I'm a Canadian so I probably shouldn't be sticking my nose in here but I note that Nazi Germany fought on tenaciously for 335 days after D-Day (the real one with real heroes).
Let's take a moment to remember the Canadian contribution to the European campaign of 1944-45. The Canadian combat record in both world wars was outstanding. And they lost quite a few soldiers in Afghanistan as well.
Donny Destructo is causing economic pandemonium everywhere. We have become the rogue state and people thought it could never happen here. Throughout history, blockades, embargos and trade wars have turned into shooting ones.
Iran "D-Day" will affect China but punishing other countries besides Iran is how wars start. What we're witnessing today is eerily like the 1930's runup to WWII.
I can't credibly disagree with you that it's an eerie and uncertain time. And it's also a time when We the People--the majority of us--have our eyes and ears turned toward these events. Will that be enough to stop the warmongers? Hope so.
Sad, but true. We are, however one of only a small number of countries with ICBMs capable of delivering a warhead across an ocean. If Mexico or Canada get really, really sick of our sh** though, we might be 'personally' at risk for mass casualties. Then there are dirty bombs, which could be sneaked in to the country, though. Ditto bio weapons. As we have now learned, our ability to screen for biological pathogens in food is distinctly impaired. Fingers crossed the Incompentent Inner Circle in DC won't let us down at the level of mass tragedy. I'd love it if my three grandkids lived to inherit a world in which peace and justice are not just words, but reality.
Exactly, and the Ukraine war is getting nastier by the day. Putin is now threatening Britain for providing drones and missile technology to Ukraine. It's how things metastasize into scenarios we don't want to contemplate.
China is rapidly creating the impression among the world's nations that it is the stable one and the US the chaotic one. It's not all about Trump. What about all the American citizens who democratically voted for Trump? That tells you something about the state of American democracy.
It remains to be seen how much impact the piss-on-the-Constitution Conservative SCOTUS decision will actually have this Fall, as early voting in many states will begin in about two months, within the ninety day buffer period pretty much every state requires before making actual changes to voting procedures.
People don't grasp how many different parties in the Mideast and Europe are now shooting at each other. Any missteps that bring Turkey, for instance, into the fray would be very bad. Also, stand by for millions of Cuban refugees to flood Florida and further chaos in the Caribbean.
Note that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan recently signed a mutual defense treaty that includes a clause similar to Article 5 of the NATO agreement. The Middle East is being reconfigured dramatically as the leadership vacuum created by the departure of the U.S. gets filled.
Yep. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have money but no nukes. Pakistan has nukes but no money The quickest "mutual defense" arrangement is lots of money heads east, and nukes head west.
Please respond if I am way out of line, but I have a theory that Trump is being used by persons who actually have plans......as you so well put, for "PANDEMONIUM EVERYWHERE".
It is happening! Canada, a friend, should never have to deal with the increasing corruption within the United States of America!!!!
Canadians are doing well without us....especially at this time, when we as citizens need to EXPELL most of the pathetic, self-serving leadership in Washington, DC and unfortunately within many states!!!
We need to respect other countries and work with their leadership if we have concerns. We are harming our global family when we start wars. This is NO GOOD for anyone!!!!
You're not out of line. Trump is a complete sociopath and so was his wealthy, autocratic father Fred. Like father, like son.
I think we're living in a corrupt Plutocracy, rule by the super rich. Trump is just The Don of a mob-style syndicate and all must pay tribute. Coincidentally, much like Putin's Kleptocracy and iron grip on Russia.
Women need more than just a war in Iran intended to cover what Trump is pilfering from the US arsenal. Total annihilation of the present human civilization is necessary for human women to have any chance at all of attaining political equality with men. Women need to start a completely new human civilization as many times as needed until women have political equality.
That's the joke about ayatollahs having nukes. Why would they ever destroy a man's world?
Inspirational heroes who, I believe, were never promoted above the rank Private or receiving any recognition for their special contribution until decades later.
The Second Volume of the Books of Remembrance lists thousands of Canadians who sacrificed all for King and Country in the Second World War. Once again Mr Trump is stealing the valor of others for one of his bone headed political stunts.
Funny you mention the Scots. I'm of Irish extraction myself, but live in Nova Scotia where the Scots are thick on the ground. And thanks for your service in the US military. Some of the wisest and sharpest commentators on the Trump regime are former US military leaders.
My relatives are near Lake George in Harvey, New Brunswick. I have applied for descendancy citizenship, I hope they don't withdraw the opportunity but I wouldn't blame Canada if it was cancelled.
I've considered doing the same, but my Canadian ancestry is Acadian. My 5*Great grandfather Bazile Lanneau/Lanoue was 12 when he was expelled in Le Grand Dérangement in 1755, and that is a LONG way back to prove descent to the liking of immigration law.
Likewise on both; also thanks to the country that saved my Loyalist ancestors by giving them haven from the USian rabble, lynch mobs included. And the greatest thanks of all to the parliament at Ottawa for expanding the criteria for Canadian citizenship top include those of us with Canadian grandparents. Now -- terminally ill at Age 86 -- all I have to do is survive long enough to raise the five-figure sum the greedy, morally imbecilic USian lawyers charge to find my father's birth certificate (Lowell, Mass., 1910) and those of his parents, Amos Reed Bliss (New Brunswick, 1862) and Wilena Marion Dewar (Nova Scotia, 1888).
I am sitting here scratching my bald head. I am a 77 year old very proud Nova Scotian, Canadian. To think that in my brief lifetime I have seen things go from, let's get the hell out of here and move to the States. Now I am reading about people paying lawyers 5 figure somes of money to get into Nova Scotia.
On D-Day, Canadian troops stormed Juno Beach. Overall, Canadian soldiers were very highly regarded. Politically, PM Mackenzie King was a trusted confidante of Franklin Roosevelt.
Doug, I believe our governments will be allies again, but Carney did the smart thing He made the best deal of all with the U.S. I call it the "FU Deal". All countries need to make that same deal because the only way to rid ourselves of Trump and his toadies out is to humiliate them out.
In a democracy the fascists only have to win once - the forces of democracy have to win every election. That is almost true; because once the fascists get power they are very hard to get rid off. I blame those idiot voters who allowed themselves to be distracted from the evil of Project 2025 with "look over there, brown rapists are claiming the border fence". It's not like you couldn't all see it coming, just that some people willfully got distracted by the classic right wing panic BS.
How anyone could have been fooled the second time is beyond me. "I believed him when he said no more wars. I believed him when he said he would lower prices". Why would you believe a serial liar? It's not like it was the first time he ran. He had a record. Washington Post documented over 30K lies told his first term. How did millions of Americans forget his entire first term 4 whole years? I don't believe for a second they were conned. They just didn't want a black woman president. That's it. It was racism that guided their votes for Trump. Nothing else.
The majority of the USian population is truly our species' first deliberately conditioned Moronic Majority, which H.L. Mencken recognized as early as 1920. Why the national fostering of ignorance? How else to fulfill the preservation of de facto slavery, the one true purpose of the War for Independence? Above all else, we need to acknowledge and understand that Trump is quite literally the terminal fulfillment of the never-abandoned scheme originated by the Southron slavers and their New England financiers to perpetuate slavery in the face of a 1772 British court ruling that Blacks are fully human and are thus protected by English common law.
I hope it's not the majority. Unfortunately, it was 'enough' to get that fat orange traitor into the Oval Office. Fingers crossed for the midterms and 2028.
It’s not a majority but I’ve read that what really made it happen were those who wouldn’t vote for trump but either sat out the election or voted third-party, with a vote that would never count, in protest of U.S. support for Israel ( although they acted like it was Biden’s fault, even dubbing him “ Genocide Joe”) or wouldn’t vote for a woman or person of color. Notwithstanding the fact that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian people is horrendous and the U.S. should withdraw support, we would have had a better chance of achieving that under anyone but trump. So those who helped trump by not voting: do you think your protest has made the Palestinian situation so much better? Is our situation and the world’s better? This time - if we even get the chance to vote - put aside your purity and vote to get rid of Republicans and in 2028 get rid of trump with everything you’ve got!
