“President Trump doesn't much care if Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate in the midterms this fall.
• Yes, he'd prefer a big win, but he seems indifferent to the election and the possibility of endless Democratic investigations of his family, wealth and policies, his closest advisers tell us.
• A big reason: Trump knows he'll emerge just as strong, or even stronger, heading into his final two years, at least among Republicans.
Why it matters: Trump will enjoy a more pro-Trump Republican Congress, win or lose; gleefully play '28 kingmaker and further test the boundaries of presidential power beyond legislating, his preferred method anyway. He'll use pardons to protect his people, the advisers say.”
Three dramas to watch post-November:
1. Trump will flirt with running again in '28 until the bitter end, but it's all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place.
2. As potential outside-the-walls competition in '28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.).
Most importantly: A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?”
From The Peaceful Solution:
The Midterms Will Not Solve the Problem
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? Please.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders .
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. The longer the fascist takeover goes on, the more difficult it will be to undo.
We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community, will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
Great ideas - and ultimately useless. Beneath Trump (and there really is a “beneath Trump, appearances to the contrary) is a servile Congress, a corrupt Supreme Court, multiple oligarchs (who REALLY know on which side their bread is buttered) and a Hegseth-led military. And, at the very core, is a public, the vast majority of whom don’t know and wouldn’t give a damn if they did. After all, we have Taylor Swift’s wedding and Meagan Markel to worry about, not to mention World Wide Wrestling, foot-, base- and basketball. So many more important things to discuss. Yes, Democracy was a very interesting experiment - which just didn’t work.
So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. George Orwell, 1984
Rather a question of how much economic pain idiotic GOP policies create for us and ours, before we wake up AND THROW the GOP BUMS OUT.
Tariffs, labor shortages due to ICE, $6/gallon diesel, skyrocketing electricity and health insurance, stagnant wages--all of it is squeezing the bottom 95% something fierce. Sooner or later, even the FOX-addled voters wake up.
Yeah, I have little confidence the midterms will be free and fair. Trump has something up his sleeve and if Democrats win, the current House leadership could refuse to certify the election. Chaos alert.
Trump is still gaslighting us about a deal. Today, Iran is scoffing there are no negotiations planned, but are talking to Oman about controlling the Strait. Wonder if Trump would like extra cheese on that TACO.
Individual states and county elections commissions control state elections. Even in my blood-red SC county, we Democrats acknowledge that they conduct fair elections. But, the more Democrats who work the polls, the more that is assured. So we encourage this despite low pay and very long hours. I expect free and fair elections here. Trump can bluster, but he won't send federal officers to polls or interfere in counting votes.
That said, he might try to interfere AFTER elections, but his position will be weak as it was in 2020.
Ate what length and what cost? Will it be great to see this happen in 10 years, 20 years? I personally don’t want myself or kids to be going through another day of this. Thinking that two generations from now, people will rise up…and the only way will be violently. No one gives up power easily and weapons are more accessible than blueberries.
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Winning the 2026 elections and even those in 2028 have to be seen as a beginning of the fight for the future of our country rather than an end. Rooting out the fascists will be a long hard job. I don’t think most Americans understand just how difficult a task this will be.
All indications are as you suggest. Each day that passes without a curb on the regime cements the destruction of the Rule of Law, Separation of Powers and a worthy SCOTUS. It’s all bread and circuses while the Empire rots.
This sounds like a tangent, but isn't: The future health of the US economy depends on the USMCA negotiations, not because of the outcome (there will be no change), but because of who is sitting at the table.
Both Canada and Mexico have appointed new ambassadors to the US in the last 12 months. Neither ambassador is a career diplomat. Neither is an expert in trade. Both are very senior financial experts, the bond market, in particular. Mark Weisman, Canada's ambassador, is a former senior executive at Blackrock and many other similar institutions. Roberto Lazzeri Montaño, Mexico's ambassador, previously led major Mexican development banks (Nafin and Bancomext).
Below the ambassadors, both Canada and Mexico have fielded an army of experts.
This explains why Trump dislikes the USMCA so much: He thought he was creating a means to subjugate US neighbors, but instead, he accidentally institutionalized continuous trade negotiations by defaulting to annual reviews. This created a framework for US neighbors to force the administration to hear independent economic voices from the real world.
With COTUS, SCOTUS, the Fed, and formerly independent boards, commissions, and agencies neutered, the USMCA negotiating table is the remaining independent source of economic policy that has teeth... hopefully, enough of a bite to slow the pace towards long term damage enough that we will be able to recover.
Yes Karel, I was kind of thinking similarly, I.e., Trump’s support for things like crypto and his breaking of trade agreements are economic strategies for undermining the rule of law and enabling his corruption to flourish.
We have two countries. We always have: 1) the southern slavers who were autocrats and always have been; 2) the northern workers who were democrats who figured out how to respect the People--though they are still learning how to respect anyone not white and male. Women, blacks, and hispanics are still struggling mightily for respect. Indeed, southern autocrats have worked hard since the Civil War to make sure northerners hate all women, all blacks, all hispanics, and the poor...which hasn't been that hard because the US absolutely hates women, blacks, hispanics, and the poor. Look at our election history to see that hatred is national.
There has been TREMENDOUS social progress in this country. Labor, women's rights, minority rights...these things happened. I reject your pessimistic, reductionist view of the Republic.
I agree! We are much different now (the Democrats) than we were at the time of the Civil War. We have made progress in human rights, especially with FDR, the United Nations, and International Law. We have a long way to go, and we are peddling back to the times evinced by Civil War structures under Trump.
That behavior is spreading. Do I need to say Kirk or the Tates? We will have further to go to get liberty, etc., back if we split into two countries. Project 2025 will take the right back to Civil War times in every way. Many just don't know how far back that people will go. Remember, in the Trumpworld, only elite white men are intelligent (see the writings of Musk and Thiel), middle class white men will serve the post-Trumpworld Order via Project 2025, and the poor whites are indeed better than the poor women of any race, blacks, hispanics, and immigrants. These lower people are free to be the servants of all whites. What does it mean to be a master, manager, order giver, or servant in that culture?
I agree. Elected Republicans put themselves in the position of “damned if they do; damned if they don’t”. If they defy Trump, his goons will threaten them and/or their loved ones and if Republicans lose, they know that their treasonous actions will be investigated and prosecuted. The conclusion: they will do ANYTHING to stay in power. From the get-go, it was obvious to me that this regime will only end with violence – either a civil war or a world war and that would be only if the democracy-oriented side wins. Not advocating the foregoing, but this corruption is so broad and deep, it will be next to impossible to root out using a legal system, and a broken one at that. Just my opinion…
What percentage of Americans participated in the No Kings Marches? I think there’s a threshold of something like 3.5% (this is just off the top of my head) before a peaceful protest is considered effective. The latest of the No Kings March had the largest turnout at almost 8 million. That’s 2.3% to 2.34%.
Gregg, I agree with 100%. I hear from my US friends about No Kings, non of them attended, why I do not understand. Here in Halifax, NS and across Canada, we called ours No Tyrants and probably had about 500 people, yes a tiny amount, but we are not a big province and do not have a provincial border with the US.
The US turnout, in my opinion, was just short of being a joke.
I would like to have someone give me the last 4 dates of No Kings, the percentage turn out to verify your numbers, any actual results and then compare these to protests in Hungary, Albania, Croatia etc. These Europeans realized what they are fighting for and reacted accordingly. These countries have experienced the negative effects of Fascist autocracies.
Context for that 3.5% "rule" (with quotes from Wikipedia):
"By comparing the success rates of 323 violent and nonviolent campaigns, Stephan and Chenoweth demonstrated that only 26% of violent revolts were successful, whereas 53% of nonviolent campaigns were successful."
And yes, they find that "nearly every movement with active participation from at least 3.5% of the population succeeded. All of the campaigns that achieved that threshold were nonviolent." But they emphasize that this 3.5% rule is descriptive, not predictive.
If this latest No Kings demo brought out 2.3% of good Americans, they just have to keep working at it!
The reason democracy is not working is because the federal law against insurrection by Trump was not enforced by Biden and AG Garland to put Trump in jail for inciting Jan 6 2021. They delayed and should have arrested prosecuted convicted and jailed six justices on the Supreme Court for supporting insurrection by not enforcing the federal law against insurrection that was ignored to justify not enforcing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and giving Trump immunity. Democracy can’t exist when the law is not enforced when Democrats control all 3 branches of the federal government except for the Supreme Court which they could have fixed.
Yes elected because Trump was not in jail. And agree the 60 million registered Republicans who still approve of Trump including MAGA supporters are a problem as are other issues like unlimited money in politics enabled by the SCOTUS Citizens United decision which was created by Republicans funded by billionaire oligarchs and enabled by the failure of neoliberal Democrats (Clinton & Obama) to stop the theft of wealth from 95% of Americans which pissed off voters.
Honestly, Democrats should kneecap the oligarchs at the first opportunity, and by that I mean throw Elon Musk, Scam Altman, Dario Amodei, Peter Thiel, David Sacks and a whole bunch of others in prison and seize their assets. I would also accept deportation without a hearing for Musk, Thiel, and Sacks. Maybe they can find out how true their conspiracy theories about how white South Africans are treated is.
There are credible polls. Read Jess Craven, Scott Dworkin. Listen to Robert Hubbell. We know that the most important thing is to overcome apathy, and if everyone votes, we will win. We need to recruit at least one person each, for it to happen.
This comment is so accurate that it is scary, especially if you live outside of the USA as I do. The reason that it is not so frightening inside the US is the public has no clue what is happening to them. I have been telling my US friends every time they wave the "Wait Until The Midterms"That they will mean nothing.
Now as far as US citizen protesting, this will not happen for all of the reasons you described and more. Apathy, fear, ignorance plus the fear of making those decisions that result in discomfort to themselves and their way of life.
Canada has been incredibly successful at boycotting. It all started with simple alcohol banning and spread, not only in Canada but abroad. When my wife and I shop we look at basically every product to decipher point of origin. If USA and unless we desperately need the product we will gladly pay more, but actually in fewer situations now, to buy Canadian or any other friendly country. This has become as much of a habit as scanning food products with Yuka to decide on product quality. This is now our way of life and it will not change easily.
Regarding protesting, some of the current apparent “apathy” could be because the massive Women’s March and Black Lives Matter protests didn’t result in in real change. We actually went backward.
I was taught by my school history teacher back in 1974, that all that peaceful protest marches were for was to give the illusion of political power to the masses. Ruling class manipulated solidarity. He backed this statement up with convincing statistics at the time. Nothing that I have witnessed since has proved him wrong.
They give the illusion of change to those not directly affected by the injustice, giving privilege the rosy glow of righteousness without sacrifice. Effectively upholding the rotten status quo and making it even harder for victims of injustice.
I respectfully disagree. To see why, consider what is lastingly achieved by the alternative: violent insurrection. Always, always, a disaster. Peaceful protest if pursued persistently takes longer, often a lot longer (think Ghandi’s salt march; the struggle to oust Orban; the US civil rights marches in the 1960s) but eventually they change the consensus. It takes patience, which I know is hard.
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
Kathleen, I am going to assume that you are a US citizen, if not, so be it.
First of all it is not our idea we just adopted it.
