I don't think America is not respected. I think it's more a case that we are fearful of America's increasingly erratic and illogical behavior, disappointed by the actions of this administration, and worried about the future.
I don't think Trump is respected, but most of us are intelligent enough to know that Trump and MAGA are NOT America. They are a microcosm of America with core supporters perhaps only 33% of the voting public and less than that once you factor in low voter turnout.
And pretty much every Western country has it's own version, whether its UKIP/Reform, AfD, National Front, One Nation... etc...
The main reason why the rest of the world cannot and should not trust the United States is the fact that we put Trump BACK IN OFFICE.
After his disastrous first term
After his attempt to overthrow the government
After he was convicted of 34 felonies
Trump will go the way of all flesh some day, but the blockheaded voters to looked at all that and said "yeah, let's try this again" will still be with us. And that should give every other nation on Earth great pause before trusting the U.S. again.
AND the fact that Republican senators and congresspeople have decided to march in lockstep with the fascist felon.
AND the fact that Citizens United has created an oligarchic class who rule by ordering their representatives to pass legislation that benefits the top 1% only.
I’m glad you mentioned Citizens United. In Texas we have no rules regarding political donations to state candidates and consequently we have the autocratic regime of Gov. Abbott. If/when Democrats come back into enough power to make things happen, money in politics needs to be addressed.
As Krugman said at the end of this post – No, America is Not Respected, “The truth is that America used to be respected, not simply because we were a superpower, but because we were a different kind of superpower — a nation that stood by its allies, that mostly obeyed the rules of the system we created, that possessed an army that was professional, smart and incorruptible. Now Trump has thrown all that away. And I don’t know how or when we can ever get it back.”
America can get back the respect and trust by electing a strong, honest, progressive Democrat to be a president like FDR who would enforce the law with justice for all, and clean up the massive corruption, incompetence, and other legal damage done by Trump, Republicans, the Supreme Court (Citizens United …) and billionaire oligarchs.
Federal law defines insurrection as a criminal felony with imprisonment. and fines. Trump, all members of his Cabinet, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court are violators of the federal law against insurrection who should be in jail. Trump is an insurrectionist who violated the federal law by supporting the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and the Supreme Court also violated the federal law on insurrection by supporting Trump, the insurrectionist, in 2024 with the refusal to enforce section 3 of the 14th Amendment which would have blocked Trump from holding office again. In 2026, Trump, members of his Cabinet, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court are criminal felons who violated the federal law on insurrection. Thousands of politically appointed or employed people in the federal government including ICE agents are also criminal felons who violated the federal law on insurrection and should be in jail.
Trump owes his presidency to his lying and the failure to enforce the law against insurrection. The insurrection in 2021 continued into 2025 and 2026 as planned by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The insurrection implemented a cruel, lawless, fascist autocracy massively rejects decency and disobeys the laws and authority of courts of the United States which is a violation of the federal law on insurrection, 18 U.S. Code § 2383 which states “whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the united states.”
Federal law defines membership in groups that advocate the overthrow of government with force or violence as a criminal felony. See 18 U.S.C. § 2385 entitled Advocating overthrow of government. The law has been violated by 37.4 million registered members of the Republican party. The Republican party supported the insurrection on January 6, 2021, and is supporting the ongoing insurrection in 2026. Trump was elected president in 2024 with support of the Republican party and voters who were registered members of the Republican party. Therefore, the 37.4 million registered members of the Republican party which supported the election of Trump in 2024, are criminal felons according to the law 18 U.S.C. § 2385. The penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 2385 are fines up to $250,000 or imprisonment of not more than twenty years, or both, with convicted felons being ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof.
The 37.4 million registered Republicans in 2025 should be fined $100,000, and the new federal revenue would be $ 3.7 trillion which would fund many progressive programs that would improve affordability of healthcare, housing, education and childcare, and could reduce the deficient of $1.8 trillion which occurred in 2025.
A new law needs to be passed once Democrats win the presidency and control of Congress in 2028 that makes the 37.4 million registered Republicans in 2025 ineligible to vote in elections for twenty years.
Leaders of countries that now disrespect and don't trust America obviously understand that the cause of problem in America is not just Trump and Republicans in office, but the root cause of the problem includes the registered Republicans who voted for Trump and the billiionaire oligarchs who funded the creation of the problem to install a lawless, fascist, autocracy which destoyed democracy and the rule of law. Regaining respect and trust will take decades, but a new government in America can restore trust from allies if the government is run by honest Democrats with leadership from strong progressive presidents like FDR who will always enforce the law with justice for all and restore America to be a nation that stands by its allies, that obeys the rules of the international system created after WW2, restores competency and integrity in a American military to be professional, smart and incorruptible.
Someday, Mitch McConnell might realize how much his historical image was destroyed by not voting to convict Trump after the Jan. 6 rebellion, despite having claimed that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for that day's events. Single-handedly, he could have saved the world substantial grief.
Mitch was too much in love with power and its accoutrements. Most of his Party Pals can be colored with the same crayon. Mitt had a conscience, but he was already worth deca-millions. Flake was unable to translate good sounding words into meaningful action.
That would be the most peaceful way to overthrow this regime, but I am afraid that it is less likely than the violence of a civil or world war and that is only if the well-funded heavily-armed authoritarian thugs lost. The corruption is breathtakingly deep and broad. The 2021 insurrection was successful in that it appeared to me that Trump ran a shadow government in parallel with Biden's - the Republican Congress people didn't dare support anything he told them not to, so in effect he didn't really lose.
the ire is all on Trump because hes such a notorious criminal and serial liar --------- but Trump is just the loudest one --- there is a far bigger problem in the US and its NOT limited to the WH or the Congress or the SCt.
Trump is delusional at best, a conniving liar is probably more like it. After tearing down our European alliances, now he wants them to bail him out by keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. That's some chuzpah. Maybe more countries should be like Spain and just tell Donny he created this mess and he can stick it!
What I try to write in a comment is a small fraction of what Krugman writes in his post. Is Krugman's post verbose and hard to read ? Describing in a few paragraphs what laws have been violated by Trump, Republicans and others now in the government seems to be required to understan.d how to restore respect and trust in America. But it's your option not to read it.
Agree. But enforcement of the laws is now controlled by corrupt Trump, his corrupt DOJ/FBI, corrupt Republicans in Congress, and a corrupt Supreme Court. Enforcement of the laws in the American weak legal system was intentionally manipulated by the control of politics and the media mainly by millionaires, billionaires, and corporations who hate democracy and the rule of law with equal justice for all, but also by Christian nationalists and white male supremacists.who hate women and civil rights. Lying has been very effective and so has Citizens United. FDR had largely fixed the abuse and control of government and the rule of law by the wealthy and reduced the corruption in government from 1935 until 1971 when the attack on FDR's New Deal, democracy, and the rule of law was launched and largely ignored by Democrats.
What you have proposed is a gross overreach and, in any event, is not feasible. Let's focus on punishing Trump after he leaves office. There is ample eidence to convict him of federal crimes he committed during and after his first term.
AND the Electoral College. Hillary beat him in 2016. Or what might things have looked like in the US if it had gone away even sooner and Gore beat Bush in 2000? This particular election had other issues as well which leads me to…
AND lifetime court appointments. It gives too much power and makes corruption too easy. It leaves little space, if any apparently, to hold judges accountable. It also means they keep getting older and more out of touch. Their egos can spell catastrophe for the country.
AND gerrymandering. This should be especially offensive to constituents as it cuts through the very heart of “representative” government. There are so many egregious examples, but let’s just use one metropolitan area being divided into three skinny little fingers as part of larger rural blocks stretching all the way across a state. Those are two entirely different groups of people with understandably different needs and priorities.
The lifetime appointment thing was supposed to address corruption. A person who didn’t have to worry about reappointment would be less likely to be corrupted. Good idea. Too bad it didn’t work.
A lot of people voted for Trump thinking that since he was a billionaire he could not be corrupted. After all, he already had plenty of money. Boy howdy, that sure didn’t work either.
You are correct about the original purpose of the lifetime appointment. Part of the reason it does not work anymore is that people live longer, and Republicans have been putting younger and younger people on the Supreme Court in order to maintain control. In addition, as Heather Cox Richardson pointed out, in the past, Supreme Court Justices had to ride their circuits, and travel was hard in those days. Few wanted to stay on the Court for lengthy terms. One argument for term limits is that we do not want a Supreme Court justice leaving the bench and joining an investment firm or becoming a lobbyist. Supreme Court Justice should be the last major job the person holds. Recent retirees (there have been some in the past 50 years) had often moved towards philanthropic activities. When term limits are crafted, and I agree we now need them, we must make sure that the Supreme Court does not get used as a steppingstone for personal profit.
Yeah, back when people at least knew the word “integrity” and more often than not still placed value in it. How about calling them “Your Honor”?…as if Thomas and Alito have even one drop, and others seem to take it or leave it, again rendering that “honor” worthless.
All the various reasons listed in this thread are the underlying cause…it just all happened to manifest as Trump. If not him, it would have been someone else because the rot, the inability to address system changes in relation to American society, inability of the parties to look inward at their own rot, money corrupting things, egos, monopolies, lobbies, on and on. He is a supreme idiot and a heinous person, but t that idiocy also makes Trump…easier to see for what he is and does. In that way we are “lucky” though that term certainly doesn’t feel applicable. But I mean it in the sense that (despite what he thinks and his base) he’s not slick, polished, charismatic, or even decent to look at and listen to. If that had been the front man for this push by the far right, we would be in a much worse situation. It wouldn’t be as easy for the public to see.
It doesn't help that it is held on a Tuesday rather than a weekend, which would be more accessible to those with jobs. Of course, mail-in avoids this problem if only it were more universally available.
I like the idea of voting on Saturday and Sunday. Virtually everyone is off work on one of those days. Tuesday makes no sense unless it's made a paid holiday, which it isn't.
Early voting, even in red states, largely addresses this problem. I live in SC and my huge county, as large as a couple of small states area-wise, has 7 early voting sites with at least one Saturday session.
It did but that’s changing rapidly as R state governments scramble to limit early and/or mail ballots. The problem these fools never seem to consider is that it also hurts their own voters. Ultimately, it will reduce turnout overall. They like that, and I am sure they just hope the scale hurts Ds more.
I actually think that Trump's Save America's attempt a voter suppression could be good for Democrats. Especially, the part where they're trying to disenfranchise women by having them prove they married and that's why their name isn't the same as the name on their birth certificate. The more educated are better able to deal with jumping through hoops...and will be very motivated.
Your argument suggests that concerns over less educated women who work outside the home, which is likely most of them, are correct: these women will be less likely to register to vote. And they may not realize that this bill only addresses registration not voting itself. However, John Thune says that he doesn't see it passing the Senate because it can't withstand the filibuster.
As another non-American, I have to agree...the democratic countries realize that while it is true that Trump does not represent all, or even most, Americans, the system still allowed him to be elected...twice. And if it happened before it can happen again, and millions of Americans, one of two major parties, and many of the richest and most powerful Americans, do still support him. What Trump did for those of us who were not inculcated from birth to "believe in" American exceptionalism...it is the richest nation but not the "best" nation...is alert us to just how far to the "right" end of the authoritarian scale the country is compared to those that excel in various important metrics. Those democracies ceded their own defense to the country that, post WWII, most wanted it and could best provide it. I speak simplistically, of course, but we know, now, not to trust the country overall, well celebrating and admiring about it all that actually is great.
The ironies, inconsistencies, demonstrable lies, cognitive dissonance, reversals, non-sequiturs and ad-hominem arguments, and all else are staggering in their number and magnitude and point to the highest degree of irrationality in any world leader in modern history, IMHO. That said, it is the inability of the American system to deal with it that, I believe, is so frightening to leaders of other nations, and that is because they may see past the belief that what the founders came up with is, while brilliant in intent, flawed to the degree that it cannot prevent a Trump from happening, nor many other problems that plague America. Those problems may be inherent to the process of being a super-power, with power corrupting and all that...certainly there is a rich history of scandal within American history, possibly to a degree that exceeds other "western democracies"? I'm not sure about that but I do fear that within the international community there has emerged a danger even greater than Trump, himself, and I hope that I am wrong. I'm old and my opinion derives from memory that dates back to the absurd Vietnam war, the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate, Reagonomics and much, much more.
Senators couldn't decide anything. Each of them who tried to resist was served as red meat to angry Base. Those who are there now are made in the image of the King!
If we remember Boris Johnson, we recall that his Party got rid of him not because he offended their sensibilities or broke their laws but because their voters started to vote for Labour in elections the Tories thought they would win. And that was because voters in the UK felt an allegiance to their country that was greater than their support for a particular party. In the US, Trump has never really lost his supporters, no matter how terribly he has governed, because Americans have become more loyal to the political faction they identify with than they are to the country as an abstraction. This is true of MAGA, but if I'm honest it's also true of me; there is simply no way I would ever support a Republican candidate, because I think that party is a grave danger to the Constitution and the country as a whole. If I disagree sufficiently with a Democratic candidate, I just don't vote at all.
This nonagenarian, college educated, still aware and active lady …..is FURIOUS that our citizens have gone into mental hiding‼️The country is being shredded by a poorly equipped daddy’s boy and the sycophants following his “winging-it” path to a paycheck ! No intelligence, no integrity whatsoever …. just false faces behind the rouged rogue!
There has always been too much money, too many lobbyists for me to believe that US politics is for the people, but Citizens United put that oligarch influence into overdrive.
