarization of law enforcement, and on and on. The shared goal is to attack the idea of objective truth so that the average person will remain in ignorance and those in control may accumulate as much wealth as possible. A public that lives as much as possible in darkness and fear will not have the knowledge or the wherewithal to appreciate the sources of their suffering or the systemic changes they should be demanding.
The NYT is actively participating in the destruction of our institutions by describing Trump administration efforts as attempts to shrink government or by providing other anodyne explanations for drastic and frequently unjustifiable policy changes. Do they know this? Do they not appreciate the motives of the modern right wing movement for what they are? Is the attempt to maintain some transparently bogus appearance of fairness motivated simply by their economics? Are they just like most other businesses, which is to say, ultimately unconcerned with the takeover of our institutions provided that their business models are not damaged?
Thank goodness for Paul K, who is a reliable source of truth telling, and has been for many years.
Of course ‘they’ know this, it’s easier than thinking…polls are dropping and so they pull out the secret service story and print the picture of ‘Bloodied Donny Fist Pump’!
Selling drugs to the masses. Keeping it 50/50 sells more papers.
Oddly, fewer and fewer people read traditional papers. Its an aging group. So you can anticipate the NYT's, and similar source's, news to get stranger and stranger as they follow the niche interests of their oligarch owners and narrow reader base. Fox "news" blazed the trail. With no common base in reality, democracy is impossible, as elections devolve into tribal slugfests.
The Heritage Foundation should be considered a terrorist organization. If Project 2025's name was changed to "Putin's Plan to Destroy US Democracy" not one word would need to be changed.
Is it the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society that's destroying American Democracy. Or are they playing tag team? And are they basically funded by the same monsters...
‘Whittle’ Stevie Miller is in charge…he’s the gatekeeper, the Wormtongue is Donny’s ear. ‘you really need to pay another round, he sign these before you go…’
CHINA is already more or less equal to the US in many fields of science, and ahead in important ones relating to technology... you can look up the citation statistics... and their trajectory shows astonishingly rapid advance. I became aware of this personally a while back as I noticed an increased number of Chinese names in the authors of papers of my field of interest. At first, well, a lot of them turned out to be working in US labs (yay immigration). But increasingly they are in China itself. We are already falling behind in the most important of all races, and now we're shooting ourselves in both feet. (I's not just weather and medicine, there's devastating attacks on the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, ALL research grants to universities and so on.)
An article in the Houston paper today detailed a Chinese spy’s activities here and in CA before he was arrested. This particular one was looking for Navy secrets. China has a long history of coming to Houston looking for secrets from NASA, manufacturers and the medical field. They don’t necessarily figure things out for themselves.
Maybe that's #MAGA's cunning plan (H/T Baldrick)... stop our research so China will be faced to do it themselves, and we can steal it from China for pennies on the dollar.
force of loyalist goons larger than all the other military branches and give Trump his own personal Gestapo we will all be trapped in this fascist nightmare for a loong time unless we have a full blown civil war. The cabal of evil fucks like Leonard Leo and Peter Thiel who are actually running things are not about to give up power that after decades of effort they have finally succeeded in stealing from the rest of us. Trump is a willing puppet who is happy to let them keep destroying the nation as long as he gets to play president strongman on tv and he has been bribed in every way conceivable, to boot. The billionaires actually invented whole new ways of political bribing never done before just for him with the crypto scams. When he inevitibly dies in office they will seize the reigns permanently. The supreme court has given up its power, congress has abdicated their responsibility to the constitution, and the puppet president is a megalomaniacal malignant narcissicist with dementia and his finger on the nuclear football. I hate to say it, but American democracy is dead and the country itself is probably cooked as well. Best of luck to you all in the conflicts to come. Sigh.
I've studied a lot of history over the years. What it shows is that fascists are extremely predictable, they are all basically the same. Magas are a particularly cruel and stupid variant, but they are still following the same patterns. Theres a reason folks like Timothy Snyder left the country. If I had the means I would too. Once things devolve to this point in a country the nation either collapses into dictatorship or they are removed by force. But no one is coming to save America, we did this to ourselves with our stupidity and the rest of the planet would be happy to see us fail if it weren't garunteed that if we did we will take the rest of the planet down with us. I don't know whats going to happen, but right now it does not appear there will be anything left worth saving after 4 years of this bullshit.
I'd like to thing you're wrong about how this will sort out, but the trend is pretty clear. "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The US won't actually collapse, it will probably end up looking like Brazil, but without Carnival. Churchill may be right about the "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted." But you can't run a superpower based only on responding to disasters, especially self inflicted ones. One hope is that when the plutocrats start really losing money due to the stupidity, they start pulling the strings of their puppets in congress and the senate, and forcing a stop to the stupidity.
Sadly the plutocrats are the ones behind this. They made a deal with the white nationalists to allow them to destroy the government/ nation in exchange for massive tax cuts and a promise thst they will never be held accountable for their crimes. Since Trump is a criminal and a racist himself he was happy to oblige both factions. They are intentionally destroying what was left of the middle class and immiserating the populace right now so people are truly desperate. The billionaires plan on buying the country for pennies once its a smoldering pile of ruin. So far everything has been going according to plan.
