Trump is tenacious when it comes to grifting. No matter what sort of trouble he is in, he tries to find a way to make as much money as he can off of any situation. While he grifts off of any situation he can. He is robbing us blind and I have read that our national debt is now 39 trillion dollars. Trump can leave at the end of his administration and move somewhere else with all of our money and no recourse to get it from him. We should be doing something now. STOP THE STEAL!
"In his second inaugural address Trump promised that “our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.” Does anyone believe that starting an unnecessary war, then threatening to commit massive war crimes because we’re losing to a fourth-rate power, and finally, in the best case, essentially running away, has made America more respected?"
It's never too early for mid-term ads! This is a good one.
And in addition to lying about why the six U.S. service members died on the first day in a vulnerable trailer, they also lied about bombing the elementary school and killing countless children:
"Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran," Trump said. "We think it was done by Iran because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran."
Regarding reports of U.S. responsibility, Trump said, "I don't know about it," and "I just don't know enough about it."
He knows enough to know how to sell himself to millions of American voters. Notwithstanding my visceral hatred for the man, he does have a feral genius for appealing to the dark side of so many Americans.
Yes. People like Ruth Ben-Ghiat who is a fascism expert already said this with his first debate against Biden that he was an expert at fascist rhetoric. As we know from the research, fear is a big motivator for deciding how people vote. He gets that and he tapped into fears of several kinds. Mostly the fear of not being able to survive. Thus he created the "enemy" in immigrants. They are the biggest threat to survival is what he claimed, and while people like you and me can see this is ridiculous, apparently many Americans cannot think very well.
Yeah—and now there are farmers who can’t do their spring planting because they have no field hands because they have all been either arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps or deported.
Lindsey Graham has been peppering my smart speaker with ads, which suggests to me that he fears losing the June primary. He has 4 Republican opponents. Three Democrats are vying for our nomination. I started calling his office again to complain that a man who supposedly is close to Trump is not doing enough for his state.
So glad that Magyar won, even though he is as conservative as Orbán, although he is anti corruption and pro EU and NATO. He apparently does not want Hungary being a satellite state of Russia, the way the US is becoming.
I just read in Meidas News that Trump offered to pay Hungarians for voting for Orbán with our tax dollars, like he paid for Milei to win in Argentina, and other right wing candidates in South American countries. It seems to be treasonous.
Spot on. When people analyze King Feckless in terms of “policy” or his opinion or goals as to “national interests,” they miss the point: the whole regime is driven by three things, project 2025, King F’s ego and the grift.
I know it’s rude and feckless is incompetent, he is King Fuck-it-up! Spray paint it gold and declare victory…it’s so much worse than before! COVID should have been the last straw, as his lack of leadership and actions killed between 600-800,000 people who didn’t have to die during the crisis! Where is the accounting!? You know this is a lot of people and families…do we care?! How is this conservative?
And you know what, fine let him go. To Russia, North Korea etc. maybe he’ll fall out a window. Wonder if Melania will be going with him? Highly doubtful as she is overly attached to her son and her boyfriend!
A rational country and world would radically ramp up green energy efforts in the face of this Trump created energy crisis, but we are not in a rational country, we are in a mafia run petro state and Trump can't make bank on windmills (which is one of the reasons why he hates them)
While Trump and the Republicans in Congress who support whatever he does are in power, we should work on the state level to advance renewables. A Republican I know, who moved into a house with solar panels, is a convert on renewables after paying just $17 a month to run air conditioning during a very hot summer.
But other countries are taking this opportunity. Cuba for instance is apparently now getting about 20% of their energy from solar since we started the blockade. Trump's blundering to restore oil and coal to prominence will just wind up spurring the rest of the world to transition to renewables.
And thanks to Trump, Iran has now learned that it holds an extremely potent and effective weapon to hold the entire world hostage and can never be taken away: the Strait of Hormuz.
No one mentions the Strait of Malacca which traverses even more oil than Hormuz to China, Japan etc. Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia must be wondering how a similar toll might work for them.
Many important parts of the world ARE radically ramping up renewables, especially solar, including China and — believe it or not — Saudi Arabia. The US was too, until last year (albeit nowhere near as fast as China). We are not winning. We are just ceding even more to China.
Yes. So does the American desert, and there’s tons of open unused space there. It’s also a potential revenue opportunity for the tribal nations (not that the current regime would let them have it).
There are plenty of rooftops that would be great locations for solar panels. I was surprised at how few I saw in Florida. A giant housing development is being constructed in my area with no trees. Did they put solar on the roof? No.
The trick is to tie the addition of solar to who gets the benefit.
Traditional builders know they can get residents/buyers without adding solar, just as, historically, there's no advantage to landlords adding insulation or efficient appliances if the renters pay all of the utility bills.
You are correct about traditional builders. They will not do what is energy efficient unless forced to do so.
Republicans in my area went on a crusade against large solar fields, and I can see the farmers' point. The solar company that came into my rural area focused on fields, and the power generated would likely have been shipped off to more urban areas, which frankly, need to put solar panels on their roofs and businesses. However, if the move had been more toward solar panels on houses and reducing people's rates, that would have directly tied the benefits to the people in this area.
Its is an unspoken irony that the very petro states that 47 seems to admire are also rapidly expanding their development of renewable energy sources. In the US, the state that leads in renewables is Texas. Apparently, even Texans have figured out that developing alternative energy sources now makes more sense than waiting until the last barrel oil has been sucked from the ground.
Jeez Louise solar+batteries has saved our bacon during the peak of air conditioning season. ERCOT has not had to resort to rolling blackouts despite record demand (heat + population growth), and the cost of peak energy is definitely cheaper than in the past. Both solar ·and· wind also helped us keep costs down in our hardest freeze this past winter.
Economics is still driving a lot of RE transition in the US. Thermal plants require too much up-front capital and take too long to get ROI, while PV solar and onshore wind can be added incrementally and be generating power before full build-out is done. Grid-class batteries are continuing to get cheaper and more long-term variants are being introduced (though even the early-generation 4-hour storage goes a long way toward shifting solar power supply to evening peak demand).
Happily, Arizona's recent utility board race just added more pro-solar people despite Turning Point USA's heavy campaign spending.