Based on the last two years, it appears the USian population is unable to transcend the paralytic combination of the nation's definitive ChristoNazi hatefulness and its neoliberalism-mandated submissiveness enough to organize [effective] resistance. Pew data shows us ChristoNazism is now the ruling ethos of the violently misogynistic and racist Aryan/white male majority. Other more long-term sociological and historical data suggests the apparent indifference of so many non-ChristoNazis is probably a camouflage for cowardice, the logical reaction of a disarmed, untrained, thoroughly subjugated population ever more necessarily obsessed with basaic survival. Don't forget the ChristoNazis control the entire federal government, with effectively eternal dominance of the Supreme Court; and own 31 of the 50 states. And there’s no remaining doubt the ChristoNazis’ response to unpopularity is [nevert] concession. Instead it’s carnage: destruction, deportation, denunciation, detention, death. That’s why I argue that, like Hitler’s Third Reich, der Trumpenführer’s “Unified Reich” – ruled as it is by Ted-Bundy murderousness and Trumpstein sadism -- can only be liberated by democracy-supportive invasion. I don’t doubt I’ll be long dead when that happens – if indeed it ever does – but as a Regular Army veteran, I offer nine quick, hopefully encouraging glimpses of just whom our Liberators might be:
We generally agree, but fascists don’t win -they whine. And once they get enough others whining along with them, they bully and blabber and exhaust the rest of us. They are Nincompoops; without agency and should be reminded consistently. As we all are doing (and did) and will always do. Stay energized.
Thanks. That's good to hear. I confess I've been sticking my nose in a lot since Trump got re-elected. His greatest contribution is to show people who believe in democracy what we've been taking for granted. Here's one of my rambling/shambling posts if you're interested. But don't feel you have to read it or expect to learn anything you don't already know. Cheers. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/big-orange-taxi-10
... but we will prevail and kick the criminal fascists the hell out of our country and hope the rest of the world including our Canadian freinds can forgive and allow us back among civilized nations!
We’re not trying that hard, though. In a healthy democracy, people would be protesting in the streets. Tens of millions of people protesting regularly would prompt politicians to act. We’ve seen plenty of examples around the world. Instead we just sit around, hoping the November elections go our way, then patiently waiting for 2028 elections.
Please stick your nose in here. There are millions of us who welcome you sticking your nose into what's happening here. Trump has tried to destroy us, and we are floundering in our resistance. It turns out that our Constitution has multiple loopholes in it--the main one being that nothing in it accounts for the possibility of a powerful man with an evil character winning the presidency.
Nor did the founding fathers think it was possible that all Republicans in Congress would violate their oath of office and refuse to support our Constitution and that a merda-on-a-stick chief justice would frog-march a corrupt Supreme Court to the bottom of history's septic tank.
It's not Trump alone. It's the entire republican party that is with him. The republicans running congress and the republicans on the SC. They are the ones allowing all of this to happen. Trump couldn't have done it all my himself. We have to realize the republican party has become a fascist anti-democratic movement. They no longer believe in democracy. They believe they have the right to rule. Regardless of how the voters vote.
True. Separation of powers requires that the three branches jealously guard their power from one another. Instead faction short circuits that balance (as George Washington warned us in his farewell speech), such that a bare majority of royalists, feudalists, fascists, and nationalists in the Legislative branch and the Supreme Court have thrown their lots in behind the excretable god-king of the fascist internet trolls.
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"Infidelity" is a good word to use. Perfect, in fact.
Trump has broken America's word to most of the rest of the world in the form of casually broken Agreements. Starting with threatening Denmark and the EU to seize Greenland with America's military, scabrously ignoring our NATO pact, confirmed by Congress and thereby according to the Constitution, the law of the land.
Trump is now allied to Russia, constructively speaking, as well as North Korea, He is chafing at the bit to renew his bromance with Kim. We've become part of the axis of evil. Obviously. Trump's spy chief John Ratcliffe is in Moscow at the moment, most likely colluding.
We all knew what kind of Cruel human being the Narcissist in Chief was during his First years in Washington DC, now it's even more Cruel, and Destructive.
Our fellow friends and neighbors are suffering, and Thousands of people are rotting in horrific conditions in the Concentration Camps, along with struggling to feed their families.
Sure would be helpful if the opposition party did more to point that out to people. They’ve given folks very little to vote for. Unless Democrats absolutely crush in November, people will see the next two years as more squabbling between parties that don’t represent their interests.
The parliamentary system is organic; it is the result of the experience of forcing kings to share their power and preventing a political leader from gaining too much power, as in 'you're gone'.
The American Constitution is an ideal, a construction. There was no way that the founders could have anticipated the future technologies, the huge wealth it would produce and the psychopaths who would control it and use it to overthrow the government and constitution while creating living hell for its citizens and the entire planet.
Hi, I agree. I should say that I didn't set out to promote my own modest Substack but since you brought it up (That's Canadian for you have only yourself to blame!) here's a link to one of my posts on the subject of differences between the US and parliamentary democracy. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/trumped-part-2a
Your post showed what is missing from the U.S. system. The videos showing the nose to nose confrontation that we never get made me envious. The staged debates we have prior to elections are a pale shadow of what is needed. Even worse, most of the legacy press hasn’t the courage or quickness of mind to engage in substantive questioning, and the ones that do just get called names. I’m positive that regularly holding the executive’s feet to the fire would put a quick end to the corrupt and incompetent administration which we are being subjected to.
I have felt the need to run from this mess, thanks for the clue about what systemic change there is to run towards.
Thank you for sharing your post, which I have skimmed, but will read in detail later. You have given much thought to this. I take it that you are Canadian. So am I.
Re my nose sticking: As I said above, I confess I've been sticking my nose in a lot since Trump got re-elected. His greatest contribution is to show people who believe in democracy what we've been taking for granted. Here's one of my rambling/shambling posts if you're interested. But don't feel you have to read it or expect to learn anything you don't already know. Cheers. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/big-orange-taxi-10
RGB was so sure Hillary would win. She stayed on the court. Because she wanted the first woman president to be the one to replace her. RGB really screwed us all with that.
Gore won FL and the electoral college. A recount after the fact showed that. It was the 5 right-wingers on the SC that stopped the FL recount. Saying that if the recount was to be allowed to be finished. That George W. Bush would be harmed. That was the ruling in Bush vs Gore. Handing the election to Bush. They know their ruling was so partisan. They ruled it could never be used as precedent. Sandra Day O'Connor wanted to retire. She didn't want Gore picking her replacement. That was when the real coup happened. The year 2000 when the SC interfered to stop the American people from their rightful president. It's all been downhill since then. We would not be where we are today. If it wasn't for those 5 in 2000. Trump would not be president. We would not have a 6 to 3 super conservative majority on the SC. That when the coup happened. It just took 26 years for Americans to realize it.
In order to win the electoral college votes, that scotus had to make a decision as to what to do. So, in a sense, I agree with you. However:
There was a lot of stunts the gop pulled. I can find them later if needed and post or summarize it here.
At this point, I’ve just hashed over some of what happened again. (Including a phonecall with a workfriend in FL telling me blow by blow what the hell was happening.)
But to me, it was the hanging chads insanity, gop adding to it, and ultimately
that scotus voting 5-4 in favor of what helped get us here. We’ll never know because those slightly under 600 chads were never resolved and continued to be disputed.
(I have no doubt Clinton/Gore won the popular vote and don’t know they lost the electoral vote even though that was the outcome from scotus.)
Those damn liberal purists that just live to help elect republicans. Because they aren't going to vote for imperfect democrats. The democrat must be perfect or let the republican win. That's how they think. Yet they will never take responsibility for what they do. They always blame the democrats.. "Should have given me someone I could vote for." No, YOU NEEDED TO BE AN ADULT AND THINK ABOUT THE COUNTRY. Not your own selfish desires you liberal purists POS.
Still too many Americans think "It can't happen here". That our system is fool proof. That a fascist takeover would be impossible. It's happening right before their eyes and they still refuse to see. This is the curse of American Exceptionalism. That Americans are somehow better and different than all other humans. That we could never fall to a dictatorship. The Germans thought they were exceptional too. We see how that worked out.
This Ann Telnaes cartoon ranks as perhaps her very best ever. If you haven't seen it click on the link and laugh along. The Canadian Beaver with the maple leaf flag flipping off an increasingly obese DonOld Lardo is priceless! Bravo Ann, bravo.
The "heroes" in the drumpf regime will not fight tenaciously once he's powerless. They'll slink away from him and continue their evil and cretinous plans to destroy democracy from whatever sewer they take refuge in.
I'm glad you're here. More people, more perspectives possibly but definitely more support. Diversity is great.
I knew the basics of nazi Germany history. I didn't know it took 335 days after D-Day for the soldiers to stop fighting. I know they were on methampethamines and other drugs to keep the military fighting to their deaths. It's what great leaders do, kill their countrymen for personal gain.
Referring to this and others of Dr.Krugman and commenters:
The US military offensive against Iran has failed but has cost possibly as much as a Trillion dollars of US citizens money (MAGAs listen up -whoops, none here), if you count actual costs, plus the replament costs of munitions, the medical aid needed for life for some soldiers, PLUS the graft and grift that Trump Co. and his oligarchs took in the deal. If this Economic D-Day was going to be so effective, why didn't Trump, the Genius, and Hedspeth, Testosterone-Man, and Bessent, Hedge-Fund-Man, think of that in the first place?