Now this going to make some eyes roll, I am Canadian and I am going to praise a large US based big box store, Costco. We have been members for 33 years and I consider them as an excellent corporate citizen and very considerate of our country and province.
As already mentioned we buy as much local then Canadian, then other than US then last resort US.
We cannot cast a ballot in the US but we can vote with our wallets, and, as we all know, money controls everything.
Costco here in Nova Scotia does an excellent job with signage in the produce and protein departments as to the point of origin. The produce may for example state Mexico or USA for a product so you root through the pile. If we cannot confirm we walkaway. Costco has only had carrots from the US lately so we do without. We are getting some incredible fruits and vegetables from Ecuador, Spain, Greece, Mexico, etc. We have excellent hydroponic greens coming from Quebec and local fields in season.
All dairy, eggs, majority of seafood, poultry, pork are sourced here in NS. Beef from Alberta.
In the bread section at least 2 of the best breads come from local bakeries.
We know this all because we talk to the staff and management. This is Nova Scotia and everybody talks to everybody.
The rest of our purchases just takes a little extra time to check labels and packages etc.
Is it more effort, sure, but this is our country and we will fight for it against anybody that tries to harm it.
Canadians are quite proud of the fact that we are good honest trusted friends until we are not, then "she's elbows up time boys."
Why a Spending Strike is the Best Option to Stop and Reverse the Fascist Takeover.
TINA: There Is No Alternative. There is no peaceful alternative.
Plan A
Plan A consists of phoning/writing your legislators, and street demonstrations, neither of which have worked nor give any sign of working. His Royal Heinous controls the majority party in the legislature and they are doing his bidding. As for street demonstrations:
From Professor Erica Chenoweth:
…”they often subject their participants to a higher risk of repression or communal violence from opponents. So movements that are capable of having the capacity to shift to methods of dispersion, like stay-at-homes or strikes or forms of economic noncooperation, tend to be much more effective because they have the capability of maneuver when the state begins to ramp up violence against them.”
Targeted boycotts
Why targeted boycotts are ineffective:
Boycotts often fail because they require massive, sustained participation to create meaningful financial pressure, lack clear alternatives for consumers, generate insufficient negative media attention, and are easily weathered by companies waiting for the protest to fade. Additionally, the complex nature of modern capitalism and the proliferation of corporate conglomerates can make it difficult for boycotters to effectively target and impact a company's bottom line or reputation, especially when companies have multiple revenue streams, like real estate, that aren't affected by consumer boycotts.
In 2020, Goya Foods praised President Donald Trump on social media, which caused those in opposition to Trump to boycott their products. Trump loyalists simultaneously initated a counter-boycott, where consumers bought mass quantities of their products, in response. The boycott caused Goya profits to increase dramatically because Trump supporters started an opposing campaign.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? HRH has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, he’ll be at war to try to stop the election. The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy, and stopping or stealing the election demonstrates his power. This election is going to unleash total chaos.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation because of his veto power, nor will they be able to get a conviction on Impeachment. We’ve seen that movie twice before, and know how it ends.
The Courts
While some lower courts have ruled against HRH, slowing his takeover, the rulings have been fast tracked to the Supreme Court. It has almost universally ruled in HRH’s favor. SCOTUS members Roberts and Barrett may have an epiphany and save the country from civil war, but it’s doubtful. It’s going to be up to us to stop this.
Time is running out for a Peaceful Solution. Please Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
True that we need a general boycott of the economy but unfortunately we have become too addicted to all of our cherished trinkets. Amazon keeps growing in spite of acknowledgement of their support of krasnov. Why? They have successfully discovered how to deliver dopamine hits by providing immediate satisfaction of goods that we might never have thought that we needed. So when the US stature in the world falls and our subservience to the krasnov administration becomes cemented, who is it that we have to blame?
Isn’t Amazon’s cloud service becoming more important than its consumer retailing? Our household has already been trying economic boycotting but the latest Amazon quarterly earnings report indicated the cloud computing services to government and business has really taken off, so we consumers don’t seem to have as much clout as 5-10 years ago. Amazon, SpaceX and Palantir have followed the examples of Oracle and Microsoft in using government contracts as their business mainstay, and that means we taxpayers are forced to pay them whether we like it or not.
Les, You make an Important point. Someone with factual knowledge of our complicated economy, like you, needs to point out the fallacies in the thinking of commentators who take up valuable space promoting their plan for a general boycott. Those who insist on the “stupidity and laziness” of the American “proles” really should use their time more closely reading Professor Krugman’s postings. One of the most important post was concerning the K shape of our economy in which a small percentage holds most of the discretionary spending power in our country. These are exactly the people who are going to support Trump.
Amazon is a shopping site for the working class. The upper 1% are buying their luxury goods elsewhere for the most part. So does this not indicate an addiction? One that we can take action on?
This speaks to George Bush telling people to go out and be consumers. What we need is more producers, not consumers. And we need public servants who are trustworthy and care about the common good.
Chris, I don’t want to comment without some analysis of sales figures. They increase each year, I think largely due to inflation. I would point out that Amazon sells many essential goods. The plan for a general boycott is to spend on only essential goods. We would need to know what proportion of sales is on nonessential items to determine if Amazon would be affected. If you want to do targeted boycott at Amazon, you would need to educate people on how to use other methods of shopping. There are many rural areas in our country that do not have access to local markets. I did quit using Amazon several years ago, and it was difficult at first as I had to be sure other sites were legitimate. With more national stores online now, it is much easier to do your shopping online. Those are some things you would try to help people learn to boycott Amazon. That would require a national organization like Indivisible or 50501. Indivisible uses virtual sessions to teach people strategies for resistance.
Carry on Chris and luck to you and to all of us trying to find ways to resist this economic tyranny.
Corporate America and the government have become totally intertwined. But still a massive economic strike could have an effect. It has worked in other counties. India, Albania, Slovakia.
You could kill Amazon if you really wanted by making their exclusive agreements with sellers illegal. The only reason I'd ever consider using Amazon is for products where there is no other source.
Is there any product so important or necessary that you’d stoop to buy it from Amazon? I quit shopping Amazon several years ago and have never lacked for anything I need or want. In fact, I’ve discovered many local stores, my neighborhood hardware store for example, that offer what I need. True, sometimes I have to pay a bit more but I don’t care. It’s worth it to me to know that I’m not supporting Amazon and instead supporting small and/or local companies.
Interesting that you make reference to Ceaucescu. One of the first European trips my wife and I took upon our retirement was a 2 week river cruise down the Danube, ending in Rumania. This was only about 20 years after the revolution and demise of he and his wife. We were standing in the main square of Bucharest, the perimeter of which was large signs of pretty graphic photos of the revolution, listening to a very Soviet era female guide giving us a detailed description of the last events. This lady did not have the greatest sense of humour. When she discovered that we were Canadian she did not take long to remind us what an ugly building the Canadian Embassy was in Bucharest, and she was absolutely correct.
Her final summation essentially was they had a very brief trial for Ceaucescu and his wife, found them guilty, then took them out and shot them.
We always carry little lapel pin maple leaf flags to give out. I went up to her and asked if I could pin her with our flag as an apology for our ugly embassy. She said yes then hugged and kissed me in both cheeks and smiled, her first smile.
In a word yes. Assuming retribution means from criminal or political consequences and "protect himself" means via an Executive that will refuse to cooperate or recognize any Democratic led Congress attempts to investigate or pursue DJT and administration. The Democrats assiming controlling majorities being still very much in doubt given the Democrats ongoing failure to focus itself, let alone the electorate, on DJT corruption and the incompetence of his kakistocratic administration every one of which was confirmed by a subservient Republican Congress.
Trump has proven that he will violate any law when it's convenient for him to do so. He's proven to be incapable of telling the truth. He won't refuse to cooperate - he'll just spout his usual rant of garbage and perjure himself.
Yes. That's the "astra" Gandhi of India released against the then mighty British Empire - a movement of non-cooperation. But will every American want Trump gone, as every Indian then wanted the British go? Noooo! And Trumpism will stay 😞
This is a dangerous assumption that will not lead to any “defeat” of this madness. It is not just Trump. It goes far deeper and is far more widespread than “just Trump”. To name just one critical example, the Rs have so gutted our public education system that we have an impactful portion of the population (electorate) who do not understand civics or ethics, do not have the skills to differentiate between news and opinion (not to mention actual fake stuff including AI), do not know how to think critically, debate respectfully, and come to compromise. America has proven to be hollowed out underneath and the sink hole finally gave. We cannot assume or underestimate anything when it comes to the ones who have worked for decades to bring us to this point.
Trump is the culmination of 50 years of movement Conservatism. The Rs will do everything they can to continue the move towards fascism. Their party has to be burned to the ground.
Not Vance, judging by the reader comments at the WSJ. Currently they’re enthused about Rubio. They don’t need a charismatic type, just someone who can win an election.
"Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market."
Based on multiple decades-long wage stagnation, the economy is already hobbled. Prices have risen and people are cutting back. The average age of a car in the U.S. is now 13 years. Affordability is an issue, but the ENTIRE SYSTEM is what must change.
You do realize that a very large minority have been spending mostly on essentials for many years already, except for tattoos and purple hair coloring, don’t you? Rent and utilities have taken the bulk of their income for a long time. Try quitting those…
The top 20% of earners account for 63% of consumer spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the U.S. economy. Those top earners lean Democratic by 53% to 46% Republican. Those Democrats and disaffected Republicans are the ones who need to stop spending in order to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of America.
This is why when we do retake congress, and have access to Epstein investigations, we should impeach his court. Impeach. The court.
The only reason Donald fits your description is because we attack him directly and his 'friends', like a kid in a playground fight, rally to his side.
1. Impeach Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Roberts....
2. At the same time drip drip drip drip emails, photos, descriptions of him in the Epstein files. Investigate them.
Force. Donald. To do what he can't. He can not message to his cult unless that message is clear and uses middle school grammar & ideas. Everything he says has to have one message, one villain, one hero.
If you impeach Thomas and then force him to answer questions about this or that email from the Epstein files, he will blow up. He can't work in THAT environment. If you attack him, his job is easy & he is good at that kind of messaging.
I've told anyone who'll listen that the BEST we can hope for from the upcoming election, even from a Blue Tsunami, is sand-in-the-gears fascism. I'm certain that he'll continue to ignore Congress, and the law, and the courts whenever any of them attempt to inconvenience him. National emergencies (an unreviewable assertion, thanks Korrupt Kourt) will proliferate.
A truly progressive blue trifecta in 2028 - assuming it's even allowed to assume power - will have to spend its entire term unwinding the most egregious Project 2025 abuses, pretty much to the exclusion of anything else.
Agree with your comment to boycott businesses that support Trump. Do a few for a month or two and then move on. The Canadians are showing more resistance to Trump and MAGA then American by boycotting American products and services. I guess that means that only the threat of invasion is enough to take action.
No,! That's wrong! ICE is the president's army is invading American Cities and Towns..."Learning how to fight in Cities" Trumps said when setting ICA up in its current form!
Nice idea to use boycotts of Trump funders but AWS Facebook etc are too pervasive across the consumer world. I am surprised that PK doesn't think however that a Democrat majority in Congress cannot phase Trump by eg rewinding his family tax immunities which put him in a more favourable place than say British monarchy. Presidential fiats must have natural limits or the US constitution is redundant.
