"Losing trust" is an understatement. Everybody outside of U.S. will de-Americanize to de-risk. Even after Trump is out. The risk is the american political system itself, which could not be trusted to not elevate absolute lunatics to positions of absolute power. The damage is done, everybody sees that, over.
This is absolutely correct. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said as much yesterday, with respect to de-risking from America. He also said that the old relationship with the U.S., based on economic integration and close cooperation in defence and security “is over”. Because it isn’t just about Trump, it’s about the fact that at any time the U.S. can elect an administration as bad as—or worse than—this Trump administration and that there are no guardrails, no functioning checks & balances against the arbitrary abuse of power.
The legacy of Trump is that the U.S. can never be trusted again. This makes me (a Canadian) almost feel worse for Americans than for the rest of us. We will suffer until we can re-engineer our economy & our security partnerships, but the U.S. will be alone for the foreseeable future. This seems like a great tragedy.
For the foreseeable future, the US is locked into a disastrous election process. Gerrymandering in the House and the electoral college for the White House are sclerotic systems that have created the minoritarian regime that now rules the nation.
And with the rise of The Internet and the decline of traditional media there is no shared sense of reality. Everyone is in their respective bubble, but worse on the right. No going back from this.
Media needs to be separated from large corporate interests. Bezos who owns WaPo has huge contracts in front of the US government. That was fine until now when we have an administration that weaponizes every tax dollar and regulatory agency.
And what's worse is when the courts rule that Gerrymandering is illegal and needs to be fixed, the state legislatures simply thumb their noses (a polite euphemism) and ignore the orders.
"Because it isn’t just about Trump, it’s about the fact that at any time the U.S. can elect an administration as bad as—or worse than—this Trump administration and that there are no guardrails, no functioning checks & balances against the arbitrary abuse of power."
Exactly right.
Someone from outside the U.S. that I was reading in 2016 observed that electing Obama after Bush made the country look like it was finally checking itself into rehab. But electing Trump after Obama made it look like the perpetual fuck-up that might clean up its act from time to time but would always fall back off the wagon eventually.
Now apply the same logic to electing Trump AGAIN...
There was a mention on today's Morning Joe of Kennedy's response to the CIA after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The president told the deputy director that if we had a parliamentary form of government Kennedy would be forced to resign.
You are right Chris. There is something deeply flawed about US.
Presidents make mistakes. That's not a reason to resign. All presidents in all countries make mistakes. No one ever blamed the US for making mistakes too. What Trump proves is that, for decades now, rightwing media managed to create a propaganda machine that made the American people elect neofascists who are destroying America's democratic institutions. That's something entirely different than making mistakes...
Oy, Kennedy was pointing out the seriousness of the CIA driven fiasco and its potential consequences. He demanded resignations of subordinates who got out over their skis. Attacking countries is not a "mistake". Kennedy, who had actually fought (with his body) in a war knew that. If Trump had been in Kennedy's position the CIA would have suffered no consequence from the bay of pigs. That is the point Chris is making. Our system relies too heavily on the individual. A deeply flawed individual such as our current president can circumvent all of our vaunted balances with bogus checks.
Not only the right-wing media, for decades, the whole right-wing was operating politically to pass laws in red States using ALEC to create circumstances that would lead to a new Constitutional conference to discard the current Constitution and write a new one that aligns with their racist, misogynist, white Christian nationalist fascist values.
The digital age has also helped manipulate the many weak-minded voters.
This will be a catastrophic impact to US economy. After Canada ends economic and probably military cooperation, EU will be not far behind. It may take longer for them to act because they aren't immediately threatened by tarrifs war. But the end result is a smaller US economy, less jobs, more unemployment. We will not be able to absorb this body blow in the long term.
None of our former friends are going to say it to our face, we're still too powerful, but you can bet they're all working to disentangle themselves from us as fast as possible.
Our adversaries who want us diminished couldn't have devised a better strategy than Trump/Musk/2025. You can see a huge smile on Putin's face. I think Xi would rather deal with rational people, though he thinks democracy is a failing system.