I was doing physical therapy and met the owners. In conversation I learned her grandfather, who was in the CRAF, and survived the bombing missions over Berlin. I encouraged her to get his memorabilia on the internet. There are so many great stories dying with those men and women who were the sharp end of the spear.
Absolutely. My point was that D-Days - including Secty Bessent's - don't deliver quick results. Implicit in mine and explicit in your comment is that a lot more sacrifices are exacted along the way. Thanks.
Thank you for your respectful comments regarding our neighbor, Canada. I have great respect for our Canadian neighbors and for the leadership if its country. We have always supported one another as far as I know.
Trump's disrespect towards Canada's leadership is disgusting. It is not the way to treat a neighbor, much less such a humble, as well as outstanding leader of great character. Canada is great in and of itself and surely does NOT need to bow to Trump.
If I were a citizen of Canada, Trump and his minions would be creatures to stay away from, in my opinion!!!!
Thanks for the comment. It cheers not just me but the many Canadians who like and admire the best in the people of the United States. I always remind my friends that as much as Trump is harming Canada he's harming you folks more. As your Ben Franklin said, "we hang together or we hang separately."
Iran’s resilience isn’t a Western bedtime story — it’s bone‑deep. A population hardened by sanctions, war, and scarcity doesn’t fold because outsiders fantasize about collapse. The regime’s grip is reinforced by millions who still show up, as seen in the massive turnout at Ali Khamenei’s funeral. Calling that a sign of imminent downfall is wishful thinking. Forty million bodies in the streets don’t signal a state on the verge of crumbling; they signal a nation that endures
Obvious AI slop. Iran is standing strong. The whole narrative from January that the "regime" (note the word, instead of "government") killed some variable number of people (10,000 up to 55,000) just for protesting in the streets was a lie of the US empire as much as the WMD were a lie to invade Iraq in 2003. Beware the lies of empire.
This might well be a cautionary tale, especially when it comes to Trump's ignorant self interest. But the US has long attempted to establish de facto hegemony over Iran, as when the democratically elected Mr. Mossaghdeh in Iran was deposed via a CIA supported coup and replaced with the US puppet Shah Pahlavi. But the Iranian people, whether we agree with them or not, eventually gave him the boot. More, I would guess, from a marked preference for their own integrity than anything else. There is an educated sector that's rebelling against what the mullahs have become--essentially medievalists in moral posturing--but in time progressive values will have a say, whatever the US does or doesn't do. Except that current US actions are shoring up the medievalist's position that the US is in actual fact a "Great Satan." Our apparent ignorance of history is doing us no favors.
Don't peddle lies because they're inconvenient to your narrative, multiple independent outlets confirmed the mass murders of protestors. It's also well established that Iran oppresses women and religious minorities. I have great sympathy for the people in Iran, but absolutely none for it's government. That doesn't make the war a good idea, but defending theoretic despotism makes you no better than MAGA.
You are missing his point, with which I agree. You are a human being so communicate as a human being not just using AI generated text. Your comment is very obviously AI generated and adds no value. We are interested in what you as a human being think, not some bullshit AI crap.
It has already happened. I read somewhere - perhaps the article was even AI generated - that 30% of YouTube content was now AI generated. My wife and I spent a few years extracting and placing Ukrainian refugees and took a mother and her daughter onto our farm where they lived with us for 14 months. The daughter went to the local school and took five Highers one of which was English. She got 5 As and is in her third year at Glasgow University. She told me she had won her A in English with the help of AI. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. That was 3 or 4 years ago and things have moved on a fair bit in the AI world. It worries me as I believe it sucks the humanity from us but then I am just a 63 year old dilettante grumpy farmer, albeit it one with three degrees including a PhD in agricultural chemistry. It will stupefy all of us .
Whether it's AI generated or not, the point is salient. If Trump and Israel wanted regime change they wouldn't have attacked Iran. I remember watching Ken Burns Civil War and one of the Union soldiers asked a Confederate why they were fighting since most of them weren't slave owners, the answer was...because you're here.
As much as I hate the Trump regime, I'd fight against an invader. (A real invader, not his usual made up ones.)
The only exception I can think of is Cambodia with Pol Pot who killed a quarter of all Cambodians. Vietnam invaded and stopped it. Otherwise, invading for regime change is a fools errand.
Some people cannot swallow the strategic defeat of the empire I understand but facts speak from themselves however the crappy ai generated images by trump are acceptable to some what a shame
Bessent gave up the game when he answered the obvious "why talk about it, why not just do it?" question. He said doing it would blow up the world economy. So, as usual, they can threaten and bluster, but no way can they actually pull the trigger. It's like holding a gun to your own head and saying "do what I say, or I'll shoot the hostage"
You’re so right. I mean, didn’t the US try this at least once before? In, as I recall, Vietnam? And—oh yes—Iraq and Afghanistan? Iraq? W Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld learned nothing from Johnson’s catastrophe, and they were reasonably smart people, though lacking any fundamental moral sense. You can’t call today’s White House
... and have you noticed, but his voice quavers. He does not sound like a confident fellow at all (which does suggest there may be a modicum of self awareness and even intelligence lurking there somewhere).
“Trump on declaring national security emergency for elections: ‘Stranger things have happened’
President Trump on Tuesday left the door open to declaring a national security emergency and federalizing control over the November midterms.”
From The Guardian, January 23, 2026
“Because of Donald Trump’s desire and need for complete domination, he cannot tolerate and will not allow a Republican defeat at the polls.
As Robert Kagan put it: “There’s no chance in the world that Donald Trump is going to allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that would be the end of his ability to wield total power. Unless they got up on the rooftop and said: ‘We are going to subvert the 2026 election,’ they could not be more obvious about what their intention is.”
At the end of the day, the president may be attracted to the idea of rigging the 2026 election not just out of a fear that he will not be able to work his will but because, as scholars suggest, electoral manipulation is a signal to critical audiences (including “bureaucracy, potential defectors within the elite, or powerful stakeholders within civil society”) of his “strength“ and “invincibility”.”
From Peaceful Solution:
If His Royal Heinous meddles in the midterm in the major way that now seems possible, will that be enough for the oligarchs to turn on him? Enough that the general public awakens? Enough that the Republican politicians find some courage? Enough that he is impeached, convicted, and removed from office?
Or is all this just more distraction, to dominate the headlines. Another shiny object for the opposition to chase, rather than organizing and acting to stop and reverse the fascist takeover.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
" But the Trump administration has already imposed tariffs and other sanctions on so many countries, for so many alleged purposes, and backtracked so many times, that its credibility is exhausted."
Oh, that sweet smell of karma in the morning!
I hope the whole Trump team is losing sleep and turning on each other in another circular firing squad as they grapple with the reality that they just SUCK at governing.
I will say that most Europeans and Canadians seem to understand that at least half of us are not raving lunatics and deeply regret the actions of our fellow (fascist) Americans.
The courts just OKed his plan to restrict mail in ballots by allowing the post office to check against a citizenship list (the problem is that how accurate and up to date is this list?)
No they only said that the 2 cases can continue now that the Post Office stated they will do as his EO stated. So, now these two cases have standing to move forward. Of course what they do after the ruling on these two cases is another matter. See Joyce Vance’s conversation last night on Substack.
All I'd add to your fine summary is: are you sure Bessent isn't stupid? Hitching your wagon to a malignant narcissist and convicted felon, found guilty of "near-rape" (!), as well as being a possible paedophile seems a little stupid to me. That he'll also end up as a pariah at the end of all this doesn't show much foresight or intelligence. IMHO.
The China angle. In Canada, and the ROW, China is now more trusted as an ally than the US. In Canada, we're cheering on China. It so happens that we also disagree with the US attacks on Iran, not to mention the US attacks (so far economic) on our own country, so the more the US loses, the happier Canada and the ROW are. How the mighty have fallen.
If you rate Xi and Trump as to the competency their autocracy, Xi comes out much higher. China has negotiated treaties China has respected, managed its oil reserves during the current crisis, and become the world standard for EVs. However, neither leader is trusted: World leaders count their fingers after shaking hands with either Xi or Trump.
Another geographic reason why Iran can receive goods is obvious from a map. To the north is the Caspian Sea, into which the Volga drains. To the north are many places with names ending in "-stan" which are likely more than happy to sell goods to Iran.
I made this point in an article I wrote years ago. They have the whole hinterland of Asia from which to draw supplies. There isn't a thing we can do about it, even with an "economic D-Day."
But what about her emails!!!!! This clown car does not have the intelligence to plan beyond the first attack. They are so smart they cannot see beyond what they hope will be the result.