Anne, while others may be trending away from the US, all of the Arab nations that have US bases continue to interact with Trump and have not closed the US bases, other than that Iran has done that for them by destroying them. Now the military is in hotels in different Middle Eastern Countries. So secure!
This morning I read that, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte does not consider his meeting with Trump in Washington this week successful. He says that the NATO countries have to give Trump more support. What is that about?
Rutte is sickening me at this point, and just to think I viewed him as an adult at the MSC 2 years ago. Now I see him as totally compromised. German Chancellor Merz is also in this category, although I never saw viewed as an "adult" in the room. Just that he is also saying we have to keep the US in NATO and that Trump understands that Germany can only send ships under certain conditions because of treaties it is tied to, and that means once the "war is over" then they can help clear the Strait of Hormuz, I presume with mine sweepers. The US's are all out of commission and the EU has over 100, I don't remember the precise number. All said, I do not see people turning away from the US like they should. At this point Trump should be on everyone's terrorist lists, and yet, he is not. Merz has been quiet over what in Germany was over a week of Easter Break, and everyone returned to work on Tuesday. He is a hypocrite like all the rest. Where is anyone standing up to Trump and calling out our war crimes. Why are they not knowledgeable enough to see that the US and Israel took on Iran together and failed.
Footnote: you note that the U.S. has dispersed its forces into civilian hotels. That TOO is a WAR CRIME! Trump has made the commercial districts of his Arab ‘allies’ into legitimate war targets for Iran, endangering millions. Enough!
The problem Linda, is that all of these nations are heavily invested in US weapons platforms. They need to maintain access to the missiles, bombs, ammunition, airplane parts, tank parts and whatnot. Europe is spooling up its own defense industry but replacing the US will take decades.
Well, they aren't getting any weapons from the US because Trump is using them all, even the ones that the EU paid for. He has stolen them. So, they need to be realizing how to cut their losses. Iran is the only country seeming prepared right now, and Ukraine.
The problem European leaders have is that Trump is a democratically elected leader who has a mandate for all this crap - or as much of a mandate as any US president ever gets. A majority of the US electorate voted for this man, despite knowing from his first term in office exactly what they were going to get from him and, if they were paying even the slightest attention, that if he got a second term, those around him would be much better prepared to cause havoc than they were in the first term.
What we are now experiencing is the product of democracy. That's what makes it so worrying. We can't give up on it (we really can't) but, not for the first time, democracy has produced a monster.
More voters voted for someone other than Trump. He won the electoral college which is now weighted in the minority's favor. Remember, Clinton won the popular vote by abt. 3.5 million and still lost.
There was and is no mandate from the majority of the U.S. population.
He got 49.81% of the vote - 0.2% shy of a majority of all who cast a vote for anyone and a clear majority (50.75%) of the popular votes cast for the only two parties that were ever going to be in the running for the electoral college. People voting for someone other than Harris or Trump might as well have not bothered voting, for all the difference it made to the end result.
The fact that 49.81% of all voters voted for Trump is really no less concerning than it would have been if 50.01% had voted for him.
I'm just saying that getting 49.81% of the votes is the number not a mandate. The "protest votes" are politically immature but we'll always have them. Ranked choice voting might be the solution, but that isn't going to make people go to the polls.
For the rest of my life I'll never understand why anyone would vote for Trump, but then I remember that half the U.S. suffers a below average IQ, and if I'm not mistaken, that average gets lower by the year.
Don’t forget that our democracy has been undermined by 40 years or more of careful planning by a group of corrupt billionaires who want no constraint on their corporations or their ability to generate wealth. They found the person who was amoral enough to make their dreams all come true, and they are already plowing billions of dollars into the midterms.
Other countries that rely on that oil must be seething. Assuming “best case” and a toll is the “win”, the price of their energy just went up. And of course everyday citizens will be the ones to bear that cost. Once again. Trump leaves nothing but devastation in his wake. And as an unhinged president of a wealthy, powerful country with zero thought let alone respect for this world, it’s system, or anyone in it, and with Congress, courts, and his equally abysmal cabinet having little to no interest in reigning him in, no one the world over is safe from his mayhem.
I wonder if Rutte is trying to manage a “difficult child” and let him think he won this war, in order to get him to quit. All the headlines correctly blaring the losing streak Trump is on, will likely have the paradoxical effect of egging him on. The whole world is maneuvering away from us, while simultaneously trying to give Trump a face-saving exit, to save all,our skins.
You're probably right, but that has never worked. Giving Trump a crown and a back rub has never gotten anyone anything they ever wanted. When world leaders come here to schmooze him, he and his base see it as strength. It emboldens him to think and feel he's more powerful than he is.
I hope people are beginning to appreciate what Plato, his student Socrates and eventually Democritus came to dislike about democracy. These were three of the finest thinkers to have graced the West. BTW their objections to democracy are perfectly illustrated by Britain (I am British among other things) and the US. They thought that the common man did not have the ability to make sound political decisions. Absent a philosopher king we will, I suppose, have to put up with democracy. I briefly lived in a country with a philosopher king (Buthan). Things were going just fine and god only knows why they have recently switched to democracy.
He has not come out and said Israel's "Wings of Zion" cannot be parked in the passenger airport in Berlin where it currently sits. He has not said US cannot launch their war from bases located in Germany. He has not said that what Trump is doing is a war crime, or terrorist. He has not said that threatening to nuke Iran will be an act that means Trump cannot come to Germany. He has not said he made a mistake in inviting Trump to the US, or kissing his ass repeatedly in Washington. Or that German military is not helping the US out in the Strait of Hormuz because Germany is not participating in War crimes. He has not said Germany will stop supplying Israel with weapons. He has not complained much about Russia having sanctions removed. I could go on. However, I think that most people are not for Merz because he is weak tea when it comes to people who like the AfDs positions and does not offer a clear alternative to the AfD to the rest of the people not thrilled with Merz.
It's the same in the UK. All politicians now are desperately unpopular. It's impatience with the whole established system of politics. Here we do at least have some headroom in terms of outdated things we can improve - like changing the electoral system to PR or greater devolution of powers to the regions. If you're already thoroughly modernised as many Central / Northern European countries are, you've really got nowhere left to go. You just have to tough it out until the shockwaves from the new disruptive medium have died down.