My Republican friends (some extremely RW - yes, we’re still friends!) laughed at me when I predicted that Trump would betray Europe (as well as Ukraine) and would kow-tow to the CCP and China, and Poland, Japan and South Korea would start exploring nukes - they have excellent civilian nuclear industries and could weaponise very quickly. Sadly, I was right. In my own country Australia there is a sense of foreboding; the U.S. as a reliable ally has plummeted from 70pc to 20pc in the public’s eye. Just like you in Canada, we did nothing to deserve the tariffs, and Lutnick, not content to imposing them anyway, couldn’t resist giving Australia a kick as a send-off message.
Lutnick is an absolute sociopath. He said that no one should be upset about losing a Social Security check, and that if people complain it means they are 'fraudsters'!!
Canada having stronger ties to Europe has already begun. No more total reliance on the US. Trump tore up the treaties. The “old relationship is over”. Everything is from the beginning, no renegotiation, it’s moment one. Also, Australia with our new radar.
I think that's true. Our only hope for resurrecting our good reputation is a serious overhaul of our political system. Much of our good governance was based on "norms" being followed. Independence of the justice system, which is critical, is a norm and not enshrined in the constitution. Our "rule of law" which has been the source of our national strength is based on "norms" and people willingly following them.
We need electoral reform ending gerrymandering and something like open primaries that will neuter the extremists of both parties.
Even if we have a real political reckoning and make real changes to make it hard for a strongman to come in and wreak havoc, it will take decades to rebuild our reputation. In two months Trump/Musk/2025 have shown the world we are not to be trusted. We have no friends anymore only adversaries and minions to bully.
I feel deeply ashamed of our political leaders and the mis-informed who support them.
Very well said. I'm an American and had been lazily thinking if we can just survive Trump, things would quickly return to normal. BTW, I feel confident saying the number of Americans who feel any animosity toward Canadians is infinitesimally small. Here in northern Minnesota I have not heard one negative comment about Canada or Canadians.
Frankly, I was shocked that any trust in the U.S. at all endured past Trump's first election. All those steps to disengage from the U.S. or at least reduce dependence on it (especially in national security terms) that are currently being taken or considered by U.S. allies should have been started within hours of Hillary Clinton's concession speech.
The fact that it's taken eight years for us to get to this point speaks volumes about how much the rest of the free world WANTED to maintain the U.S. friendship, wanted to give the U.S. more chances, wanted to believe that this was just a passing glitch and the U.S. system could right itself. The current situation is the U.S. having finally burned through an almost inexhaustible supply of second chances. If things have gotten this bad, it's hard to see how it bounces back.
Europe, Canada and Australia probably felt that shared cultural origins would prevail. And the US operated as a social safety valve for Europe until the 1920s, so it would be hard to stop thinking of it as a backstop. It’s shocking even for many Americans to go from British and Western European values to Russian feudalism, although we’ve been living in the same communities with people who prefer the latter.
It’s happening now because Trump declared (immediately after he was elected) that he wanted to make Canada the 51st state (something he had never mentioned before). It is true that Canada had trouble with Trump during his first term, but our country was still able to negotiate a fair free trade deal (thanks to a very strong Chrystia Freeland). The United States has always benefitted from their soft power and the Americanization of the world. Trump is spewing insane despicable lies and Canadians now see our previous “best friend” as untrustworthy and a threat. ♥️💪🇨🇦
You forget how bad the current administration is compared to the first Trump admin., as evidently many voters did. The first group withheld Trump from realizing his worst inclinations; the second group is completely unqualified, except for their salutes to Dear Leader.
Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. Of the 3 “buckets” of voters, “did not vote” came in at 90 million, 15 million more than either of the 2 candidates received. 37% of those eligible couldn’t be bothered to “keep the Republic.”
I think this is the first time Krugman has used the word "totalitarian", no longer just a simple autocracy. Long overdue in my opinion considering how viciously the bully regime goes after opposition.
Many Americans now say they fear fascism. I've feared fascism since 2016. I'm afraid Americans' sudden fearfulness of fascism is too late.
Yes! 😲 They're disappearing people, not yet to mass graves to the best of my knowledge; probably in ICE detention centers, Gitmo, or El Salvador's prison. But all dictatorships end up resorting to the same atrocities, don't they? Being familiar with the disappearances under many different autocratic regimes, this sets off lots of alarms as to where we are now.