The plan was that with the military destroyed, leaders killed, the Iranian people would rise up and Iran would collapse in days. After which the orange ego would proclaim victory, be regaled as the modern-day Churchill, polls way up as a result and thus victory in the midterms cementing his vision as the greatest president. All of this foretold by Ms. Harp.
The admin is filled with people who learned everything they know about history from John Wayne and Rambo movies. The US is in extremely serious trouble. The country is run by a combination of rich idiots, who know that no matter what happens, they'll stay rich, and fools who literally dont understand what "the worst thing that can happen" looks like.
It’s nothing short of amazing how quickly America has descended from a global behemoth to a rapidly dying society - in just a few short years and in virtually every sphere. The Chinese overall analysis is tragically accurate - just allow America to sink from its own global failures and nothing more needs to be done. It’s not that Chinese political society is either admirable or something to be emulated - it’s just that, for the foreseeable future, there no reasonable alternative. And to think that it is entirely accurate to attribute so much to a single person - amazing (and sad and tragic).
You should not attribute this to the actions of one man in the White House. Americans put him there and a supine Senate enabled Trump to appoint his corrupt cronies. Trump is just the scab which when peeled back reveals the rotting stinking corpse of America. It was already rotting, Trump is just the final act in the demise of America.
Many people around the World have difficulty raising much sympathy or empathy when you consider that America is a country born out of the genocide of the First Nations Peoples and built on the backs of black slaves. Since the end of WW2, America has never not been at war with someone at an accumulated cost in today's money of $8 trillion. Of course Trump himself has added $10 trillion including his first term. So there you have it; more than half the current $40 trillion deficit is due to the belligerence of Americans and the incompetence of one man.
What goes around comes around as my old grandma used to say; or Karma is such a bitch in modern parlance.
Vote BLUE and get every sane US citizen you know to resister/verify registration and vote! A big Democratic turnout in November will make it harder for the planned obstruction attempts.
as far as I can remember this is the first time that an escalation goes the other way round. First we try with a full blown war and the presidente of the United States threatens to reduce the enemy to stone age. It doesn’t work. So what? When the game is hard hard people begin to play. No more president, no more war. From now on speaks the treasury secretary and we menace economic sanctions. If it doesn’t work we may resort to even more terrible weapons. A speech in the UN, or God forbid! A letter to the New York Times.
For America, it may be the only option. Most of the rest of the world is watching how America acts now and are deciding to turn their backs. America will ultimately be weakened by Trump's fantastical thinking supported by Nutlick and Best Boy Bessent
Remember when Trump took us out of the JCPOA, he was going to drive Iran to a better agreement through Maximum Economic Pressure? Now they'd love to get a JCPOA deal with Trump's name emblazoned on the top. The Iranians are waiting for regime change in the US with the 2028 elections. Just like they did with Carter and Reagan.
Reading the few comments, those posted so far, is amusing. Commentators are keeping a sense of perspective so far….
The Trump Administration is cruel, vindictive, and most of all it is kleptocratic: ‘follow the money’ will remain the best line of inquiry with this bunch of crooks.
Yes, China will manipulate this to China’s advantage (not necessarily the same goal as the Islamic Republic’s goal). Abhishek Singh Chauhan’s point about the aim of Iran’s Government’s aim to survive is relevant, as you make clear too in your post.
What a mess! Trump is being consistent ‘though: fighting with Canada, the EU and other once-upon-a-time allies (insert the emoji for someone whistling in the wind here), while facilitating ‘Strong Man’ led autocracies is very Trump-style. Bye bye America of olden days…., Hello Brave New World.
I hope our democracy still holds. Without elections there is no good way to change course. Trump will try to steal this up-coming election. I'm hopeful he won't be successful. 35% should not be able to rule 65%. As the Iranians are well aware of.
We are human and flawed. We are not worse than everyone else and had 80 years of relatively good behavior establishing a rules based order. Yes, of course we committed sins along the way, but we more or less tried to do right. That is what has broken down. I'm curious as to why.
Watched my the news last night, an ad came on from the “Department of War.” It was obscene in its glorification of violence and I felt nauseous knowing it was created and run either my tax dollars. It’s time now for this administration to end.
People with a conservative bent often look back with nostalgia at heroes from the past that they cannot themselves understand. They want to copy what their hero’s did, but they do not see the think-outside-the-box ingenuity and problem-solving those “historical figures” had to muster to overcome their contemporary challenges. They even want to emulate how they looked. “No more beardos…”. What, like US Grant or William Sherman? Ukrainians are the current war-fighting hero’s, and we are actually dismissing their hard-won expertise. If Dems have the capacity to impeach Hegseth, they need to do it before the next Jan 7 iteration goes down.
I watched the entire non-musical coda. I had seen it many times before. It never ceases to trigger a strong emotional response in me. Today, however, it reminds me that America was once brave and could devote its strength in support of principles. Today, it has abandoned those principles.
79 year old Vietnam veteran here. My dad was with the 2nd Armored Division and part of the invasion force. When my dad was dying in the year 2000, he reminded me that my given name James came from his friend who died fighting Fascism in Normandy. He also said he saw Satchel Paige pitch. I guess he thought that was equally important.
Since Russia is aiding Iran, will the US now sanction Putin? And since North Korea is America's greatest friend, why is it supporting Russia....who is supporting Iran? The US is supporting the war against itself. Genius-level foreign policy there......
Sanctions!! Russia?? As I write this the United States of America is importing lumber from Russia at a lower or even maybe no tariff at all while the Canadian lumber industry is being charged by the same United States of America tariffs of about 25%.
And you wonder why we are looking to China as a closer friend?
Genius level if you stop and consider the real objective which is for billionaires and their toadies to extract wealth. You can't profiteer off a war if there isn't a war, so you invent one, but you do it in cooperation with your potential actual adversaries so that there is little risk of escalation. Utterly corrupt intellectually, morally, etc., but deffinitely not stupid.
I'm a Canadian so I probably shouldn't be sticking my nose in here but I note that Nazi Germany fought on tenaciously for 335 days after D-Day (the real one with real heroes).
Let's take a moment to remember the Canadian contribution to the European campaign of 1944-45. The Canadian combat record in both world wars was outstanding. And they lost quite a few soldiers in Afghanistan as well.
And some of those Canadians were French speakers. Take that, you fat orange gasbag.
Donny Destructo is causing economic pandemonium everywhere. We have become the rogue state and people thought it could never happen here. Throughout history, blockades, embargos and trade wars have turned into shooting ones.
Iran "D-Day" will affect China but punishing other countries besides Iran is how wars start. What we're witnessing today is eerily like the 1930's runup to WWII.
I can't credibly disagree with you that it's an eerie and uncertain time. And it's also a time when We the People--the majority of us--have our eyes and ears turned toward these events. Will that be enough to stop the warmongers? Hope so.
Unfortunately, the U.S. is not the only country that can start a war.
Sad, but true. We are, however one of only a small number of countries with ICBMs capable of delivering a warhead across an ocean. If Mexico or Canada get really, really sick of our sh** though, we might be 'personally' at risk for mass casualties. Then there are dirty bombs, which could be sneaked in to the country, though. Ditto bio weapons. As we have now learned, our ability to screen for biological pathogens in food is distinctly impaired. Fingers crossed the Incompentent Inner Circle in DC won't let us down at the level of mass tragedy. I'd love it if my three grandkids lived to inherit a world in which peace and justice are not just words, but reality.
Exactly, and the Ukraine war is getting nastier by the day. Putin is now threatening Britain for providing drones and missile technology to Ukraine. It's how things metastasize into scenarios we don't want to contemplate.
China is rapidly creating the impression among the world's nations that it is the stable one and the US the chaotic one. It's not all about Trump. What about all the American citizens who democratically voted for Trump? That tells you something about the state of American democracy.
American democracy got crazier yesterday as our criminal Supreme Court 'provisionally' approved Trump's mail-in ballot EO.
It's murky whether it will affect the midterms but is nothing less than an un-Constitutional federal takeover of how states conduct their elections.
It remains to be seen how much impact the piss-on-the-Constitution Conservative SCOTUS decision will actually have this Fall, as early voting in many states will begin in about two months, within the ninety day buffer period pretty much every state requires before making actual changes to voting procedures.
Yes the king did it backwards. War first, then the economics.
And don’t forget diplomacy above all. Something that has been totally ignored with this administration.
Does the Department of State still exist in anything but name only?
People don't grasp how many different parties in the Mideast and Europe are now shooting at each other. Any missteps that bring Turkey, for instance, into the fray would be very bad. Also, stand by for millions of Cuban refugees to flood Florida and further chaos in the Caribbean.