Thanks to Professor Krugman for that article. You mentioned the report in the NYT which attributes the budget cuts to "efforts to shrink the Federal government" and not to efforts to inhibit research and science. It is depressing that so many seemly smart people don't seem to understand what is going on.
If the true goal was to shrink the govt and eliminate waste and fraud, they'd have started with an audit of the Pentagon. All of this death by 10,000 papercuts is tiny in the grand svope of the budget, but important to the millions who depends on those seemingly inconsequential services. And sheds light into the cruelty and path of the Administration...normalize these cuts till it's too late to ne stopped.
Or look at the big corporations such as Big Pharma, Hospitals, and medical companies which overcharge and take advantage of Medicare and Medicaid. I read that multi billions of dollars go to pay for unnecessary medical procedures and overbilling. But Congress critters don't want to cut off the money spigot for corporations that donate to the campaign funds for said Congress critters.
Surely the real waste, fraud and abuse is perpetrated by providers and insurance companies. How is it the cash, no insurance price for my inhaler is less than my covered price?
Good comment. Remember that the NYT and other "mainstream" media talked daily about "Biden's Mental decline" but never talk about Donald's incoherent and often nonsensical speeches. They have done everything possible to sane wash and normalize Donald and MAGA.
The NYT published some of DonnyJon's speeches intact at least once. Once he won the election and started targeting all of his enemies, they became very cautious. Some of the Time's opinion writers still tell it like it is, but the headline writers all slant things in the administration's favor. Over thirty years ago, I was taught to read the last paragraph or two of any article first. That's where they will hide the counter-arguments to whatever leads off.
Many of us readers saw this for whst it was in 2024, Krugman just confirmed whst we already knew was happening. NYTimes bent the knee to the dark side.
In 1950 President Truman created the National Science Foundation to maintain the worldwide scientific leadership that helped win WWII. In recent years, that leadership has been challenged by China, a potential military adversary. Now the Trump Administration has thrown in the towel, cutting NSF funding to the bone, and even evicting them from their offices. As the good professor points out, Trump is also cutting research funding at other key government agencies, too. This will not end well for the US.
This attack and dismantling of federal agencies and institutions is definitely following the handbook literally written by the Heritage Institute, but in regards to Trump I also see a huge element of malice and payback for how he was embarrassed by them in his first term. Remember the "Sharpie Incident" with the hurricane map? How stupid he appeared alongside experts from the CDC? Smart, competent people dedicated to doing their jobs well have no place in his administration. Kakistocracy rules.
I am currently reading a novel taking place in 1985 with AIDS front and center. What struck me was that the kind of people who barely dared to come within 10 meters of a possible AIDS patient back then, is the same kind who downplayed Covid-19 and refused to wear masks and keep distance.
We are in the beginning stages of a century in which AI and information science will filter the haves from the have-nots. China is approaching this by making high-quality college and beyond education easily available and affordable to all young people who want it, and increasing govt support for R&D in both basic and applied sciences. The US approach is to reduce availabilty and increase the cost of already outrageous tuition, and halving R&D funding.
Who do you think think will prosper in the rest of this century
Much as I loath DJT and all who sail with him, comparing him to Pol Pot is disrespectful to Cambodians. His reign was brutal and fatal for so many he makes Hitler look like a choir boy. He had his torture chambers filmed in 35mm so he could share the cruelty in his own time. I could go on but won’t. I think my point is made.
This is pure social Darwinism. Not that the Republicans understand the term, it’s just what they practice now. There is no such thing as compassion in their world view. The concentration and wielding of power is the only thing that matters. Democracy is a hedge against power, so anything that strengthens democracy must be destroyed. Science is quintessentially democratic. It subjects everything to open scrutiny and it advances upon consensus. So it must go. As Paul says, there is no grand theory here, only the pursuit of power.
This is pure social Darwinism. Not that the Republicans understand the term, it’s just what they practice now. There is no such thing as compassion in their world view. The concentration and wielding of power is the only thing that matters. Anything that strengthens democracy must be destroyed. Science is quintessentially democratic. It subjects everything to open scrutiny and it advances upon consensus. So it must be destroyed. As Paul says, there is no grand theory here, only the pursuit of power.
Bravo Mr. Krugman. Ditto on starting the day; except I have no pet and no plan.
As for the flood, Monica Medina, had this to say: “It was ludicrous that the Speaker of the House said “all we can do is pray.”
Monica Medina (former deputy director of NOAA) went on to say we can do more than pray. She is nice to MAGAt Mike who is one of the biggest liars in the DUMA.
Ms. Medina noted that “We have the capacity; we are not powerless. What we are doing is making ourselves powerless by taking away the tools, by taking away the high technology, and the know-how, and the people that can give us the ability to be prepared for storms like this and to save lives. That’s what’s at risk here.” [Democracy Now. July 11, 2025]
The brain drain has begun. Applications by American doctors applying to Canada are up 750% A recent survey of American scientists indicated that 75% of them were interested in going someplace else. Canada, France, other European countries, and even China, are recruiting. Robert Reich noted that one of the Chinese scientists deported by Trump in his first term went on to make significant contributions to China’s space program.