The midterms ALONE will not solve the problem. True change will only happen when Dems have a governing trifecta—which won’t happen until 2029–and we should do whatever is necessary to accomplish that over the next 2 1/2 years. As for a general strike, that is logistically impractical, and it makes no sense to put all eggs in a single basket anyway. Boycott and stop purchasing where practical, but the main effort should be activism. Without people power and without recruiting & electing the right people, change won’t happen.
" We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him."
Good luck. People act when they belong to something. So why don't we give ourselves somethign to belong to? Create a Coalition for the Good, by whatever name, that has many millions at the ready for boycotts and whatever else helps us. Won't some beloved power figure, or a group of them, put up a flag for us to rally round?
The list of incompetent Republican presidential hopefuls is long. The problem is they'll all be seen as thoughtful, capable candidates compared to the disaster that is Drumpf.
The world is burning, literally, Europe, US, elsewhere, and we have a bunch of men (yep, men... not a woman in site amongst the American, Chinese, Iranian, Russian, Israelian, Soudanese etc etc leaderships...) waging war with each others, taking us all to our doom... We are manufacturing more and more weapons with ressources that should be invested to sort our climate disasters instead.... what do we need to wake up?? The totally annihilation of some major state maybe??.. Feeling so powerless.
"[Trump officials] have orchestrated a series of attacks on scientists and their laboratories, implemented through funding cuts, grant interruptions, and immigration restrictions. Scientists are gravitating to Canada, Europe, and China, and we are rapidly losing the depth of our innovative and essential scientific community."
And WHY?
WHY?
It's just for them to project, once again, that bullies are superior to intellectuals.
That science is "woke" and dorky.
We cannot begin to fathom just how much we have lost under this strutting, all-style-and-no-substance gang of posers and pimps in this administation.
Over the next decade, expect Republican candidates to remind voters how good it was under the Trump administration:
The attack on science will impact the NEXT administration.
The lag from patent issue to commercial products is 1 to 8 years (ScienceDirect.com). This means that scientific development already in the pipeline will support the economy to the end of Trump's term. Similarly, established regulatory decisions, trade relationships, will suffice till new technologies become mainstream.
The impact comes, when the new patents are issued in Europe and China instead of the US, and the US is unable to adapt to a changing mainstream because US regulators no longer have sufficient expertise.
As Obama pointed out, Republicans are good at driving the bus into the ditch, the first thing a new Democratic administration has to do is "get the bus out of the ditch." Biden had a similar job after Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic.
The analogy today is that the bus is a pile of charred remains at the bottom of the cliff. What could even the most ·competent· administration achieve with the rubbish that Trump has made of the federal government and international relations?
The American Republicans continue to deny climate change. Yesterday the WSJ editorial board had a piece blaming the fires on “green policies.”
They allege that the European fires are caused poor forest management. It’s true that forests have been allowed to grow in some areas but to not even mention the obvious changing climate is unbelievable.
You are right, for now, but I wonder how long the news people will be allowed to be objective. At some point, Rupert may decide that even routine reporting of financial statistics and transactions may need to be massaged.
But Putin has also been making massive errors to China’s benefit. It wouldn’t be surprising if future historians write about China’s brilliant manipulative strategy to eliminate two of its rivals without firing a shot.
Putin's obsession with Ukraine has been his downfall, and he's taking the Russian economy with him. (Taking out Wildberries and then Ozon will take out the Russian state bank.)
The subversion of democracy by money in US electoral politics needs to be recognized as a root-cause factor to address. Trump will come and go, as will Rubio, Vance etc., but as long as PACs and SuperPacs decide who gets to stand for election to Congress and senate, and as long as unlimited amounts of money can be spent by PACs - even those dancing to the tune of foreign governments - Americans can count on continuing democratic decline, and historic American Allies - can count on continuing betrayal of the values that once linked their policies and actions in the world.
As was said of Reagan, that he changed us from being a nation that wanted to be good into one that simply wanted to feel good. He was the beginning of the end. Trump is the kill shot.
Yep, it's corruption all the way down now. The US has the best government that money can buy. Without getting rid of Citizens United , and a breakup of media monopolies, there is no way out of the current decline into oligarchy.
When Trump was reelected Xi and Putin must have wept with joy - and as Trump et al aggressively destroyed every aspect of U.S. greatness, they must have marveled at their incredible good fortune.
Then came Trump's War and their rapture was complete...
My own sense is that one of Mr. Trump's goals all along was to own the United States so he could terrorize and brutalize us to submission. If nobody else wanted to be our friend, then he could own total control over us. This leaves me wondering how the Supreme Court Justices could have gone through the best our educational system has to offer and still be so oblivious to the common assumption about what the United States stood for. How could the Supreme Court have decided that of all Presidents accused of high crimes, Mr. Trump was the one they must manipulate the system to keep from facing a jury?
IMHO, SCOTUS and trump are both tools, built up and put in power by a group of oligarchs working in league with Putin. Long ago, Hillary Clinton was derided for asserting that there was a vast, right wing conspiracy. The course of events in the US have suggested that she was right after all.
I don’t know about the Putin part, but I agree with the rest. Maybe it was Putin, but I think that also gives a pass to American oligarchs and holds them to a standard to which they’ve given no indication was ever of their concern. Putin, Xi, no one else needs to lift a finger. They are just power and money hungry men who are exceedingly arrogant and ultimately weak. They want to control, want to shape, because that is the only way they hold onto their power and money. There have always been men like this and always will be. We just used to do a better job at reining them in enough to keep the damage relatively low.
Another factor that's being widely discussed is the vulnerability of US Treasuries to massive sell-offs (initially by Jspan, which Bessent is desperately trying to stave off), but also (per rumors) Saudi Arabia (allegedly one reason for Trump's latest TACO on Iran).
At least from. my perspective, US financial hegemony is increasingly a house of cards, with a growing AI bubble, debt exceeding GDP, manufacturing (excluding the questionable data centers) plummeting, lack of sufficient access to rare earth minerals, a growing housing bubble, a crypto bubble, unknown billions spent on the Iran war, massive administration corruption, billions wasted on lawsuits, DOGE settlements, tarifff catastrophes, DC "renovations", etc, etc.
If military deterrence, financial leadership, technological prowess, and educational superiority are all evaporating or edging tiward the abyss...what precusely allows the US to claim superpower status?
Everything said here, and on others' channels make sense. However you all preach to the converted... what would be needed is to reach the rest, all those who don't read these media.. How do you do that?..
“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody. " (James Carville)
The Bank of Japan is now selling its stock of US securities to protect the YEN because if it raised interest rates enough to brake the inflation caused by the Iran war, interest payments would consume the Japanese government's entire operating budget. Europe is in less of a panic, but is also selling US securities. Japan and Europe selling US securities does not cause the interest rate the US has to pay on long-term US debt to rise, but it does weaken the "reserve currency benefit" that kept US bond rates so low for so long. The Trump administration is generating A LOT of NEW debt to sell. We are now seeing government bond rates rise... without regard to the rate set by the Warsh Fed.
"The rest" will feel the gut punch when US governments have to raise taxes while cutting services. Will they accept that THEIR inaction lead to the debt that they now have to pay, and elect wise politicians with reasonable policies... or... will they elect demagogues who tell them this is all someone else's fault (usually someone who cannot defend themselves, so "welfare cheats", "jews" and "immigrants" rather than billionaires), and that "someone else" should be made to pay? That is the question.
The Bessent sold off 5 to 10 billion Euros and bought Yen to try to keep Japan from selling off more U.S. bonds. The EU government is displeased - they were not consulted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-OBpNvXNS8
Or follow Bernie Sanders' tracks and go and hit the roads to talk to all the people living back and beyond! ;-) I am not sure if he still does this sort of things nowadays, but I had watched this documentary a few years ago about him and his team and had been really impressed by the man... Of course, much more effort and time needed...That's also something the new leader in Hungary spent 2 years doing during his campaign actually. And this worked for him...
I don't know which fiction you think will make our electorate more sensible or well-informed, or what tools it would give us to change things. The best writers just accurately portray the human condition. As we're herded into the swine car, we can argue about which author best characterized the cruelty and stupidity of our modern age, whether Henry Fielding or Graham Greene or Margaret Atwell or Eric Blair (Orwell) or Chekov or Toni Morrison or Vonnegut or Camus or....
The fact is that competence matters and Trump is the most incompetent president we have ever had. He has no concern for the country and is basically playing President on the TV, rather than being President. The people in his cabinet are not selected for knowledge of their area of responsibility but rather for whether they "look the part" and can show sufficient subservience to Trump and call him brilliant no matter how stupid his ideas are. His insecurity and pathologic narcissism prevents him from ever asking anybody for advice - it would be an admission that he doesn't "know more than the generals". This is the end of the American century. Look at Russia the other used to be superpower, and you can se what is coming (as well as why).
the orange ego is gilding everything that doesn't move because he has seen the in autocrat's abodes and he wants to belong in that club but only has the veneer but no substance. cotton candy vs granite
Ivan: Paul Krugman is lamenting our losses as a country, especially our monetary hegemony. We are on the way to third world status. If the US becomes a genuine democracy instead, with liberty, justice, the rule of law, an economy that supports all, superb education and support for global climate initiatives, I for one could live with it, especially if we export health and help to other nations rather than guns and revolution.
For a global south reader as me, is very funny to read about USAs democratic values. Dude, you f...ck the entire world, from Indonesia to Brazil, and talk about democratic values? Give me a break. There is a problem in USA that pass through reps and Dems, which is the ABSURD believe in the manifest destiny. You are just as corrupt and autoritary as any other nation, perhaps even more.
There is a misunderstood, here. People from global south love the idea that them have about usa, a platonic country which they watch on movies. Not the real one. The real one is that couped Dilma in Brazil under Obama administration. Or the condor plan in the 60's, under Kennedy. It is obvious that trump is worse than any democrat, but believe that there is a democratic value in USA, is insane! Don't have ANY evidence about this on history. Look how Dems defend Israel. Look the history of Indonesia and the Jacarta methods. Taliban, the paramilitaries in Caribbean, and a lot of almost nazis that usa armed along the world. There is no such thing as American Democratic value
As an Afghan ally left behind in complete uncertainty, reading this makes total sense. American leadership keeps making big political mistakes and losing global trust, while thousands of us who risked our lives for US forces are forgotten without any real action.
So many characterize these moves by the US as mistakes.
But that is wrong.
The situation we face now is a consequence of affirmative policy decisions.
These were implemented by administrators of both parties, but especially Republicans, at the urging of the financial services industry, major manufacturers etc.
So these were NOT mistakes but the direct consequences of American economic policy
Funding and supporting in a livestreamed genocide is not good for one's reputation.
US imperialism is off the chain. The mask of being the good actor is off. Kidnapping Venezuela's president, killing 168 schoolkids and killing the leader of Iran, choking Cuba so obviously, it's clear the US is not the good side in any conflict as used to be at least the cover story.
Yes, but the US has been doing such imperialist things for over a century. Remember that the US destroyed Iran’s democracy by ejecting Mossy in 1953, then destroyed Guatemala’s democracy by ejecting Arbenz in 1954,. I am glad that the people of the imperial core are waking up. This brings me great hope. Keep it up!