Trump seems to lack anyone outside of the US who is a willing follower. He has his strongmen that he has propped up, but they put themselves and their countries first. These are not loyal people, at least not to him, because he is not playing by their rules. Even Milei whose election he bought has not helped him out. Where are these new leaders that Trump spent our tax dollars on and their warships and militaries. Where is Putin? Where is Xi, Kim Jung Un all leaders whom he admires and has chosen to embrace while tossing aside the long term relationships with loyal allies. Now, after he appeared in Davos and insulted everyone, after Greenland and Canada acquisition remarks, and treading Zelensky and Ukraine terribly, he has to turn to his Middle East allies who are going to go with the military that can protect them, and it is not the US right now.
As I said over the weekend, and then heard others saying the same thing, China might decide that now is the time to take Taiwan, and then all that chip knowledge goes to them. Meanwhile we do not grow crops in time and a lot of the world goes hungry, including in our own country.
Brazil was able to handle a former leader who tried to stage a coup, while the United States cannot. The votes in Congress to impeach and convict after Trump's January 6, 2021 Capitol attack should have been unanimous, but they were far from it. Technically, Trump was convicted of felonies, but he was not held to account in any way. To the contrary, millions treated him as a martyr.
Our government is permeated with rot, populated by individuals who place their own personal creature comforts above all else. So, I agree that Trump's departure from office will not solve our deeply entrenched problems.
Give up then. Don’t bother voting for Democrats. They’re just as bad. There is no solution. No hope. Sit back and watch the world crumble.
No, his departure, and putting republicans in the rear view mirror, would be a very positive beginning. Can we accomplish that? Yes. But not with poor voter turnout. Not with voting third party. Not with apathy. Not with resignation. The democrats, some of them, are part of the rot. Not nearly as much as this Republican Party. Not even close. Vote.
I agree. I also don't really see any coordinated efforts, among the Democratic leadership or in the party otherwise, to actually focus on building the kinds of relationships and coalitions and platforms that would enable it to happen. I really hope that changes.
BINGO! What I continue to find exasperatingly frustrating is that no one/no group has come forward with a vision for restoring the America that has ceased to exist. Something like the inverse of Project 2025. Failing that, we’re doomed.
People voted them out. It’s orders of magnitude harder to build any type of coalition when people are telling you they don’t care. We need to vote them in. And with voter suppression and voter discouragement efforts by republicans, we need a massive turnout. Close elections aren’t going to get it done.
but vote in dems that are not DINOs like many of them that had no problem voting for hegseth, RFK jr, and other sycophants....we need fighters not capitulators
Part of that is because lamestream media isn't reporting on it. Thus everything the Dems are trying to do remains "behind the scenes". It's not entirely their fault.
I would agree, if that were where I got most of my news. Mainstream media don't actually have the ability to prevent those committed to doing so from covering important news.
That said, I actually do think government worked better in many (but importantly not all) wayswhen more things were able to be done behind closed doors instead of expecting everything to be publicly visible at all times.
I agree that dems partly are responsible for a trump to be vomited up because they also along with Rs placate the ruling class and wall street more than working americans but mainly because they derive their power from the donor money and the corrupt campaign finance system
Brazil was under military rule from 1964 - 1985. During this time, they had at least 434 political deaths / disappearances. Their constitution wasn't adopted until 1988.
My guess is Brazil still has a recent enough memory of living under military rule that gives them the political will to try and stop it from happening again.
The republicans that get elected in some of the so-called heartland aren't exactly the best, and brightest. Many of them attended poor schools and don't know their own country's recent history. Case in point: Markwayne Mullin, Tommy Tuberville, homeschooled (even worse educated) Katy Britt, Anna Paula Luna (tic), Ron Johnson, Clay Higgins, and so many more.
Brazil has had a lot of experience with political coups. They know it when they see it. We did not. I bet after all that has happened, over 50% of the US believes that we just need a course correction and that we're not in dire danger.
💯 Agreed. It’s time to begin prioritizing. Here’s my list: 1. Win the house and senate. 2. Impeach 3. Pursue criminal charges (and disbarment). 4. Join ICC and cooperate with their criminal charges re: Venezuela.
In the meantime, six states have misprision of treason/felony laws on the books that render them mandated reporters. If they issues warrants, DC metro police will arrest the lot of them and they can languish in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. What are their AGs waiting for? Looking at you CA, IL, DE, VT, VA, and RI.
You may want to add a point before (1): I understand from listening to Rachel Maddow that there is a "No Kings" rally planned for March 28th. It would help your point (1) if the turnout in red states is high enough to scare Republicans in Congress into dismantling all measures to deter a free and fair vote in November.
If you impeach, that gives you Vance. He's smarter than Trump and just as racist, mean and vindictive.
We need meaningful constitutional reform that restores the 3 branches of government and strips the imperial powers from the President.
We need to constitutionally make independent agencies. The President may appoint the head of them, but cannot fire them at will. We need independent agencies because those are the places where experts in the field are. The world is too complicated for well-educated, intelligent men to know most of what there is to know. (This was the original premise in the Constitution.)
Critical agency heads must be confirmed with 60% of the Senate, same for the Supreme court.
One man may not be in-charge of our nuclear weapons!!!
Agreed. I don’t see JDV as a threat. In September 2024, he admitted to Dana Bash on CNN that he creates stories. “If I have to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, that’s what I’m going to do, Dana.” He wasn’t VP yet. Not sure how he wasn’t disbarred for that, other than purview confusion (he resides in Ohio but is licensed to practice law in Kentucky. Which raises other questions). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/jd-vance-lies-haitian-immigrants
Correct. I think the world was ready to forgive us after we elected someone besides Trump, but then we went back to him and let him go on a destructive rampage?
Learned from Lincoln Project's Rick Smith today, that Trump/Hegseth had the two US Navy minesweepers--and their extremely experienced crews--withdrawn stateside just *before* Epic Fury, *without* sending replacements. Unbelievable.
The Iranians, meanwhile, in addition to torching $120,000,000 tankers with $50,000 drones--have been dumping dozens or even tens of dozens of cheap Russian $500 naval mines in the narrow Straits of Hormuz. From their stockpile of around 3,000.
Which might explain why Trump/Hegseth haven't made any US warships available for tanker escort duty. Because without minesweepers to clear the Straits of floaters, it's just not safe. Even a single $500 mine could sink or cripple a $2.8 billion US frigate.
Trump now has to either beg Iran for a ceasefire; or escalate with boots on the ground.
Allegedly Britain has specialist expertise--and minesweepers--in clearing mines. But Trump is too busy insulting Britain's dead soldiers (helping the US in Afghanistan) and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer--as "No Winston Churchill"--for Britain to take more than defensive action for its own military bases.
And were Trump not so ignorant, he might remember that Churchill strongly advocated "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war": war can only be justified when diplomacy and negotiation have failed.
I read today in the Toronto Globe and Mail that Trump had threatened to cancel his planned trip to China if China didn't provide warships. Xi was clear, "You're not cancelling. Be here." No more details yet.
I’ve read conflicting reports about mines. Keep in mind that Iran has a strong motive to keep oil going to China. I’ve read that oil bound for China is still getting through.
The minesweepers were replaced with some unspecified number of Littoral Combat Ships, which the Navy claims are better at clearing mines - “The [littoral combat ship] MCM mission package is a sophisticated suite of manned and unmanned systems designed to locate, identify, and neutralize sea mines, at a safer distance from minefields than the Avenger-class MCMs,” a Navy official told Military Times on the condition of anonymity.
According to the Navy Times, the first of these was sent to the Middle East back in May.
There are a lot of damaged people in our society. People with personality disorders who also are easily hypnotized by the Orange Conman and easily propagandized by Faux Snooze. Most of them aren't any too bright, either. I want to think we can throw off the shackles tRump is trying so incompetently to apply to us, but I just don't know. All we can do is vote like our survival depends on it!
We witnessed the power of the oligarchs who own and run our mass media media and social media platforms. The US billionaire oligarchs put Trump back in power by demonstrating that he who controls the narrative, in our mass media and social media, controls the minds of the voters.
Fox News spent years building up a strawman liberal that Democrats stupidly did nothing to counter. I remember my conservative friends complaining about forced equal outcomes for DEI. A massive amount of resentment bult up toward the strawman liberal real or not, it didn't matter.
Huge corporations invest billions in advertising for good reason, it works. And, as we all witnessed, it works for politics as well.
To this day, with all that we have seen and know, the average voter is still upset about gay and trans bathrooms and sports, illegal immigrants, and forced equality.
Social media controls the minds now of so many that until this smartphone addiction is addressed, nothing will change.
The Silicon Valley trillionaires know this and prefer our new America, they move globally with their money without boundaries. They control our government(s) and they just don't care, as long as they aren't taxed, investigated or regulated, they will continue to make trillions because they've tapped into how the human mind works and their AI algorithms can control the masses at will.
I have this before. I don't think that Trump won the election fairly. I believe that the voting machines were tampered with. Let's face it, Musk, Theil, Ellison and other tech billionaires spent plenty of money for Trump to be re-elected. Maybe they were able to adjust the voting machines. Trump will always say that he won by a "landslide", but he didn't. You don't win all 7 swing states with less than 50% of the public voting.
Precisely. Lots of people ready to say “We love America. But how can we trust you as an ally when a couple thousand people in Wisconsin upset with the price of eggs give us a president like Trump?"
The saying is : Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. No country is going to trust the US to honor any agreements or treaties for the next two generations or so.
You have that exactly right. Add the fact that Trump stole top secret documents, stored them like spare rolls of toilet paper, and obstructed attempts to get them back.
I hope that we are not collectively punished for what a bare majority of brainwashed idiots did. But we should not be trusted again. FOX and the billionaires are too powerful, but we can see that for all of their "success" they have not been wise.
It's not only Trump who is a problem. It's also all the voters who voted for him and would do so again - his base - roughly one third of all Americans.
Swing voters were primarily upset with inflation and did not like the pictures of thousands of illegal immigrants coming across the border. They discounted almost everything else including concerns about autocracy, honesty, good governance, etc. The economy prior to Covid seemed good so they thought Trump would bring it back. Harris was also a weak candidate and was weakened further by Biden leaving the race quite late. Note that mainstream Democrats and Republicans are basically tribal and will vote party line. So, whichever party can bring out more of their base and get a bigger slice of the pie of swing voters will win. Even those who say they are independents tend to favor one party over the other so the percentage of actual swing voters is actually quite small.
Peter, I’m not so sure you are right. Those within our frame of reference do realize that MAGA doesn’t speak for us, and what I’ve heard from friends who travel extensively is that they aren’t disrespected in Europe or So America or elsewhere, but the people in foreign countries can’t understand how Trump is still in office and has such a following. They don’t agree with, nor respect our government and like PK says they don’t trust that we will right our ship or not elect someone like him in the future. They cannot rely on us anymore, because too many in our electorate are NOT bright enough to elect the best we have to offer, but instead fall for the glitz of TV personalities.
ilene: i live overseas (and have done so for longer than 2 decades) and what i see is that the reason trump is still in power is due to (1) MAGA loves his racism and sexism and (gun) violence (2) federal politicians and judges -- who SHOULD remove him from office -- are happy to receive the massive payoffs they are getting from associating with the tangerine testicle and his regime of sycophants. as an american living overseas, even i no longer trust ameriKKKa!
Agree. Fortunate for you that you can view this from afar. I am fighting daily along with lots of my likeminded friends and fellow activists to regain some control. Wish us luck.
I love in SoCal and I see clearly that plenty of people outside of the US don't respect the US (especially this regime and those that support it) and great the US because for the reasons PK spoke of. My message to those outside the US is don't trust us not to make this choice again. Be wary of everything we say via our “leaders” and major news outlets because 99% of it is utter bs or layered in bs as though the bs was frosting, icing, and sprinkles. Find independent journalists from the US on the Web so as to keep yourself adequately informed about what's really going inside the US.
i think i would have had a nervous breakdown if i still lived in the USA, with all this fresh hell happening. as it is, i suffer anxiety attacks every night now. my mind whips around in circles of terror, making it impossible to sleep. it's enough to make a girl into an alcoholic.
We are finding the enthusiasm to fight back growing, and volunteering to help turn things around has raised our spirits. I do know that there points in time that despair catches us all, but we can’t give up.
Nope. As a Canadian I’ll rely on foreign press, even CTV and CBC over US press, which of course is 90% of Canadian press owned by US venture capitalists. Why we have the Alberta problem?…look no further than US owned press.
I'm getting my news from a variety of sources. The NYT and WSJ are interesting. The WSJ has the best news reporting. The whack the Trump regime far harder than the NYT, which has gone big into entertainment. But the opinion section of the WSJ is total Trump sycophants. Much of the news reporting at the NYT is done under opinion.
Then there's the BBC, which still reports on the Palestinians and for in-depth The Economist. Sometimes Al Jazeera. And Foreign Affairs.
Yes they are trying the same destructive plot, up there, divide the people and get the resentful, rural ,voters to vote against their own interests. It took two generations of defunding the public schools here, but they got there.
I tend to agree with Peter. I'm a US citizen who has lived in Ireland for almost three years now, and it's interesting to hear people's comments, which often go along the lines of "I've always loved visiting America" or "I have family/friends there" but "I sure as hell wouldn't go there now" because "WTF is going on with Tr*mp?" I'd concur that the prevailing view is more of fear, incredulity, disappointment and disgust with the "leadership" rather than disrespect for the country itself, which is exactly how I feel.
I saw through Trump many years ago, when he wrote that disgusting one page advertisement in the NYT urging New York to murder the Central Park Five. I've been anti-Trump ever since....
America needs to put its house in order. There is some much that needs to be done, starting with cleaning up the mess in SCOTUS, dismantling Jim Crow, reforming the electoral system, and removing big money from politics. Id also look at changes to income, wealth, and capital gains taxes to shrink the Oligarchy...
As a foreigner whose lived in the US, and travelled extensively in the US, I want it to succeed and I dont believe this cabal of idiots is truly representative of the country, just a clique who seized power through manipulation and lies.