Note that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan recently signed a mutual defense treaty that includes a clause similar to Article 5 of the NATO agreement. The Middle East is being reconfigured dramatically as the leadership vacuum created by the departure of the U.S. gets filled.
Yep. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have money but no nukes. Pakistan has nukes but no money The quickest "mutual defense" arrangement is lots of money heads east, and nukes head west.
Mark McIntyre,
Please respond if I am way out of line, but I have a theory that Trump is being used by persons who actually have plans......as you so well put, for "PANDEMONIUM EVERYWHERE".
It is happening! Canada, a friend, should never have to deal with the increasing corruption within the United States of America!!!!
Canadians are doing well without us....especially at this time, when we as citizens need to EXPELL most of the pathetic, self-serving leadership in Washington, DC and unfortunately within many states!!!
We need to respect other countries and work with their leadership if we have concerns. We are harming our global family when we start wars. This is NO GOOD for anyone!!!!
You're not out of line. Trump is a complete sociopath and so was his wealthy, autocratic father Fred. Like father, like son.
I think we're living in a corrupt Plutocracy, rule by the super rich. Trump is just The Don of a mob-style syndicate and all must pay tribute. Coincidentally, much like Putin's Kleptocracy and iron grip on Russia.
Women need more than just a war in Iran intended to cover what Trump is pilfering from the US arsenal. Total annihilation of the present human civilization is necessary for human women to have any chance at all of attaining political equality with men. Women need to start a completely new human civilization as many times as needed until women have political equality.
That's the joke about ayatollahs having nukes. Why would they ever destroy a man's world?
McIntyre probably makes us cousins.
not to mention that the USA was greatly aided and had many lives of service members saved because of the linguistic skills of the Navajo Code Talkers
Inspirational heroes who, I believe, were never promoted above the rank Private or receiving any recognition for their special contribution until decades later.
not gas..shit!
You said it!!!
Francophones (those for whom French is their 1st language). As opposed to Anglophones (English as a 1st language).
The Second Volume of the Books of Remembrance lists thousands of Canadians who sacrificed all for King and Country in the Second World War. Once again Mr Trump is stealing the valor of others for one of his bone headed political stunts.
Thanks to Canada from an American veteran. Thanks to the country that accepted my Scottish ancestors over 200 years ago.
Funny you mention the Scots. I'm of Irish extraction myself, but live in Nova Scotia where the Scots are thick on the ground. And thanks for your service in the US military. Some of the wisest and sharpest commentators on the Trump regime are former US military leaders.
My relatives are near Lake George in Harvey, New Brunswick. I have applied for descendancy citizenship, I hope they don't withdraw the opportunity but I wouldn't blame Canada if it was cancelled.
I've considered doing the same, but my Canadian ancestry is Acadian. My 5*Great grandfather Bazile Lanneau/Lanoue was 12 when he was expelled in Le Grand Dérangement in 1755, and that is a LONG way back to prove descent to the liking of immigration law.
Likewise on both; also thanks to the country that saved my Loyalist ancestors by giving them haven from the USian rabble, lynch mobs included. And the greatest thanks of all to the parliament at Ottawa for expanding the criteria for Canadian citizenship top include those of us with Canadian grandparents. Now -- terminally ill at Age 86 -- all I have to do is survive long enough to raise the five-figure sum the greedy, morally imbecilic USian lawyers charge to find my father's birth certificate (Lowell, Mass., 1910) and those of his parents, Amos Reed Bliss (New Brunswick, 1862) and Wilena Marion Dewar (Nova Scotia, 1888).
I am sitting here scratching my bald head. I am a 77 year old very proud Nova Scotian, Canadian. To think that in my brief lifetime I have seen things go from, let's get the hell out of here and move to the States. Now I am reading about people paying lawyers 5 figure somes of money to get into Nova Scotia.
Who the hell would have thunk that?
We remember.
And Vietnam
🫡 🇨🇦
On D-Day, Canadian troops stormed Juno Beach. Overall, Canadian soldiers were very highly regarded. Politically, PM Mackenzie King was a trusted confidante of Franklin Roosevelt.
No- feel free to stick your nose in.
Apologies for our a$$#0le POTUS and fascist government. We are working to get rid of the fascists, but they’re pretty dug in.
Yes. Most Canadians - we have our own home grown MAGA types - know and appreciate Americans like you. You are our allies and we are yours.
Doug, I believe our governments will be allies again, but Carney did the smart thing He made the best deal of all with the U.S. I call it the "FU Deal". All countries need to make that same deal because the only way to rid ourselves of Trump and his toadies out is to humiliate them out.
In a democracy the fascists only have to win once - the forces of democracy have to win every election. That is almost true; because once the fascists get power they are very hard to get rid off. I blame those idiot voters who allowed themselves to be distracted from the evil of Project 2025 with "look over there, brown rapists are claiming the border fence". It's not like you couldn't all see it coming, just that some people willfully got distracted by the classic right wing panic BS.
And distracted by their own personal bigotry, misogyny, and love of cruelty.
How anyone could have been fooled the second time is beyond me. "I believed him when he said no more wars. I believed him when he said he would lower prices". Why would you believe a serial liar? It's not like it was the first time he ran. He had a record. Washington Post documented over 30K lies told his first term. How did millions of Americans forget his entire first term 4 whole years? I don't believe for a second they were conned. They just didn't want a black woman president. That's it. It was racism that guided their votes for Trump. Nothing else.
The majority of the USian population is truly our species' first deliberately conditioned Moronic Majority, which H.L. Mencken recognized as early as 1920. Why the national fostering of ignorance? How else to fulfill the preservation of de facto slavery, the one true purpose of the War for Independence? Above all else, we need to acknowledge and understand that Trump is quite literally the terminal fulfillment of the never-abandoned scheme originated by the Southron slavers and their New England financiers to perpetuate slavery in the face of a 1772 British court ruling that Blacks are fully human and are thus protected by English common law.
I hope it's not the majority. Unfortunately, it was 'enough' to get that fat orange traitor into the Oval Office. Fingers crossed for the midterms and 2028.
It’s not a majority but I’ve read that what really made it happen were those who wouldn’t vote for trump but either sat out the election or voted third-party, with a vote that would never count, in protest of U.S. support for Israel ( although they acted like it was Biden’s fault, even dubbing him “ Genocide Joe”) or wouldn’t vote for a woman or person of color. Notwithstanding the fact that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian people is horrendous and the U.S. should withdraw support, we would have had a better chance of achieving that under anyone but trump. So those who helped trump by not voting: do you think your protest has made the Palestinian situation so much better? Is our situation and the world’s better? This time - if we even get the chance to vote - put aside your purity and vote to get rid of Republicans and in 2028 get rid of trump with everything you’ve got!
Based on the last two years, it appears the USian population is unable to transcend the paralytic combination of the nation's definitive ChristoNazi hatefulness and its neoliberalism-mandated submissiveness enough to organize [effective] resistance. Pew data shows us ChristoNazism is now the ruling ethos of the violently misogynistic and racist Aryan/white male majority. Other more long-term sociological and historical data suggests the apparent indifference of so many non-ChristoNazis is probably a camouflage for cowardice, the logical reaction of a disarmed, untrained, thoroughly subjugated population ever more necessarily obsessed with basaic survival. Don't forget the ChristoNazis control the entire federal government, with effectively eternal dominance of the Supreme Court; and own 31 of the 50 states. And there’s no remaining doubt the ChristoNazis’ response to unpopularity is [nevert] concession. Instead it’s carnage: destruction, deportation, denunciation, detention, death. That’s why I argue that, like Hitler’s Third Reich, der Trumpenführer’s “Unified Reich” – ruled as it is by Ted-Bundy murderousness and Trumpstein sadism -- can only be liberated by democracy-supportive invasion. I don’t doubt I’ll be long dead when that happens – if indeed it ever does – but as a Regular Army veteran, I offer nine quick, hopefully encouraging glimpses of just whom our Liberators might be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0E0ITYsmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrnvJKxNyds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z988JUIzFHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBlnsXewjn0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7hwUVtwrWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EPpJymjuE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqt6Wjk3pu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Ml2jpxezM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ2P9fSZY1s
(And these are just some of the capable folks the ChristoNazis have turned into permanent enemies.)
Most people can't bear to have the stories about their nation exposed for what they are--myths.
We generally agree, but fascists don’t win -they whine. And once they get enough others whining along with them, they bully and blabber and exhaust the rest of us. They are Nincompoops; without agency and should be reminded consistently. As we all are doing (and did) and will always do. Stay energized.
And don’t forget ‘they were eating your pets’ too. 😳
Thanks. That's good to hear. I confess I've been sticking my nose in a lot since Trump got re-elected. His greatest contribution is to show people who believe in democracy what we've been taking for granted. Here's one of my rambling/shambling posts if you're interested. But don't feel you have to read it or expect to learn anything you don't already know. Cheers. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/big-orange-taxi-10
As fascists usually are (dug in, as noted by the Canadian's post).