Will smart people be replaced with prayerful people? Scientists fled the Weimer Republic: Einstein comes to mind. I’ve noticed the word ludicrous being used a lot lately.
One of the things that Made America Great was the fact that the United States has been the world leader in scientific research, discovery, and application. No matter the field, American research was at the forefront.
But the truncated vision of MAGA cannot tolerate even the slightest disagreement with their preferred reality. So, scientific research has to go. And with it, the greatness that MAGA wants to restore.
True of Trump personally, but not so his followers. It's not that they care about the country in the sense that they want the U.S. to prosper--they care about making the country a White supremacist country.
Professor Krugman: as Hannah Arendt wrote in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism: “Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.”
In this case, cutting science funding is a two-fer: pandering to anti-Darwin religionists; and the let's-deny-climate-change-science fossil fuel executives.
Oh wait, it's actually a three-fer, because the $30 billion in research funding just axed are being given as OBBB tax cuts to Jeffie and other billionaires to buy new yachts.
And they’re drastically increasing the ICE-driven police state.
From the progressive press, so much on economic risks, on war on science. OK, I'm sitting in Canada, but the OBBB has given obscene amounts of funding to a Gestapo and concentration camps. The resistance should be 'concentrated' there first. How can the home of the brave, land of the free not fight against that with every fibre...?
The security state has been growing like a cancer for at least a century, and the home of the brave and land of the free's response to it has usually been to word-vomit a whole lot of stupid about Our Brave Boys In Blue.
Not that ICE isn't something new and worse, but it fits a very long trend. Attempts to rein in the security state have usually been short-lived and reversible, and the root of the problem is that the average American treats cops and feds like they're freaking infallible.
When they started driving black SUV’s I worried…they seemed like the wrong message, and then they tried to kill Community Policing!
Too nice, ‘we want SWAT teams, door rams and big black vans!’
It’s fire departments who set fires to prove their worth…
And the border agents union is a center of this all.
That was bad enough. Then they switched to camouflaged armored carriers.
Bin Laden won.
I guess?
I think in a hundred years or so, Osama Bin Laden will be remembered the same way Gavrilo Princip is today - not a criminal mastermind, just the idiot who happened to light a powderkeg that was always going to go up one way or another.
Assigning priorities in this situation is futile. In a landslide everything moves downhill at once, so there's no advantage to trying to find the best place to stand. What this should tell us is that everyone is free to dig in and fight wherever they are.
Good point. For some, trying to reverse bad economic policy can be more important. Certainly the WH's war on science is terrible. But to me the state funding a massively expensive Gestapo in order to arrest *anyone* on the streets without judicial review, is a whole other astroplane of unacceptable.
It's understandable that given human history the idea of illegitimate force is reprehensible. That's one easy way to see how disturbed the people now in charge of the federal government are. But they are spread thin in their ignorant extremism. That's why confronting them on the broadest front possible will cause them to falter and collapse. The true tragedy is that fanatics like them all over the world seem to see this as a moment to realize their dreams. Their threat exists mostly because they are successfully diverting everyone from the real existential problems of climate upheaval and ecological collapse. Paired with the usual tendency to ignore human impacts on the world, this diversion all but assures the worst outcome possible.
We're working on it. Stay tuned.
That should be the rallying cry of the Democrats. Defund ICE.
Absolutely not.
Achtung! Der Neue Gestapo ist kommen!
Someone please report the spammer. Due to a Substack bug the report doesn’t work on an iPhone.
Reported
And it’s been removed!
It's trickle down theory all over again: make the rich richer and we'll all be better off. After all, they're the job creators, aren't they? And by implication, you're the job takers. This ruse needs to be renamed for what it is: trickle down trickery.
Or "the trickle on effect". While the corporate golden boys get their golden parachutes, the rest of us get the golden showers. So how about it America, do feel trickled on enough yet?
The GOP enablers & influencers didn't even mention the supposed wonders of Trickle-Down this time. Not that I've seen, anyway. Which means either they're lazy, or they don't give a sweet shit any more over any criticism of the GOP's prime function: Pandering to Billionaires.
THIS latter explanation is how Epstein was able to continue to prey on young teen girls for DECADES after that Vanity Fair article first came out in the early Aughts. And exactly why the GOP's Alex Acosta prosecuted him on merely a *single* count of soliciting a teen prostitute--despite having compiled massive amounts of testimony from DOZENS of teens and their families. Epstein paid GOP to play.
This was the same Alex Acosta that Trump1 made Secretary of Labor, a fricking cabinet position.
Note.
I worked on the biochemistry of sexually transmitted diseases for years in a clinical setting, and there is a peculiar demographic that stands out in STD data.
The demographic consists of older men having sex with younger women. Data further indicates that this phenomenon as widespread and interestingly high frequency. There is a case for it going back millennia.
Closer to home, it would not be unusual for a 65-year-old man to have caught, say, gonorrhea, from a 16-year-old Aurora Ave. North prostitute when the case trace got done.