Obama talked about Hope. If my hope in change is a delusion, its a healthy one, and im going to hold on to it.
A world without hope is truly bleak and its what they want.
I appreciate your hopeful outlook, Peter, although I suspect that it will take a complete cataclysm in order to make any of that happen. Regarding Tr*mp himself, I agree. I first became aware of him probably 50 years ago and thought he was an arrogant blowhard even then. And regarding the cabal of idiots--unfortunately there are still too many otherwise well-meaning people who are still swallowing their garbage. I think a lot of it has to do with their preserving their self-identification with being "non-liberal." Perhaps the coming economic crisis will help them change their tune. It's starting to happen already; if you get a chance, please take a look at Thomas Friedman's column about the actions in Minnesota in January and February. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/opinion/columnists/minneapolis-ice-trump-neighbor.html
Sorry Mr. Reward, the other givernments and populations hold America in contempt. The point you miss is that the voters were STUPID enough to put Dear Leader back in the White House. As much as I hate to admit, Trump learned a few things from his first four years. Every single cabinet level posts are held by vacuum headed,sycophants looking to line their pockets, institutionalize graft and greed, and make sure 90% of the population remains downtrodden.
Like it or not, a majority of our elected representatives stand behind Trump. That's pretty much the definition of MAGA being America, at least until a time when Republicans lose Congress.
America elected him twice. Stop being delusional. The world has listened to all respect for the US, Not just Trump. Look at clowns like Johnson, Lindsay Graham, the whole cabinet….. the fit runs deep.
Depends on what you mean with "respected". If it means having largely a positive attitude towards, I'd say America is definitely not respected by most of its former allies. Of course, that is different from saying that most people know that there are a lot of decent Americans who are just as embarrassed about this clown-show as most sane people are. But as a nation and as a state, America is now deeply mistrusted and despised. And for many good reasons, I am sorry to say. I mean, what civilized nation would re-elect someone who staged a coup, and can't tell a truth even if he wanted to?
I think I'll consider Paul Krugman's writing valid, and that as a whole, the U.S. has lost respect and trust and standing. Other nations don't consider nor care how individual citizens of the US may think and feel, instead going by the actions of our government.
For those that point to the concept that the majority of Americans represent something different from those currently in charge, I would ask them to get further inland from the coasts before proclaiming this as a fact. Even if most of these folks are not MAGA (and many are), there is a consistency of individualism, anti intellectualism, and heavy parochialism.
Respect may not be directly related to this, but it does inform perceptions. In our personal life do we respect acquaintances and “friends” that care little about our circumstances, or constantly have one-way conversations?
It is far simpler than that. Starting in the mid 90s our Congress became captured by the need to raise larger and larger amounts of campaign finance money. Instead of matching what private donors (especially oil producers) were giving we simply fell into requiring our politicians to. spend nearly all their time raising money from those who had it, especially the relatively wealthy of both parties. Hence we essentially decapitated our Congress. Without a working Congress, we ignored many problems. Most especially the problems of the de-industrialization in rural areas of country. People living in those rural areas were (and remain) desperate for help. If you are wealthy enough to afford subscribing to Professor Krugman (as I was) it was easy to miss this. Those rural voters stayed ignored until Trump said what none of our politicians were willing to say: “the system is rigged.”
The system remains rigged.
The system is still unresponsive to what the population really wants. It is drifting towards an AI job market shock, but the AI tech campaign finance money has shut off effective congressional response.
This creates an opening for demagogues like Trump.
We have a system problem.
The problem needs something like campaign finance vouchers. But our politicians of both parties, even the Democrats, have refused to talk about public financing of campaigns by making small amounts available to every voter to donate. This though they have quietly endorsed the idea of vouchers they have refused to come out and pick up them publicly because they are all TERRIFIED of losing campaign finance money from the special interests.
Vouchers would essentially match the amount of money currently being donated privately (roughly $16 billion in 2024) and ensure that the average voter was the primary donor politicians paid attention to. Without this type of public financing, we cannot restore a working Congress. Without a working Congress we cannot respond to the problems.
The public, in a desperate attempt to find someone to listen to them, will continue to seesaw back-and-forth between one ineffective president to another ineffective president. We are now suffering, the logical consequences of not having a working government. Trump is a symptom of that.
This is what I wrote about in my Substack (when I had the time to write). now I am trying to help someone bring
well said and as evidenced by trump going to hillary's left in 2016 which put him over the top.....2024 was a combination of dems failure to put up a candidate early enough, tech billionaire money, musk rigging and dem voters either staying home or getting fooled again by the orange blowhard
What you’re saying isn’t altogether wrong. There’s no generalized anti-Americanism, at least not yet.
People around the world do respect the substantial – though still very much minoritarian – resistance against fascism in the U.S., and we do consider people like Mamdani, Lina Khan, or AOC as beacons of hope for a global turnaround.
But by saying the quiet parts out loud, Trump did destroy quite a lot of respectability for U.S. imperialist politics beyond the limits of his presidential terms.
Now everybody knows that “No blood for oil“ wasn‘t a malicious accusation back in the days of George Bush sr., but well justified criticism. Just like Dubya‘s renewed Iraq adventure was based on lies. Now everybody knows that U.S. hegemony has always been about global power, not about spreading liberal democracy.
There won‘t be a way back to what used to be “normal.“ U.S. soft power is gone, probably forever. So the Western world won’t accept the U.S. as a supposedly benevolent hegemon any longer.
Millions if not billions despise people like Trump, Miller, Hegseth, or Vance.
They despise ICE and the Heritage Foundation, AIPAC and crazy evangelicals.
They despise Musk, Thiel, Karp, Bezos and Zuckerberg.
They may even despise billionaire backed, toothless Democrats.
And some will despise their cult-like followers, opportunistic collaborators and docile servants.
Very few people will go as far as to lump in even the millions of people protesting at „No Kings“ days 1 and 2, just because they are American.
People will rather turn against Trump‘s – and more general U.S. imperialism‘s – collaborators, all around the world.
But sure, all U.S. administrations were voted in, or at least supported by a majority of voters, and large majorities did support quite some toxic uniparty policies.
So while there are shades of gray, responsibility lies with everybody who didn‘t do their utmost to stop the U.S. on their decades-long trajectory toward fascism.
To the rest of the world, it doesn't matter if half the population don't support Trump. He was elected into office despite his obvious flaws by the other half.
28% of the Palestinians supported Hamas, but look what happened to all of them. And they hadn't had an election in 20 years And were unarmed civilians against a violent terrorist organization. 2 people with guns can intimidate 8 people without. Same for Iran.
Still, right-wing populism, strongmenship and outright fascism have become a global phenomenon, these days.
It‘s not restricted to the U.S., and while U.S. responsibility may be particularly high, defeating it remains a common responsibility of the Global North, at the very least.
You could make that argument if Trump had been elected for the first time. The fact that he was elected for a second term clearly shows that the majority of the US population doesn't give a damn about the rest of the world.
The US is not respected. You guys voted for this, so...most of you ARE tRumpy MAGAts as far as Rest-of-World is concerned. (A Canadian in India meeting ppl from everywhere.)
Is this a case that the US, and what it has stood for in the past, is respected but nobody respects a leader who is clearly off his rocker and an administration that is doing his bidding? Surely our former allies realize trump IS NOT the US.
This is just it. In 2024, he got more votes than he did in 2016 and more votes than Harris, though not more than adding Harris with third party votes (which is a MASSIVE waste of a vote in our very solid two party system). And, there are the millions of potential voters who sat out despite his previous presidency and the terrible things he was in the news for between 2020-2024.
But he wouldn’t be there without the US electorate having voted for him, (twice!) specifically to represent them domestically and internationally. As far as the rest of the world is concerned Trump and MAGA are most definitely America.
Thank you, for the article, Professor. Did you hear about the scheme Mr. Kushner coordinated with the government. I read about it on the intellectualist. I feel we need to end this war first, not monetary schemes. I agree with you , America, I hope will find its balance and strength to be once again, good amongst all nations in NATO. It seems the voters will have to decide this matter.
Even now I have great respect for the people of US but keep wondering why people do not unite to protest. From the contender Kamala Harris to many others can they not do something. In India despite our diversity there was unity when Emergency was declared and people proved their power when the then PM was compelled to hold the election and lost. If we could do it why not the citizens of the US?
Oh, but there is a way to change the government before November. A relatively small group of men and women can vote to remove Trump and this will all be over. However, they refuse to do so. They are the key to solving this problem.
The cabinet can also remove the president. They ARE appointed by him.
A majority of the congress can impeach him, but two thirds of the senate must convict him for removal. Both are controlled by the GOP, The Don's party. They are beholden to him for endorsements and money (support).
Totally agree. But as Adam Kinzinger has talked about - at great political and personal peril - many Republicans would have liked to vote for Trump's impeachment after J6 but were politically and physically afraid because of open threats to their re-election chances and their family's safety. Other GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell felt so sure that Trump was toast that they didn't think it was necessary to take a firm stand; a quote attributed to him was "We'll let the Dems take care of that SOB" (slightly paraphrased).
So it was because of either open threats or cynical carelessness. Either way the GOP in Congress is to blame for letting this guy get re-elected and then stay in office.
Which a) would not change the government, everyone in the line of succession all the way down are "on board" and b) won't happen anyway. Which is why I said no REAL way to change the government.
VOTE in EVERY election from next week’s dog catcher to prez …..using the brain with clarity! WE, civilized people, are facing immediate extinction by the rouged rogue governing with the seat of his voluminous pants‼️. A sloth has more intelligence and understanding of presiding over our 250 years of democracy than Trump !
Until or unless you change Americans' preferred media choices, they will be programmed by idiots and self-interested billionaires (and be oblivious to the fact that they are). Just watch some Fox News or a few painful clips from the popular Joe Rogan podcast or any popular "reality TV" show to get an idea of how vapid our thinking is.
†rump and his minions have been taking over the media — not with censorship, but with money.
There's no better example than Bezos's purchase of the Washington Post. Unlike other examples (Disney, CBC, CNN, etc.), there was a rather blatant example when The Post endorsed Kamala Harris, then was forced by Bezos to retract that endorsement.
Now The Post's official editorial policy is promoting "personal liberty and free markets". I'm sure they'll promote "free markets" like crazy, but I'm guessing the "personal liberty" part has their own definition.
🙏 Amen, Linda! We must respond with a united voice: The tyranny ends this November. We will have free and fair elections because there are 250,000,000+ voters and we demand nothing less.
Here’s a running list of suggested planks for blue candidates and incumbents, amended by readers and in no particular order.
I’ve sent this list to my governor, congressional rep, and senators. I’ve asked them to indicate any planks that they oppose so that I’m informed when I vote but, as a disabled grandmother, I’m typically unseen and unheard and don’t expect any response other than a form letter.
So, I sent the list to DNC. I asked DNC to enforce the assignments below (or come up with their own). Voters need concrete plans of action with budgets and timelines released before the election. DNC needs to hold a midterm convention (live or virtual) where states present their planks and findings.
DNC ignored my correspondence. I urge you to forward the planks you support to your elected representatives and blue candidates. It’s up to us to provide their marching orders. Otherwise, they’ll come up with their own and we know where that leads.
(BTW, the assignments are random. Who knew AI had a sense of humor?)
We WILL have the country that was promised 400 years ago but it will require unprecedented cooperation, like Quincy Jones got when he made “We Are The World.” He posted a sign that applies here: “check your ego at the door.” Or emigrate. Like the celebrities who got rich here but won’t stay and fight.
1. South Dakota: Medicare for all, including mental health, dental, and vision.
2. Delaware: Running water for all.
3. Maryland: Safe, affordable, adequate housing for all.
4. Kentucky: Climate change course correction.
5. Washington: National “Annual Yearly Progress” educational standards that apply to all students: public school, private school, home school.
6. Vermont: Nutrition and pesticides. There’s a reason why US wheat imports are banned in EU.
7. Minnesota: Paths to citizenship and statehood.
8. Arkansas: Metric system instead of imperial measurements. Every country in the world has made the switch except the US, Liberia, and Myanmar.
9. Iowa: Reading and math literacy.
10. Hawaii: Maternal and infant survival (US has the worst rates among developed countries).
11. Colorado: Restore DEI. My disability requires electronic communication (email or chat with a transcript) but legal teams don’t like written records. I have to surrender agency and assign a proxy to manage a credit card issue or schedule a mammogram. Disney sent me an email stating that they’re “phones only.” What’s next? Telling guests in wheelchairs to manage the stairs?
12. New Hampshire: Zero tolerance of corruption.
13. North Carolina: Child care. Montessori is Head Start in Italy. It was invented there to lift up disadvantaged children. In the US, we’ve made it a designer brand that’s unaffordable for those who need it most and for whom it was intended.
14. Arizona: Amend the 2nd amendment. Texas has more than 4000 gun deaths per year. FL takes silver with more than 3000. Together, they’re responsible for more than 17% of the 40,000 annual gun deaths in the US. The UK has 28. Not 28,000. Not 2800. 28. Their cops are unarmed. Everyone wins.
15. Oregon: FOIA restored without the loopholes.
16. Wisconsin: Enforcement of the laws, regs and court decisions that are on the books but ignored.
17. Mississippi: Abortion rights enshrinement.
18. Florida: Marriage equality enshrinement.
19. California: Infrastructure investment.
20. Nevada: Internet for all.
21. Illinois: We need to stop flushing drinking-quality water. We’re running out.
22. Tennessee: Return the Black Hills.
23. Louisiana: Reparations.
24. Michigan: Livable wages in decent working conditions, ideally in a union environment.
25. Connecticut: End citizens united.
26. Montana: Inheritance reform.
27. West Virginia: Enshrine social security.
28. North Dakota: Reform SCOTUS and court system.
29. Georgia: Campaign finance reform.
30. Alaska: Tax reform.
31. New York: Commitment to ethical conduct.
32. Ohio: Commitment to “truthfulness, transparency, and accountability.”
33. Texas: Enshrine voting rights.
34. New Jersey: Outlaw NDAs. They were meant to protect secret formulas, not silence the voices of victims.
35. Missouri: Join ICC.
36. Maine: Restore the covenant of “good faith and fair dealing.”
37. Indiana: Term limits. Public service is not for accumulating power and influence, it’s for serving the people.
38. Utah: Mandatory service to by all citizens reaching 18 for two years in public works, AmeriCorp, National Guard, or other similar organization.