"Let’s be clear: The end of U.S. leadership and China’s growing geopolitical ascendancy are bad things. China is a corrupt autocracy, with little respect for human rights and none at all for democratic values."
Time to take off those "stars and stripes" blinders, Mr. Krugman. America is no angel in the corruption and "little respect for human rights and none at all for democratic values" department. The corruption has shone bright for decades with the PACs and Zionist meddling in your politics. And if there were respect for human rights and democratic values in the USA Donald Trump would never have been elected again in 2024. At least China doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
Hannah Arendt and Martin Buber provided critiques of “statist Zionism.” Would you label them “antisemitic?” They both pushed for a binational solution to the indigenous Arabs living in Palestine, and referred to it as the great moral issue for Zionism. And would you label them antisemitic? No, a critique of Zionism is not antisemitic in most cases.
Arendt said that Zionism was the first time the Jewish people had a “political response to the problem of antisemitism.”
This is all so high brow with everyone’s canned answers to this problem.
But I would like to know if it’s not antisemitism then explain the upwards of over 300% uptick in anti Jewish attacks worldwide wide.
People who have no connection to Israel other than religion.
It’s nice To have nuanced intellectual arguments but to average people who don’t spend time in college level courses l.
However attacking Jewish people because of what they hear is a result of these types of rhetorical arguments in the press.
But for these kinds of statements these attacks would not be happening.
To illustrate how things get hijacked just look at my original comment and how someone ran away with it in a manner That had absolutely nothing to do with the professors discussion on China and US relations.
My comment was why would someone feel compelled to insert that when the topic at hand was about the US and China.
To stretch so far as to insert a non relevant comment like that is just reflective of Jewish hatred.
I'm curious. Do you have a history with Mr. Heit? You seem to have drawn some conclusions about his motives and background and switched away from debate and into ad-hominem gear pretty quickly here.
(_Mr._ Heit, is it? You evoke the same question in me . . . .)
This:
"And please spare me the 'Anti Zionism is not Antisemitism' retort.
Those issuing that do not get to define what is or is not Antisemitism."
tells me all I need to know to characterize them as right-wing slime.
And I can't say either one of us was debating anything at the point where Heit unilaterally called foul on any mention of Zionism (from the PoV of a Zionist) and started in on the ad hominem stuff first.
Just FYI, while debate can certainly happen in a space like this, it's hardly mandated.
"When I was growing up in the projects in Brooklyn older black folks would slap their kids upside there heads when young kids would say that.
Then yell at them and tell them it took years of struggle to have that word be recognized for vile bullshit it is."
Totally leaving aside the fact that Black people in the US are as politically divided and ideologically driven as the vast majority of its citizens, I'd argue that using this as an excuse for striking children is as much about striving for (Black) "middle-class-ness" as it about whatever argument you're trying to make.
After the American Civil War, the Black middle-class decried the behaviour of those Black people "beneath them" in a politics of (white) middle-class respectability: don't use bad language, don't act like an ex-slave, don't "demean yourself" (whatever that means).
Fulminating against youth who used "niggah" as a badge of honour rather than shame says as much about a need for silence on the part of certain people than on those they attack.
It’s darkly hilarious that Krugman expects foreigners to accept his assertions about how “bad” China is when China hasn’t started a war since the 1970s while the US has killed more foreign nationals than all other countries in the world combined over the past 80 years … 🙄
Trump is the Manchurian candidate. We thought he was primarily Putin’s boy. Many have observed that his actions toward Ukraine could not have been more destructive if he had been a paid Russian agent or questioned what salacious details Putin concealed to keep the Donald in line, but we now see that Trump’s destruction of our soft power - of our hegemony in an interconnected world - drives countries we once knew shared our common values into the arms of Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.
I’m with you on this Joanna. Trump/ Vance and a lot of the edifice of the Administration, all pursuing their own fetishes, are absolutely Manchurian candidates working on behalf of other ends. Regards from Scotland, Anthony
Prof. Krugman spends the whole article explaining why China appears more competent, reliable, and serious than the United States—then reassures himself that China’s rise is still “bad” because it lacks Western democracy.
The evidence is accepted. The conclusion is ideologically forbidden.
This is the ritual confession Western liberals now perform whenever reality forces them to acknowledge China’s success.
China can build the infrastructure, maintain the industrial base, absorb sanctions, support trade, preserve policy continuity, and gain the trust of developing countries. But somehow, none of this is allowed to raise any questions about the quality of its political system. Its successes must always be treated as accidental, immoral, or historically illegitimate.
Prof. Krugman’s real discomfort is obvious. China is not merely rising despite its system. It is rising through capacities produced by that system: long-term planning, bureaucratic coordination, control over strategic finance, industrial policy, infrastructure investment, and the subordination of short-term private interests to national development.
Thomas, blindly obeying our oligarch owned media who have told us to hate Russia, Iran, China, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and just about everyone else has led us to ruin.
There is no contradiction. It is entirely logically consistent to understand that China's approach to international affairs and national development have been very effective and still believe that totalitarianism is a dangerous thing. Getting stuff done is important. Killing millions of one's own people is also important.
In a way I think it is fine that the end of the American Empire has arrived. But your last sentences give me pause. Because if the world's new hegemon is a country that is a corrupt autocracy with no respect for human rights or democratic values, there is bound to be a lot of suffering coming for the whole world. . . . This was not a pleasant read for first thing on Monday morning. But sometimes the truth hurts.
Nothing anti-American in my comment. I miss the days when (even if imperfectly) my country stood for values such as those enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Golden Rule. Sadly, of late our only "value" seems to be amassing wealth for the oligarchs no matter how much suffering and injustice it unleashes on the vast majority of the human race. That is nothing to be proud of in my opinion.
I get your point. I think there has been progress on many issues since the 1950's in ordinary people's every day lives. And yet, our government is rolling that backwards as fast as they can. And because of the unlimited role that big money plays in electoral politics, I don't think the will of the ordinary people who may be making progress in their thinking about the rights and humanity of many different minority groups (as well as the half the population that are females) is being expressed in the laws of the land or in general culture. I have not given up on working for change. I have been attending protests and voting regularly, and working for various political candidates my whole life (I'm now retired so you can guess my age). But so far, the present state of our government and its policies doesn't make it easy to hold onto hope.
Finally! Someone who apparently has an idea of what they're talking about!
Define "anti-American", please. This adjective is (and has been) getting tossed around so much in the mainstream, for so many disparate things, I really want someone in the know to nail down this term for me.
Trump Knows: Midterms Won’t Matter
From Axios, August 2, 2026
“President Trump doesn't much care if Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate in the midterms this fall.
• Yes, he'd prefer a big win, but he seems indifferent to the election and the possibility of endless Democratic investigations of his family, wealth and policies, his closest advisers tell us.
• A big reason: Trump knows he'll emerge just as strong, or even stronger, heading into his final two years, at least among Republicans.
Why it matters: Trump will enjoy a more pro-Trump Republican Congress, win or lose; gleefully play '28 kingmaker and further test the boundaries of presidential power beyond legislating, his preferred method anyway. He'll use pardons to protect his people, the advisers say.”
Three dramas to watch post-November:
1. Trump will flirt with running again in '28 until the bitter end, but it's all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place.
2. As potential outside-the-walls competition in '28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.).
Most importantly: A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?”
From The Peaceful Solution:
The Midterms Will Not Solve the Problem
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? Please.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders .
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. The longer the fascist takeover goes on, the more difficult it will be to undo.
We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community, will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
Great ideas - and ultimately useless. Beneath Trump (and there really is a “beneath Trump, appearances to the contrary) is a servile Congress, a corrupt Supreme Court, multiple oligarchs (who REALLY know on which side their bread is buttered) and a Hegseth-led military. And, at the very core, is a public, the vast majority of whom don’t know and wouldn’t give a damn if they did. After all, we have Taylor Swift’s wedding and Meagan Markel to worry about, not to mention World Wide Wrestling, foot-, base- and basketball. So many more important things to discuss. Yes, Democracy was a very interesting experiment - which just didn’t work.
So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. George Orwell, 1984
The People have risen to the occasion in the past and will do so in the future. It’s only a question of when and whether it will be Peaceful.
Rather a question of how much economic pain idiotic GOP policies create for us and ours, before we wake up AND THROW the GOP BUMS OUT.
Tariffs, labor shortages due to ICE, $6/gallon diesel, skyrocketing electricity and health insurance, stagnant wages--all of it is squeezing the bottom 95% something fierce. Sooner or later, even the FOX-addled voters wake up.
Until the anticipated counter reaction don't work or are irrelevant.....
Yeah, I have little confidence the midterms will be free and fair. Trump has something up his sleeve and if Democrats win, the current House leadership could refuse to certify the election. Chaos alert.
Trump is still gaslighting us about a deal. Today, Iran is scoffing there are no negotiations planned, but are talking to Oman about controlling the Strait. Wonder if Trump would like extra cheese on that TACO.
The House does NOT certify congressional elections. That is all done at the state level.
It's more complicated than that:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/opinion/trump-midterms-worst.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1FA.R8Eo.Ie_xizyFLrRn&smid=url-share
Individual states and county elections commissions control state elections. Even in my blood-red SC county, we Democrats acknowledge that they conduct fair elections. But, the more Democrats who work the polls, the more that is assured. So we encourage this despite low pay and very long hours. I expect free and fair elections here. Trump can bluster, but he won't send federal officers to polls or interfere in counting votes.
That said, he might try to interfere AFTER elections, but his position will be weak as it was in 2020.
Ate what length and what cost? Will it be great to see this happen in 10 years, 20 years? I personally don’t want myself or kids to be going through another day of this. Thinking that two generations from now, people will rise up…and the only way will be violently. No one gives up power easily and weapons are more accessible than blueberries.
The Peaceful Solution-Part 3
How to accomplish a Spending Strike
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
Winning the 2026 elections and even those in 2028 have to be seen as a beginning of the fight for the future of our country rather than an end. Rooting out the fascists will be a long hard job. I don’t think most Americans understand just how difficult a task this will be.
Until we stop worshiping money, nothing else will matter. Greed and ego will destroy us without any trouble.
All indications are as you suggest. Each day that passes without a curb on the regime cements the destruction of the Rule of Law, Separation of Powers and a worthy SCOTUS. It’s all bread and circuses while the Empire rots.
This sounds like a tangent, but isn't: The future health of the US economy depends on the USMCA negotiations, not because of the outcome (there will be no change), but because of who is sitting at the table.
Both Canada and Mexico have appointed new ambassadors to the US in the last 12 months. Neither ambassador is a career diplomat. Neither is an expert in trade. Both are very senior financial experts, the bond market, in particular. Mark Weisman, Canada's ambassador, is a former senior executive at Blackrock and many other similar institutions. Roberto Lazzeri Montaño, Mexico's ambassador, previously led major Mexican development banks (Nafin and Bancomext).
Below the ambassadors, both Canada and Mexico have fielded an army of experts.
This explains why Trump dislikes the USMCA so much: He thought he was creating a means to subjugate US neighbors, but instead, he accidentally institutionalized continuous trade negotiations by defaulting to annual reviews. This created a framework for US neighbors to force the administration to hear independent economic voices from the real world.