As squalid as the reality of it is when it emerges into the daylight, none of this is new. Epstein's crew were high rollers, not juvenile streetwalkers and their pimps, but not in any case was Epstein archetypically unusual.
Same as it ever was.
It's really the Johns we're all after, isn't it?
Same as it ever was.
When the Republicans invented this mythology a popular way that opponents explained it is that it means feeding more oats to the horse so that a few more come out the other end.
I see it as a four-fer -- monetizing government-funded science, especially weather, even more. Never mind that government-funded science is what makes monetization of weather products, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, etc., possible.
What are weather corporations like AccuWeather going to buy if NOAA and the NWS are sufficiently crippled and gutted? Where will they get the accurate data they are now reselling if the science and scientists are sidelined? This one I don't get at all.
Fires and floods already. Next up, hurricanes, which may be the phenomena for which rapidly updated information is most crucial, given the large geographic swathes of danger, new hazards such as rapid intensification, and the logistical complications of mass evacuations.
Oh, and we now know that FEMA is overseen by an unqualified, indifferent moron who waited a week to go to the Texas floods, crucial days after frantic search and rescue operations had sadly become recovery operations. He in turn reports to a narcissistic poseur who burns money that exceeds her budget assembling an authoritarian secret police force, delights in cruelty, and bragged about shooting her rambunctious puppy in a gravel pit.
What could go wrong?
Except geology. No geology, no coal, oil, or gas.
No metals, no minerals, no earthquake warning, no groundwater, no stability validation for buildings and infrastructure, ...
If they buy new yachts they'll need new harbours to park them. But I thought they all wanted space joyrides these days.
They want both. They want it >all<. They won't know what to do with themselves if they actually get it. That's when they'll start cannibalizing each other.
And wage war over fresh water. The last man standing will be on the summit of a large hill, pumping his fist and declaring "Yes! I win!" before he too croaks, rendering humanity extinct.
The more dangerous idea is based upon the fundamental meanings: science is the search for truth, and all searches for truth are sciences in one way or another.
It is truth that is being attacked. Call it what it is: an attack on truth itself.
Now, why would they do that?
It is almost unbelievable that there even is a contest between truth and falsehood, and that the lie is winning by dictatorial degree and rewriting history. What a time we live in!
The fundamentalist (Christian) 50% of the GOP Base are staunch Creationists, and view most scientific enquiry with...suspicion.
Big Oil/Coal/Gas is perhaps the second most important GOP constituency, and is responsible for Trump2 dismantling and/or damaging NOAA, and anything to do with climate science.
The MAGA rank-and-file are extremely skeptical--if not outright hostile--to vaccines and applied immunology.
...and ironically, inadvertently proving that Darwin was right.
This is why cults try to limit all outside influence and why the GOP call objective fact based reporting "fake news." It is to keep the truth from poking holes in the disinformation which would set these folks free.
You would think it would dawn on those who subscribe to this nonsense that it is rather illogical to assume that what is largely being reported globally and by most, because they are simply reporting objective reality, is somehow "fake news" and assume instead that their isolated and politically affiliated preferred programing is somehow the truth and not the actual source of distortions and propaganda.
Just think of the stress and cognitive dissonance people are experiencing right now who believed in both Trump and also the Epstein conspiracies. They have invested so much in both and now must choose which to believe. However, accepting that they are being duped on some level either way (and Trump himself also helped fan the conspiracies) is tough for them to swallow but they can't believe in both at this point.
They also seem to believe that educated elites are far more capable than they are (like MTGs assumption of liberals controlling weather) leading to bizarre and wild conspiracies like some sci-fi fantasy or Bond movie) or that that at the same time and in the reverse that science is somehow flimsy and based on assumptions and not useful.
The best thing about more people being able to attend college, is that once they do, it helps to dispel the myth making of James Bond super villain capabilities able to be acquired by educated elites, and thus dispel wild conspiracies based on that (like weather control or space lasers) and at the same time, it teaches people that scientific information acquired within its framework of a scientific method is objective and useful and accurate. It also teaches people where one can find useful information and how to tell the difference.
The people who go to college are not necessarily smarter or different on average than those who don't, in my view, but they end up with first hand knowledge of what the possibilities actually are or are not and thus how bizarre and silly she sounds (most of them anyway).
They have seen the "man behind the curtain" and he is merely human but has some good tools at his disposal based on, and limited by, science.
Far fewer would get sucked into conspiracies if they had the ability to remove the curtain by attending college, even if it is for just a year or two.
Critical thinking skills are sorely lacking
"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you cannot make him think." - Social Studies teacher in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers."
This was a critical step in the ‘drugification’ of media, the well named Rush tapped this vein and Fuax followed! The ‘fake news’ are drug dealers and too many are addicted…
"And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up" -Rush Limbaugh
Then he got caught being addicted to prescription opiates. Then he changed his tune!
Yes that is such an amazing values…do as I say not as I do! Of course this was always Rushing Rush!
OMFG! Did he do >that< too?! What a winner.