39. Alabama: Prison reform.
40. Virginia: Free college or vocational training.
41. Idaho: Eliminate electoral college.
42. Rhode Island: End private equity investment.
43.Pennsylvania: End tipping. It’s out of control and our global neighbors don’t do it.
44.Wyoming: Issue new SS numbers to each citizen now that ours have been compromised
45.Kansas: Animal Welfare Act. AKC “breed standards” require docked tails and cropped ears for some dogs. The US and Russia are among the only nations where cosmetic mutilation of dogs is legal. Global leaders Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI, France) and The Kennel Club (KC, UK) preserve breed standards without these cruel practices. We can do the same.
46.New Mexico: Regulate contracts signed by—and conditions endured by—pregnancy surrogates.
I hope you're right. Here in Europe we're furious at what the jackass in charge and his moronic dry-drunk henchman are doing. We will ALL have to face the consequences of his stupid decisions. I pity the Iranians, despite their repressive regime leaders but what the hell did el trumpo think? Answer: he didn't.
Bullies have a tendency to be ganged up on and defeated when they’ve gone too far. The US has thrown its weight around with their might makes right horseshit for well over 150 years, even further with the Monroe Doctrine, taking what isn’t theirs and trying to justify it after the fact. The country was founded on genocide, misogyny and human bondage. It’s time for this horrible experiment to end.
I don’t respect or trust America either. And as a formerly proud American, that’s something I never thought I’d say. I used to think Republicans were decent people I didn’t agree with. (That’s why I believed George W Bush when he said there were WMDs — I didn’t think a president would lie about something like that.) Now I consider them would-be fascists who want to destroy the country so the rich can more comfortably loot it. I will never trust another Republican politician as long as I live. They are cowards, bigots and crooks.
As a British person who has always considered the USA a beacon of democracy and our strong ally I can confirm that Trump has destroyed all trust and respect. And the prime reason, above everything else, is his betrayal of the people of the Ukraine. Nothing compares to that. There are no extenuating or "real - politik" circumstances. Putin is a murderer and a war criminal and Trump and his advisers love Putin. That told the British everything about what the USA is today.
Trump was aiming for a grand historical legacy here, but it's slipping away. Instead of being remembered as the president who ended the Islamic Republic, the emerging narrative is that he's the president who started a catastrophic war for no reason. He's going to say anything, do anything, to try change this narrative.
I'm afraid he will change it for the worse. I sat in on a military lecture on the web yesterday. Except for Alexander the Great, Iran has never been subdued on the ground - it's basically a mountainous plateau averaging 4,000' above sea level with mountains taller than any in the U.S. Mechanized combat is out of the question for the most part, and foot traffic follows paths that contain many constrictions which make excellent ambush spots. Boots on the ground in Iran will make Afghanistan look like a walk in Central Park.
The amazing thing is that Trump appears to claim we can use military ships to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Half of Russias feared Black Sea fleet has been sunk and the other half is hiding in harbors as far away from Ukraine as they can get. Because they are not safe from drones out in the open sea.
The math is simple. None of the available systems are 100% effective at protecting a war ship against drones. Even if you have a failure rate as low as 1 in 200 (and nobody comes close to that in open sea) - you are still defenseless against an attack with thousands of drones.
The US military know this and are not currently even trying to escort and protect tankers. Now Trump is asking other countries to take risks that even he refuse.
Whilst we shouldn't make light of all the suffering the war is causing, I'm going to indulge in plenty of schadenfreude watching Trump desperately squirm about in this quadmire of his own making. He's now begging erstwhile allies to come to his aid, the same allies he's spent the last year threatening and insulting. I'm not clear exactly what Europe and China can do to fix this mess without Trump backing down. But if they do get involved they should press their advantage and demand huge concessions from Trump. He is someone who really deserves to be kicked when he is down.
They simply cannot come to his aid. USAers need to bring him and his regime down. And now. This is the only way we may have a chance to remember what a snake oil salesman really does and says. And the cost.
Agreed. No country will risk entering an illegal war, no matter how desperate it becomes. He is a warmonger helping another warmonger, Netanyahu, and in the process aiding Russia to continue its illegal war in Ukraine. Help him out and before you know it he will be waging war with the next country that upsets him. Did someone mention Cuba?
Yep. The Republican party has been trying to recover Cuba since the revolution. U.S. interests own most of the country before Castro and they haven't forgotten. Rubio is pushing hard for a takeover there; his parents came to the States just before Castro took over.
The great climate scientist Michael,Mann posted this on Bluesky - “The MAGA bubble simply is NOT going to break, regardless of how bad the Trump/GOP stories get. 30-40% of the public are hearing/reading nothing but right wing spin due to our toxified, consolidated, plutocrat-owned media. That's the #1 problem that will have to be dealt with.”
And I have posted repeatedly that all is lost absent a successful, well organized and well funded campaign (actually a flat-out, scorched-earth war) against the disinformation and propaganda of right wing, corporate media and the disinformation which is profitably disseminated on antisocial media. Independent media, such as this one, only reaches those of us who read it. The Democratic Party needs to go around the electronic bubble - literally with millions of pamphlets massively distributed by hand, posted on walls, dropped by helicopters, etc. Individuals and smaller fact-based groups cannot do this. This needs to be a multi-hundred million dollar campaign which doesn’t hesitate to say, “Fox “News” Is Lying To You.” Given the potentially successful GOP efforts to subvert democracy by voter suppression, even if “only” one third of U.S. voters remain MAGA, they may continue their rule over decency and reason.
Well, that’s what you get when you elect a psychopath and malignant narcissist to office. In my opinion, the worst is yet to come. This may sound a bit hyperbolic but if we survive this very dangerous individual, we will be extremely lucky.
I was trained as a historian and sort of still am. I cannot think of another major power in history that did what the U.S. is now doing, in setting out to deliberately destroy the institutions and relationships that are the basis of our own power. Other powers have made mistakes that helped bring them down, but I cannot think of another power that did it on purpose.
It's the whiplash that unsettled most. This year alone, it was Greenland, then Venezuela and now Iran. Where will the US decide they want to invade in April?
Foreign nations can't keep up with the telenovela that is US decision making.
💯 Agree, John. But all wildfires eventually end and new growth emerges, regardless of the magnitude of the destruction. That new growth will reflect the dominant value system. Which wolf will we feed? https://www.nanticokeindians.org/about/the-tale-of-two-wolves/
I had enough. As a Norwegian we were profoundly disappointed by George W. Bush. We covered the American embassy with flowers after 9/11. The sympathy for America was outpouring.
Then Bush went to war in Iraq and said those of us not with him was against America. That was deeply offensive. He insulted long time allies in all sorts of ways. He killed civilians and tortured people. We could not believe it.
Then came Obama. It is hard to say how much he repaired out faith in America. We thought America had learned from their one off mistake. But no!
America elected Trump twice! Twice!
This is the 4th time including the two Bush years America elects a horrendously bad leader. And it just keeps getting worse. Every Republican seems worse than the previous.
I don't see how we can trust America. What is the point of some reasonable president like Biden holding office occasionally when that is just a temporary break from a horror show?
Long term alliances cannot be built with such a broken country. I have kept coming to the US since 1995 and I have seen the trends over many years. I think to Americans it has been around so long that the dysfunction has been normalized.
But without radical measures there is nothing saving America. Another Biden or Obama will not fix it.
I know you are a moderate Paul Krugman. Been reading you for years but I don't think moderates can save America. The world cannot survive more Neville Chamberlains.
Then there is the case of the IRIS Dena, the Irian frigate torpedoed off the coast of Siri Lanka after participating in a multi-nation event in India, killing at least 80 Iranian sailors. The ship was thousands of miles away from the “war” and had been the guest, as were U.S. ships, of the Indian government. The act has stressed U.S.-Indian relations. IIt has also embarrassed the Australian government which was forced to deny that any of the 3 Australians on the U.S. submarine took part in the atrocity. Hegseth reacted by saying “it went to a quiet grave.” He also should have pointed out that it turned every U.S. military asset in the world, every jeep, pencil, and serviceperson into a legitimate target. That even goes beyond our usual meaning of the term “world war.” We have sadists ruling the country, people who would enjoy pulling the wings off butterflies, bombing speedboats in international waters, killing puppies or slandering nations by claiming they eat people’s pet cats. What have we become?
I don't think America is not respected. I think it's more a case that we are fearful of America's increasingly erratic and illogical behavior, disappointed by the actions of this administration, and worried about the future.
I don't think Trump is respected, but most of us are intelligent enough to know that Trump and MAGA are NOT America. They are a microcosm of America with core supporters perhaps only 33% of the voting public and less than that once you factor in low voter turnout.
And pretty much every Western country has it's own version, whether its UKIP/Reform, AfD, National Front, One Nation... etc...
The main reason why the rest of the world cannot and should not trust the United States is the fact that we put Trump BACK IN OFFICE.
After his disastrous first term
After his attempt to overthrow the government
After he was convicted of 34 felonies
Trump will go the way of all flesh some day, but the blockheaded voters to looked at all that and said "yeah, let's try this again" will still be with us. And that should give every other nation on Earth great pause before trusting the U.S. again.
AND the fact that Republican senators and congresspeople have decided to march in lockstep with the fascist felon.
AND the fact that Citizens United has created an oligarchic class who rule by ordering their representatives to pass legislation that benefits the top 1% only.
I’m glad you mentioned Citizens United. In Texas we have no rules regarding political donations to state candidates and consequently we have the autocratic regime of Gov. Abbott. If/when Democrats come back into enough power to make things happen, money in politics needs to be addressed.
Ada
Restoring respect and trust requires a lot more.
As Krugman said at the end of this post – No, America is Not Respected, “The truth is that America used to be respected, not simply because we were a superpower, but because we were a different kind of superpower — a nation that stood by its allies, that mostly obeyed the rules of the system we created, that possessed an army that was professional, smart and incorruptible. Now Trump has thrown all that away. And I don’t know how or when we can ever get it back.”
America can get back the respect and trust by electing a strong, honest, progressive Democrat to be a president like FDR who would enforce the law with justice for all, and clean up the massive corruption, incompetence, and other legal damage done by Trump, Republicans, the Supreme Court (Citizens United …) and billionaire oligarchs.
Federal law defines insurrection as a criminal felony with imprisonment. and fines. Trump, all members of his Cabinet, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court are violators of the federal law against insurrection who should be in jail. Trump is an insurrectionist who violated the federal law by supporting the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and the Supreme Court also violated the federal law on insurrection by supporting Trump, the insurrectionist, in 2024 with the refusal to enforce section 3 of the 14th Amendment which would have blocked Trump from holding office again. In 2026, Trump, members of his Cabinet, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court are criminal felons who violated the federal law on insurrection. Thousands of politically appointed or employed people in the federal government including ICE agents are also criminal felons who violated the federal law on insurrection and should be in jail.
Trump owes his presidency to his lying and the failure to enforce the law against insurrection. The insurrection in 2021 continued into 2025 and 2026 as planned by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The insurrection implemented a cruel, lawless, fascist autocracy massively rejects decency and disobeys the laws and authority of courts of the United States which is a violation of the federal law on insurrection, 18 U.S. Code § 2383 which states “whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the united states.”
Federal law defines membership in groups that advocate the overthrow of government with force or violence as a criminal felony. See 18 U.S.C. § 2385 entitled Advocating overthrow of government. The law has been violated by 37.4 million registered members of the Republican party. The Republican party supported the insurrection on January 6, 2021, and is supporting the ongoing insurrection in 2026. Trump was elected president in 2024 with support of the Republican party and voters who were registered members of the Republican party. Therefore, the 37.4 million registered members of the Republican party which supported the election of Trump in 2024, are criminal felons according to the law 18 U.S.C. § 2385. The penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 2385 are fines up to $250,000 or imprisonment of not more than twenty years, or both, with convicted felons being ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof.
The 37.4 million registered Republicans in 2025 should be fined $100,000, and the new federal revenue would be $ 3.7 trillion which would fund many progressive programs that would improve affordability of healthcare, housing, education and childcare, and could reduce the deficient of $1.8 trillion which occurred in 2025.
A new law needs to be passed once Democrats win the presidency and control of Congress in 2028 that makes the 37.4 million registered Republicans in 2025 ineligible to vote in elections for twenty years.
Leaders of countries that now disrespect and don't trust America obviously understand that the cause of problem in America is not just Trump and Republicans in office, but the root cause of the problem includes the registered Republicans who voted for Trump and the billiionaire oligarchs who funded the creation of the problem to install a lawless, fascist, autocracy which destoyed democracy and the rule of law. Regaining respect and trust will take decades, but a new government in America can restore trust from allies if the government is run by honest Democrats with leadership from strong progressive presidents like FDR who will always enforce the law with justice for all and restore America to be a nation that stands by its allies, that obeys the rules of the international system created after WW2, restores competency and integrity in a American military to be professional, smart and incorruptible.
Someday, Mitch McConnell might realize how much his historical image was destroyed by not voting to convict Trump after the Jan. 6 rebellion, despite having claimed that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for that day's events. Single-handedly, he could have saved the world substantial grief.
Et tu, Mitch?
Moscow Mitch is America's von Hindeburg.