Hi Linda. Like you, I’m struggling to pull my eyebrows back down somewhere near my eyes while trying to interpret the talk that comes from Rutte. My hunch is that he’s playing the role of a double-agent with gullible Trump, but it’s hard to know. There is only so far that flattery and treachery can go…!
"As with Polaris, Trident was owned and operated by the UK but committed to NATO and targeted in accordance with plans set out by the organisation's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who is traditionally a senior figure in the US military.[66] Under the terms of the Polaris Sales Arrangement, the US does not have a veto on the use of British nuclear weapons, which the UK may launch independently,[67] but this would only occur if "supreme national interests" required it.[66]"
Essentially, if the United States decides to pull the plug, that's the end of Britain's nuclear weapons.
As for France, it has neither formally nor technically extended its nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe. There are major obstacles to be overcome here, such as questions of command and control, delivery platforms, and stationing and storage, to name but a few.
I am not suggesting those cannot or won't be solved, but if they ever are, it will take years.
tRump has also inadvertently put a virtual tax on fossil fuels, choking off supply and accelerating the world’s transition to renewables and low- to- no-carbon forms.
So maybe there’s a bright side to his mad incometence. Everything he touches dies: His casinos, most of his other businesses, his “university”, his “charity”, the Federal government he now runs, and his final coup de grâce may be his beloved fossil fuel industry. At a time when renewals had already become competitively priced, he’s doubling the price of fossil fuels. The world will move away in a step function, and the share points lost will not return. So thanks, Moron! Wouldn’t it be ironic if Donald tRump halted global warming more effectively than anyone else?!
Professor Krugman: asset stripping, that's what the orange rapist is doing, except the corporation having its assets stripped by the tangerine testicle is AMERIKKKA and those who will be left holding the bag on massive debts are AMERIKKANS. generations and generations of americans. how can anyone anywhere (even americans) respect a nation full of idiots who voted for their own country's demise? it boggles the mind. but i guess that's the price we gotta pay to stick it to women, brown people and those bloody libruls!
He's humiliated our country. Eight billion people globally are cursing his name--and Bibi's--for making their cooking fuel unaffordable. He and the GOP have added nearly $3 trillion to the national debt *in little more than a year.* The only people cheering are the Epstein class. And Vladimir Putin.
A friend of mine who fishes salmon in Alaska, says with diesel at $7/gallon, he'll only break even this season. He's looking at losing a whole year's worth of income thanks to Trump's incompetence.
As long as it comes in the way those of us in this silo want: free & fair elections, absent tRumps fingers on the scales, and significant repudiation of Rs in congress. Of course, I hope for these outcomes but history teaches that they are not guaranteed.
Not if he manages to get the GOP to pass his SAVE Act. Which will potentially invalidate the vote for *tens* of millions of Americans. Mainly Dems. Myself included, as I can't find my fricking birth certificate anywhere.
To give you an idea of just how criminal those GOP fu%&heads are, to get a Real ID drivers license *requires* you to submit your birth certificate. But that's not good enough for the GOP, who insist you need to present both your Real ID D/L *plus* your birth certificate or passport to have your vote counted at the polls.
And if you're a married woman who took her husband's surname? You're more or less screwed.
This hatred of Wind power comes from his being able to see an offshore wind farm off Aberdeen from his Golf Course. He really is a very small minded individual. Meantime Scotland has closed al of its coal fired power stations and increasingly benefits from renewables. Effectively my EV runs on power from the wind and solar.
This war could be a stealthy pathway to convincing more Americans - and other countries too - that renewable alternatives are the way forward, in contravention of Trump’s urge to destroy that advancement. Pakistan is way ahead - Pakistan.
Trump knows nothing about history. The Netherlands has been using wind power for centuries.! The beautiful Kinderdijk windmills were built in the 1700s to help drain the polders and make the land useful for farming. They still work, and are now an Enesco world heritage site. Now the Netherlands uses hundreds of huge wind turbines to produce energy.
If our problems were Trump only, we might be well to act quickly. But our real problem is the hard core MAGA Evangelical religious minority, in which we find some number of billionaires. They believe that God agrees with only them: that women should be disenfranchised; black and brown people are less than whites; science is the work of the devil; education is a danger to society.
The only thing I would adjust here is that I don’t think many believe in anything, let alone God agreeing with them. I think they survey the field and exploit what gets them more of what they do worship which is more zeroes in front of that decimal point $$$.
Thanks Susan. Your point is exactly my own view too. We have ‘versions of’ MAGA/ neo-nationalism/ white supremacist political currents all around the ‘West’, I think. Trump is so dangerous that his dismissal asap is urgent, but I don’t think we will be out of danger.
And that religious demographic welcomes mass death, as some form of divine prophecy and resurrection. Their dark vision includes the rest of us, whether we believe or not.
He has his work cut out, trying to turn an abysmal defeat into victory, restrain the Israeli prime minister’s bloodlust and control the ungrateful wife. Astonished to read this from Heather Cox Richardson’s post this morning,
“ And then, at 7:49 tonight, the president’s social media account posted a graphic video of a man killing a woman with a hammer. The screed that accompanied the video attacked Haitian immigrants, former president Joe Biden, and “the Radical Democrats in Congress.” The post echoed the usual vicious racism to which Trump turns to feed his base. But it is hard to miss that hours after his wife gave an unexpected press conference about Jeffrey Epstein, Trump posted a video of a woman’s murder.”
Question is who in the WH set up Mrs Trump’s statement to the world’s press and who wrote it. We are in surreal times, indeed.
I also wondered who put Melania up to that speech. That was a strategic hit - perhaps bad strategy, but strategy nonetheless. I didn't see the video (nor will I) but how criminally psychotic does someone have to be to post something like that? If Trump didn't post it, who did and why?
Agree although there are more than three ways in which the Iran imbroglio may end (if it ends). Let us always remember that Trump was duly elected president for a second time, even after the shameful 1st term and the crimes of Jan. 6. Let us never forget that there are tens of millions of incredibly stupid people living amongst us in this country.
I think about that every time I go out in public; 1/3 of the people I encounter are seriously morally and/or intellectually deficient. And they would like to harm me.