I hope they dig a hole so deep that it drills right down to Hades.
... but we will prevail and kick the criminal fascists the hell out of our country and hope the rest of the world including our Canadian freinds can forgive and allow us back among civilized nations!
We’re not trying that hard, though. In a healthy democracy, people would be protesting in the streets. Tens of millions of people protesting regularly would prompt politicians to act. We’ve seen plenty of examples around the world. Instead we just sit around, hoping the November elections go our way, then patiently waiting for 2028 elections.
We’re not working especially hard though. Any healthydemo
Please stick your nose in here. There are millions of us who welcome you sticking your nose into what's happening here. Trump has tried to destroy us, and we are floundering in our resistance. It turns out that our Constitution has multiple loopholes in it--the main one being that nothing in it accounts for the possibility of a powerful man with an evil character winning the presidency.
Nor did the founding fathers think it was possible that all Republicans in Congress would violate their oath of office and refuse to support our Constitution and that a merda-on-a-stick chief justice would frog-march a corrupt Supreme Court to the bottom of history's septic tank.
It's not Trump alone. It's the entire republican party that is with him. The republicans running congress and the republicans on the SC. They are the ones allowing all of this to happen. Trump couldn't have done it all my himself. We have to realize the republican party has become a fascist anti-democratic movement. They no longer believe in democracy. They believe they have the right to rule. Regardless of how the voters vote.
They're not Republicans any more. They're Trumpists, as infected by groupthink as thoroughly as the Reichstag in 1938.
Hear, hear!!
True. Separation of powers requires that the three branches jealously guard their power from one another. Instead faction short circuits that balance (as George Washington warned us in his farewell speech), such that a bare majority of royalists, feudalists, fascists, and nationalists in the Legislative branch and the Supreme Court have thrown their lots in behind the excretable god-king of the fascist internet trolls.
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"Infidelity" is a good word to use. Perfect, in fact.
Trump has broken America's word to most of the rest of the world in the form of casually broken Agreements. Starting with threatening Denmark and the EU to seize Greenland with America's military, scabrously ignoring our NATO pact, confirmed by Congress and thereby according to the Constitution, the law of the land.
Trump is now allied to Russia, constructively speaking, as well as North Korea, He is chafing at the bit to renew his bromance with Kim. We've become part of the axis of evil. Obviously. Trump's spy chief John Ratcliffe is in Moscow at the moment, most likely colluding.
We all knew what kind of Cruel human being the Narcissist in Chief was during his First years in Washington DC, now it's even more Cruel, and Destructive.
Our fellow friends and neighbors are suffering, and Thousands of people are rotting in horrific conditions in the Concentration Camps, along with struggling to feed their families.
☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️
Agreed. Decades of planning coming to fruition.
I must add: WHEN the majorities in the House and Senate are his spineless sycophants...
OMG
GOP
WTF
should be on every voter's mind in November!
Sure would be helpful if the opposition party did more to point that out to people. They’ve given folks very little to vote for. Unless Democrats absolutely crush in November, people will see the next two years as more squabbling between parties that don’t represent their interests.
The parliamentary system is organic; it is the result of the experience of forcing kings to share their power and preventing a political leader from gaining too much power, as in 'you're gone'.
The American Constitution is an ideal, a construction. There was no way that the founders could have anticipated the future technologies, the huge wealth it would produce and the psychopaths who would control it and use it to overthrow the government and constitution while creating living hell for its citizens and the entire planet.
Hi, I agree. I should say that I didn't set out to promote my own modest Substack but since you brought it up (That's Canadian for you have only yourself to blame!) here's a link to one of my posts on the subject of differences between the US and parliamentary democracy. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/trumped-part-2a
Your post showed what is missing from the U.S. system. The videos showing the nose to nose confrontation that we never get made me envious. The staged debates we have prior to elections are a pale shadow of what is needed. Even worse, most of the legacy press hasn’t the courage or quickness of mind to engage in substantive questioning, and the ones that do just get called names. I’m positive that regularly holding the executive’s feet to the fire would put a quick end to the corrupt and incompetent administration which we are being subjected to.
I have felt the need to run from this mess, thanks for the clue about what systemic change there is to run towards.
Thank you for sharing your post, which I have skimmed, but will read in detail later. You have given much thought to this. I take it that you are Canadian. So am I.
And ignoring courts and laws!
Re my nose sticking: As I said above, I confess I've been sticking my nose in a lot since Trump got re-elected. His greatest contribution is to show people who believe in democracy what we've been taking for granted. Here's one of my rambling/shambling posts if you're interested. But don't feel you have to read it or expect to learn anything you don't already know. Cheers. https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/big-orange-taxi-10
Being Canadian, Trump is trying to destroy us too. We all have skin in the game and need a united front to rid the world of this Orange Scourge.
I agree and RGB screwed up by thinking she could live forever. We cheered she lasted so long but it was a bad idea. That helped speed things along.
75 should be the mandatory retirement age for all appointed offices such as judgeships . Full disclosure: that’s the case in Canada; I am Canadian.
RGB was so sure Hillary would win. She stayed on the court. Because she wanted the first woman president to be the one to replace her. RGB really screwed us all with that.
Both Gore and Clinton won the popular vote. The Electoral College got us here.
Gore won FL and the electoral college. A recount after the fact showed that. It was the 5 right-wingers on the SC that stopped the FL recount. Saying that if the recount was to be allowed to be finished. That George W. Bush would be harmed. That was the ruling in Bush vs Gore. Handing the election to Bush. They know their ruling was so partisan. They ruled it could never be used as precedent. Sandra Day O'Connor wanted to retire. She didn't want Gore picking her replacement. That was when the real coup happened. The year 2000 when the SC interfered to stop the American people from their rightful president. It's all been downhill since then. We would not be where we are today. If it wasn't for those 5 in 2000. Trump would not be president. We would not have a 6 to 3 super conservative majority on the SC. That when the coup happened. It just took 26 years for Americans to realize it.
In order to win the electoral college votes, that scotus had to make a decision as to what to do. So, in a sense, I agree with you. However:
There was a lot of stunts the gop pulled. I can find them later if needed and post or summarize it here.
At this point, I’ve just hashed over some of what happened again. (Including a phonecall with a workfriend in FL telling me blow by blow what the hell was happening.)
But to me, it was the hanging chads insanity, gop adding to it, and ultimately
that scotus voting 5-4 in favor of what helped get us here. We’ll never know because those slightly under 600 chads were never resolved and continued to be disputed.
(I have no doubt Clinton/Gore won the popular vote and don’t know they lost the electoral vote even though that was the outcome from scotus.)
Those damn liberal purists that just live to help elect republicans. Because they aren't going to vote for imperfect democrats. The democrat must be perfect or let the republican win. That's how they think. Yet they will never take responsibility for what they do. They always blame the democrats.. "Should have given me someone I could vote for." No, YOU NEEDED TO BE AN ADULT AND THINK ABOUT THE COUNTRY. Not your own selfish desires you liberal purists POS.
Still too many Americans think "It can't happen here". That our system is fool proof. That a fascist takeover would be impossible. It's happening right before their eyes and they still refuse to see. This is the curse of American Exceptionalism. That Americans are somehow better and different than all other humans. That we could never fall to a dictatorship. The Germans thought they were exceptional too. We see how that worked out.
Check out Ann Telnaes' excellent cartoon from yesterday. We are all Canadians now. :)
https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/we-are-all-canadins-now
This Ann Telnaes cartoon ranks as perhaps her very best ever. If you haven't seen it click on the link and laugh along. The Canadian Beaver with the maple leaf flag flipping off an increasingly obese DonOld Lardo is priceless! Bravo Ann, bravo.
I did thanks. And restacked it an posted to my social media. Funny, heart warming, and reassuring all at once.
The "heroes" in the drumpf regime will not fight tenaciously once he's powerless. They'll slink away from him and continue their evil and cretinous plans to destroy democracy from whatever sewer they take refuge in.
They'll get lobbyist jobs with big salaries and continue to try to corrupt our government!
Exactly.
The U.S. has dragged Canada's nose into this. Welcome to our hell. We're so sorry.
I'm glad you're here. More people, more perspectives possibly but definitely more support. Diversity is great.
I knew the basics of nazi Germany history. I didn't know it took 335 days after D-Day for the soldiers to stop fighting. I know they were on methampethamines and other drugs to keep the military fighting to their deaths. It's what great leaders do, kill their countrymen for personal gain.
Trump and his fascist sycophants will fail because they are incompetent. What we need to fear is the arrival of a competent fascist.