I suspect Mitch already regrets not going forward with the impeachment trial. but it's a bit too late now.
Mitch was too much in love with power and its accoutrements. Most of his Party Pals can be colored with the same crayon. Mitt had a conscience, but he was already worth deca-millions. Flake was unable to translate good sounding words into meaningful action.
That would be the most peaceful way to overthrow this regime, but I am afraid that it is less likely than the violence of a civil or world war and that is only if the well-funded heavily-armed authoritarian thugs lost. The corruption is breathtakingly deep and broad. The 2021 insurrection was successful in that it appeared to me that Trump ran a shadow government in parallel with Biden's - the Republican Congress people didn't dare support anything he told them not to, so in effect he didn't really lose.
the ire is all on Trump because hes such a notorious criminal and serial liar --------- but Trump is just the loudest one --- there is a far bigger problem in the US and its NOT limited to the WH or the Congress or the SCt.
Trump is delusional at best, a conniving liar is probably more like it. After tearing down our European alliances, now he wants them to bail him out by keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. That's some chuzpah. Maybe more countries should be like Spain and just tell Donny he created this mess and he can stick it!
Should it read “is NOT limited to the WH?”
William, while I may agree with you, you're too verbose for me to find out!
Joseph in Fairport, NY
Joseph
What I try to write in a comment is a small fraction of what Krugman writes in his post. Is Krugman's post verbose and hard to read ? Describing in a few paragraphs what laws have been violated by Trump, Republicans and others now in the government seems to be required to understan.d how to restore respect and trust in America. But it's your option not to read it.
Short attention span Joseph?
Everyone knows that laws apply differently to millionaires and billionaires.
Jack
Agree. But enforcement of the laws is now controlled by corrupt Trump, his corrupt DOJ/FBI, corrupt Republicans in Congress, and a corrupt Supreme Court. Enforcement of the laws in the American weak legal system was intentionally manipulated by the control of politics and the media mainly by millionaires, billionaires, and corporations who hate democracy and the rule of law with equal justice for all, but also by Christian nationalists and white male supremacists.who hate women and civil rights. Lying has been very effective and so has Citizens United. FDR had largely fixed the abuse and control of government and the rule of law by the wealthy and reduced the corruption in government from 1935 until 1971 when the attack on FDR's New Deal, democracy, and the rule of law was launched and largely ignored by Democrats.
What you have proposed is a gross overreach and, in any event, is not feasible. Let's focus on punishing Trump after he leaves office. There is ample eidence to convict him of federal crimes he committed during and after his first term.
Yes, because of this elementary equality: political donations = CORRUPTION.
It's simply beyond me, here in Canada, why anyone would look to the Democrat party for anything. Given their track record of gormlessness ...
AND the Electoral College. Hillary beat him in 2016. Or what might things have looked like in the US if it had gone away even sooner and Gore beat Bush in 2000? This particular election had other issues as well which leads me to…
AND lifetime court appointments. It gives too much power and makes corruption too easy. It leaves little space, if any apparently, to hold judges accountable. It also means they keep getting older and more out of touch. Their egos can spell catastrophe for the country.
AND gerrymandering. This should be especially offensive to constituents as it cuts through the very heart of “representative” government. There are so many egregious examples, but let’s just use one metropolitan area being divided into three skinny little fingers as part of larger rural blocks stretching all the way across a state. Those are two entirely different groups of people with understandably different needs and priorities.
That election was rigged too - by Dubya's brother Governor Jeb, and a friendly, Federalist Society installed, Renquist Supreme Court.
The lifetime appointment thing was supposed to address corruption. A person who didn’t have to worry about reappointment would be less likely to be corrupted. Good idea. Too bad it didn’t work.
A lot of people voted for Trump thinking that since he was a billionaire he could not be corrupted. After all, he already had plenty of money. Boy howdy, that sure didn’t work either.
Probably because he didn't have anywhere as much money as he led gullible people to believe. He's bankrupted how many businesses, including casinos?
You are correct about the original purpose of the lifetime appointment. Part of the reason it does not work anymore is that people live longer, and Republicans have been putting younger and younger people on the Supreme Court in order to maintain control. In addition, as Heather Cox Richardson pointed out, in the past, Supreme Court Justices had to ride their circuits, and travel was hard in those days. Few wanted to stay on the Court for lengthy terms. One argument for term limits is that we do not want a Supreme Court justice leaving the bench and joining an investment firm or becoming a lobbyist. Supreme Court Justice should be the last major job the person holds. Recent retirees (there have been some in the past 50 years) had often moved towards philanthropic activities. When term limits are crafted, and I agree we now need them, we must make sure that the Supreme Court does not get used as a steppingstone for personal profit.
"..we must make sure that the Supreme Court does not get used as a steppingstone for personal profit."
Too late! Look at Thomas and Alito.
Yeah, back when people at least knew the word “integrity” and more often than not still placed value in it. How about calling them “Your Honor”?…as if Thomas and Alito have even one drop, and others seem to take it or leave it, again rendering that “honor” worthless.
All things American and not Trump's personal failings.
All the various reasons listed in this thread are the underlying cause…it just all happened to manifest as Trump. If not him, it would have been someone else because the rot, the inability to address system changes in relation to American society, inability of the parties to look inward at their own rot, money corrupting things, egos, monopolies, lobbies, on and on. He is a supreme idiot and a heinous person, but t that idiocy also makes Trump…easier to see for what he is and does. In that way we are “lucky” though that term certainly doesn’t feel applicable. But I mean it in the sense that (despite what he thinks and his base) he’s not slick, polished, charismatic, or even decent to look at and listen to. If that had been the front man for this push by the far right, we would be in a much worse situation. It wouldn’t be as easy for the public to see.
AND the fact that voter turnout in the US is lower than in any peer democracy, and has been for some time.
It doesn't help that it is held on a Tuesday rather than a weekend, which would be more accessible to those with jobs. Of course, mail-in avoids this problem if only it were more universally available.
I like the idea of voting on Saturday and Sunday. Virtually everyone is off work on one of those days. Tuesday makes no sense unless it's made a paid holiday, which it isn't.
As a retail worker, I have neither of those days off. Many of us don't because that's when others shop.
For many very religious people, it would be anathema to put voting on the Sabbath.
Early voting, even in red states, largely addresses this problem. I live in SC and my huge county, as large as a couple of small states area-wise, has 7 early voting sites with at least one Saturday session.
It did but that’s changing rapidly as R state governments scramble to limit early and/or mail ballots. The problem these fools never seem to consider is that it also hurts their own voters. Ultimately, it will reduce turnout overall. They like that, and I am sure they just hope the scale hurts Ds more.
Same here in New Jersey.
I actually think that Trump's Save America's attempt a voter suppression could be good for Democrats. Especially, the part where they're trying to disenfranchise women by having them prove they married and that's why their name isn't the same as the name on their birth certificate. The more educated are better able to deal with jumping through hoops...and will be very motivated.
Your argument suggests that concerns over less educated women who work outside the home, which is likely most of them, are correct: these women will be less likely to register to vote. And they may not realize that this bill only addresses registration not voting itself. However, John Thune says that he doesn't see it passing the Senate because it can't withstand the filibuster.
This is the way it is.
As another non-American, I have to agree...the democratic countries realize that while it is true that Trump does not represent all, or even most, Americans, the system still allowed him to be elected...twice. And if it happened before it can happen again, and millions of Americans, one of two major parties, and many of the richest and most powerful Americans, do still support him. What Trump did for those of us who were not inculcated from birth to "believe in" American exceptionalism...it is the richest nation but not the "best" nation...is alert us to just how far to the "right" end of the authoritarian scale the country is compared to those that excel in various important metrics. Those democracies ceded their own defense to the country that, post WWII, most wanted it and could best provide it. I speak simplistically, of course, but we know, now, not to trust the country overall, well celebrating and admiring about it all that actually is great.
And despite all that, he now wants HELP from other countries??
As the CNN headline put it:
If Trump has already won the Iran war, why does he need foreign ships to help him end it?
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/16/politics/trump-iran-war-israel-strikes-strait-of-hormuz-analysis
Pop quiz: Who said this?
"Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective."
Answer: Donald J. Trump in 2011, talking about President Obama.
The ironies, inconsistencies, demonstrable lies, cognitive dissonance, reversals, non-sequiturs and ad-hominem arguments, and all else are staggering in their number and magnitude and point to the highest degree of irrationality in any world leader in modern history, IMHO. That said, it is the inability of the American system to deal with it that, I believe, is so frightening to leaders of other nations, and that is because they may see past the belief that what the founders came up with is, while brilliant in intent, flawed to the degree that it cannot prevent a Trump from happening, nor many other problems that plague America. Those problems may be inherent to the process of being a super-power, with power corrupting and all that...certainly there is a rich history of scandal within American history, possibly to a degree that exceeds other "western democracies"? I'm not sure about that but I do fear that within the international community there has emerged a danger even greater than Trump, himself, and I hope that I am wrong. I'm old and my opinion derives from memory that dates back to the absurd Vietnam war, the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate, Reagonomics and much, much more.
He also said that Biden and Harris would start a war with Iran if they were failing in the polls. Projection, always.
It should be obvious by now that anything Trump says is meaningless.
Ah, the truth simply said. It makes for a fulfilling meditation!
Thank you.
Senators couldn't decide anything. Each of them who tried to resist was served as red meat to angry Base. Those who are there now are made in the image of the King!
If we remember Boris Johnson, we recall that his Party got rid of him not because he offended their sensibilities or broke their laws but because their voters started to vote for Labour in elections the Tories thought they would win. And that was because voters in the UK felt an allegiance to their country that was greater than their support for a particular party. In the US, Trump has never really lost his supporters, no matter how terribly he has governed, because Americans have become more loyal to the political faction they identify with than they are to the country as an abstraction. This is true of MAGA, but if I'm honest it's also true of me; there is simply no way I would ever support a Republican candidate, because I think that party is a grave danger to the Constitution and the country as a whole. If I disagree sufficiently with a Democratic candidate, I just don't vote at all.
This nonagenarian, college educated, still aware and active lady …..is FURIOUS that our citizens have gone into mental hiding‼️The country is being shredded by a poorly equipped daddy’s boy and the sycophants following his “winging-it” path to a paycheck ! No intelligence, no integrity whatsoever …. just false faces behind the rouged rogue!
Correction: top 0.01%. I know a couple 1%ers, they know they don't count either.
Lockstep-Goosestep.
Making all of this resemble the 1938 Reichstag after the Weimar (Democratic) transition
"Sortes qui facit."
There has always been too much money, too many lobbyists for me to believe that US politics is for the people, but Citizens United put that oligarch influence into overdrive.
Trump seems to lack anyone outside of the US who is a willing follower. He has his strongmen that he has propped up, but they put themselves and their countries first. These are not loyal people, at least not to him, because he is not playing by their rules. Even Milei whose election he bought has not helped him out. Where are these new leaders that Trump spent our tax dollars on and their warships and militaries. Where is Putin? Where is Xi, Kim Jung Un all leaders whom he admires and has chosen to embrace while tossing aside the long term relationships with loyal allies. Now, after he appeared in Davos and insulted everyone, after Greenland and Canada acquisition remarks, and treading Zelensky and Ukraine terribly, he has to turn to his Middle East allies who are going to go with the military that can protect them, and it is not the US right now.
As I said over the weekend, and then heard others saying the same thing, China might decide that now is the time to take Taiwan, and then all that chip knowledge goes to them. Meanwhile we do not grow crops in time and a lot of the world goes hungry, including in our own country.
Brazil was able to handle a former leader who tried to stage a coup, while the United States cannot. The votes in Congress to impeach and convict after Trump's January 6, 2021 Capitol attack should have been unanimous, but they were far from it. Technically, Trump was convicted of felonies, but he was not held to account in any way. To the contrary, millions treated him as a martyr.
Our government is permeated with rot, populated by individuals who place their own personal creature comforts above all else. So, I agree that Trump's departure from office will not solve our deeply entrenched problems.
Give up then. Don’t bother voting for Democrats. They’re just as bad. There is no solution. No hope. Sit back and watch the world crumble.
No, his departure, and putting republicans in the rear view mirror, would be a very positive beginning. Can we accomplish that? Yes. But not with poor voter turnout. Not with voting third party. Not with apathy. Not with resignation. The democrats, some of them, are part of the rot. Not nearly as much as this Republican Party. Not even close. Vote.
I agree. I also don't really see any coordinated efforts, among the Democratic leadership or in the party otherwise, to actually focus on building the kinds of relationships and coalitions and platforms that would enable it to happen. I really hope that changes.
BINGO! What I continue to find exasperatingly frustrating is that no one/no group has come forward with a vision for restoring the America that has ceased to exist. Something like the inverse of Project 2025. Failing that, we’re doomed.
Freedom of the press was intended to hold officials' feet to the fire. But who's holding lamestream media's feet to the fire?
See my comment above
People voted them out. It’s orders of magnitude harder to build any type of coalition when people are telling you they don’t care. We need to vote them in. And with voter suppression and voter discouragement efforts by republicans, we need a massive turnout. Close elections aren’t going to get it done.
but vote in dems that are not DINOs like many of them that had no problem voting for hegseth, RFK jr, and other sycophants....we need fighters not capitulators
We need One Big Beautiful Blue Megatsunami.
Part of that is because lamestream media isn't reporting on it. Thus everything the Dems are trying to do remains "behind the scenes". It's not entirely their fault.
Spot on. They’re corporate controlled, heavily republican leaning, pretending to be impartial with false equivalence.
^^^THANK YOU!
I would agree, if that were where I got most of my news. Mainstream media don't actually have the ability to prevent those committed to doing so from covering important news.
That said, I actually do think government worked better in many (but importantly not all) wayswhen more things were able to be done behind closed doors instead of expecting everything to be publicly visible at all times.