Maybe they shouldn't have voted for the narcissist sociopath who tried to coup the country in 2020. I honestly just feel ashamed to even share a country with these dumbasses but I hate the non voters more. We are now a dictatorship cause a few million rational people in this country were too fucking lazy to spend ten minutes of their lives voting to stop a fascist from taking over. SMDH.
I seriously doubt that. In fact, it would not surprise me (if we get a chance at another presidential election) to see even fewer voters step into the voting booth. It was ‘too hard’ or ‘pointless’ before. We can add ‘afraid’ to the next one.
The voters who stayed home last time didn't grasp either that Krasnov really meant what he said, or the impact it would really have. They weren't paying attention. They sure as hell are now. Even the GOPers who voted for Chump are going to town halls and screaming at their reps - at least the reps who actually show up. Otherwise they're screaming at effigies of their reps, or attending town halls held by Dems.
Yeah, there's a realignment happening, and it ain't in the GOP's favor.
LISTEN to Fox News and everything is ROSY with trumps BRILLIANT PLANS ! And also main stream media also puts a shine of the 'bullshit' which yes is a task
John, yes. Do you remember what Benjamin Franklin said in 1776 when asked what kind of government they had: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Seems half of the country didn’t want to.
That 37% consists of people who aren’t interested in politics. They don’t follow the news closely enough to be able to see through the Republicans’ lies. David Shor says that a majority of them would have voted for Trump if they had voted.
I don't know who's more pissed off - the people who voted against Trump because they knew he was a piece of shit, or the people who voted for him and are finally finding out that he's a lying piece of shit.
How could someone just now find out about Donald? He has been on stage for ten or 15 years and anyone who has eyes and ears could/can tell what he is. These people who voted for Donald and now have "buyer's remorse" must be deaf, dumb, and blind.
Foreign countries should be concerned about American -- specifically about the American electorate.
They can no longer afford cable because Elon Musk stopped them from receiving so much public assistance - so now they can't watch Fox 24 hours a day? Maybe.
Have you ever watched FOX for any length of time? I have seen it a few times and I don't know how people stand to watch it. The people on there are so hyper and relentless in their attacks on whomever is the victim for the day. I remember they were going after Ms. Hilary Clinton one day years ago. It was almost comical -- they were after her for every sin in the book from losing emails to jaywalking in Little Rock one day in 1995.
It should be no surprise that about half of the nation seems to be in a coma. Watching FOX will destroy a person's brain and turn it to mush.
Decades of right wing propaganda cooked the brains of millions of our citizens so badly they are delusional and dont live in the same reality as the rest of us. This makes them easy to manipulate and somehow also makes them unable to see that Trump is the most obvious snake oil salesman con man of all time.
I tried to imagine being the voter excited Trump was going to lower grocery prices and then instead he lets Elon Musk fire you for no reason and also tanks the economy starting a trade war with our allies for no reason. That person exists out there in America right now. Goddamn I would feel so stupid if I were them.
If you read the story of the rise and fall empires, it is always the same old story. We humans form civilizations and prosper until we find ourselves unable to prevent the concentration of wealth and political power until the empire disintegrates from out- of- control greed. Structures collapse that supported the lives of the people - trade, economy, social institutions, legal structures disappear. Chaos reigns as gangs of "strongmen" try to take what is left. Violence reigns as people struggle to survive. They called it the Dark Ages for a reason.
Note to Winston: Facing a bit of an uphill battle, now that Trump & Co. have grabbed nearly all the reins of power (and are busy destabilizing everything else).
Of course they don't 100% own Congress or the Courts, but then again, neither Congress nor the Courts have a well-equipped army at their disposal.
Trumpty-Dumpty doesn't necessarily have the military at his disposal either. Recall the Pentagon "leak" to the NYT about Chump trying to have Musky Odor "read into" top secret plans.
The NYT put it on their front page, and The Orange Scourge backed off it immediately.
This just goes to show the Pentagon isn't prepared to just go along with any old Trumpkopf fantasy.