When they tried to introduce fracking into Britain, they had to stop because it was causing earthquakes in Blackpool and the area was a very pretty one where lots of well-off Tories lived, I look forward to Farage trying to revive it.
Exactly. We should be deposing Melania as well. Her lies are weak tea. Put her under oath.
Also, Joyce Vance explained the other day why the 25th Is not the route to go because it leaves us with JD Vance, something people seem to overlook when calling for his Article 25 removal. Instead I think they all need to be impeached and thrown in prison if found guilty by due process. We should be like Brazil and hop on this the moment we can.
Not for one second do I believe that Trump’s cabinet will remove him, but country and the world needs a sane US president. Vance will be less popular than Trump and subject to some real Congressional control.
Be careful. Not only Joyce Vance, but Anne Applebaum has warned about him. He’s strongly aligned with far-right parties throughout Europe. Note his active campaigning for Orban in Hungary—and Orban’s relationship with Russia, counter to EU. JD Vance may be sane and he may not have the support in the US, but he’s a dangerous actor. (Here’s Anne Applebaum’s latest post https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/the-strangest-week?r=5k9s3t&utm_medium=ios )
I’ve also thought that JD Vance won’t have much of an impact or be able to garnish support, but now I’m not so sure. When Trump exits stage, the power hidden behind/beneath MAGA will pivot to someone. JD is slithery.
What he doesn't have is the years of being on Television and selling himself to the dummies that Trump does. Theil and Musk may love him but very few people love them.
Vance lacks whatever Chump has that is described as "charisma" and which glues his base to him. And b/c he's sane, we wouldn't have to worry about him randomly deciding to nuke some country that had pissed him off. So yeah, Vance would be an improvement.
Removing trump would require the VP and the cabinet cowards to act on the 25th amendment or the rubber stamp republican congress to impeach. Neither is likely to occur.
It’s on us. Money talks. Voting with your wallet is something that we don’t have to wait until November to do. Participate in the Mayday boycott as best you can, for as long as you can. It can work. If it doesn’t you end up with a bit of money saved up. Don’t get stuck on details, remember that perfection is the enemy of the good.
Anyone who is not a U.S. born straight white male Anglo Saxon Protestant is in some way threatened by this administration. Even if you fit this description you may care about someone it doesn’t. Maybe you’re worried about the economic impact of all this chaos. Find what motivates you and use it.
In Trump's world view, the only opinions that matter are those of kleptocrats and dictators. He really thinks that Putin, Bibi, etc. "respect" him while they obviously see him as a plump turkey to be plucked, roasted and devoured.
The Toddler is the classic old fart who's convinced himself everything was better when he was younger. Factory jobs! Oil! None of these windmills and low-flush toilets! White men in charge!
The only good I can see out of this is: #1 happens and oil is now even more expensive; we all realize that we need to move to renewables and electric cars much faster; and a small, but electorally significant group of Trump supporters decides to get off the crazy train.
Russia invaded Ukraine in a 'special operation' that was meant to last a week, at most.
Trump and Netanyahu have bombed Iran mercilessly.
Both aggressions have failed to achieve their stated objectives, mired Russia and the US in quite intractable positions, undermined global respect for both countries and destabilised the global economy.
President Xi, regarding Taiwan, stick with the jaw-jaw and leave the war-war to the mugs in Washington and Moscow.
Trump is tenacious when it comes to grifting. No matter what sort of trouble he is in, he tries to find a way to make as much money as he can off of any situation. While he grifts off of any situation he can. He is robbing us blind and I have read that our national debt is now 39 trillion dollars. Trump can leave at the end of his administration and move somewhere else with all of our money and no recourse to get it from him. We should be doing something now. STOP THE STEAL!
"In his second inaugural address Trump promised that “our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.” Does anyone believe that starting an unnecessary war, then threatening to commit massive war crimes because we’re losing to a fourth-rate power, and finally, in the best case, essentially running away, has made America more respected?"
It's never too early for mid-term ads! This is a good one.
And in addition to lying about why the six U.S. service members died on the first day in a vulnerable trailer, they also lied about bombing the elementary school and killing countless children:
"Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran," Trump said. "We think it was done by Iran because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran."
Regarding reports of U.S. responsibility, Trump said, "I don't know about it," and "I just don't know enough about it."
A strange response from a man who claims to know everything and to know more than experts in their fields.
His total ignorance is only matched by his ginormous ego.
IQ47 says he doesn't know a lot.
Well, credit for a brief moment of honesty....
Trump either denies or completely ignores bad news.
Trump is doing touch and go-s on the runway of reality. Most of the time, he's got no idea of what's going on.
True.
He does not know enough about anything except how to steal us blind and grift from anyone and everyone in the world.
He knows enough to know how to sell himself to millions of American voters. Notwithstanding my visceral hatred for the man, he does have a feral genius for appealing to the dark side of so many Americans.
Yes. People like Ruth Ben-Ghiat who is a fascism expert already said this with his first debate against Biden that he was an expert at fascist rhetoric. As we know from the research, fear is a big motivator for deciding how people vote. He gets that and he tapped into fears of several kinds. Mostly the fear of not being able to survive. Thus he created the "enemy" in immigrants. They are the biggest threat to survival is what he claimed, and while people like you and me can see this is ridiculous, apparently many Americans cannot think very well.
Yeah—and now there are farmers who can’t do their spring planting because they have no field hands because they have all been either arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps or deported.
From an outsider's perspective it is extremely difficult to understand how he was voted back in. I think you'll find most of the world was aghast
The extraterrestrial MAGA species does not tell the truth to humans, ever. If you hear or see them, it's theater and humans are the audience.
They are stealing Earth.
I've wondered if they sell crude oil and humans to other sentient species, imagining a shady truck stop for spaceships in this arm of the Milly Way.
Lindsey Graham has been peppering my smart speaker with ads, which suggests to me that he fears losing the June primary. He has 4 Republican opponents. Three Democrats are vying for our nomination. I started calling his office again to complain that a man who supposedly is close to Trump is not doing enough for his state.
Great! Graham needs permanently booted out and disgraced. Which candidates should I send my donations to?
I like Annie Andrews, a Democrat.
Complain about the war and the fact that Congress is not working enough to stop it.