100% yes to this!
I agree that dems partly are responsible for a trump to be vomited up because they also along with Rs placate the ruling class and wall street more than working americans but mainly because they derive their power from the donor money and the corrupt campaign finance system
Brazil was under military rule from 1964 - 1985. During this time, they had at least 434 political deaths / disappearances. Their constitution wasn't adopted until 1988.
My guess is Brazil still has a recent enough memory of living under military rule that gives them the political will to try and stop it from happening again.
True. A lot of things are able to start happening again once they fall out of living memory, sadly.
The republicans that get elected in some of the so-called heartland aren't exactly the best, and brightest. Many of them attended poor schools and don't know their own country's recent history. Case in point: Markwayne Mullin, Tommy Tuberville, homeschooled (even worse educated) Katy Britt, Anna Paula Luna (tic), Ron Johnson, Clay Higgins, and so many more.
This really illustrates just how corrupt the GOP really is.
Yes, we need to get rid of the rot and stop the GRIFT! Greedy politicians and toadies! Vote them out!
south korea put their corrupt leader in jail
Brazil has had a lot of experience with political coups. They know it when they see it. We did not. I bet after all that has happened, over 50% of the US believes that we just need a course correction and that we're not in dire danger.
💯 Agreed. It’s time to begin prioritizing. Here’s my list: 1. Win the house and senate. 2. Impeach 3. Pursue criminal charges (and disbarment). 4. Join ICC and cooperate with their criminal charges re: Venezuela.
In the meantime, six states have misprision of treason/felony laws on the books that render them mandated reporters. If they issues warrants, DC metro police will arrest the lot of them and they can languish in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. What are their AGs waiting for? Looking at you CA, IL, DE, VT, VA, and RI.
Absolutely 100%!
You may want to add a point before (1): I understand from listening to Rachel Maddow that there is a "No Kings" rally planned for March 28th. It would help your point (1) if the turnout in red states is high enough to scare Republicans in Congress into dismantling all measures to deter a free and fair vote in November.
If you impeach, that gives you Vance. He's smarter than Trump and just as racist, mean and vindictive.
We need meaningful constitutional reform that restores the 3 branches of government and strips the imperial powers from the President.
We need to constitutionally make independent agencies. The President may appoint the head of them, but cannot fire them at will. We need independent agencies because those are the places where experts in the field are. The world is too complicated for well-educated, intelligent men to know most of what there is to know. (This was the original premise in the Constitution.)
Critical agency heads must be confirmed with 60% of the Senate, same for the Supreme court.
One man may not be in-charge of our nuclear weapons!!!
Agreed. I don’t see JDV as a threat. In September 2024, he admitted to Dana Bash on CNN that he creates stories. “If I have to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, that’s what I’m going to do, Dana.” He wasn’t VP yet. Not sure how he wasn’t disbarred for that, other than purview confusion (he resides in Ohio but is licensed to practice law in Kentucky. Which raises other questions). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/jd-vance-lies-haitian-immigrants
Add to that the many instances that Trump provided more fuel to the suspicion that he is in fact a Russian asset (Agent Krasnov), and the ICE scenes on TV screens around the world. Trump is World Public Enemy Numer One. A nice summing up of the Iran debacle is in today's Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/15/us-iran-war-donald-trump-failure?CMP=GTUK_email
Great article, thanks for the link (though I would have read it anyway in a Guardian app).
Simon Tisdall supports everything said by Paul Krugman: and more.
Trump: "Take him down "--it's becoming ever more urgent. Or what might three more years of his presidency bring?
Correct. I think the world was ready to forgive us after we elected someone besides Trump, but then we went back to him and let him go on a destructive rampage?
We've shown we are not to be trusted.
Learned from Lincoln Project's Rick Smith today, that Trump/Hegseth had the two US Navy minesweepers--and their extremely experienced crews--withdrawn stateside just *before* Epic Fury, *without* sending replacements. Unbelievable.
The Iranians, meanwhile, in addition to torching $120,000,000 tankers with $50,000 drones--have been dumping dozens or even tens of dozens of cheap Russian $500 naval mines in the narrow Straits of Hormuz. From their stockpile of around 3,000.
Which might explain why Trump/Hegseth haven't made any US warships available for tanker escort duty. Because without minesweepers to clear the Straits of floaters, it's just not safe. Even a single $500 mine could sink or cripple a $2.8 billion US frigate.
Trump now has to either beg Iran for a ceasefire; or escalate with boots on the ground.
Allegedly Britain has specialist expertise--and minesweepers--in clearing mines. But Trump is too busy insulting Britain's dead soldiers (helping the US in Afghanistan) and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer--as "No Winston Churchill"--for Britain to take more than defensive action for its own military bases.
And were Trump not so ignorant, he might remember that Churchill strongly advocated "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war": war can only be justified when diplomacy and negotiation have failed.
I read today in the Toronto Globe and Mail that Trump had threatened to cancel his planned trip to China if China didn't provide warships. Xi was clear, "You're not cancelling. Be here." No more details yet.
China has the death penalty for pedophiles, so it might not be safe for Trumpkopf to go there.
👏👏👏
I’ve read conflicting reports about mines. Keep in mind that Iran has a strong motive to keep oil going to China. I’ve read that oil bound for China is still getting through.
Oil sales are Iran’s main source of income.
There are ways other than mines to target ships.
He will double-down, because he will always chose the worst possible option, as all egotists do.
The minesweepers were replaced with some unspecified number of Littoral Combat Ships, which the Navy claims are better at clearing mines - “The [littoral combat ship] MCM mission package is a sophisticated suite of manned and unmanned systems designed to locate, identify, and neutralize sea mines, at a safer distance from minefields than the Avenger-class MCMs,” a Navy official told Military Times on the condition of anonymity.
According to the Navy Times, the first of these was sent to the Middle East back in May.
where are the two minesweepers now?
There were four in the Middle East. They were decommissioned last year. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2026/03/12/the-us-navy-decommissioned-middle-east-minesweepers-last-year-heres-what-they-did/
How effective are the Littoral combat vessels at clearing the different types of naval mines compared to the Avenger class?
Here's how Google answered: https://www.google.com/search?q=How+effective+are+the+Littoral+combat+vessels+at+clearing+the+different+types+of+naval+mines+compared+to+the+Avenger+class&sca_esv=9c862ab14c0bc3f3&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1077US1077&biw=1536&bih=706&sxsrf=ANbL-n4rRJPY02e5_kB8Av9g4xcLHzgRKQ%3A1773660308736&ei=lOi3aYHMLPv20PEP4aCGiQ4&ved=0ahUKEwiB5p3Fp6STAxV7OzQIHWGQIeEQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=How+effective+are+the+Littoral+combat+vessels+at+clearing+the+different+types+of+naval+mines+compared+to+the+Avenger+class&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiekhvdyBlZmZlY3RpdmUgYXJlIHRoZSBMaXR0b3JhbCBjb21iYXQgdmVzc2VscyBhdCBjbGVhcmluZyB0aGUgZGlmZmVyZW50IHR5cGVzIG9mIG5hdmFsIG1pbmVzIGNvbXBhcmVkIHRvIHRoZSBBdmVuZ2VyIGNsYXNzSABQAFgAcAB4AZABAJgBAKABAKoBALgBA8gBAPgBAvgBAZgCAKACAJgDAJIHAKAHALIHALgHAMIHAMgHAIAIAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
There are a lot of damaged people in our society. People with personality disorders who also are easily hypnotized by the Orange Conman and easily propagandized by Faux Snooze. Most of them aren't any too bright, either. I want to think we can throw off the shackles tRump is trying so incompetently to apply to us, but I just don't know. All we can do is vote like our survival depends on it!
That and continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊🇺🇸
The next nationwide No Kings rally is Saturday, March 28. Be there or be square!
https://www.nokings.org/
I got my sign material. My ‘The Contrarian’ T-shirt is on the way. I’ll be in Tallahassee for the festivities!
We witnessed the power of the oligarchs who own and run our mass media media and social media platforms. The US billionaire oligarchs put Trump back in power by demonstrating that he who controls the narrative, in our mass media and social media, controls the minds of the voters.
Fox News spent years building up a strawman liberal that Democrats stupidly did nothing to counter. I remember my conservative friends complaining about forced equal outcomes for DEI. A massive amount of resentment bult up toward the strawman liberal real or not, it didn't matter.
Huge corporations invest billions in advertising for good reason, it works. And, as we all witnessed, it works for politics as well.
To this day, with all that we have seen and know, the average voter is still upset about gay and trans bathrooms and sports, illegal immigrants, and forced equality.
Social media controls the minds now of so many that until this smartphone addiction is addressed, nothing will change.
The Silicon Valley trillionaires know this and prefer our new America, they move globally with their money without boundaries. They control our government(s) and they just don't care, as long as they aren't taxed, investigated or regulated, they will continue to make trillions because they've tapped into how the human mind works and their AI algorithms can control the masses at will.
We collectively (looking at you Congress) allowed him to rig the 2024 election.
I have this before. I don't think that Trump won the election fairly. I believe that the voting machines were tampered with. Let's face it, Musk, Theil, Ellison and other tech billionaires spent plenty of money for Trump to be re-elected. Maybe they were able to adjust the voting machines. Trump will always say that he won by a "landslide", but he didn't. You don't win all 7 swing states with less than 50% of the public voting.
Precisely. Lots of people ready to say “We love America. But how can we trust you as an ally when a couple thousand people in Wisconsin upset with the price of eggs give us a president like Trump?"
The saying is : Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. No country is going to trust the US to honor any agreements or treaties for the next two generations or so.
You have that exactly right. Add the fact that Trump stole top secret documents, stored them like spare rolls of toilet paper, and obstructed attempts to get them back.
I hope that we are not collectively punished for what a bare majority of brainwashed idiots did. But we should not be trusted again. FOX and the billionaires are too powerful, but we can see that for all of their "success" they have not been wise.
It's not only Trump who is a problem. It's also all the voters who voted for him and would do so again - his base - roughly one third of all Americans.
Swing voters were primarily upset with inflation and did not like the pictures of thousands of illegal immigrants coming across the border. They discounted almost everything else including concerns about autocracy, honesty, good governance, etc. The economy prior to Covid seemed good so they thought Trump would bring it back. Harris was also a weak candidate and was weakened further by Biden leaving the race quite late. Note that mainstream Democrats and Republicans are basically tribal and will vote party line. So, whichever party can bring out more of their base and get a bigger slice of the pie of swing voters will win. Even those who say they are independents tend to favor one party over the other so the percentage of actual swing voters is actually quite small.
Swing voters lied. It was about the racism and misogyny.
I can assure you that we don't have an ounce of respect left for a nation that allows a pedophile and his gang to continue to lead.
I totally get... I no longer respect my own country.
Absolutely true and so shameful. The US has fallen so far into the abyss.
Peter, I’m not so sure you are right. Those within our frame of reference do realize that MAGA doesn’t speak for us, and what I’ve heard from friends who travel extensively is that they aren’t disrespected in Europe or So America or elsewhere, but the people in foreign countries can’t understand how Trump is still in office and has such a following. They don’t agree with, nor respect our government and like PK says they don’t trust that we will right our ship or not elect someone like him in the future. They cannot rely on us anymore, because too many in our electorate are NOT bright enough to elect the best we have to offer, but instead fall for the glitz of TV personalities.
ilene: i live overseas (and have done so for longer than 2 decades) and what i see is that the reason trump is still in power is due to (1) MAGA loves his racism and sexism and (gun) violence (2) federal politicians and judges -- who SHOULD remove him from office -- are happy to receive the massive payoffs they are getting from associating with the tangerine testicle and his regime of sycophants. as an american living overseas, even i no longer trust ameriKKKa!
Agree. Fortunate for you that you can view this from afar. I am fighting daily along with lots of my likeminded friends and fellow activists to regain some control. Wish us luck.
I love in SoCal and I see clearly that plenty of people outside of the US don't respect the US (especially this regime and those that support it) and great the US because for the reasons PK spoke of. My message to those outside the US is don't trust us not to make this choice again. Be wary of everything we say via our “leaders” and major news outlets because 99% of it is utter bs or layered in bs as though the bs was frosting, icing, and sprinkles. Find independent journalists from the US on the Web so as to keep yourself adequately informed about what's really going inside the US.
i think i would have had a nervous breakdown if i still lived in the USA, with all this fresh hell happening. as it is, i suffer anxiety attacks every night now. my mind whips around in circles of terror, making it impossible to sleep. it's enough to make a girl into an alcoholic.
We are finding the enthusiasm to fight back growing, and volunteering to help turn things around has raised our spirits. I do know that there points in time that despair catches us all, but we can’t give up.
Nope. As a Canadian I’ll rely on foreign press, even CTV and CBC over US press, which of course is 90% of Canadian press owned by US venture capitalists. Why we have the Alberta problem?…look no further than US owned press.
I'm getting my news from a variety of sources. The NYT and WSJ are interesting. The WSJ has the best news reporting. The whack the Trump regime far harder than the NYT, which has gone big into entertainment. But the opinion section of the WSJ is total Trump sycophants. Much of the news reporting at the NYT is done under opinion.
Then there's the BBC, which still reports on the Palestinians and for in-depth The Economist. Sometimes Al Jazeera. And Foreign Affairs.
Yes they are trying the same destructive plot, up there, divide the people and get the resentful, rural ,voters to vote against their own interests. It took two generations of defunding the public schools here, but they got there.
That answers some questions I had. Thanks.
Plus country club Republicans continue to support him because of tax cuts and deregulation.
and their racism
We officially have a kakistocracy.
Grafted on to a kleptocracy—just about the worst combination possible—stupid and greedy.