For the moment, yes, but remember that Trumpty-Dumpty had a great fall but was able to get back up his wall and now has people intimidated, running scared and obeying in advance. Resistance will be harder now because in v.2.0 he has no guardrails to restrain him, no cordon sanitaire of principled advisers to counteract the dangerous shit-disturbers.
Maybe, but those "traditional conservatives" from center-right to far-right all voted for and implemented actions to suppress the vote, reduce voters' rights, and gerrymander to rig the elections. Sure, the Dems had to gerrymander too to level the playing field.
I will forever view all right-wingers with contempt for their underhanded approach to democracy. I don't know if I could ever respect any right-winger. I believe to be a right-winger, you have to be on the sociopathic spectrum. It is a personality disorder.
The US Republicans were always more nationalist than UK's Tories or Europe's Christian Democrats who are more classical conservative . With this nationalist ideology the GOP risked to support the emergence of right-wing extremism
This assertion pops up frequently, but the default assumption should be that if those who didn’t vote had voted, their votes would have broken about the same way as the votes that were cast. Any other assumption would need to be supported by evidence. My guess is that if there had been a 100% turnout, the felon would have done even better.
Indeed. Strikes me that a pragmatic analysis would focus on the fact the 10 million voters who went for Biden couldn't/wouldn't vote for Harris. Make of that what you will (misogyny, racism, eggism), it was remarkably shortsighted.
An electorate that wasn't paying sufficient attention to...anything.
Once we defenestrate The Orange Scourge, we'll need a slew of amendments to patch up the weaknesses and holes in the Constitution. It won't be easy, but it will be doable.
It's only been two months. Look at how long it took for Germany, Serbia and Hungary. It might not be so visible to outsiders, but the resistance is growing, as is the anger. Just you watch us.
It would be nice if GOP Senators would snap out of it, but we can't count on them.
That the Pentagon "leaked" Trumpkopf's attempt to have MuskRat "read into" top secret plans is an encouraging development.
King MAGA can't eliminate all of the top brass. Even if he did, the military would be split between the blind obedient followers and those who take their oath to the Constitution seriously - which I'll bet is most.
Of the 3 countries you mention, I'd point out that for Germany it took 12 years (including 6 brutal years of war) and losing WW2 and over 10% of its total population, as well as the active involvement of the victorious allies who imposed democracy and forced the remaining population to face up to what they'd done (or allowed to be done in their name). Who will fill that role after the collapse of democracy in the "United" States?
I was referring to the recent protests over there. Many thousands of Germans were protesting against reichwing extremism in general, and AfD in particular.
Well said. I wonder if economists have models for quantifying the value of a brand and how much damage to the American brand Trump has done in going from pride to embarrassment.
Bingo! I was going to post something very similar, but you beat me to it. We're witnessing with Trump the destruction of a system of international security and economic relations that has served this country incredibly well since the end of WW II, and only a fool would think that the trust in the U.S. that underlay that system will miraculously be restored once Trump is gone. It won't. It can't. Trust does not work like that. Once trust is gone, it's basically gone forever unless the one who’s responsible for losing that trust behaves very, very well for a very, very long time. And, given where America's politics are right now, who is silly enough to bet on that? Not I.
Interestingly, the first thought in western nations about de-risking was actually regarding China in wake of pandemic. Western nations did not wish to rely on Chinese technology and supply chains including for reasons of national security.
Now the world has turned upside down. Now western nations (Canada & EU) are thinking of de-risking from America and minimize their reliance on American security architecture and defense because insane people have taken over America.
While Chinese are anti-liberal and anti-democracy, at least they have a sanity.
Paul’s assessment here is well substantiated. If the US has learned anything after a 2nd Trump presidency, I would hope it includes awareness of the folly of having a presidential structure that rests on a SINGLE human, to wield this much power—no matter how bad or good that person is. Checks & Balances? Sure, a great idea in theory, for a system built on the honor system predicated by a minimal amount of mutual respect and civility. For us, that’s gone. Who has the guts to fix our system? No one enters that chat.
It was a mistake of Biden to continue Trump's nationalist trade politics. He did it on a softer level, but with the same consequences. This was the main cause for inflation.