Oh, I did and will again. But Graham is a hawk.
A Chicken Hawk!
LOL.
No. In addition we are now 39 tril in debt thanks to Trumponomics.
Very true! This is already lodged in my brain.
So glad that Magyar won, even though he is as conservative as Orbán, although he is anti corruption and pro EU and NATO. He apparently does not want Hungary being a satellite state of Russia, the way the US is becoming.
I just read in Meidas News that Trump offered to pay Hungarians for voting for Orbán with our tax dollars, like he paid for Milei to win in Argentina, and other right wing candidates in South American countries. It seems to be treasonous.
Spot on. When people analyze King Feckless in terms of “policy” or his opinion or goals as to “national interests,” they miss the point: the whole regime is driven by three things, project 2025, King F’s ego and the grift.
I know it’s rude and feckless is incompetent, he is King Fuck-it-up! Spray paint it gold and declare victory…it’s so much worse than before! COVID should have been the last straw, as his lack of leadership and actions killed between 600-800,000 people who didn’t have to die during the crisis! Where is the accounting!? You know this is a lot of people and families…do we care?! How is this conservative?
And you know what, fine let him go. To Russia, North Korea etc. maybe he’ll fall out a window. Wonder if Melania will be going with him? Highly doubtful as she is overly attached to her son and her boyfriend!
Who's her boyfriend?
A rational country and world would radically ramp up green energy efforts in the face of this Trump created energy crisis, but we are not in a rational country, we are in a mafia run petro state and Trump can't make bank on windmills (which is one of the reasons why he hates them)
Britain is doing great with renewables. It only uses 1% of it's energy from oil. France is close behind.
While Trump and the Republicans in Congress who support whatever he does are in power, we should work on the state level to advance renewables. A Republican I know, who moved into a house with solar panels, is a convert on renewables after paying just $17 a month to run air conditioning during a very hot summer.
But other countries are taking this opportunity. Cuba for instance is apparently now getting about 20% of their energy from solar since we started the blockade. Trump's blundering to restore oil and coal to prominence will just wind up spurring the rest of the world to transition to renewables.
Amazing, isn’t it?
But sadly unsurprising
And thanks to Trump, Iran has now learned that it holds an extremely potent and effective weapon to hold the entire world hostage and can never be taken away: the Strait of Hormuz.
So tired of winning!
No one mentions the Strait of Malacca which traverses even more oil than Hormuz to China, Japan etc. Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia must be wondering how a similar toll might work for them.
Many important parts of the world ARE radically ramping up renewables, especially solar, including China and — believe it or not — Saudi Arabia. The US was too, until last year (albeit nowhere near as fast as China). We are not winning. We are just ceding even more to China.
Saudi Arabia gets a lot of sunlight.
Yes. So does the American desert, and there’s tons of open unused space there. It’s also a potential revenue opportunity for the tribal nations (not that the current regime would let them have it).
There are plenty of rooftops that would be great locations for solar panels. I was surprised at how few I saw in Florida. A giant housing development is being constructed in my area with no trees. Did they put solar on the roof? No.
The trick is to tie the addition of solar to who gets the benefit.
Traditional builders know they can get residents/buyers without adding solar, just as, historically, there's no advantage to landlords adding insulation or efficient appliances if the renters pay all of the utility bills.
You are correct about traditional builders. They will not do what is energy efficient unless forced to do so.
Republicans in my area went on a crusade against large solar fields, and I can see the farmers' point. The solar company that came into my rural area focused on fields, and the power generated would likely have been shipped off to more urban areas, which frankly, need to put solar panels on their roofs and businesses. However, if the move had been more toward solar panels on houses and reducing people's rates, that would have directly tied the benefits to the people in this area.
The ranchers, some of whom don't pay BLM grazing fees anyway, would have to be kicked off the land. This administration wouldn't cross those guys.
Very true.
texas has many
Its is an unspoken irony that the very petro states that 47 seems to admire are also rapidly expanding their development of renewable energy sources. In the US, the state that leads in renewables is Texas. Apparently, even Texans have figured out that developing alternative energy sources now makes more sense than waiting until the last barrel oil has been sucked from the ground.
Jeez Louise solar+batteries has saved our bacon during the peak of air conditioning season. ERCOT has not had to resort to rolling blackouts despite record demand (heat + population growth), and the cost of peak energy is definitely cheaper than in the past. Both solar ·and· wind also helped us keep costs down in our hardest freeze this past winter.
ERCOT dashboards: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
Economics is still driving a lot of RE transition in the US. Thermal plants require too much up-front capital and take too long to get ROI, while PV solar and onshore wind can be added incrementally and be generating power before full build-out is done. Grid-class batteries are continuing to get cheaper and more long-term variants are being introduced (though even the early-generation 4-hour storage goes a long way toward shifting solar power supply to evening peak demand).
Happily, Arizona's recent utility board race just added more pro-solar people despite Turning Point USA's heavy campaign spending.
Nukes have a huge start-up cost, an awfully complex method to make steam, and yet are considering building more
Trump has succeeded only in accelerating the trend away from all things American.
Anne, while others may be trending away from the US, all of the Arab nations that have US bases continue to interact with Trump and have not closed the US bases, other than that Iran has done that for them by destroying them. Now the military is in hotels in different Middle Eastern Countries. So secure!
This morning I read that, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte does not consider his meeting with Trump in Washington this week successful. He says that the NATO countries have to give Trump more support. What is that about?
Rutte is sickening me at this point, and just to think I viewed him as an adult at the MSC 2 years ago. Now I see him as totally compromised. German Chancellor Merz is also in this category, although I never saw viewed as an "adult" in the room. Just that he is also saying we have to keep the US in NATO and that Trump understands that Germany can only send ships under certain conditions because of treaties it is tied to, and that means once the "war is over" then they can help clear the Strait of Hormuz, I presume with mine sweepers. The US's are all out of commission and the EU has over 100, I don't remember the precise number. All said, I do not see people turning away from the US like they should. At this point Trump should be on everyone's terrorist lists, and yet, he is not. Merz has been quiet over what in Germany was over a week of Easter Break, and everyone returned to work on Tuesday. He is a hypocrite like all the rest. Where is anyone standing up to Trump and calling out our war crimes. Why are they not knowledgeable enough to see that the US and Israel took on Iran together and failed.