Referring to this and others of Dr.Krugman and commenters:
The US military offensive against Iran has failed but has cost possibly as much as a Trillion dollars of US citizens money (MAGAs listen up -whoops, none here), if you count actual costs, plus the replament costs of munitions, the medical aid needed for life for some soldiers, PLUS the graft and grift that Trump Co. and his oligarchs took in the deal. If this Economic D-Day was going to be so effective, why didn't Trump, the Genius, and Hedspeth, Testosterone-Man, and Bessent, Hedge-Fund-Man, think of that in the first place?
I was doing physical therapy and met the owners. In conversation I learned her grandfather, who was in the CRAF, and survived the bombing missions over Berlin. I encouraged her to get his memorabilia on the internet. There are so many great stories dying with those men and women who were the sharp end of the spear.
Which was shortened by their Ardennes attack and bazillion Russians to the East.
Absolutely. My point was that D-Days - including Secty Bessent's - don't deliver quick results. Implicit in mine and explicit in your comment is that a lot more sacrifices are exacted along the way. Thanks.
Nazis fought on nearly 900 days after the most decisive German defeat -- at Stalingrad!
Doug Keefe,
Thank you for your respectful comments regarding our neighbor, Canada. I have great respect for our Canadian neighbors and for the leadership if its country. We have always supported one another as far as I know.
Trump's disrespect towards Canada's leadership is disgusting. It is not the way to treat a neighbor, much less such a humble, as well as outstanding leader of great character. Canada is great in and of itself and surely does NOT need to bow to Trump.
If I were a citizen of Canada, Trump and his minions would be creatures to stay away from, in my opinion!!!!
Thanks for the comment. It cheers not just me but the many Canadians who like and admire the best in the people of the United States. I always remind my friends that as much as Trump is harming Canada he's harming you folks more. As your Ben Franklin said, "we hang together or we hang separately."
most of us American LOVE you Canadians. Many, many thanks to Mr. Carney for standing up to this idiocracy.
Trump’s latest in the trade war: threatening to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. ‼️
Thank you for the Canadians’ heroic service at Juno Beach as part of the D-Day landing.
Iran’s resilience isn’t a Western bedtime story — it’s bone‑deep. A population hardened by sanctions, war, and scarcity doesn’t fold because outsiders fantasize about collapse. The regime’s grip is reinforced by millions who still show up, as seen in the massive turnout at Ali Khamenei’s funeral. Calling that a sign of imminent downfall is wishful thinking. Forty million bodies in the streets don’t signal a state on the verge of crumbling; they signal a nation that endures
Obvious AI slop. Iran is standing strong. The whole narrative from January that the "regime" (note the word, instead of "government") killed some variable number of people (10,000 up to 55,000) just for protesting in the streets was a lie of the US empire as much as the WMD were a lie to invade Iraq in 2003. Beware the lies of empire.
This might well be a cautionary tale, especially when it comes to Trump's ignorant self interest. But the US has long attempted to establish de facto hegemony over Iran, as when the democratically elected Mr. Mossaghdeh in Iran was deposed via a CIA supported coup and replaced with the US puppet Shah Pahlavi. But the Iranian people, whether we agree with them or not, eventually gave him the boot. More, I would guess, from a marked preference for their own integrity than anything else. There is an educated sector that's rebelling against what the mullahs have become--essentially medievalists in moral posturing--but in time progressive values will have a say, whatever the US does or doesn't do. Except that current US actions are shoring up the medievalist's position that the US is in actual fact a "Great Satan." Our apparent ignorance of history is doing us no favors.
Don't peddle lies because they're inconvenient to your narrative, multiple independent outlets confirmed the mass murders of protestors. It's also well established that Iran oppresses women and religious minorities. I have great sympathy for the people in Iran, but absolutely none for it's government. That doesn't make the war a good idea, but defending theoretic despotism makes you no better than MAGA.
You’re whining about structure because you don’t have an argument. If you’ve got a point, spit it out. If not, don’t waste oxygen.
You are missing his point, with which I agree. You are a human being so communicate as a human being not just using AI generated text. Your comment is very obviously AI generated and adds no value. We are interested in what you as a human being think, not some bullshit AI crap.
I wonder how long it will be before people are unable develop their own thoughts and/or be unable to express them in writing to others?
It has already happened. I read somewhere - perhaps the article was even AI generated - that 30% of YouTube content was now AI generated. My wife and I spent a few years extracting and placing Ukrainian refugees and took a mother and her daughter onto our farm where they lived with us for 14 months. The daughter went to the local school and took five Highers one of which was English. She got 5 As and is in her third year at Glasgow University. She told me she had won her A in English with the help of AI. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. That was 3 or 4 years ago and things have moved on a fair bit in the AI world. It worries me as I believe it sucks the humanity from us but then I am just a 63 year old dilettante grumpy farmer, albeit it one with three degrees including a PhD in agricultural chemistry. It will stupefy all of us .
Thank you
Whether it's AI generated or not, the point is salient. If Trump and Israel wanted regime change they wouldn't have attacked Iran. I remember watching Ken Burns Civil War and one of the Union soldiers asked a Confederate why they were fighting since most of them weren't slave owners, the answer was...because you're here.
As much as I hate the Trump regime, I'd fight against an invader. (A real invader, not his usual made up ones.)
The only exception I can think of is Cambodia with Pol Pot who killed a quarter of all Cambodians. Vietnam invaded and stopped it. Otherwise, invading for regime change is a fools errand.
What’s YOUR argument?
Why are you replying to your own comment? What’s your point?
Why bother commenting if you are going to start off with the obvious AI "It's not X [em dash] it's Y" tell?
Some people cannot swallow the strategic defeat of the empire I understand but facts speak from themselves however the crappy ai generated images by trump are acceptable to some what a shame
Bessent gave up the game when he answered the obvious "why talk about it, why not just do it?" question. He said doing it would blow up the world economy. So, as usual, they can threaten and bluster, but no way can they actually pull the trigger. It's like holding a gun to your own head and saying "do what I say, or I'll shoot the hostage"
You’re so right. I mean, didn’t the US try this at least once before? In, as I recall, Vietnam? And—oh yes—Iraq and Afghanistan? Iraq? W Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld learned nothing from Johnson’s catastrophe, and they were reasonably smart people, though lacking any fundamental moral sense. You can’t call today’s White House
That’s what Mideast nations & people do—they survive
Bessent has the look of a used care salesman. It you have not noticed, pay attention.
Who fiddles with the mileage and puts sawdust in the engine.
He had to move to NY where his lifestyle would be legal and accepted. Not so much in South Carolina.
... and have you noticed, but his voice quavers. He does not sound like a confident fellow at all (which does suggest there may be a modicum of self awareness and even intelligence lurking there somewhere).
He's just not that good of a liar. He needs more practice.
Not a good poker player.
Why is Bessent making the announcement about sanctions on Iran? Is he running the country now? Big problem!
Trump can act like he did is not responsible when they fail.
Exactly. The buck never stops with him. Unless its flowing into his pocket.
Spot on, Stevens. 👏🏼
Trump would screw up who they were sanctioning.
Election Interference:
Total Domination or Another Distraction?
Or Both
From The Hill, August 11, 2026
“Trump on declaring national security emergency for elections: ‘Stranger things have happened’
President Trump on Tuesday left the door open to declaring a national security emergency and federalizing control over the November midterms.”
From The Guardian, January 23, 2026
“Because of Donald Trump’s desire and need for complete domination, he cannot tolerate and will not allow a Republican defeat at the polls.
As Robert Kagan put it: “There’s no chance in the world that Donald Trump is going to allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that would be the end of his ability to wield total power. Unless they got up on the rooftop and said: ‘We are going to subvert the 2026 election,’ they could not be more obvious about what their intention is.”
At the end of the day, the president may be attracted to the idea of rigging the 2026 election not just out of a fear that he will not be able to work his will but because, as scholars suggest, electoral manipulation is a signal to critical audiences (including “bureaucracy, potential defectors within the elite, or powerful stakeholders within civil society”) of his “strength“ and “invincibility”.”
From Peaceful Solution:
If His Royal Heinous meddles in the midterm in the major way that now seems possible, will that be enough for the oligarchs to turn on him? Enough that the general public awakens? Enough that the Republican politicians find some courage? Enough that he is impeached, convicted, and removed from office?
Or is all this just more distraction, to dominate the headlines. Another shiny object for the opposition to chase, rather than organizing and acting to stop and reverse the fascist takeover.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
" But the Trump administration has already imposed tariffs and other sanctions on so many countries, for so many alleged purposes, and backtracked so many times, that its credibility is exhausted."
Oh, that sweet smell of karma in the morning!