P&J: sadly, I think you are mistaken putting so much faith in a college education. I agree that many many non-college folks are pretty smart and switched on, but I myself know so many people with Ivy League graduate degrees who are MAGA or sympathisers. Look no further than Hawley, Bannon, Vance, Miller, Hegseth…
I know logical thinking skills do not end up reaching everyone, for one also needs to be both willing and able, but it dramatically increases the probability.
In a democracy where it is a numbers game to reach a majority and win elections and pass legislation, simply having "more" rational folks with good tools to assess accurate information and to understand what is probable is important.
Trump played the numbers by cobbling together a wide variety of conspiracy types and why he needed RFK Jr. in the mix and others. Trump simply cobbled together enough minority fringes to win and social media drove conspiracies and fear, as well.
Some on the left (who did not study science in college) tend to have their own share of healthcare fringe types, who believe in pseudo-science that might "sound smart" but isn't proven. This is driven by the desire for health and fear of illness and death and need for perfection. Thus, some will cling to any excuse for not being "this or that" or perfect.
One example of a non-science notion that has become mainstream on the left is the notion of repressed memories for which there is zero scientific evidence at all. None. In fact, all evidence actually suggests the opposite.
Even introductory psychology textbooks point out that nothing Freud said was supported by any real evidence, and after decades, there still is not one shred of evidence for any of this. They mention that he is no longer taken seriously, but is notable for suggesting the brain plays a role, yet a lot of what was considered nonsense persists, and it is damaging.
Scientific studies have shown the opposite of memory suppression, and that traumatic events are far more likely to be remembered (no evidence they are forgotten) as a survival technique. We also know through scientific studies that memories are very suggestible, like the eye witness testimony experiments have proven. So, is therapy being used to retrieve so-called repressed memories for which there is no evidence for, or is it instead creating them though suggestion? All evidence points to the latter, none to the former.
Another example is that a lot of the health informercials during PBS pledge drives are loosely based on incomplete science or maybe even just a few mouse studies or they my make leaps in their conclusions from science that has actually been well done.
Fortunately, the worst they tend do in the end, is suggest you eat more veg and fiber and exercise and avoid most already known unhealthy things. So, they are not inherently harmful. The worst case scenario is that they might create a gassy following of farting fans who are eating healthier and that is a good thing. Also, although some conclusions may be a stretch or exaggerated, at least there is some science involved, so there is always the possibility that they may be proven correct or party so, at some point in the future, and if not, no one is often harmed for eating healthier.
It would do them well to at least get beyond junior high school.
Yes, for some they belong to a community of followers, with a leader like a pastor, and thus it simply may feel more natural and at home for them to not question things as much, and to look for this type of leader, simply based on that. However, faith should be reserved for religion, not politics or much of anything else. My opinion, anyway.
Trump's going to have to prune the Ten Commandments down to about three also.
This is why I balk at treating loyalty as a *virtue*.
From Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:
----
We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow.
----
(David Cross comically addressed the incongruity of those "patriots" who complain about the state of America while attacking any liberal criticism of it.)
Trump and MAGA have put the United States on the path to a second-rate nation. Why? Because dictators prefer to rule a poor country than share power in an affluent one.
Hey
We are getting ever closer to the MAGA inquisition and the imposed belief structure.
The earth is 7000 years old and sits at the center of the universe.
If you are poor it is entirely your fault. You need to work harder for less money.
There is no climate change and if there is, it isn't caused by man.
Donald Trump is the smartest, healthiest most moral man that ever lived.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I hate to say it: but we elected him, we get what we deserve as a nation. I did not vote for him but I did vote. I believe that indifference, a failure to participate in our democratic system, bears a great responsibility for what is coming next. We did not choose what is best, we gave it away by indifference. The majority did not vote at all. We failed to speak in the present, we may not be asked to speak in the future. If you didn’t bother to speak in the past you have no real right to complain in the future.
.
The billionaires funded his campaign to get him elected. One man, one vote has been replaced with one dollar, one vote.
Absolutely right, Deanna. “We did not choose what is best, we gave it away by indifference. The majority did not vote at all. We failed to speak in the present, we may not be asked to speak in the future.”
As voters, we carry responsibility for who is elected. Not enough research and news reporting is focused on the eligible voters who do not vote. Most commonly, I hear them say, “nothing changes.” I think the media and Democrats fail to take the message of political engagement to those people. We don’t seem to be able to reach them and to help them see benefits in their neighborhoods that government policies have made, such as health insurance. The Republicans cleverly made sure the cuts to Medicaid would not go into effect until after 2026 elections. After the Biden legislation was passed, there seemed to be no plan for Congress people to talk about the different elements of the legislation in their states and districts and how it would affect people.
The "We" is NOT most of us.
He fixed the vote...
Read this 2024 Presidential vote analysis that is onging...
https://electiontruthalliance.org/
But what will be done about it when we have irrefutable proof that the republicans cheated in the swing states in 2024? The feckless Dems have showed that they don't have the stones for the necessary fight. If We the People try to follow Jefferson's advice in the Declaration of Independence, the newly created and massively empowered Schutzstaffel will not hesitate to put us down like dogs. I am livid, but I really don't see a way out of what's happening here and elsewhere other than WW3.
Thank you, Barry! Yours is my exact opinion.