Footnote: you note that the U.S. has dispersed its forces into civilian hotels. That TOO is a WAR CRIME! Trump has made the commercial districts of his Arab ‘allies’ into legitimate war targets for Iran, endangering millions. Enough!
Yup! It is unsafe for the people, just like Israel having its plane in a German passenger airport is as well.
The problem Linda, is that all of these nations are heavily invested in US weapons platforms. They need to maintain access to the missiles, bombs, ammunition, airplane parts, tank parts and whatnot. Europe is spooling up its own defense industry but replacing the US will take decades.
I agree, I would think the rest of NATO would want to try to keep NATO intact until they have the defenses to go without us.
Cathy R - Exactly.
Well, they aren't getting any weapons from the US because Trump is using them all, even the ones that the EU paid for. He has stolen them. So, they need to be realizing how to cut their losses. Iran is the only country seeming prepared right now, and Ukraine.
The problem European leaders have is that Trump is a democratically elected leader who has a mandate for all this crap - or as much of a mandate as any US president ever gets. A majority of the US electorate voted for this man, despite knowing from his first term in office exactly what they were going to get from him and, if they were paying even the slightest attention, that if he got a second term, those around him would be much better prepared to cause havoc than they were in the first term.
What we are now experiencing is the product of democracy. That's what makes it so worrying. We can't give up on it (we really can't) but, not for the first time, democracy has produced a monster.
More voters voted for someone other than Trump. He won the electoral college which is now weighted in the minority's favor. Remember, Clinton won the popular vote by abt. 3.5 million and still lost.
There was and is no mandate from the majority of the U.S. population.
He got 49.81% of the vote - 0.2% shy of a majority of all who cast a vote for anyone and a clear majority (50.75%) of the popular votes cast for the only two parties that were ever going to be in the running for the electoral college. People voting for someone other than Harris or Trump might as well have not bothered voting, for all the difference it made to the end result.
The fact that 49.81% of all voters voted for Trump is really no less concerning than it would have been if 50.01% had voted for him.
I'm just saying that getting 49.81% of the votes is the number not a mandate. The "protest votes" are politically immature but we'll always have them. Ranked choice voting might be the solution, but that isn't going to make people go to the polls.
For the rest of my life I'll never understand why anyone would vote for Trump, but then I remember that half the U.S. suffers a below average IQ, and if I'm not mistaken, that average gets lower by the year.
Someone has been posting US literacy rates on FB recently - and it's not encouraging....
In a sane world, only his mother would have voted for him (I'm a mother, and give mothers a lot of slack) - and she's dead.
The point is: another Trump like figure could be elected again.
Exactly…
Don’t forget that our democracy has been undermined by 40 years or more of careful planning by a group of corrupt billionaires who want no constraint on their corporations or their ability to generate wealth. They found the person who was amoral enough to make their dreams all come true, and they are already plowing billions of dollars into the midterms.
That's a good point. We have similar over-mighty citizens in the UK, but there are not as many and they're not as rich as they are in the US.
Please note that the majority of voters voted for someone else. He won by a narrow plurality, not a majority.
Other countries that rely on that oil must be seething. Assuming “best case” and a toll is the “win”, the price of their energy just went up. And of course everyday citizens will be the ones to bear that cost. Once again. Trump leaves nothing but devastation in his wake. And as an unhinged president of a wealthy, powerful country with zero thought let alone respect for this world, it’s system, or anyone in it, and with Congress, courts, and his equally abysmal cabinet having little to no interest in reigning him in, no one the world over is safe from his mayhem.
"Everything Trump touches dies."
Joni Mitchell said (sang) it best "He kills the grass he walks on and sucks the light out of the room"
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde
I wonder if Rutte is trying to manage a “difficult child” and let him think he won this war, in order to get him to quit. All the headlines correctly blaring the losing streak Trump is on, will likely have the paradoxical effect of egging him on. The whole world is maneuvering away from us, while simultaneously trying to give Trump a face-saving exit, to save all,our skins.
You're probably right, but that has never worked. Giving Trump a crown and a back rub has never gotten anyone anything they ever wanted. When world leaders come here to schmooze him, he and his base see it as strength. It emboldens him to think and feel he's more powerful than he is.
Yes, I agree. It’s been tried. We are all (globally too) trying to perform like mental health clinicians, hoping to stay alive . . .
I hope people are beginning to appreciate what Plato, his student Socrates and eventually Democritus came to dislike about democracy. These were three of the finest thinkers to have graced the West. BTW their objections to democracy are perfectly illustrated by Britain (I am British among other things) and the US. They thought that the common man did not have the ability to make sound political decisions. Absent a philosopher king we will, I suppose, have to put up with democracy. I briefly lived in a country with a philosopher king (Buthan). Things were going just fine and god only knows why they have recently switched to democracy.
.
Ah Bhutan, you lucky duck. Don’t they measure “GDP” by the well being of their citizens and their environment?
I think they are just hoping to hold on until November.
We are 39 tril in debt now. Do you want to bet on the prediction market that it will be at least another trillion more?
"Merz has been quiet over what in Germany"
Not more than 20% of the voters in Germany find Merz's job performance acceptable.
I'd like to think that his deference to DT has something to do with that.
He has not come out and said Israel's "Wings of Zion" cannot be parked in the passenger airport in Berlin where it currently sits. He has not said US cannot launch their war from bases located in Germany. He has not said that what Trump is doing is a war crime, or terrorist. He has not said that threatening to nuke Iran will be an act that means Trump cannot come to Germany. He has not said he made a mistake in inviting Trump to the US, or kissing his ass repeatedly in Washington. Or that German military is not helping the US out in the Strait of Hormuz because Germany is not participating in War crimes. He has not said Germany will stop supplying Israel with weapons. He has not complained much about Russia having sanctions removed. I could go on. However, I think that most people are not for Merz because he is weak tea when it comes to people who like the AfDs positions and does not offer a clear alternative to the AfD to the rest of the people not thrilled with Merz.
Germany should seize netanyahu's plain as an assess of an indicted war criminal
Should have, could have, can, but won't!