I tend to agree with Peter. I'm a US citizen who has lived in Ireland for almost three years now, and it's interesting to hear people's comments, which often go along the lines of "I've always loved visiting America" or "I have family/friends there" but "I sure as hell wouldn't go there now" because "WTF is going on with Tr*mp?" I'd concur that the prevailing view is more of fear, incredulity, disappointment and disgust with the "leadership" rather than disrespect for the country itself, which is exactly how I feel.
I saw through Trump many years ago, when he wrote that disgusting one page advertisement in the NYT urging New York to murder the Central Park Five. I've been anti-Trump ever since....
America needs to put its house in order. There is some much that needs to be done, starting with cleaning up the mess in SCOTUS, dismantling Jim Crow, reforming the electoral system, and removing big money from politics. Id also look at changes to income, wealth, and capital gains taxes to shrink the Oligarchy...
As a foreigner whose lived in the US, and travelled extensively in the US, I want it to succeed and I dont believe this cabal of idiots is truly representative of the country, just a clique who seized power through manipulation and lies.
Obama talked about Hope. If my hope in change is a delusion, its a healthy one, and im going to hold on to it.
A world without hope is truly bleak and its what they want.
I appreciate your hopeful outlook, Peter, although I suspect that it will take a complete cataclysm in order to make any of that happen. Regarding Tr*mp himself, I agree. I first became aware of him probably 50 years ago and thought he was an arrogant blowhard even then. And regarding the cabal of idiots--unfortunately there are still too many otherwise well-meaning people who are still swallowing their garbage. I think a lot of it has to do with their preserving their self-identification with being "non-liberal." Perhaps the coming economic crisis will help them change their tune. It's starting to happen already; if you get a chance, please take a look at Thomas Friedman's column about the actions in Minnesota in January and February. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/opinion/columnists/minneapolis-ice-trump-neighbor.html
A liberal is one who looks at all sides, asks questions and THINKS! That is why we have one brain each!
Exactly! My father used to say, "Use your head as something besides a hat rack!"
The existence and makeup of the Senate are enshrined in Article I, Sections 1 and 3 of the Constitution. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
It is the voters who do not think before opting !
Sorry Mr. Reward, the other givernments and populations hold America in contempt. The point you miss is that the voters were STUPID enough to put Dear Leader back in the White House. As much as I hate to admit, Trump learned a few things from his first four years. Every single cabinet level posts are held by vacuum headed,sycophants looking to line their pockets, institutionalize graft and greed, and make sure 90% of the population remains downtrodden.
Like it or not, a majority of our elected representatives stand behind Trump. That's pretty much the definition of MAGA being America, at least until a time when Republicans lose Congress.
after the primary, I predict a lot of Rs will turn on trump who is already a lame duck
America elected him twice. Stop being delusional. The world has listened to all respect for the US, Not just Trump. Look at clowns like Johnson, Lindsay Graham, the whole cabinet….. the fit runs deep.
Depends on what you mean with "respected". If it means having largely a positive attitude towards, I'd say America is definitely not respected by most of its former allies. Of course, that is different from saying that most people know that there are a lot of decent Americans who are just as embarrassed about this clown-show as most sane people are. But as a nation and as a state, America is now deeply mistrusted and despised. And for many good reasons, I am sorry to say. I mean, what civilized nation would re-elect someone who staged a coup, and can't tell a truth even if he wanted to?
We earned that disrespect when we opted to let trump trash us a second time❗️Stupidity earns its own disasters.
Yup
If the American people and institutions can’t throw off MAGA, then Trump and MAGA are America. Simple as that.
👍
I think I'll consider Paul Krugman's writing valid, and that as a whole, the U.S. has lost respect and trust and standing. Other nations don't consider nor care how individual citizens of the US may think and feel, instead going by the actions of our government.
For those that point to the concept that the majority of Americans represent something different from those currently in charge, I would ask them to get further inland from the coasts before proclaiming this as a fact. Even if most of these folks are not MAGA (and many are), there is a consistency of individualism, anti intellectualism, and heavy parochialism.
Respect may not be directly related to this, but it does inform perceptions. In our personal life do we respect acquaintances and “friends” that care little about our circumstances, or constantly have one-way conversations?
It is far simpler than that. Starting in the mid 90s our Congress became captured by the need to raise larger and larger amounts of campaign finance money. Instead of matching what private donors (especially oil producers) were giving we simply fell into requiring our politicians to. spend nearly all their time raising money from those who had it, especially the relatively wealthy of both parties. Hence we essentially decapitated our Congress. Without a working Congress, we ignored many problems. Most especially the problems of the de-industrialization in rural areas of country. People living in those rural areas were (and remain) desperate for help. If you are wealthy enough to afford subscribing to Professor Krugman (as I was) it was easy to miss this. Those rural voters stayed ignored until Trump said what none of our politicians were willing to say: “the system is rigged.”
The system remains rigged.
The system is still unresponsive to what the population really wants. It is drifting towards an AI job market shock, but the AI tech campaign finance money has shut off effective congressional response.
This creates an opening for demagogues like Trump.
We have a system problem.
The problem needs something like campaign finance vouchers. But our politicians of both parties, even the Democrats, have refused to talk about public financing of campaigns by making small amounts available to every voter to donate. This though they have quietly endorsed the idea of vouchers they have refused to come out and pick up them publicly because they are all TERRIFIED of losing campaign finance money from the special interests.
Vouchers would essentially match the amount of money currently being donated privately (roughly $16 billion in 2024) and ensure that the average voter was the primary donor politicians paid attention to. Without this type of public financing, we cannot restore a working Congress. Without a working Congress we cannot respond to the problems.
The public, in a desperate attempt to find someone to listen to them, will continue to seesaw back-and-forth between one ineffective president to another ineffective president. We are now suffering, the logical consequences of not having a working government. Trump is a symptom of that.
This is what I wrote about in my Substack (when I had the time to write). now I am trying to help someone bring
well said and as evidenced by trump going to hillary's left in 2016 which put him over the top.....2024 was a combination of dems failure to put up a candidate early enough, tech billionaire money, musk rigging and dem voters either staying home or getting fooled again by the orange blowhard
What you’re saying isn’t altogether wrong. There’s no generalized anti-Americanism, at least not yet.
People around the world do respect the substantial – though still very much minoritarian – resistance against fascism in the U.S., and we do consider people like Mamdani, Lina Khan, or AOC as beacons of hope for a global turnaround.
But by saying the quiet parts out loud, Trump did destroy quite a lot of respectability for U.S. imperialist politics beyond the limits of his presidential terms.
Now everybody knows that “No blood for oil“ wasn‘t a malicious accusation back in the days of George Bush sr., but well justified criticism. Just like Dubya‘s renewed Iraq adventure was based on lies. Now everybody knows that U.S. hegemony has always been about global power, not about spreading liberal democracy.
There won‘t be a way back to what used to be “normal.“ U.S. soft power is gone, probably forever. So the Western world won’t accept the U.S. as a supposedly benevolent hegemon any longer.
Millions if not billions despise people like Trump, Miller, Hegseth, or Vance.
They despise ICE and the Heritage Foundation, AIPAC and crazy evangelicals.
They despise Musk, Thiel, Karp, Bezos and Zuckerberg.
They may even despise billionaire backed, toothless Democrats.
And some will despise their cult-like followers, opportunistic collaborators and docile servants.
Very few people will go as far as to lump in even the millions of people protesting at „No Kings“ days 1 and 2, just because they are American.
People will rather turn against Trump‘s – and more general U.S. imperialism‘s – collaborators, all around the world.
But sure, all U.S. administrations were voted in, or at least supported by a majority of voters, and large majorities did support quite some toxic uniparty policies.
So while there are shades of gray, responsibility lies with everybody who didn‘t do their utmost to stop the U.S. on their decades-long trajectory toward fascism.
To the rest of the world, it doesn't matter if half the population don't support Trump. He was elected into office despite his obvious flaws by the other half.
28% of the Palestinians supported Hamas, but look what happened to all of them. And they hadn't had an election in 20 years And were unarmed civilians against a violent terrorist organization. 2 people with guns can intimidate 8 people without. Same for Iran.
True, however no mutually exclusive argument.
Still, right-wing populism, strongmenship and outright fascism have become a global phenomenon, these days.
It‘s not restricted to the U.S., and while U.S. responsibility may be particularly high, defeating it remains a common responsibility of the Global North, at the very least.
I think a large number of the upvotes about America being doomed is a feeding frenzy by bots and trolls. This fascist regime wants people to give up.
Exactly.
The shame on us is we KNEW who trump was from way back when.
A qualifier: 🛑 Easterners knew trump, the rest didn’t want to know.
You could make that argument if Trump had been elected for the first time. The fact that he was elected for a second term clearly shows that the majority of the US population doesn't give a damn about the rest of the world.
The US is not respected. You guys voted for this, so...most of you ARE tRumpy MAGAts as far as Rest-of-World is concerned. (A Canadian in India meeting ppl from everywhere.)
Is this a case that the US, and what it has stood for in the past, is respected but nobody respects a leader who is clearly off his rocker and an administration that is doing his bidding? Surely our former allies realize trump IS NOT the US.
No. He didn't just declare himself President. The first time could have just been a mistake, but now, this is your circus and that is your monkey.
Yup
The US citizen having voted for him to be their President twice, obviously represents the US., more's the pity.
I used to agree with pkidd: [Surely our former allies realize trump IS NOT the US.]
Until realizing that not only did the US vote him in *twice*, but there's still a good number that would do it again.
- A Brit/Cdn Dual.
Yup
This is just it. In 2024, he got more votes than he did in 2016 and more votes than Harris, though not more than adding Harris with third party votes (which is a MASSIVE waste of a vote in our very solid two party system). And, there are the millions of potential voters who sat out despite his previous presidency and the terrible things he was in the news for between 2020-2024.
Exactly
But he wouldn’t be there without the US electorate having voted for him, (twice!) specifically to represent them domestically and internationally. As far as the rest of the world is concerned Trump and MAGA are most definitely America.
Thank you, for the article, Professor. Did you hear about the scheme Mr. Kushner coordinated with the government. I read about it on the intellectualist. I feel we need to end this war first, not monetary schemes. I agree with you , America, I hope will find its balance and strength to be once again, good amongst all nations in NATO. It seems the voters will have to decide this matter.
Even now I have great respect for the people of US but keep wondering why people do not unite to protest. From the contender Kamala Harris to many others can they not do something. In India despite our diversity there was unity when Emergency was declared and people proved their power when the then PM was compelled to hold the election and lost. If we could do it why not the citizens of the US?
The US does not have a modern parliamentary system, we are still running Democracy 1.0. We have no real way to change our government until November.
Oh, but there is a way to change the government before November. A relatively small group of men and women can vote to remove Trump and this will all be over. However, they refuse to do so. They are the key to solving this problem.
They are also appointed (or supported by) The Don.
He's talking about Congress, and no, they aren't.
The cabinet can also remove the president. They ARE appointed by him.
A majority of the congress can impeach him, but two thirds of the senate must convict him for removal. Both are controlled by the GOP, The Don's party. They are beholden to him for endorsements and money (support).
This would not "all be over." Line of succession;
Vice President - JD Vance
Speaker of the House - Mike Johnson
President pro tempore of the Senate - Chuck Grassley
Secretary of State - Marco Rubio
Secretary of the Treasury - Scott Bessent
Secretary of Defense - Pete Hegseth
Attorney General - Pam Bondi
Secretary of the Interior - Doug Burgum
Vought/Heritage, the zillionaires, most of media ...
Totally agree. But as Adam Kinzinger has talked about - at great political and personal peril - many Republicans would have liked to vote for Trump's impeachment after J6 but were politically and physically afraid because of open threats to their re-election chances and their family's safety. Other GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell felt so sure that Trump was toast that they didn't think it was necessary to take a firm stand; a quote attributed to him was "We'll let the Dems take care of that SOB" (slightly paraphrased).
So it was because of either open threats or cynical carelessness. Either way the GOP in Congress is to blame for letting this guy get re-elected and then stay in office.
Which a) would not change the government, everyone in the line of succession all the way down are "on board" and b) won't happen anyway. Which is why I said no REAL way to change the government.
VOTE in EVERY election from next week’s dog catcher to prez …..using the brain with clarity! WE, civilized people, are facing immediate extinction by the rouged rogue governing with the seat of his voluminous pants‼️. A sloth has more intelligence and understanding of presiding over our 250 years of democracy than Trump !
Until or unless you change Americans' preferred media choices, they will be programmed by idiots and self-interested billionaires (and be oblivious to the fact that they are). Just watch some Fox News or a few painful clips from the popular Joe Rogan podcast or any popular "reality TV" show to get an idea of how vapid our thinking is.
†rump and his minions have been taking over the media — not with censorship, but with money.
There's no better example than Bezos's purchase of the Washington Post. Unlike other examples (Disney, CBC, CNN, etc.), there was a rather blatant example when The Post endorsed Kamala Harris, then was forced by Bezos to retract that endorsement.
Now The Post's official editorial policy is promoting "personal liberty and free markets". I'm sure they'll promote "free markets" like crazy, but I'm guessing the "personal liberty" part has their own definition.
🙏 Amen, Linda! We must respond with a united voice: The tyranny ends this November. We will have free and fair elections because there are 250,000,000+ voters and we demand nothing less.
Here’s a running list of suggested planks for blue candidates and incumbents, amended by readers and in no particular order.
I’ve sent this list to my governor, congressional rep, and senators. I’ve asked them to indicate any planks that they oppose so that I’m informed when I vote but, as a disabled grandmother, I’m typically unseen and unheard and don’t expect any response other than a form letter.
So, I sent the list to DNC. I asked DNC to enforce the assignments below (or come up with their own). Voters need concrete plans of action with budgets and timelines released before the election. DNC needs to hold a midterm convention (live or virtual) where states present their planks and findings.