That more registered voters voted for neither candidate, an outcome that usually happens over the past couple cycles but did NOT when Biden won, is quite depressing.
On the margin the bomb scares in heavily Dem districts mattered, BUT when Sen. Slotkin can win a statewide race that Harris lost that's concerning.
Tougher sledding in 2026. Far more physical voter suppression will be in play.
Hopefully Donnie crashes the economy AND he and the GOP get blamed for it.
“We” did not elect him. The MAGAts, Musk Manipulation and EC put him in office. A whole lot of citizens did not vote CFDT into office.
Where’s my kool-aid?
I’ve thought there was vote rigging from the 2024 results. Not only did Trump claim he was confident Musk was fixing the outcomes by fixing the vote counting machine. Trump also simply stopped campaigning at his rallies well in advance of Election Day and simply swayed with his music. Who simply stops running ahead of the election? A lazy moronic crook, that’s who!
I wouldn’t be surprised but I have no direct knowledge.
What they seem to be preaching these days is that global warming is entirely natural and there's nothing we can do about it.
Worse! ‘Look at how much more warm beach front we can develop! climate change will make the Earth so much nicer, for golf, for making money!” Yes he said this, really!
Wahoo!
The desperate mugs parrot the propaganda of the oil and gas industry.
It's in the later sections of the 'Book of Mammon', after the parts about Jesus inviting more moneychangers into the temple, and making you rich.
To the extent that there's any rational thought behind their stance on global warming, I think they think they know that we've passed the point of no return, and even draconian efforts will only make things marginally less worse, even as the effects of past emissions continue to warm the planet. And they may be right. The tech billionaires think Mars is the (idiotic) answer. Or spraying particulates into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, China (long the oilmen's excuse for why it's pointless for us to act) is taking it far more seriously. And maybe (given their size and current pollution levels) that's enough to cancel out the damage of our inaction - give or take an "industry of the future" or two that were ceding to them in the process.
Yes so true. All the Magas can visit the future Trump Resort, in Gaza, once his mates have displaced or killed what left of the Palestinians. I just keep hoping for Kama and all his properties are taken out - by Global Warming consequences. Although I hate the thought see all his immigrant workers get wiped out, as they will have no warning to get out in time - as no more weather forecasting.
And it seems there are a lot who believe this stuff in disUSA already including other stuff such as that there is a Dems paedo filled HQ under a garage somewhere. Epsteinesque Bondi-ng?
Nothing terrifies Republicans more than an educated person with critical thinking skills.
🎯🎯🎯
Could the rage be a manifestation of their fear?
These disgraceful cuts will affect virtually all of us in a multitude of ways: the next time you board a plane your safety as well as comfort will depend on the predictable weather for your pilots to assess and to avoid etc etc. SHAME on every Republican in Congress other than only two in the House and three in the Senate! SHAME on each and every one who voted for this disastrous bill!
Not just the cuts, it's the malevolent incompetence as well. Noem is a fuck up with hair extensions who so badly botched the Texas response that she should be fired and deported. Duffy presides over an air traffic system so broken that planes are already falling from the sky. And don't even get me started on Hegseth or Rubio. It will take a century for us to recover from this, if ever.
Kristi Noem epitomizes the gravitas of all Trump’s people.
I think kindergarteners…they are just mad! They don’t know why, nor care, and they need a time out!
Agree. Hard to expect much more from mediocre white men who peaked in junior high.
It is malevolent envy.
The attack on science is similar to the attack on the media, the attack on higher education, the attack on the courts, the promotion of religion, the promotion of crypto, the militarization of law enforcement, and on and on. The shared goal is to attack the idea of objective truth so that the average person will remain in ignorance and those in control may accumulate as much wealth as possible. A public that lives as much as possible in darkness and fear will not have the knowledge or the wherewithal to appreciate the sources of their suffering or the systemic changes they should be demanding.
The NYT is actively participating in the destruction of our institutions by describing Trump administration efforts as attempts to shrink government or by providing other anodyne explanations for drastic and frequently unjustifiable policy changes. Do they know this? Do they not appreciate the motives of the modern right wing movement for what they are? Is the attempt to maintain some transparently bogus appearance of fairness motivated simply by their economics? Are they just like most other businesses, which is to say, ultimately unconcerned with the takeover of our institutions provided that their business models are not damaged?
Thank goodness for Paul K, who is a reliable source of truth telling, and has been for many years.
Yes, great synopsis!
Of course ‘they’ know this, it’s easier than thinking…polls are dropping and so they pull out the secret service story and print the picture of ‘Bloodied Donny Fist Pump’!
Selling drugs to the masses. Keeping it 50/50 sells more papers.
Oddly, fewer and fewer people read traditional papers. Its an aging group. So you can anticipate the NYT's, and similar source's, news to get stranger and stranger as they follow the niche interests of their oligarch owners and narrow reader base. Fox "news" blazed the trail. With no common base in reality, democracy is impossible, as elections devolve into tribal slugfests.
I suggest stop saying Project 2025 and start saying Heritage Foundation. They are running the government. No one elected them.
And of course no one voted for the coup they are executing
While they may not have actually realized they were voting for a coup, most MAGAts are quite OK with it because racism is in their DNA.