With COTUS, SCOTUS, the Fed, and formerly independent boards, commissions, and agencies neutered, the USMCA negotiating table is the remaining independent source of economic policy that has teeth... hopefully, enough of a bite to slow the pace towards long term damage enough that we will be able to recover.
Yes Karel, I was kind of thinking similarly, I.e., Trump’s support for things like crypto and his breaking of trade agreements are economic strategies for undermining the rule of law and enabling his corruption to flourish.
I believe there will be a second civil war. Or revolution. All our farting around the edges won't have much of an effect.
We have two countries. We always have: 1) the southern slavers who were autocrats and always have been; 2) the northern workers who were democrats who figured out how to respect the People--though they are still learning how to respect anyone not white and male. Women, blacks, and hispanics are still struggling mightily for respect. Indeed, southern autocrats have worked hard since the Civil War to make sure northerners hate all women, all blacks, all hispanics, and the poor...which hasn't been that hard because the US absolutely hates women, blacks, hispanics, and the poor. Look at our election history to see that hatred is national.
There has been TREMENDOUS social progress in this country. Labor, women's rights, minority rights...these things happened. I reject your pessimistic, reductionist view of the Republic.
I agree, but it is a groundswell, and needs to stay steady as a tsunami wave, until it proves credible in the November election.
I agree! We are much different now (the Democrats) than we were at the time of the Civil War. We have made progress in human rights, especially with FDR, the United Nations, and International Law. We have a long way to go, and we are peddling back to the times evinced by Civil War structures under Trump.
That behavior is spreading. Do I need to say Kirk or the Tates? We will have further to go to get liberty, etc., back if we split into two countries. Project 2025 will take the right back to Civil War times in every way. Many just don't know how far back that people will go. Remember, in the Trumpworld, only elite white men are intelligent (see the writings of Musk and Thiel), middle class white men will serve the post-Trumpworld Order via Project 2025, and the poor whites are indeed better than the poor women of any race, blacks, hispanics, and immigrants. These lower people are free to be the servants of all whites. What does it mean to be a master, manager, order giver, or servant in that culture?
Are you replying to me?
That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid by promoting a Peaceful Solution.
There has never yet been a "peaceful solution" to a corrupt authoritarian regime - even a wannabe, like Trump.
It can be done in this country. The Reublic will not survive an armed conflict. I for one, refuse to surrender to despair.
Are you replying to me?
Hungary seems to have ousted Orban peacefully.
FDR is a counter example. However, it took the great depression to get him in office with enough power to break the oligarchy.
First time for everything.
I agree. Elected Republicans put themselves in the position of “damned if they do; damned if they don’t”. If they defy Trump, his goons will threaten them and/or their loved ones and if Republicans lose, they know that their treasonous actions will be investigated and prosecuted. The conclusion: they will do ANYTHING to stay in power. From the get-go, it was obvious to me that this regime will only end with violence – either a civil war or a world war and that would be only if the democracy-oriented side wins. Not advocating the foregoing, but this corruption is so broad and deep, it will be next to impossible to root out using a legal system, and a broken one at that. Just my opinion…
What percentage of Americans participated in the No Kings Marches? I think there’s a threshold of something like 3.5% (this is just off the top of my head) before a peaceful protest is considered effective. The latest of the No Kings March had the largest turnout at almost 8 million. That’s 2.3% to 2.34%.
Gregg, I agree with 100%. I hear from my US friends about No Kings, non of them attended, why I do not understand. Here in Halifax, NS and across Canada, we called ours No Tyrants and probably had about 500 people, yes a tiny amount, but we are not a big province and do not have a provincial border with the US.
The US turnout, in my opinion, was just short of being a joke.
I would like to have someone give me the last 4 dates of No Kings, the percentage turn out to verify your numbers, any actual results and then compare these to protests in Hungary, Albania, Croatia etc. These Europeans realized what they are fighting for and reacted accordingly. These countries have experienced the negative effects of Fascist autocracies.
Your reply came to me. Don’t know if it reached Gregg.
Context for that 3.5% "rule" (with quotes from Wikipedia):
"By comparing the success rates of 323 violent and nonviolent campaigns, Stephan and Chenoweth demonstrated that only 26% of violent revolts were successful, whereas 53% of nonviolent campaigns were successful."
And yes, they find that "nearly every movement with active participation from at least 3.5% of the population succeeded. All of the campaigns that achieved that threshold were nonviolent." But they emphasize that this 3.5% rule is descriptive, not predictive.
If this latest No Kings demo brought out 2.3% of good Americans, they just have to keep working at it!
See more here: https://erwindreessen.substack.com/i/175123026/the-35-rule-about-civic-protests which includes a link to a Krugman interview with Chenoweth post the No Kings-2 demo.
Bottom line from Chenoweth for the current situation in the US: There is no precedent for it.
Agreed.
Arnold
The reason democracy is not working is because the federal law against insurrection by Trump was not enforced by Biden and AG Garland to put Trump in jail for inciting Jan 6 2021. They delayed and should have arrested prosecuted convicted and jailed six justices on the Supreme Court for supporting insurrection by not enforcing the federal law against insurrection that was ignored to justify not enforcing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and giving Trump immunity. Democracy can’t exist when the law is not enforced when Democrats control all 3 branches of the federal government except for the Supreme Court which they could have fixed.
Yes, but…. Despite what I (and maybe you) consider treason by 6 members of the Supreme Court Trump was still re-elected in ‘24.
Yes elected because Trump was not in jail. And agree the 60 million registered Republicans who still approve of Trump including MAGA supporters are a problem as are other issues like unlimited money in politics enabled by the SCOTUS Citizens United decision which was created by Republicans funded by billionaire oligarchs and enabled by the failure of neoliberal Democrats (Clinton & Obama) to stop the theft of wealth from 95% of Americans which pissed off voters.
I think democracy works as long as the people participate and are informed, something the oligarchs do not want. So they teach and promote stupid.
It is a contract with willing participants. Otherwise………
Since people are not informed, and do not participate, exactly as the oligarchs plan, this is ominous.
Honestly, Democrats should kneecap the oligarchs at the first opportunity, and by that I mean throw Elon Musk, Scam Altman, Dario Amodei, Peter Thiel, David Sacks and a whole bunch of others in prison and seize their assets. I would also accept deportation without a hearing for Musk, Thiel, and Sacks. Maybe they can find out how true their conspiracy theories about how white South Africans are treated is.
This is a pivotal moment for the American people. How many understand or care about the destruction of our country? We just don’t know.
There are credible polls. Read Jess Craven, Scott Dworkin. Listen to Robert Hubbell. We know that the most important thing is to overcome apathy, and if everyone votes, we will win. We need to recruit at least one person each, for it to happen.
That’s why it’s so important to Spread the Word!
In your humble opinion.
This comment is so accurate that it is scary, especially if you live outside of the USA as I do. The reason that it is not so frightening inside the US is the public has no clue what is happening to them. I have been telling my US friends every time they wave the "Wait Until The Midterms"That they will mean nothing.
Now as far as US citizen protesting, this will not happen for all of the reasons you described and more. Apathy, fear, ignorance plus the fear of making those decisions that result in discomfort to themselves and their way of life.
Canada has been incredibly successful at boycotting. It all started with simple alcohol banning and spread, not only in Canada but abroad. When my wife and I shop we look at basically every product to decipher point of origin. If USA and unless we desperately need the product we will gladly pay more, but actually in fewer situations now, to buy Canadian or any other friendly country. This has become as much of a habit as scanning food products with Yuka to decide on product quality. This is now our way of life and it will not change easily.
Regarding protesting, some of the current apparent “apathy” could be because the massive Women’s March and Black Lives Matter protests didn’t result in in real change. We actually went backward.
I was taught by my school history teacher back in 1974, that all that peaceful protest marches were for was to give the illusion of political power to the masses. Ruling class manipulated solidarity. He backed this statement up with convincing statistics at the time. Nothing that I have witnessed since has proved him wrong.
They give the illusion of change to those not directly affected by the injustice, giving privilege the rosy glow of righteousness without sacrifice. Effectively upholding the rotten status quo and making it even harder for victims of injustice.
I respectfully disagree. To see why, consider what is lastingly achieved by the alternative: violent insurrection. Always, always, a disaster. Peaceful protest if pursued persistently takes longer, often a lot longer (think Ghandi’s salt march; the struggle to oust Orban; the US civil rights marches in the 1960s) but eventually they change the consensus. It takes patience, which I know is hard.
The oligarchs, from their posh offices, look down into the streets crowded with protesters and say, “They’ll be gone tomorrow “.
Great advice but I can’t see how this will have an impact. So few things are truly “made in the USA”.
I have been trying to avoid all unnecessary purchases all together.
I would love some more insight on your idea. I have been trying to shop locally.
The Peaceful Solution-Part 3
How to accomplish a Spending Strike
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
Kathleen, I am going to assume that you are a US citizen, if not, so be it.
First of all it is not our idea we just adopted it.
Now this going to make some eyes roll, I am Canadian and I am going to praise a large US based big box store, Costco. We have been members for 33 years and I consider them as an excellent corporate citizen and very considerate of our country and province.
As already mentioned we buy as much local then Canadian, then other than US then last resort US.
We cannot cast a ballot in the US but we can vote with our wallets, and, as we all know, money controls everything.
Costco here in Nova Scotia does an excellent job with signage in the produce and protein departments as to the point of origin. The produce may for example state Mexico or USA for a product so you root through the pile. If we cannot confirm we walkaway. Costco has only had carrots from the US lately so we do without. We are getting some incredible fruits and vegetables from Ecuador, Spain, Greece, Mexico, etc. We have excellent hydroponic greens coming from Quebec and local fields in season.
All dairy, eggs, majority of seafood, poultry, pork are sourced here in NS. Beef from Alberta.
In the bread section at least 2 of the best breads come from local bakeries.
We know this all because we talk to the staff and management. This is Nova Scotia and everybody talks to everybody.
The rest of our purchases just takes a little extra time to check labels and packages etc.
Is it more effort, sure, but this is our country and we will fight for it against anybody that tries to harm it.
Canadians are quite proud of the fact that we are good honest trusted friends until we are not, then "she's elbows up time boys."
The Peaceful Solution-Part 2
Why a Spending Strike is the Best Option to Stop and Reverse the Fascist Takeover.
TINA: There Is No Alternative. There is no peaceful alternative.
Plan A
Plan A consists of phoning/writing your legislators, and street demonstrations, neither of which have worked nor give any sign of working. His Royal Heinous controls the majority party in the legislature and they are doing his bidding. As for street demonstrations:
From Professor Erica Chenoweth:
…”they often subject their participants to a higher risk of repression or communal violence from opponents. So movements that are capable of having the capacity to shift to methods of dispersion, like stay-at-homes or strikes or forms of economic noncooperation, tend to be much more effective because they have the capability of maneuver when the state begins to ramp up violence against them.”
Targeted boycotts
Why targeted boycotts are ineffective:
Boycotts often fail because they require massive, sustained participation to create meaningful financial pressure, lack clear alternatives for consumers, generate insufficient negative media attention, and are easily weathered by companies waiting for the protest to fade. Additionally, the complex nature of modern capitalism and the proliferation of corporate conglomerates can make it difficult for boycotters to effectively target and impact a company's bottom line or reputation, especially when companies have multiple revenue streams, like real estate, that aren't affected by consumer boycotts.