DNC ignored my correspondence. I urge you to forward the planks you support to your elected representatives and blue candidates. It’s up to us to provide their marching orders. Otherwise, they’ll come up with their own and we know where that leads.
(BTW, the assignments are random. Who knew AI had a sense of humor?)
We WILL have the country that was promised 400 years ago but it will require unprecedented cooperation, like Quincy Jones got when he made “We Are The World.” He posted a sign that applies here: “check your ego at the door.” Or emigrate. Like the celebrities who got rich here but won’t stay and fight.
1. South Dakota: Medicare for all, including mental health, dental, and vision.
2. Delaware: Running water for all.
3. Maryland: Safe, affordable, adequate housing for all.
4. Kentucky: Climate change course correction.
5. Washington: National “Annual Yearly Progress” educational standards that apply to all students: public school, private school, home school.
6. Vermont: Nutrition and pesticides. There’s a reason why US wheat imports are banned in EU.
7. Minnesota: Paths to citizenship and statehood.
8. Arkansas: Metric system instead of imperial measurements. Every country in the world has made the switch except the US, Liberia, and Myanmar.
9. Iowa: Reading and math literacy.
10. Hawaii: Maternal and infant survival (US has the worst rates among developed countries).
11. Colorado: Restore DEI. My disability requires electronic communication (email or chat with a transcript) but legal teams don’t like written records. I have to surrender agency and assign a proxy to manage a credit card issue or schedule a mammogram. Disney sent me an email stating that they’re “phones only.” What’s next? Telling guests in wheelchairs to manage the stairs?
12. New Hampshire: Zero tolerance of corruption.
13. North Carolina: Child care. Montessori is Head Start in Italy. It was invented there to lift up disadvantaged children. In the US, we’ve made it a designer brand that’s unaffordable for those who need it most and for whom it was intended.
14. Arizona: Amend the 2nd amendment. Texas has more than 4000 gun deaths per year. FL takes silver with more than 3000. Together, they’re responsible for more than 17% of the 40,000 annual gun deaths in the US. The UK has 28. Not 28,000. Not 2800. 28. Their cops are unarmed. Everyone wins.
15. Oregon: FOIA restored without the loopholes.
16. Wisconsin: Enforcement of the laws, regs and court decisions that are on the books but ignored.
17. Mississippi: Abortion rights enshrinement.
18. Florida: Marriage equality enshrinement.
19. California: Infrastructure investment.
20. Nevada: Internet for all.
21. Illinois: We need to stop flushing drinking-quality water. We’re running out.
22. Tennessee: Return the Black Hills.
23. Louisiana: Reparations.
24. Michigan: Livable wages in decent working conditions, ideally in a union environment.
25. Connecticut: End citizens united.
26. Montana: Inheritance reform.
27. West Virginia: Enshrine social security.
28. North Dakota: Reform SCOTUS and court system.
29. Georgia: Campaign finance reform.
30. Alaska: Tax reform.
31. New York: Commitment to ethical conduct.
32. Ohio: Commitment to “truthfulness, transparency, and accountability.”
33. Texas: Enshrine voting rights.
34. New Jersey: Outlaw NDAs. They were meant to protect secret formulas, not silence the voices of victims.
35. Missouri: Join ICC.
36. Maine: Restore the covenant of “good faith and fair dealing.”
37. Indiana: Term limits. Public service is not for accumulating power and influence, it’s for serving the people.
38. Utah: Mandatory service to by all citizens reaching 18 for two years in public works, AmeriCorp, National Guard, or other similar organization.
39. Alabama: Prison reform.
40. Virginia: Free college or vocational training.
41. Idaho: Eliminate electoral college.
42. Rhode Island: End private equity investment.
43.Pennsylvania: End tipping. It’s out of control and our global neighbors don’t do it.
44.Wyoming: Issue new SS numbers to each citizen now that ours have been compromised
45.Kansas: Animal Welfare Act. AKC “breed standards” require docked tails and cropped ears for some dogs. The US and Russia are among the only nations where cosmetic mutilation of dogs is legal. Global leaders Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI, France) and The Kennel Club (KC, UK) preserve breed standards without these cruel practices. We can do the same.
46.New Mexico: Regulate contracts signed by—and conditions endured by—pregnancy surrogates.
47.Oklahoma: Regulate fine art industry to prevent money laundering and tax evasion https://naturalist.gallery/blogs/journal/understanding-the-fine-art-market-how-the-wealthy-use-art-for-tax-evasion?srsltid=AfmBOooPUicBwRj5hYi4T8bW2yRSFpez0vkn-M-uuh-WEPHYOzO2uLKt.
48.Other____________________
Nebraska: Collaborate with SD
Massachusetts: Collaborate with Delaware
South Carolina: Collaborate with Maryland
District of Columbia: Collaborate with Kentucky
American Samoa: Collaborate with Washington
Guam: Collaborate with Vermont
Puerto Rico: Collaborate with Minnesota
Northern Mariana Islands: Collaborate with Arkansas
US Virgin Islands: Collaborate with Iowa
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/29/2024-06666/estimates-of-the-voting-age-population-for-2023 Let’s send postcards to all eligible voters!
Monetary schemes? This administration is all about grifting.
the war is ovee the monetary scheme
If we can keep our elections safe, that is.
Bullies aren't respected. They are temporarily tolerated.
Right now the world is dying to punch America in the face. It won't be long till they have the strength and courage to.
When that happens, all this grandiosity will come crashing down.
I hope you're right. Here in Europe we're furious at what the jackass in charge and his moronic dry-drunk henchman are doing. We will ALL have to face the consequences of his stupid decisions. I pity the Iranians, despite their repressive regime leaders but what the hell did el trumpo think? Answer: he didn't.
Bullies have a tendency to be ganged up on and defeated when they’ve gone too far. The US has thrown its weight around with their might makes right horseshit for well over 150 years, even further with the Monroe Doctrine, taking what isn’t theirs and trying to justify it after the fact. The country was founded on genocide, misogyny and human bondage. It’s time for this horrible experiment to end.
I don’t respect or trust America either. And as a formerly proud American, that’s something I never thought I’d say. I used to think Republicans were decent people I didn’t agree with. (That’s why I believed George W Bush when he said there were WMDs — I didn’t think a president would lie about something like that.) Now I consider them would-be fascists who want to destroy the country so the rich can more comfortably loot it. I will never trust another Republican politician as long as I live. They are cowards, bigots and crooks.
As a British person who has always considered the USA a beacon of democracy and our strong ally I can confirm that Trump has destroyed all trust and respect. And the prime reason, above everything else, is his betrayal of the people of the Ukraine. Nothing compares to that. There are no extenuating or "real - politik" circumstances. Putin is a murderer and a war criminal and Trump and his advisers love Putin. That told the British everything about what the USA is today.
Yup
Try being a woman in this “beacon” of democracy.
Let us rename the Strait of Hormuz as the Strait of Epstein Files, and it will be the last thing Trump wants to keep open!
LOL. Trump certaily burried those Epstein files with all of this war mongering.
Good one!
Trump was aiming for a grand historical legacy here, but it's slipping away. Instead of being remembered as the president who ended the Islamic Republic, the emerging narrative is that he's the president who started a catastrophic war for no reason. He's going to say anything, do anything, to try change this narrative.
I think 47 has ensured a grand historical legacy. Just not the one he hoped for.
Change the narrative about the war, and disappear the narrative about the Epstein files. Because he is doing the latter rather well.
I'm afraid he will change it for the worse. I sat in on a military lecture on the web yesterday. Except for Alexander the Great, Iran has never been subdued on the ground - it's basically a mountainous plateau averaging 4,000' above sea level with mountains taller than any in the U.S. Mechanized combat is out of the question for the most part, and foot traffic follows paths that contain many constrictions which make excellent ambush spots. Boots on the ground in Iran will make Afghanistan look like a walk in Central Park.
Absolutely he'll make it worse, one way or another. And the economic disruption could be (as he would say) like nothing that's ever been seen.
The amazing thing is that Trump appears to claim we can use military ships to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Half of Russias feared Black Sea fleet has been sunk and the other half is hiding in harbors as far away from Ukraine as they can get. Because they are not safe from drones out in the open sea.
The math is simple. None of the available systems are 100% effective at protecting a war ship against drones. Even if you have a failure rate as low as 1 in 200 (and nobody comes close to that in open sea) - you are still defenseless against an attack with thousands of drones.
The US military know this and are not currently even trying to escort and protect tankers. Now Trump is asking other countries to take risks that even he refuse.
Spot on!
Whilst we shouldn't make light of all the suffering the war is causing, I'm going to indulge in plenty of schadenfreude watching Trump desperately squirm about in this quadmire of his own making. He's now begging erstwhile allies to come to his aid, the same allies he's spent the last year threatening and insulting. I'm not clear exactly what Europe and China can do to fix this mess without Trump backing down. But if they do get involved they should press their advantage and demand huge concessions from Trump. He is someone who really deserves to be kicked when he is down.
They simply cannot come to his aid. USAers need to bring him and his regime down. And now. This is the only way we may have a chance to remember what a snake oil salesman really does and says. And the cost.
Agreed. No country will risk entering an illegal war, no matter how desperate it becomes. He is a warmonger helping another warmonger, Netanyahu, and in the process aiding Russia to continue its illegal war in Ukraine. Help him out and before you know it he will be waging war with the next country that upsets him. Did someone mention Cuba?
Yep. The Republican party has been trying to recover Cuba since the revolution. U.S. interests own most of the country before Castro and they haven't forgotten. Rubio is pushing hard for a takeover there; his parents came to the States just before Castro took over.
The great climate scientist Michael,Mann posted this on Bluesky - “The MAGA bubble simply is NOT going to break, regardless of how bad the Trump/GOP stories get. 30-40% of the public are hearing/reading nothing but right wing spin due to our toxified, consolidated, plutocrat-owned media. That's the #1 problem that will have to be dealt with.”
And I have posted repeatedly that all is lost absent a successful, well organized and well funded campaign (actually a flat-out, scorched-earth war) against the disinformation and propaganda of right wing, corporate media and the disinformation which is profitably disseminated on antisocial media. Independent media, such as this one, only reaches those of us who read it. The Democratic Party needs to go around the electronic bubble - literally with millions of pamphlets massively distributed by hand, posted on walls, dropped by helicopters, etc. Individuals and smaller fact-based groups cannot do this. This needs to be a multi-hundred million dollar campaign which doesn’t hesitate to say, “Fox “News” Is Lying To You.” Given the potentially successful GOP efforts to subvert democracy by voter suppression, even if “only” one third of U.S. voters remain MAGA, they may continue their rule over decency and reason.
Well, that’s what you get when you elect a psychopath and malignant narcissist to office. In my opinion, the worst is yet to come. This may sound a bit hyperbolic but if we survive this very dangerous individual, we will be extremely lucky.
NOW you tell me!
Thanks for the morning dose of sarcasm.
I was trained as a historian and sort of still am. I cannot think of another major power in history that did what the U.S. is now doing, in setting out to deliberately destroy the institutions and relationships that are the basis of our own power. Other powers have made mistakes that helped bring them down, but I cannot think of another power that did it on purpose.
It's the whiplash that unsettled most. This year alone, it was Greenland, then Venezuela and now Iran. Where will the US decide they want to invade in April?
Foreign nations can't keep up with the telenovela that is US decision making.
💯 Agree, John. But all wildfires eventually end and new growth emerges, regardless of the magnitude of the destruction. That new growth will reflect the dominant value system. Which wolf will we feed? https://www.nanticokeindians.org/about/the-tale-of-two-wolves/
Cuba
and maybe Canada. Trump is beating that drum again.
I would go so far that the US has no allies anylonger. The exception of possibly Israel but is that very one sided
And Russia. Putin can’t believe his luck with Trump!
Russia has no allies just countries and their leaders he uses.
One journalist in Florida put it very well - "Countries do not have friends; only interests."
I had enough. As a Norwegian we were profoundly disappointed by George W. Bush. We covered the American embassy with flowers after 9/11. The sympathy for America was outpouring.
Then Bush went to war in Iraq and said those of us not with him was against America. That was deeply offensive. He insulted long time allies in all sorts of ways. He killed civilians and tortured people. We could not believe it.
Then came Obama. It is hard to say how much he repaired out faith in America. We thought America had learned from their one off mistake. But no!
America elected Trump twice! Twice!
This is the 4th time including the two Bush years America elects a horrendously bad leader. And it just keeps getting worse. Every Republican seems worse than the previous.
I don't see how we can trust America. What is the point of some reasonable president like Biden holding office occasionally when that is just a temporary break from a horror show?
Long term alliances cannot be built with such a broken country. I have kept coming to the US since 1995 and I have seen the trends over many years. I think to Americans it has been around so long that the dysfunction has been normalized.
But without radical measures there is nothing saving America. Another Biden or Obama will not fix it.
I know you are a moderate Paul Krugman. Been reading you for years but I don't think moderates can save America. The world cannot survive more Neville Chamberlains.
Then there is the case of the IRIS Dena, the Irian frigate torpedoed off the coast of Siri Lanka after participating in a multi-nation event in India, killing at least 80 Iranian sailors. The ship was thousands of miles away from the “war” and had been the guest, as were U.S. ships, of the Indian government. The act has stressed U.S.-Indian relations. IIt has also embarrassed the Australian government which was forced to deny that any of the 3 Australians on the U.S. submarine took part in the atrocity. Hegseth reacted by saying “it went to a quiet grave.” He also should have pointed out that it turned every U.S. military asset in the world, every jeep, pencil, and serviceperson into a legitimate target. That even goes beyond our usual meaning of the term “world war.” We have sadists ruling the country, people who would enjoy pulling the wings off butterflies, bombing speedboats in international waters, killing puppies or slandering nations by claiming they eat people’s pet cats. What have we become?