It's the same in the UK. All politicians now are desperately unpopular. It's impatience with the whole established system of politics. Here we do at least have some headroom in terms of outdated things we can improve - like changing the electoral system to PR or greater devolution of powers to the regions. If you're already thoroughly modernised as many Central / Northern European countries are, you've really got nowhere left to go. You just have to tough it out until the shockwaves from the new disruptive medium have died down.
Hi Linda. Like you, I’m struggling to pull my eyebrows back down somewhere near my eyes while trying to interpret the talk that comes from Rutte. My hunch is that he’s playing the role of a double-agent with gullible Trump, but it’s hard to know. There is only so far that flattery and treachery can go…!
Anthony
They are terrified that they will lose the US nuclear umbrella. Everything Rutte and Merz are saying needs to be viewed through that objective.
UK and France both have nuclear weapons.
"As with Polaris, Trident was owned and operated by the UK but committed to NATO and targeted in accordance with plans set out by the organisation's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who is traditionally a senior figure in the US military.[66] Under the terms of the Polaris Sales Arrangement, the US does not have a veto on the use of British nuclear weapons, which the UK may launch independently,[67] but this would only occur if "supreme national interests" required it.[66]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(UK_nuclear_programme)
Essentially, if the United States decides to pull the plug, that's the end of Britain's nuclear weapons.
As for France, it has neither formally nor technically extended its nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe. There are major obstacles to be overcome here, such as questions of command and control, delivery platforms, and stationing and storage, to name but a few.
I am not suggesting those cannot or won't be solved, but if they ever are, it will take years.
I agree with you Linda. I think Rutte is out of line with public and political opinion in Europe.
tRump has also inadvertently put a virtual tax on fossil fuels, choking off supply and accelerating the world’s transition to renewables and low- to- no-carbon forms.
So maybe there’s a bright side to his mad incometence. Everything he touches dies: His casinos, most of his other businesses, his “university”, his “charity”, the Federal government he now runs, and his final coup de grâce may be his beloved fossil fuel industry. At a time when renewals had already become competitively priced, he’s doubling the price of fossil fuels. The world will move away in a step function, and the share points lost will not return. So thanks, Moron! Wouldn’t it be ironic if Donald tRump halted global warming more effectively than anyone else?!
yes, yes, yes.
Agree.
A very nervous laugh, I think.
Professor Krugman: asset stripping, that's what the orange rapist is doing, except the corporation having its assets stripped by the tangerine testicle is AMERIKKKA and those who will be left holding the bag on massive debts are AMERIKKANS. generations and generations of americans. how can anyone anywhere (even americans) respect a nation full of idiots who voted for their own country's demise? it boggles the mind. but i guess that's the price we gotta pay to stick it to women, brown people and those bloody libruls!
And trans people; the modern scapegoat in an ancient game.
He's humiliated our country. Eight billion people globally are cursing his name--and Bibi's--for making their cooking fuel unaffordable. He and the GOP have added nearly $3 trillion to the national debt *in little more than a year.* The only people cheering are the Epstein class. And Vladimir Putin.
A friend of mine who fishes salmon in Alaska, says with diesel at $7/gallon, he'll only break even this season. He's looking at losing a whole year's worth of income thanks to Trump's incompetence.
November can't come soon enough.
But aren't they respectfully cursing like never seen before?
Thanks - in these truly horrible times, it's important to be able to laugh every now and then....
As long as it comes in the way those of us in this silo want: free & fair elections, absent tRumps fingers on the scales, and significant repudiation of Rs in congress. Of course, I hope for these outcomes but history teaches that they are not guaranteed.
Not if he manages to get the GOP to pass his SAVE Act. Which will potentially invalidate the vote for *tens* of millions of Americans. Mainly Dems. Myself included, as I can't find my fricking birth certificate anywhere.
To give you an idea of just how criminal those GOP fu%&heads are, to get a Real ID drivers license *requires* you to submit your birth certificate. But that's not good enough for the GOP, who insist you need to present both your Real ID D/L *plus* your birth certificate or passport to have your vote counted at the polls.
And if you're a married woman who took her husband's surname? You're more or less screwed.
or if you can't afford $165 for a passport
Donald's Poll Tax for married women.
This hatred of Wind power comes from his being able to see an offshore wind farm off Aberdeen from his Golf Course. He really is a very small minded individual. Meantime Scotland has closed al of its coal fired power stations and increasingly benefits from renewables. Effectively my EV runs on power from the wind and solar.
This war could be a stealthy pathway to convincing more Americans - and other countries too - that renewable alternatives are the way forward, in contravention of Trump’s urge to destroy that advancement. Pakistan is way ahead - Pakistan.
Yeah, you would think that the maggots would have an energy epiphany while buying overpriced fossil fuels from a fragile supply system.
I'm afraid that you're crediting the MAGAts with far more smarts than they actually have....
No doubt, Rena. But, an epiphany is a new awakening of sorts. Maybe similar to the old ad “I could have had a V-8!” I’m not holding my breath.
Trump knows nothing about history. The Netherlands has been using wind power for centuries.! The beautiful Kinderdijk windmills were built in the 1700s to help drain the polders and make the land useful for farming. They still work, and are now an Enesco world heritage site. Now the Netherlands uses hundreds of huge wind turbines to produce energy.
If our problems were Trump only, we might be well to act quickly. But our real problem is the hard core MAGA Evangelical religious minority, in which we find some number of billionaires. They believe that God agrees with only them: that women should be disenfranchised; black and brown people are less than whites; science is the work of the devil; education is a danger to society.
But removing Trump might be a good start.
The only thing I would adjust here is that I don’t think many believe in anything, let alone God agreeing with them. I think they survey the field and exploit what gets them more of what they do worship which is more zeroes in front of that decimal point $$$.
That is definitely true for all the media "infuencers"
True of the billionaires but not, I think, of the MAGAts...
Thanks Susan. Your point is exactly my own view too. We have ‘versions of’ MAGA/ neo-nationalism/ white supremacist political currents all around the ‘West’, I think. Trump is so dangerous that his dismissal asap is urgent, but I don’t think we will be out of danger.
True. The MAGA outlook exists elsewhere too.
True indeed.
And that religious demographic welcomes mass death, as some form of divine prophecy and resurrection. Their dark vision includes the rest of us, whether we believe or not.