In 2020, Goya Foods praised President Donald Trump on social media, which caused those in opposition to Trump to boycott their products. Trump loyalists simultaneously initated a counter-boycott, where consumers bought mass quantities of their products, in response. The boycott caused Goya profits to increase dramatically because Trump supporters started an opposing campaign.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? HRH has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, he’ll be at war to try to stop the election. The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy, and stopping or stealing the election demonstrates his power. This election is going to unleash total chaos.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation because of his veto power, nor will they be able to get a conviction on Impeachment. We’ve seen that movie twice before, and know how it ends.
The Courts
While some lower courts have ruled against HRH, slowing his takeover, the rulings have been fast tracked to the Supreme Court. It has almost universally ruled in HRH’s favor. SCOTUS members Roberts and Barrett may have an epiphany and save the country from civil war, but it’s doubtful. It’s going to be up to us to stop this.
Time is running out for a Peaceful Solution. Please Spread the Word!, far, wide, and quickly, before the fascists takedown our means of communication.
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
Good for you! Keep boycotting our American products.
True that we need a general boycott of the economy but unfortunately we have become too addicted to all of our cherished trinkets. Amazon keeps growing in spite of acknowledgement of their support of krasnov. Why? They have successfully discovered how to deliver dopamine hits by providing immediate satisfaction of goods that we might never have thought that we needed. So when the US stature in the world falls and our subservience to the krasnov administration becomes cemented, who is it that we have to blame?
Isn’t Amazon’s cloud service becoming more important than its consumer retailing? Our household has already been trying economic boycotting but the latest Amazon quarterly earnings report indicated the cloud computing services to government and business has really taken off, so we consumers don’t seem to have as much clout as 5-10 years ago. Amazon, SpaceX and Palantir have followed the examples of Oracle and Microsoft in using government contracts as their business mainstay, and that means we taxpayers are forced to pay them whether we like it or not.
Les, You make an Important point. Someone with factual knowledge of our complicated economy, like you, needs to point out the fallacies in the thinking of commentators who take up valuable space promoting their plan for a general boycott. Those who insist on the “stupidity and laziness” of the American “proles” really should use their time more closely reading Professor Krugman’s postings. One of the most important post was concerning the K shape of our economy in which a small percentage holds most of the discretionary spending power in our country. These are exactly the people who are going to support Trump.
Here's Amazon's sales by year in billion$:
2020 280
2021 386
2022 513
2023 574
2024 637
2025 716
Amazon is a shopping site for the working class. The upper 1% are buying their luxury goods elsewhere for the most part. So does this not indicate an addiction? One that we can take action on?
Look up Amazon addiction on youtube,
This speaks to George Bush telling people to go out and be consumers. What we need is more producers, not consumers. And we need public servants who are trustworthy and care about the common good.
Chris, I don’t want to comment without some analysis of sales figures. They increase each year, I think largely due to inflation. I would point out that Amazon sells many essential goods. The plan for a general boycott is to spend on only essential goods. We would need to know what proportion of sales is on nonessential items to determine if Amazon would be affected. If you want to do targeted boycott at Amazon, you would need to educate people on how to use other methods of shopping. There are many rural areas in our country that do not have access to local markets. I did quit using Amazon several years ago, and it was difficult at first as I had to be sure other sites were legitimate. With more national stores online now, it is much easier to do your shopping online. Those are some things you would try to help people learn to boycott Amazon. That would require a national organization like Indivisible or 50501. Indivisible uses virtual sessions to teach people strategies for resistance.
Carry on Chris and luck to you and to all of us trying to find ways to resist this economic tyranny.
Corporate America and the government have become totally intertwined. But still a massive economic strike could have an effect. It has worked in other counties. India, Albania, Slovakia.
You could kill Amazon if you really wanted by making their exclusive agreements with sellers illegal. The only reason I'd ever consider using Amazon is for products where there is no other source.
Is there any product so important or necessary that you’d stoop to buy it from Amazon? I quit shopping Amazon several years ago and have never lacked for anything I need or want. In fact, I’ve discovered many local stores, my neighborhood hardware store for example, that offer what I need. True, sometimes I have to pay a bit more but I don’t care. It’s worth it to me to know that I’m not supporting Amazon and instead supporting small and/or local companies.
What a lazy, defeatist attitude!
Are you replying to me?
Noooo! I’m with you all the way!
My reply was to the first Chris Brodin comment that “unfortunately we are too addicted to our trinkets.”
Can Trump protect himself from retribution?
From whom? Supreme Court has given him permission to do anything he wants.
The Shameful Six Republican appointees did. Sotomayor, Keagan and Brown Jackson aren’t guilty of selling out the Constitution.
Won't the next (Dem?) president have the same permission when going after Trump?
Until the issue gets to the Supremes favoring just him, a lot of damage can be done
The Supreme Court can't do anything about Trump being taken out back and shot, Ceaucescu-style.
I mean, they can write a strongly-worded letter about it after the fact.
Interesting that you make reference to Ceaucescu. One of the first European trips my wife and I took upon our retirement was a 2 week river cruise down the Danube, ending in Rumania. This was only about 20 years after the revolution and demise of he and his wife. We were standing in the main square of Bucharest, the perimeter of which was large signs of pretty graphic photos of the revolution, listening to a very Soviet era female guide giving us a detailed description of the last events. This lady did not have the greatest sense of humour. When she discovered that we were Canadian she did not take long to remind us what an ugly building the Canadian Embassy was in Bucharest, and she was absolutely correct.
Her final summation essentially was they had a very brief trial for Ceaucescu and his wife, found them guilty, then took them out and shot them.
We always carry little lapel pin maple leaf flags to give out. I went up to her and asked if I could pin her with our flag as an apology for our ugly embassy. She said yes then hugged and kissed me in both cheeks and smiled, her first smile.
or simply hospitalized for (your serious illness here) until he dies.
In a word yes. Assuming retribution means from criminal or political consequences and "protect himself" means via an Executive that will refuse to cooperate or recognize any Democratic led Congress attempts to investigate or pursue DJT and administration. The Democrats assiming controlling majorities being still very much in doubt given the Democrats ongoing failure to focus itself, let alone the electorate, on DJT corruption and the incompetence of his kakistocratic administration every one of which was confirmed by a subservient Republican Congress.
Trump has proven that he will violate any law when it's convenient for him to do so. He's proven to be incapable of telling the truth. He won't refuse to cooperate - he'll just spout his usual rant of garbage and perjure himself.
Thank you! I am from the US and love my Canadian neighbors 🩷
Yes. That's the "astra" Gandhi of India released against the then mighty British Empire - a movement of non-cooperation. But will every American want Trump gone, as every Indian then wanted the British go? Noooo! And Trumpism will stay 😞
Over 70% of Americans disapprove of what trump is doing. Without trump, there is no trumpism.
This is a dangerous assumption that will not lead to any “defeat” of this madness. It is not just Trump. It goes far deeper and is far more widespread than “just Trump”. To name just one critical example, the Rs have so gutted our public education system that we have an impactful portion of the population (electorate) who do not understand civics or ethics, do not have the skills to differentiate between news and opinion (not to mention actual fake stuff including AI), do not know how to think critically, debate respectfully, and come to compromise. America has proven to be hollowed out underneath and the sink hole finally gave. We cannot assume or underestimate anything when it comes to the ones who have worked for decades to bring us to this point.
The destruction of the education system was a bipartisan effort.
Trump is the culmination of 50 years of movement Conservatism. The Rs will do everything they can to continue the move towards fascism. Their party has to be burned to the ground.
Look who’s behind Project 2025. Those people aren’t going away. They’re looking for their next standard bearer.
J. D. Vance? I don’t think so. Do you know of any candidates that can replace HRH?
Not Vance, judging by the reader comments at the WSJ. Currently they’re enthused about Rubio. They don’t need a charismatic type, just someone who can win an election.
"Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market."
Based on multiple decades-long wage stagnation, the economy is already hobbled. Prices have risen and people are cutting back. The average age of a car in the U.S. is now 13 years. Affordability is an issue, but the ENTIRE SYSTEM is what must change.
You do realize that a very large minority have been spending mostly on essentials for many years already, except for tattoos and purple hair coloring, don’t you? Rent and utilities have taken the bulk of their income for a long time. Try quitting those…
The top 20% of earners account for 63% of consumer spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the U.S. economy. Those top earners lean Democratic by 53% to 46% Republican. Those Democrats and disaffected Republicans are the ones who need to stop spending in order to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of America.
So, that top 20% needs to lead the anti fascist charge… Less, of course, the top 1%, who have, what, about 50% of all the money?
The homeless shelters in Manhattan are full of people who have been forced to quit those.
This is why when we do retake congress, and have access to Epstein investigations, we should impeach his court. Impeach. The court.
The only reason Donald fits your description is because we attack him directly and his 'friends', like a kid in a playground fight, rally to his side.
1. Impeach Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Roberts....
2. At the same time drip drip drip drip emails, photos, descriptions of him in the Epstein files. Investigate them.
Force. Donald. To do what he can't. He can not message to his cult unless that message is clear and uses middle school grammar & ideas. Everything he says has to have one message, one villain, one hero.
If you impeach Thomas and then force him to answer questions about this or that email from the Epstein files, he will blow up. He can't work in THAT environment. If you attack him, his job is easy & he is good at that kind of messaging.
Many people are already boycotting. Great idea. But there’s no reason to abandon political efforts.
I've told anyone who'll listen that the BEST we can hope for from the upcoming election, even from a Blue Tsunami, is sand-in-the-gears fascism. I'm certain that he'll continue to ignore Congress, and the law, and the courts whenever any of them attempt to inconvenience him. National emergencies (an unreviewable assertion, thanks Korrupt Kourt) will proliferate.
A truly progressive blue trifecta in 2028 - assuming it's even allowed to assume power - will have to spend its entire term unwinding the most egregious Project 2025 abuses, pretty much to the exclusion of anything else.
Great comment.
Agree with your comment to boycott businesses that support Trump. Do a few for a month or two and then move on. The Canadians are showing more resistance to Trump and MAGA then American by boycotting American products and services. I guess that means that only the threat of invasion is enough to take action.
No,! That's wrong! ICE is the president's army is invading American Cities and Towns..."Learning how to fight in Cities" Trumps said when setting ICA up in its current form!
Yet....silence.......
Nice idea to use boycotts of Trump funders but AWS Facebook etc are too pervasive across the consumer world. I am surprised that PK doesn't think however that a Democrat majority in Congress cannot phase Trump by eg rewinding his family tax immunities which put him in a more favourable place than say British monarchy. Presidential fiats must have natural limits or the US constitution is redundant.
The midterms ALONE will not solve the problem. True change will only happen when Dems have a governing trifecta—which won’t happen until 2029–and we should do whatever is necessary to accomplish that over the next 2 1/2 years. As for a general strike, that is logistically impractical, and it makes no sense to put all eggs in a single basket anyway. Boycott and stop purchasing where practical, but the main effort should be activism. Without people power and without recruiting & electing the right people, change won’t happen.