I hope the whole Trump team is losing sleep and turning on each other in another circular firing squad as they grapple with the reality that they just SUCK at governing.
The sad thing is the karma hurts the rest of us, not just him.
Yes, we must all bear the shame of our downfall.
I will say that most Europeans and Canadians seem to understand that at least half of us are not raving lunatics and deeply regret the actions of our fellow (fascist) Americans.
The courts just OKed his plan to restrict mail in ballots by allowing the post office to check against a citizenship list (the problem is that how accurate and up to date is this list?)
No they only said that the 2 cases can continue now that the Post Office stated they will do as his EO stated. So, now these two cases have standing to move forward. Of course what they do after the ruling on these two cases is another matter. See Joyce Vance’s conversation last night on Substack.
OK, thanks.
All I'd add to your fine summary is: are you sure Bessent isn't stupid? Hitching your wagon to a malignant narcissist and convicted felon, found guilty of "near-rape" (!), as well as being a possible paedophile seems a little stupid to me. That he'll also end up as a pariah at the end of all this doesn't show much foresight or intelligence. IMHO.
The China angle. In Canada, and the ROW, China is now more trusted as an ally than the US. In Canada, we're cheering on China. It so happens that we also disagree with the US attacks on Iran, not to mention the US attacks (so far economic) on our own country, so the more the US loses, the happier Canada and the ROW are. How the mighty have fallen.
If you rate Xi and Trump as to the competency their autocracy, Xi comes out much higher. China has negotiated treaties China has respected, managed its oil reserves during the current crisis, and become the world standard for EVs. However, neither leader is trusted: World leaders count their fingers after shaking hands with either Xi or Trump.
As Krugman insightfully said China will end the war by supporting Iran so that the US accepts defeat withdraws and the oil flows again.
Another geographic reason why Iran can receive goods is obvious from a map. To the north is the Caspian Sea, into which the Volga drains. To the north are many places with names ending in "-stan" which are likely more than happy to sell goods to Iran.
I made this point in an article I wrote years ago. They have the whole hinterland of Asia from which to draw supplies. There isn't a thing we can do about it, even with an "economic D-Day."
But what about her emails!!!!! This clown car does not have the intelligence to plan beyond the first attack. They are so smart they cannot see beyond what they hope will be the result.
The plan was that with the military destroyed, leaders killed, the Iranian people would rise up and Iran would collapse in days. After which the orange ego would proclaim victory, be regaled as the modern-day Churchill, polls way up as a result and thus victory in the midterms cementing his vision as the greatest president. All of this foretold by Ms. Harp.
The admin is filled with people who learned everything they know about history from John Wayne and Rambo movies. The US is in extremely serious trouble. The country is run by a combination of rich idiots, who know that no matter what happens, they'll stay rich, and fools who literally dont understand what "the worst thing that can happen" looks like.
It’s nothing short of amazing how quickly America has descended from a global behemoth to a rapidly dying society - in just a few short years and in virtually every sphere. The Chinese overall analysis is tragically accurate - just allow America to sink from its own global failures and nothing more needs to be done. It’s not that Chinese political society is either admirable or something to be emulated - it’s just that, for the foreseeable future, there no reasonable alternative. And to think that it is entirely accurate to attribute so much to a single person - amazing (and sad and tragic).
You should not attribute this to the actions of one man in the White House. Americans put him there and a supine Senate enabled Trump to appoint his corrupt cronies. Trump is just the scab which when peeled back reveals the rotting stinking corpse of America. It was already rotting, Trump is just the final act in the demise of America.
Many people around the World have difficulty raising much sympathy or empathy when you consider that America is a country born out of the genocide of the First Nations Peoples and built on the backs of black slaves. Since the end of WW2, America has never not been at war with someone at an accumulated cost in today's money of $8 trillion. Of course Trump himself has added $10 trillion including his first term. So there you have it; more than half the current $40 trillion deficit is due to the belligerence of Americans and the incompetence of one man.
What goes around comes around as my old grandma used to say; or Karma is such a bitch in modern parlance.
agree with the spirit of this post, but scabs don’t form on corpses
So the US is not dead yet!
Vote BLUE and get every sane US citizen you know to resister/verify registration and vote! A big Democratic turnout in November will make it harder for the planned obstruction attempts.
Hear, hear!!
Good point Teed! The metaphor does not work!
Hear, hear!!
Can’t you understand that’s this is how we make America Great!! Wake up.
as far as I can remember this is the first time that an escalation goes the other way round. First we try with a full blown war and the presidente of the United States threatens to reduce the enemy to stone age. It doesn’t work. So what? When the game is hard hard people begin to play. No more president, no more war. From now on speaks the treasury secretary and we menace economic sanctions. If it doesn’t work we may resort to even more terrible weapons. A speech in the UN, or God forbid! A letter to the New York Times.
I think the Iranians are waiting for unconditional surrender. Trump said that is how war will end.
For America, it may be the only option. Most of the rest of the world is watching how America acts now and are deciding to turn their backs. America will ultimately be weakened by Trump's fantastical thinking supported by Nutlick and Best Boy Bessent
It's the Vietnam solution. Declare victory and leave.
LOL .... good one.
Remember when Trump took us out of the JCPOA, he was going to drive Iran to a better agreement through Maximum Economic Pressure? Now they'd love to get a JCPOA deal with Trump's name emblazoned on the top. The Iranians are waiting for regime change in the US with the 2028 elections. Just like they did with Carter and Reagan.
At this point, Trump would declare victory and leave if the IRGC would just open the Strait.
Thanks Paul.
Reading the few comments, those posted so far, is amusing. Commentators are keeping a sense of perspective so far….
The Trump Administration is cruel, vindictive, and most of all it is kleptocratic: ‘follow the money’ will remain the best line of inquiry with this bunch of crooks.
Yes, China will manipulate this to China’s advantage (not necessarily the same goal as the Islamic Republic’s goal). Abhishek Singh Chauhan’s point about the aim of Iran’s Government’s aim to survive is relevant, as you make clear too in your post.
What a mess! Trump is being consistent ‘though: fighting with Canada, the EU and other once-upon-a-time allies (insert the emoji for someone whistling in the wind here), while facilitating ‘Strong Man’ led autocracies is very Trump-style. Bye bye America of olden days…., Hello Brave New World.
Sad.
Regards,
Anthony
I hope our democracy still holds. Without elections there is no good way to change course. Trump will try to steal this up-coming election. I'm hopeful he won't be successful. 35% should not be able to rule 65%. As the Iranians are well aware of.
We are human and flawed. We are not worse than everyone else and had 80 years of relatively good behavior establishing a rules based order. Yes, of course we committed sins along the way, but we more or less tried to do right. That is what has broken down. I'm curious as to why.
So much for Bessent. Sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Watched my the news last night, an ad came on from the “Department of War.” It was obscene in its glorification of violence and I felt nauseous knowing it was created and run either my tax dollars. It’s time now for this administration to end.
People with a conservative bent often look back with nostalgia at heroes from the past that they cannot themselves understand. They want to copy what their hero’s did, but they do not see the think-outside-the-box ingenuity and problem-solving those “historical figures” had to muster to overcome their contemporary challenges. They even want to emulate how they looked. “No more beardos…”. What, like US Grant or William Sherman? Ukrainians are the current war-fighting hero’s, and we are actually dismissing their hard-won expertise. If Dems have the capacity to impeach Hegseth, they need to do it before the next Jan 7 iteration goes down.
Hear, hear!!
I watched the entire non-musical coda. I had seen it many times before. It never ceases to trigger a strong emotional response in me. Today, however, it reminds me that America was once brave and could devote its strength in support of principles. Today, it has abandoned those principles.
Hear, hear!!
79 year old Vietnam veteran here. My dad was with the 2nd Armored Division and part of the invasion force. When my dad was dying in the year 2000, he reminded me that my given name James came from his friend who died fighting Fascism in Normandy. He also said he saw Satchel Paige pitch. I guess he thought that was equally important.
Since Russia is aiding Iran, will the US now sanction Putin? And since North Korea is America's greatest friend, why is it supporting Russia....who is supporting Iran? The US is supporting the war against itself. Genius-level foreign policy there......
Sanctions!! Russia?? As I write this the United States of America is importing lumber from Russia at a lower or even maybe no tariff at all while the Canadian lumber industry is being charged by the same United States of America tariffs of about 25%.
And you wonder why we are looking to China as a closer friend?
Genius level if you stop and consider the real objective which is for billionaires and their toadies to extract wealth. You can't profiteer off a war if there isn't a war, so you invent one, but you do it in cooperation with your potential actual adversaries so that there is little risk of escalation. Utterly corrupt intellectually, morally, etc., but deffinitely not stupid.