The Heritage Foundation should be considered a terrorist organization. If Project 2025's name was changed to "Putin's Plan to Destroy US Democracy" not one word would need to be changed.
Is it the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society that's destroying American Democracy. Or are they playing tag team? And are they basically funded by the same monsters...
‘Whittle’ Stevie Miller is in charge…he’s the gatekeeper, the Wormtongue is Donny’s ear. ‘you really need to pay another round, he sign these before you go…’
CHINA is already more or less equal to the US in many fields of science, and ahead in important ones relating to technology... you can look up the citation statistics... and their trajectory shows astonishingly rapid advance. I became aware of this personally a while back as I noticed an increased number of Chinese names in the authors of papers of my field of interest. At first, well, a lot of them turned out to be working in US labs (yay immigration). But increasingly they are in China itself. We are already falling behind in the most important of all races, and now we're shooting ourselves in both feet. (I's not just weather and medicine, there's devastating attacks on the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, ALL research grants to universities and so on.)
An article in the Houston paper today detailed a Chinese spy’s activities here and in CA before he was arrested. This particular one was looking for Navy secrets. China has a long history of coming to Houston looking for secrets from NASA, manufacturers and the medical field. They don’t necessarily figure things out for themselves.
They will.
Maybe that's #MAGA's cunning plan (H/T Baldrick)... stop our research so China will be faced to do it themselves, and we can steal it from China for pennies on the dollar.
Yes! A year's sabbatical in China and learning about their government's financial support was eye-opening
It’s already being snatched by Trump, so no one will notice the change except maybe the heir-in-waiting, JD Vance.
If we let them build an ice
force of loyalist goons larger than all the other military branches and give Trump his own personal Gestapo we will all be trapped in this fascist nightmare for a loong time unless we have a full blown civil war. The cabal of evil fucks like Leonard Leo and Peter Thiel who are actually running things are not about to give up power that after decades of effort they have finally succeeded in stealing from the rest of us. Trump is a willing puppet who is happy to let them keep destroying the nation as long as he gets to play president strongman on tv and he has been bribed in every way conceivable, to boot. The billionaires actually invented whole new ways of political bribing never done before just for him with the crypto scams. When he inevitibly dies in office they will seize the reigns permanently. The supreme court has given up its power, congress has abdicated their responsibility to the constitution, and the puppet president is a megalomaniacal malignant narcissicist with dementia and his finger on the nuclear football. I hate to say it, but American democracy is dead and the country itself is probably cooked as well. Best of luck to you all in the conflicts to come. Sigh.
No, don't sugarcoat the situation, tell us what you really think!
I've studied a lot of history over the years. What it shows is that fascists are extremely predictable, they are all basically the same. Magas are a particularly cruel and stupid variant, but they are still following the same patterns. Theres a reason folks like Timothy Snyder left the country. If I had the means I would too. Once things devolve to this point in a country the nation either collapses into dictatorship or they are removed by force. But no one is coming to save America, we did this to ourselves with our stupidity and the rest of the planet would be happy to see us fail if it weren't garunteed that if we did we will take the rest of the planet down with us. I don't know whats going to happen, but right now it does not appear there will be anything left worth saving after 4 years of this bullshit.
I'd like to thing you're wrong about how this will sort out, but the trend is pretty clear. "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The US won't actually collapse, it will probably end up looking like Brazil, but without Carnival. Churchill may be right about the "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted." But you can't run a superpower based only on responding to disasters, especially self inflicted ones. One hope is that when the plutocrats start really losing money due to the stupidity, they start pulling the strings of their puppets in congress and the senate, and forcing a stop to the stupidity.
Sadly the plutocrats are the ones behind this. They made a deal with the white nationalists to allow them to destroy the government/ nation in exchange for massive tax cuts and a promise thst they will never be held accountable for their crimes. Since Trump is a criminal and a racist himself he was happy to oblige both factions. They are intentionally destroying what was left of the middle class and immiserating the populace right now so people are truly desperate. The billionaires plan on buying the country for pennies once its a smoldering pile of ruin. So far everything has been going according to plan.
In the spirit of Louis XVI, for the plutocrats: ask not for whom the tumbrels roll, they roll for thee.
I couldn’t agree more.
Thanks to Professor Krugman for that article. You mentioned the report in the NYT which attributes the budget cuts to "efforts to shrink the Federal government" and not to efforts to inhibit research and science. It is depressing that so many seemly smart people don't seem to understand what is going on.
If the true goal was to shrink the govt and eliminate waste and fraud, they'd have started with an audit of the Pentagon. All of this death by 10,000 papercuts is tiny in the grand svope of the budget, but important to the millions who depends on those seemingly inconsequential services. And sheds light into the cruelty and path of the Administration...normalize these cuts till it's too late to ne stopped.
Or look at the big corporations such as Big Pharma, Hospitals, and medical companies which overcharge and take advantage of Medicare and Medicaid. I read that multi billions of dollars go to pay for unnecessary medical procedures and overbilling. But Congress critters don't want to cut off the money spigot for corporations that donate to the campaign funds for said Congress critters.