If only we could make that happen. Agree with everything and have cut substantially back on buying.
Spread the word!
" We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him."
Good luck. People act when they belong to something. So why don't we give ourselves somethign to belong to? Create a Coalition for the Good, by whatever name, that has many millions at the ready for boycotts and whatever else helps us. Won't some beloved power figure, or a group of them, put up a flag for us to rally round?
The list of incompetent Republican presidential hopefuls is long. The problem is they'll all be seen as thoughtful, capable candidates compared to the disaster that is Drumpf.
The world is burning, literally, Europe, US, elsewhere, and we have a bunch of men (yep, men... not a woman in site amongst the American, Chinese, Iranian, Russian, Israelian, Soudanese etc etc leaderships...) waging war with each others, taking us all to our doom... We are manufacturing more and more weapons with ressources that should be invested to sort our climate disasters instead.... what do we need to wake up?? The totally annihilation of some major state maybe??.. Feeling so powerless.
"[Trump officials] have orchestrated a series of attacks on scientists and their laboratories, implemented through funding cuts, grant interruptions, and immigration restrictions. Scientists are gravitating to Canada, Europe, and China, and we are rapidly losing the depth of our innovative and essential scientific community."
And WHY?
WHY?
It's just for them to project, once again, that bullies are superior to intellectuals.
That science is "woke" and dorky.
We cannot begin to fathom just how much we have lost under this strutting, all-style-and-no-substance gang of posers and pimps in this administation.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
— Kamala Harris, August 22, 2024.
Kamala Harris was right about everything.
Over the next decade, expect Republican candidates to remind voters how good it was under the Trump administration:
The attack on science will impact the NEXT administration.
The lag from patent issue to commercial products is 1 to 8 years (ScienceDirect.com). This means that scientific development already in the pipeline will support the economy to the end of Trump's term. Similarly, established regulatory decisions, trade relationships, will suffice till new technologies become mainstream.
The impact comes, when the new patents are issued in Europe and China instead of the US, and the US is unable to adapt to a changing mainstream because US regulators no longer have sufficient expertise.
As Obama pointed out, Republicans are good at driving the bus into the ditch, the first thing a new Democratic administration has to do is "get the bus out of the ditch." Biden had a similar job after Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic.
The analogy today is that the bus is a pile of charred remains at the bottom of the cliff. What could even the most ·competent· administration achieve with the rubbish that Trump has made of the federal government and international relations?
Exactly. Squandering our resources on war and oligarchs rather than building a future that benefits our citizens and the planet.
The American Republicans continue to deny climate change. Yesterday the WSJ editorial board had a piece blaming the fires on “green policies.”
They allege that the European fires are caused poor forest management. It’s true that forests have been allowed to grow in some areas but to not even mention the obvious changing climate is unbelievable.
Rupert Murdoch. The WSJ is no longer serious newspaper. Anything Rupert touches becomes garbage.
The news side, under different management, is fine. It’s the opinion section that’s flaky.
You are right, for now, but I wonder how long the news people will be allowed to be objective. At some point, Rupert may decide that even routine reporting of financial statistics and transactions may need to be massaged.
I’ll be cancelling if that happens.
Yep not a man in sight. Just one more reminder that diversity is a good thing!
Phil, the testing companies are made up of the GOP faithful.
"Keep them stupid" is a Republican mantra.
Once again I ask: If Donald Trump were a foreign agent tasked with destroying the United States, what would he be doing differently?
Nothing. Putin’s puppy ,
But Putin has also been making massive errors to China’s benefit. It wouldn’t be surprising if future historians write about China’s brilliant manipulative strategy to eliminate two of its rivals without firing a shot.
Putin's obsession with Ukraine has been his downfall, and he's taking the Russian economy with him. (Taking out Wildberries and then Ozon will take out the Russian state bank.)
Exactly. Hillary hit the nail on the head.
Interesting perspective. I thought the same thing while reading today’s Krugman post.
He'd make it less obvious.
Maybe. But this is Trump we're talking about. And he is profoundly stupid.
The subversion of democracy by money in US electoral politics needs to be recognized as a root-cause factor to address. Trump will come and go, as will Rubio, Vance etc., but as long as PACs and SuperPacs decide who gets to stand for election to Congress and senate, and as long as unlimited amounts of money can be spent by PACs - even those dancing to the tune of foreign governments - Americans can count on continuing democratic decline, and historic American Allies - can count on continuing betrayal of the values that once linked their policies and actions in the world.
It helps to take over the media that programs the attitudes of the US electorate.
Per Roger Ailes, the creator of Fox News: "People don't want to ·be· informed, they want to ·feel· informed.
As was said of Reagan, that he changed us from being a nation that wanted to be good into one that simply wanted to feel good. He was the beginning of the end. Trump is the kill shot.
I remember Google's early slogan, "Don't be evil."
Absolutely. How did that work out?🤔😢
Yep, it's corruption all the way down now. The US has the best government that money can buy. Without getting rid of Citizens United , and a breakup of media monopolies, there is no way out of the current decline into oligarchy.
Many thanks!!
When Trump was reelected Xi and Putin must have wept with joy - and as Trump et al aggressively destroyed every aspect of U.S. greatness, they must have marveled at their incredible good fortune.
Then came Trump's War and their rapture was complete...
bibi too finally got his catspaw to go after Iran
My own sense is that one of Mr. Trump's goals all along was to own the United States so he could terrorize and brutalize us to submission. If nobody else wanted to be our friend, then he could own total control over us. This leaves me wondering how the Supreme Court Justices could have gone through the best our educational system has to offer and still be so oblivious to the common assumption about what the United States stood for. How could the Supreme Court have decided that of all Presidents accused of high crimes, Mr. Trump was the one they must manipulate the system to keep from facing a jury?
IMHO, SCOTUS and trump are both tools, built up and put in power by a group of oligarchs working in league with Putin. Long ago, Hillary Clinton was derided for asserting that there was a vast, right wing conspiracy. The course of events in the US have suggested that she was right after all.
I don’t know about the Putin part, but I agree with the rest. Maybe it was Putin, but I think that also gives a pass to American oligarchs and holds them to a standard to which they’ve given no indication was ever of their concern. Putin, Xi, no one else needs to lift a finger. They are just power and money hungry men who are exceedingly arrogant and ultimately weak. They want to control, want to shape, because that is the only way they hold onto their power and money. There have always been men like this and always will be. We just used to do a better job at reining them in enough to keep the damage relatively low.
At least as far back as Reagan.
troops in major cities and ICE being the SS may intimidate many. BTW it will cost almost a billion to keep NG in DC for the next year
Aderemi, it it possible that money might be involved?
Another factor that's being widely discussed is the vulnerability of US Treasuries to massive sell-offs (initially by Jspan, which Bessent is desperately trying to stave off), but also (per rumors) Saudi Arabia (allegedly one reason for Trump's latest TACO on Iran).
At least from. my perspective, US financial hegemony is increasingly a house of cards, with a growing AI bubble, debt exceeding GDP, manufacturing (excluding the questionable data centers) plummeting, lack of sufficient access to rare earth minerals, a growing housing bubble, a crypto bubble, unknown billions spent on the Iran war, massive administration corruption, billions wasted on lawsuits, DOGE settlements, tarifff catastrophes, DC "renovations", etc, etc.
If military deterrence, financial leadership, technological prowess, and educational superiority are all evaporating or edging tiward the abyss...what precusely allows the US to claim superpower status?
Everything said here, and on others' channels make sense. However you all preach to the converted... what would be needed is to reach the rest, all those who don't read these media.. How do you do that?..
“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody. " (James Carville)
The Bank of Japan is now selling its stock of US securities to protect the YEN because if it raised interest rates enough to brake the inflation caused by the Iran war, interest payments would consume the Japanese government's entire operating budget. Europe is in less of a panic, but is also selling US securities. Japan and Europe selling US securities does not cause the interest rate the US has to pay on long-term US debt to rise, but it does weaken the "reserve currency benefit" that kept US bond rates so low for so long. The Trump administration is generating A LOT of NEW debt to sell. We are now seeing government bond rates rise... without regard to the rate set by the Warsh Fed.
"The rest" will feel the gut punch when US governments have to raise taxes while cutting services. Will they accept that THEIR inaction lead to the debt that they now have to pay, and elect wise politicians with reasonable policies... or... will they elect demagogues who tell them this is all someone else's fault (usually someone who cannot defend themselves, so "welfare cheats", "jews" and "immigrants" rather than billionaires), and that "someone else" should be made to pay? That is the question.
The Bessent sold off 5 to 10 billion Euros and bought Yen to try to keep Japan from selling off more U.S. bonds. The EU government is displeased - they were not consulted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-OBpNvXNS8
They will elect demagogues who tell them this is all someone else's fault.
Or follow Bernie Sanders' tracks and go and hit the roads to talk to all the people living back and beyond! ;-) I am not sure if he still does this sort of things nowadays, but I had watched this documentary a few years ago about him and his team and had been really impressed by the man... Of course, much more effort and time needed...That's also something the new leader in Hungary spent 2 years doing during his campaign actually. And this worked for him...
I don't know which fiction you think will make our electorate more sensible or well-informed, or what tools it would give us to change things. The best writers just accurately portray the human condition. As we're herded into the swine car, we can argue about which author best characterized the cruelty and stupidity of our modern age, whether Henry Fielding or Graham Greene or Margaret Atwell or Eric Blair (Orwell) or Chekov or Toni Morrison or Vonnegut or Camus or....
The fact is that competence matters and Trump is the most incompetent president we have ever had. He has no concern for the country and is basically playing President on the TV, rather than being President. The people in his cabinet are not selected for knowledge of their area of responsibility but rather for whether they "look the part" and can show sufficient subservience to Trump and call him brilliant no matter how stupid his ideas are. His insecurity and pathologic narcissism prevents him from ever asking anybody for advice - it would be an admission that he doesn't "know more than the generals". This is the end of the American century. Look at Russia the other used to be superpower, and you can se what is coming (as well as why).
the orange ego is gilding everything that doesn't move because he has seen the in autocrat's abodes and he wants to belong in that club but only has the veneer but no substance. cotton candy vs granite
Ivan: Paul Krugman is lamenting our losses as a country, especially our monetary hegemony. We are on the way to third world status. If the US becomes a genuine democracy instead, with liberty, justice, the rule of law, an economy that supports all, superb education and support for global climate initiatives, I for one could live with it, especially if we export health and help to other nations rather than guns and revolution.
Ugh.
For a global south reader as me, is very funny to read about USAs democratic values. Dude, you f...ck the entire world, from Indonesia to Brazil, and talk about democratic values? Give me a break. There is a problem in USA that pass through reps and Dems, which is the ABSURD believe in the manifest destiny. You are just as corrupt and autoritary as any other nation, perhaps even more.
There is a misunderstood, here. People from global south love the idea that them have about usa, a platonic country which they watch on movies. Not the real one. The real one is that couped Dilma in Brazil under Obama administration. Or the condor plan in the 60's, under Kennedy. It is obvious that trump is worse than any democrat, but believe that there is a democratic value in USA, is insane! Don't have ANY evidence about this on history. Look how Dems defend Israel. Look the history of Indonesia and the Jacarta methods. Taliban, the paramilitaries in Caribbean, and a lot of almost nazis that usa armed along the world. There is no such thing as American Democratic value
As an Afghan ally left behind in complete uncertainty, reading this makes total sense. American leadership keeps making big political mistakes and losing global trust, while thousands of us who risked our lives for US forces are forgotten without any real action.