He has his work cut out, trying to turn an abysmal defeat into victory, restrain the Israeli prime minister’s bloodlust and control the ungrateful wife. Astonished to read this from Heather Cox Richardson’s post this morning,
“ And then, at 7:49 tonight, the president’s social media account posted a graphic video of a man killing a woman with a hammer. The screed that accompanied the video attacked Haitian immigrants, former president Joe Biden, and “the Radical Democrats in Congress.” The post echoed the usual vicious racism to which Trump turns to feed his base. But it is hard to miss that hours after his wife gave an unexpected press conference about Jeffrey Epstein, Trump posted a video of a woman’s murder.”
Question is who in the WH set up Mrs Trump’s statement to the world’s press and who wrote it. We are in surreal times, indeed.
I also wondered who put Melania up to that speech. That was a strategic hit - perhaps bad strategy, but strategy nonetheless. I didn't see the video (nor will I) but how criminally psychotic does someone have to be to post something like that? If Trump didn't post it, who did and why?
The start of a mutiny in the WH perhaps?
If Orban goes down at the weekend both Trump and Vance will be weakened.
If I could, I’d ‘like’ your comment many times over!
They want it to be about immigrants, but all I see is yet another “man killing a woman” story, and another man using her death for political gain.
Agree although there are more than three ways in which the Iran imbroglio may end (if it ends). Let us always remember that Trump was duly elected president for a second time, even after the shameful 1st term and the crimes of Jan. 6. Let us never forget that there are tens of millions of incredibly stupid people living amongst us in this country.
I think about that every time I go out in public; 1/3 of the people I encounter are seriously morally and/or intellectually deficient. And they would like to harm me.
Sobering thought, isn't it?
I wish I could "like" your comment and Mr. Harrison's more than once.
When they tried to introduce fracking into Britain, they had to stop because it was causing earthquakes in Blackpool and the area was a very pretty one where lots of well-off Tories lived, I look forward to Farage trying to revive it.
Aye. I'm not for fracking at all & surprised there's any enthusiasm for it from thinking people.
I suspect that some of the expectations for fracking were a little optimistic.
Fast myopic bucks.
It’s caused earthquakes in the US, too.
and pollutes ground and when dumped into municiple sewerage systems spreads radon
I have three immediate priorities:
Invoke 25th amendment
Depose Marla Maples and Ivanka
Issue warrants for underlings from AG’s of states with misprision laws
Exactly. We should be deposing Melania as well. Her lies are weak tea. Put her under oath.
Also, Joyce Vance explained the other day why the 25th Is not the route to go because it leaves us with JD Vance, something people seem to overlook when calling for his Article 25 removal. Instead I think they all need to be impeached and thrown in prison if found guilty by due process. We should be like Brazil and hop on this the moment we can.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-law-of-war-c97
Leaving us with Vance—or anyone—would be better than having Trump president.
Any statement like this deserves the rejoinder....be careful what you ask for as you might just get it.... Vance is sane.
Not for one second do I believe that Trump’s cabinet will remove him, but country and the world needs a sane US president. Vance will be less popular than Trump and subject to some real Congressional control.
Be careful. Not only Joyce Vance, but Anne Applebaum has warned about him. He’s strongly aligned with far-right parties throughout Europe. Note his active campaigning for Orban in Hungary—and Orban’s relationship with Russia, counter to EU. JD Vance may be sane and he may not have the support in the US, but he’s a dangerous actor. (Here’s Anne Applebaum’s latest post https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/the-strangest-week?r=5k9s3t&utm_medium=ios )
I’ve also thought that JD Vance won’t have much of an impact or be able to garnish support, but now I’m not so sure. When Trump exits stage, the power hidden behind/beneath MAGA will pivot to someone. JD is slithery.
What he doesn't have is the years of being on Television and selling himself to the dummies that Trump does. Theil and Musk may love him but very few people love them.
Notice that it looks like Vance's campaigning for Orban appears to have had an impact opposite to what he had intended....
but not to a guy who loves his couch
Vance lacks whatever Chump has that is described as "charisma" and which glues his base to him. And b/c he's sane, we wouldn't have to worry about him randomly deciding to nuke some country that had pissed him off. So yeah, Vance would be an improvement.
We can knock them down like dominoes. We have to start somewhere.
no one likes the guy who loves couches and the maga cult won't follow him
For now, I still think Vance is just a useless couch fucker…
I'm just hoping he gets the opportunity to show us.
Removing trump would require the VP and the cabinet cowards to act on the 25th amendment or the rubber stamp republican congress to impeach. Neither is likely to occur.
It’s on us. Money talks. Voting with your wallet is something that we don’t have to wait until November to do. Participate in the Mayday boycott as best you can, for as long as you can. It can work. If it doesn’t you end up with a bit of money saved up. Don’t get stuck on details, remember that perfection is the enemy of the good.
Anyone who is not a U.S. born straight white male Anglo Saxon Protestant is in some way threatened by this administration. Even if you fit this description you may care about someone it doesn’t. Maybe you’re worried about the economic impact of all this chaos. Find what motivates you and use it.
In Trump's world view, the only opinions that matter are those of kleptocrats and dictators. He really thinks that Putin, Bibi, etc. "respect" him while they obviously see him as a plump turkey to be plucked, roasted and devoured.
The Toddler is the classic old fart who's convinced himself everything was better when he was younger. Factory jobs! Oil! None of these windmills and low-flush toilets! White men in charge!
Pitch perfect writing and spot on Coda. Best wishes to Jack.
Song, circa 1958. Someone please pipe this throughout the White House!
The only good I can see out of this is: #1 happens and oil is now even more expensive; we all realize that we need to move to renewables and electric cars much faster; and a small, but electorally significant group of Trump supporters decides to get off the crazy train.
Here's a thought for President Xi...
Russia invaded Ukraine in a 'special operation' that was meant to last a week, at most.
Trump and Netanyahu have bombed Iran mercilessly.
Both aggressions have failed to achieve their stated objectives, mired Russia and the US in quite intractable positions, undermined global respect for both countries and destabilised the global economy.
President Xi, regarding Taiwan, stick with the jaw-jaw and leave the war-war to the mugs in Washington and Moscow.