The main causes for inflation were (1) catching up demand after the COVID pandemic and (2) rising energy prices due to (sanctions in response to) Russia's war on Ukraine. Neither were really under control of Biden or any other politician. The result was felt equally in other countries, especially in Europe. I'm sorry, but in general Americans are so poorly informed and/or educated that they make "strange" choices at elections. Unfortunately it is not only USA citizens, but a whole lot of world citizens that are affected
that's why we need to make primary day a holiday in each jurisdiction so moderate voters vote and choose moderate candidates to run in the general-i hope
Not only primary day but Election Day too (or hold it on a Saturday). Other do-able reforms? Ranked choice voting for all offices; open primaries; all primaries to be held on the same day, no more than three months from the election; repeal Citizens United; independent election commissioners to decide electorates: no more gerrymanders. None of these is complicated.
all true,but primary day is the key-with low turn-out,extremist voters-and their candidates-will continue to dominate-primaries on the same day 3 mo. or less from election are good ideas but would be opposed by powerful lobbies-this is now big business-your ideas aren't complicated but are opposed by entrenched interests-it'll be a fight
Don't believe it. The massive global disruption called COVID caused supply shortages while demand did not drop commensurately. In any case, as you yourself point out, Biden merely allowed some of Trump's protectionist policies (mainly aimed at China) to "continue". The inflation due to such policies, therefore, was already a foregone conclusion, which COVID intensified.
What we really have here is a Incel Inspired White Supremacist Misogynist Death Cult Dictatorship, Of the Incels, For the Incels, By the deranged, delusional Incels.
If that is a question, here is a possible answer: the United States of America can become more intolerant, less able to care for its own affairs, poorer, sicker and far less able to influence global outcomes.
Trump is stupid. Musk is overcome with hubris. I don't see how you can call them incel given that they both have numerous children. Henry Kisinger once said that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. I think it could be money. They both have both.
Thx for the important insights Paul. Enjoy the biking! An open letter written by a Florida judge about the CANADA/USA relationships & history.
By Robert Meadows (Circuit Court Judge, Florida).
Here is one American’s take on the growing trade war with the US and Canada.
"Have you ever stopped to consider how lucky we Americans are to have the neighbors we have? Look around the globe at who some folks have been stuck sharing a border with over the past half century:
North Korea / South Korea
Greece / Turkey
Iran / Iraq
Israel / Palestine
India / Pakistan
China / Russia
"We’ve got Canada! Canada. About as inoffensive a neighbor as you could ever hope for. In spite of all our boasts of “American exceptionalism” and chants of “America first,” they just smile, do their thing and go about their business. They are on average more educated, have a higher standard of living, free health care, and almost no gun problems. They treat immigrants respectfully and already took in over 35,000 Syrians in the last two years.
"They’re with us in NATO, they fought alongside us in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, Afghanistan, the Kosovo War and came to our defense after 9/11. There was that one time when Canada took a pass on one of our wars: Vietnam. Turned out to be a good call.
"They’ve been steady consumers of American imports, reliable exporters of metals and petroleum products (they are the biggest importer of U.S. products from 37 states), and partnered with NASA in our space missions.
"During 9/11 many aircraft were diverted to Newfoundland, an island province off Canada's east coast where Americans were housed in people's homes for two weeks and treated like royalty. In return for their hospitality, this administration slapped a 20% tariff on the products of Newfoundland's only paper mill, thereby threatening it's survival.
"And what do Canadians expect of us in return? To be respected for who and what they are: Canadians. That’s what I call a good neighbor.
"But the King of Chaos couldn’t leave well enough alone. Based on his delusions of perpetual victimhood, out of the clear blue, he’s declared economic war on Canada. On CANADA! And he did it based on Canada being a national security risk to the US! For no good reason, other than the voices in his head that told him it was a war he could win. So why not do it, then?
"Again, we’re talking about Canada. Our closest ally, friend and neighbor.
"On behalf of an embarrassed nation, people of Canada, I apologize for this idiotic and wholly unnecessary attack. Please leave the back channels open. We the People of progressive persuasion stand with you."