So many characterize these moves by the US as mistakes.
But that is wrong.
The situation we face now is a consequence of affirmative policy decisions.
These were implemented by administrators of both parties, but especially Republicans, at the urging of the financial services industry, major manufacturers etc.
So these were NOT mistakes but the direct consequences of American economic policy
Funding and supporting in a livestreamed genocide is not good for one's reputation.
US imperialism is off the chain. The mask of being the good actor is off. Kidnapping Venezuela's president, killing 168 schoolkids and killing the leader of Iran, choking Cuba so obviously, it's clear the US is not the good side in any conflict as used to be at least the cover story.
You are correct, Sage.
Yes, but the US has been doing such imperialist things for over a century. Remember that the US destroyed Iran’s democracy by ejecting Mossy in 1953, then destroyed Guatemala’s democracy by ejecting Arbenz in 1954,. I am glad that the people of the imperial core are waking up. This brings me great hope. Keep it up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB4xpqNSYpk&list=RDCB4xpqNSYpk&start_radio=1
Pretty ignorant and/or ideological, aren't you?
All of those actions you decry can be found associated with the USA (not to mention bourgeois thought).
Those are US imperial propaganda takes.
Not necessarily . . . .
Remember: open mind (just not so open your brain falls out).
Comrade? Oh, come on. That is not helpful.
Now define "his" . . . .
"Let’s be clear: The end of U.S. leadership and China’s growing geopolitical ascendancy are bad things. China is a corrupt autocracy, with little respect for human rights and none at all for democratic values."
Time to take off those "stars and stripes" blinders, Mr. Krugman. America is no angel in the corruption and "little respect for human rights and none at all for democratic values" department. The corruption has shone bright for decades with the PACs and Zionist meddling in your politics. And if there were respect for human rights and democratic values in the USA Donald Trump would never have been elected again in 2024. At least China doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
Square peg in round hole to pop in some Jewish hatred
Does a critique of Zionism have to always imply Jewish hatred? That is an effective way of shutting off any debate.
Yes it does
Because it’s not a legitimate criticism
It’s obfuscation masquerading as criticism.
Claiming that Zionism has ruined the US is ridiculous as a statement about US policy.
But the larger statement and the motivation of even uttering it in the context of China and US economic discussions is nothing less the Jewish hatred.
And please spare me the “Anti Zionism is not Antisemitism” retort.
Those issuing that do not get to define what is or is not Antisemitism.
Would you allow someone using the “N”word to tell a black man,” well that’s not racist”
Hannah Arendt and Martin Buber provided critiques of “statist Zionism.” Would you label them “antisemitic?” They both pushed for a binational solution to the indigenous Arabs living in Palestine, and referred to it as the great moral issue for Zionism. And would you label them antisemitic? No, a critique of Zionism is not antisemitic in most cases.
Arendt said that Zionism was the first time the Jewish people had a “political response to the problem of antisemitism.”
This is all so high brow with everyone’s canned answers to this problem.
But I would like to know if it’s not antisemitism then explain the upwards of over 300% uptick in anti Jewish attacks worldwide wide.
People who have no connection to Israel other than religion.
It’s nice To have nuanced intellectual arguments but to average people who don’t spend time in college level courses l.
However attacking Jewish people because of what they hear is a result of these types of rhetorical arguments in the press.
But for these kinds of statements these attacks would not be happening.
To illustrate how things get hijacked just look at my original comment and how someone ran away with it in a manner That had absolutely nothing to do with the professors discussion on China and US relations.
My comment was why would someone feel compelled to insert that when the topic at hand was about the US and China.
To stretch so far as to insert a non relevant comment like that is just reflective of Jewish hatred.
Full stop
"Those issuing that do not get to define what is or is not Antisemitism."
And only right-wing Jews do, right . . . ?
I'm curious. Do you have a history with Mr. Heit? You seem to have drawn some conclusions about his motives and background and switched away from debate and into ad-hominem gear pretty quickly here.
David
I am a Bernie Sanders supporter btw
(_Mr._ Heit, is it? You evoke the same question in me . . . .)
This:
"And please spare me the 'Anti Zionism is not Antisemitism' retort.
Those issuing that do not get to define what is or is not Antisemitism."
tells me all I need to know to characterize them as right-wing slime.
And I can't say either one of us was debating anything at the point where Heit unilaterally called foul on any mention of Zionism (from the PoV of a Zionist) and started in on the ad hominem stuff first.
Just FYI, while debate can certainly happen in a space like this, it's hardly mandated.
"Would you allow someone using the 'N'word to tell a black man,' well that’s not racist"
If it's another black man, I'd be inclined to say yes, you right-wing slimeball.
So allowing other black people a free pass to use that word is ok?
Thats total bullshit
When I was growing up in the projects in Brooklyn older black folks would slap their kids upside there heads when young kids would say that.
Then yell at them and tell them it took years of struggle to have that word be recognized for vile bullshit it is.
And that they’re using it is a slap in the face of those who fought and died.
And your acceptance of its use is rather telling.
Also you thinking I am a rightwing slime ball because I think it’s vile to use that word
Is puzzling.
"When I was growing up in the projects in Brooklyn older black folks would slap their kids upside there heads when young kids would say that.
Then yell at them and tell them it took years of struggle to have that word be recognized for vile bullshit it is."
Totally leaving aside the fact that Black people in the US are as politically divided and ideologically driven as the vast majority of its citizens, I'd argue that using this as an excuse for striking children is as much about striving for (Black) "middle-class-ness" as it about whatever argument you're trying to make.
After the American Civil War, the Black middle-class decried the behaviour of those Black people "beneath them" in a politics of (white) middle-class respectability: don't use bad language, don't act like an ex-slave, don't "demean yourself" (whatever that means).
Fulminating against youth who used "niggah" as a badge of honour rather than shame says as much about a need for silence on the part of certain people than on those they attack.
NB: What youth nowadays call each other "Nazi"?
It’s darkly hilarious that Krugman expects foreigners to accept his assertions about how “bad” China is when China hasn’t started a war since the 1970s while the US has killed more foreign nationals than all other countries in the world combined over the past 80 years … 🙄
Trump is the Manchurian candidate. We thought he was primarily Putin’s boy. Many have observed that his actions toward Ukraine could not have been more destructive if he had been a paid Russian agent or questioned what salacious details Putin concealed to keep the Donald in line, but we now see that Trump’s destruction of our soft power - of our hegemony in an interconnected world - drives countries we once knew shared our common values into the arms of Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.
I’m with you on this Joanna. Trump/ Vance and a lot of the edifice of the Administration, all pursuing their own fetishes, are absolutely Manchurian candidates working on behalf of other ends. Regards from Scotland, Anthony
Thank you, Anthony!
Of course he did! I should have realized! Great article all the way back in 2016. Did greasy Paul Manafort ever get to China? Where is he today?
Thanks for catching this reference.
Good follow up on Manafort from Politico. Up to his old tricks.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/10/28/inside-paul-manaforts-comeback-00620266
Also read Anne Applebaum in 2014 in The Atlantic:
THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAR
Autocrats in China, Russia, and elsewhere are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world.
By Anne Applebaum
Gift link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/06/china-russia-republican-party-relations/678271/?gift=6oi67bxOorKlwXywPmU9mVo90dbJkHh7fh4bg41wfPA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Yes!
Prof. Krugman spends the whole article explaining why China appears more competent, reliable, and serious than the United States—then reassures himself that China’s rise is still “bad” because it lacks Western democracy.
The evidence is accepted. The conclusion is ideologically forbidden.
This is the ritual confession Western liberals now perform whenever reality forces them to acknowledge China’s success.
China can build the infrastructure, maintain the industrial base, absorb sanctions, support trade, preserve policy continuity, and gain the trust of developing countries. But somehow, none of this is allowed to raise any questions about the quality of its political system. Its successes must always be treated as accidental, immoral, or historically illegitimate.
Prof. Krugman’s real discomfort is obvious. China is not merely rising despite its system. It is rising through capacities produced by that system: long-term planning, bureaucratic coordination, control over strategic finance, industrial policy, infrastructure investment, and the subordination of short-term private interests to national development.
China is playing the long game and ours is the next quarter
Ours is the last quarter
Yes, China is evil and immoral and must be defeated. We need a President who can execute that better than Trump.
They are backing an evil, immoral regime in Tehran. Fuck China.
“Yes, but at what cost?”
DNC bot (?)
Thomas, blindly obeying our oligarch owned media who have told us to hate Russia, Iran, China, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and just about everyone else has led us to ruin.
You are conflating two different systems in your zeal to criticize of Prof krugman.
All the things you mentioned are industrial policy.
That is fine (however I would add that China would not have had incredible growth without so much American expertise.
This is especially true early on under Dong’s initiative.
However there is a lot of room to be critical of China because of its political system with is an authoritarian dictatorship.
The gains of China’s rise have not benefited the country as Dung wanted.
The workers can not strike and any opposition is crushed.
Those are legitimate criticisms and not addressed in your comments
Not to say America has a robust labor movement any longer though.
“Yes, but at what cost?”
To call the US political system a democracy is rich as it has degenerated into a plutocracy - i.e. the rule of money.
Why is this so difficult to understand?
There is no contradiction. It is entirely logically consistent to understand that China's approach to international affairs and national development have been very effective and still believe that totalitarianism is a dangerous thing. Getting stuff done is important. Killing millions of one's own people is also important.
In a way I think it is fine that the end of the American Empire has arrived. But your last sentences give me pause. Because if the world's new hegemon is a country that is a corrupt autocracy with no respect for human rights or democratic values, there is bound to be a lot of suffering coming for the whole world. . . . This was not a pleasant read for first thing on Monday morning. But sometimes the truth hurts.
Nothing anti-American in my comment. I miss the days when (even if imperfectly) my country stood for values such as those enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Golden Rule. Sadly, of late our only "value" seems to be amassing wealth for the oligarchs no matter how much suffering and injustice it unleashes on the vast majority of the human race. That is nothing to be proud of in my opinion.
John Brown
"Mississippi Burning"
(Or is there some magic number that gives instant vindication for a defined geographical and chronological area ie the USA?)
I get your point. I think there has been progress on many issues since the 1950's in ordinary people's every day lives. And yet, our government is rolling that backwards as fast as they can. And because of the unlimited role that big money plays in electoral politics, I don't think the will of the ordinary people who may be making progress in their thinking about the rights and humanity of many different minority groups (as well as the half the population that are females) is being expressed in the laws of the land or in general culture. I have not given up on working for change. I have been attending protests and voting regularly, and working for various political candidates my whole life (I'm now retired so you can guess my age). But so far, the present state of our government and its policies doesn't make it easy to hold onto hope.
Finally! Someone who apparently has an idea of what they're talking about!
Define "anti-American", please. This adjective is (and has been) getting tossed around so much in the mainstream, for so many disparate things, I really want someone in the know to nail down this term for me.
So let's hear it.