Surely the real waste, fraud and abuse is perpetrated by providers and insurance companies. How is it the cash, no insurance price for my inhaler is less than my covered price?
Good comment. Remember that the NYT and other "mainstream" media talked daily about "Biden's Mental decline" but never talk about Donald's incoherent and often nonsensical speeches. They have done everything possible to sane wash and normalize Donald and MAGA.
The NYT published some of DonnyJon's speeches intact at least once. Once he won the election and started targeting all of his enemies, they became very cautious. Some of the Time's opinion writers still tell it like it is, but the headline writers all slant things in the administration's favor. Over thirty years ago, I was taught to read the last paragraph or two of any article first. That's where they will hide the counter-arguments to whatever leads off.
Many of us readers saw this for whst it was in 2024, Krugman just confirmed whst we already knew was happening. NYTimes bent the knee to the dark side.
In 1950 President Truman created the National Science Foundation to maintain the worldwide scientific leadership that helped win WWII. In recent years, that leadership has been challenged by China, a potential military adversary. Now the Trump Administration has thrown in the towel, cutting NSF funding to the bone, and even evicting them from their offices. As the good professor points out, Trump is also cutting research funding at other key government agencies, too. This will not end well for the US.
This attack and dismantling of federal agencies and institutions is definitely following the handbook literally written by the Heritage Institute, but in regards to Trump I also see a huge element of malice and payback for how he was embarrassed by them in his first term. Remember the "Sharpie Incident" with the hurricane map? How stupid he appeared alongside experts from the CDC? Smart, competent people dedicated to doing their jobs well have no place in his administration. Kakistocracy rules.
Idiocracy as well.
I am currently reading a novel taking place in 1985 with AIDS front and center. What struck me was that the kind of people who barely dared to come within 10 meters of a possible AIDS patient back then, is the same kind who downplayed Covid-19 and refused to wear masks and keep distance.
Homosexuality and/or skin colour was involved.
Much less internet too. Tougher to spread bizarre conspiracy theories
We are in the beginning stages of a century in which AI and information science will filter the haves from the have-nots. China is approaching this by making high-quality college and beyond education easily available and affordable to all young people who want it, and increasing govt support for R&D in both basic and applied sciences. The US approach is to reduce availabilty and increase the cost of already outrageous tuition, and halving R&D funding.
Who do you think think will prosper in the rest of this century
Pol Pot. Taking America to Ground Zero.
Much as I loath DJT and all who sail with him, comparing him to Pol Pot is disrespectful to Cambodians. His reign was brutal and fatal for so many he makes Hitler look like a choir boy. He had his torture chambers filmed in 35mm so he could share the cruelty in his own time. I could go on but won’t. I think my point is made.
Right. Thanks,
Could be both.
This is pure social Darwinism. Not that the Republicans understand the term, it’s just what they practice now. There is no such thing as compassion in their world view. The concentration and wielding of power is the only thing that matters. Democracy is a hedge against power, so anything that strengthens democracy must be destroyed. Science is quintessentially democratic. It subjects everything to open scrutiny and it advances upon consensus. So it must go. As Paul says, there is no grand theory here, only the pursuit of power.
This is pure social Darwinism. Not that the Republicans understand the term, it’s just what they practice now. There is no such thing as compassion in their world view. The concentration and wielding of power is the only thing that matters. Anything that strengthens democracy must be destroyed. Science is quintessentially democratic. It subjects everything to open scrutiny and it advances upon consensus. So it must be destroyed. As Paul says, there is no grand theory here, only the pursuit of power.
Bravo Mr. Krugman. Ditto on starting the day; except I have no pet and no plan.
As for the flood, Monica Medina, had this to say: “It was ludicrous that the Speaker of the House said “all we can do is pray.”
Monica Medina (former deputy director of NOAA) went on to say we can do more than pray. She is nice to MAGAt Mike who is one of the biggest liars in the DUMA.
Ms. Medina noted that “We have the capacity; we are not powerless. What we are doing is making ourselves powerless by taking away the tools, by taking away the high technology, and the know-how, and the people that can give us the ability to be prepared for storms like this and to save lives. That’s what’s at risk here.” [Democracy Now. July 11, 2025]
The brain drain has begun. Applications by American doctors applying to Canada are up 750% A recent survey of American scientists indicated that 75% of them were interested in going someplace else. Canada, France, other European countries, and even China, are recruiting. Robert Reich noted that one of the Chinese scientists deported by Trump in his first term went on to make significant contributions to China’s space program.
Will smart people be replaced with prayerful people? Scientists fled the Weimer Republic: Einstein comes to mind. I’ve noticed the word ludicrous being used a lot lately.
Peace Out.
One of the things that Made America Great was the fact that the United States has been the world leader in scientific research, discovery, and application. No matter the field, American research was at the forefront.
But the truncated vision of MAGA cannot tolerate even the slightest disagreement with their preferred reality. So, scientific research has to go. And with it, the greatness that MAGA wants to restore.
True of Trump personally, but not so his followers. It's not that they care about the country in the sense that they want the U.S. to prosper--they care about making the country a White supremacist country.