One of the many things that doesn't get nearly enough attention in history class is just how lucky the U.S. has been to exist in a world where nowhere in the Americas does it have any peer competitors that could pose a meaningful threat to it - in the way that, say, France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, or England could threaten each other, and at various points actually invaded, pillaged, conquered, and/or regime-changed each other.
The only exception for the longest time was Canada, or more precisely, the British Empire of which Canada was the nearest outpost. After the early dust-ups of the Revolution and the follow-up in 1812, the British decided that they had no real interest in messing with the U.S. anymore, and vice-versa. The British weren't HAPPY per se that the United States existed and would continue to expand, but they were happier with them becoming the dominant power in the Americas than any of their European rivals. The Americans in turn weren't HAPPY that the British remained such a powerful force in the Americas, but again, they were happier to have them around than any other European powers. So they settled into a status quo that suited both of them, which gradually turned into actual friendly relations. (Which continued as Canada gradually became independent from Britain).
The British on the northern border could've made life a hell of a lot more unpleasant for the United States at many points in its existence. Heck, if they'd chosen to involve themselves in the Civil War, there wouldn't BE a United States. It's a hell of a 200 year relationship to be throwing away.
Yes, and not to quibble, but YOU fought alongside Canada in WW1 and WW2 not the other way around - Canada signed up in 1914, 3 years before the U.S., and in 1939, over two years before the U.S., in both wars.
So many are taught a poor grasp of history through a jingoistic lens. If they absorb any history at all. Too many think we singlehandedly ended the war. They should have talked to my father who was there.
Not to be too picky, but Canada does not have "free" health care. What it does have is sensible universal health care, but it costs. In the United States we have "free" national security. Of course, it's not free, but no one personally pays for it. Except for taxes.
Now this is not a knock. The postwar bipolar world practically demanded U.S. hegemony. In a way you might say we were very altruistic, Sacrificing many social benefits that our protectees enjoyed so that we could protect them at our expense.
Another thing that's less than simple: The USA spends more on health care than anybody else. (For the BEST IN THE WORLD? Don't believe everything you hear on the radio from a star who's paid hundreds of millions a year for his propaganda). A good test of actual medical care for a nation is life expectancy; so look that up on the website cia.gov; yes, the CIA publishes a lot of public data and is glad to share. We are generally around the 40th best in that regard, tending to be between Croatia and Cuba.
All of the Trump chaos makes sense from the point of view that the point is to destroy government as we have known it and replace it with totalitarian power for the benefit of the filthy rich. Basically Project 2025 is being implemented with the complete collapse of our current government. Just look at DOGE firings to see the devastation.
We are in the midst of a coup. Everyone needs to understand that and act accordingly.
One way to act accordingly is for governors of the states surrounding Washington to prepare their National Guards to take action under the 2nd Amendment if Trump refuses to leave office after noon on 1/20/29.
"A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state..."
I know this requires an act of faith but I do think they will overreach and eventually fall flat on their faces. The chaos has been infinitely worse (and quicker to arrive) than I’d thought, but so has the incompetence and stupidity to go with the cruelty. When will something change? When Republican senators start to worry about being re-elected. The leading indicator of that will be when the GOP loses the House in 2026. Until then, buckle down.
I doubt that Bessent really thinks these tariffs are sensible policy but he spouts nonsense for one reason only--fear of pissing off the Leader. In this respect the White House is like the Kremlin.
Ding, ding, ding, Winner! Once you realize that, the craziness makes sense. The subordinate posture with Putin, coming out of the back room in Helsinki, trump slumped and defeated, with tiny Putin looming large over him, confident in his ownership. I don't know why the whole world didn't see the obvious body language!
Trump doesn’t actually believe the crap he says. His brain never fully developed. He’s still a sad, lonely, 12 year old boy. Everything he does is to placate his hurt feelings. I don’t understand why the other people have jumped into this. How desperate are these people for status that they believe being in a Trump administration is worth it? Maybe he doesn’t believe this but then why is he so thirsty for this job then? He probably was bullied or his dad didn’t love him either.
Tariffs are a virtual attack on other nations, which hurts us as well. Serious, yes, but it gets worse. Trump is also threatening war against our neighbors, Canada and Greenland. Americans may think that's a joke, but our neighbors certainly don't.
I'd say a vast majority of Americans do >not< think it's a joke. We do >not< support such outrageous actions as The Orange Scourge is inflicting everywhere. We >will< get rid of him. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it will happen. Just watch us.
I think your prediction has a 10% chance of coming true in the next 50 years. I have the chances of the US becoming Russia West at 60% leaving a 30% chance that the US simply stumbles around like a drunk old man going from one stupid initiative to another until it becomes totally dysfunctional and breaks apart.
As Carney said yesterday, the old US-Canada alliance, and friendship, is dead. We're so done, and we're not coming back. This is historic level of betrayal and treaty-breaking, and it's all in shreds. Now fuck off and find some shithole country who will share your values. Russia is one. El Salvador another.
Worthless as an ally. I hope my Canadian compatriots hold that thought while we bear the burden of distancing ourselves from -- and defending ourselves against -- our former partner.
Trump has not yet made any sort of offer of flowers and a promise to stop beating us for what was, of course, our fault. When and if he does, I hope we maintain our resolve to remain free of this toxic former partner.
Trump has never apologized for anything in his life, and has never been held accountable for anything. It is not going to start now. When he is called on something, he digs in and down.
Please do. Don't capitulate to the bully. We may be able to beat you up pretty badly, but we won't go unscathed.
This about face of Canada bad, Russia good, is hard for even magas to understand. They see it as Trump being Trump trolling, but they don't see Canada as the enemy.
I have tried to point out to trumpists exactly this. I guess they need to experience the pain inflicted by these policies firsthand. It’s coming, unfortunately.
It’ll take a very long time for the pain to register based on a PBS Newshour report from Nebraska yesterday. The reporter interviewed a federal employee who lost her job but voted for Trump and seems to think she can easily find another one as a microbiologist who works on vaccines (apparently she hasn’t been paying attention to Big Pharmacy stock losses following the appointment of Brain Worm Boy to DHHS. Employment opportunities aren’t going to be what they once were). A soybean and corn farmer was also interviewed, and he still supports Trump although retaliatory tariffs will affect his ability to sell his produce. He figures crop insurance and federal bailouts like in Trump 1 will keep him solvent. Denial is a powerful drug.
This amount of confidence in Trump shows just how out of touch these people are with what is really happening. With the sane washing of this administration’s policies by MSM, either by lies or fear of retribution, this unfounded narrative continues. The worst is yet to come and this administration is telegraphing its intentions. The people need to wake up and show their anger.
I have a longtime friend who is an ardent maga. Trump 1 trashed the family dairy business and they're hurting even worse now. I'm sure she's still all in on Trump because she's absorbed right wing bullshit for decades. Immigrants are a big thing for her even though they employ a lot of Mexicans and she has Mexican friends.
Sharon, 100% agree. My entire family represent the same situation as the friend you describe (dairy farm, pig business, ardent MAGA, Rush L. and Fox as sources of 'news', etc.). I've offered helping them sort through information sources as I explained that my training as a scientist is helpful in identifying sources that are more credible versus those that are less credible. This offer resulted in bristling reactions.
It is very painful to visit my own family. In addition to other travesties listed in comments here, I also place a great deal of blame on right-wing 'anger-tainment'.
Doug Tarnopol makes a great point. We don’t yet see the full implications of the direction Trump is taking us. Which is why the Resistance needs a coherent plan for all the contingencies. I’m fully in support of Bernie and AOC going to districts where there are vulnerabilities for Republicans to get re-elected, to pressure them to think that maybe supporting Trump in everything isn’t a winning plan. But, this approach assumes that they have to worry about free and fair elections going forward. Not so fast, my friends. The Resistance doesn’t need a cadre of independent actors, tackling one part of the problem at a time. We need to gather a group of credible leaders who can think through the contingencies, and develop a plan to address them. Ideally, this leadership would come from the Dems, but they have proved themselves incapable of organizing anything like a coherent resistance. Maybe we need someone like Zelensky, a homegrown version, who can pull people together.
George, the Dems couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. Bernie and AOC are showing the way; so is the Prof. It might seem that we are all whistling in the dark but Signature-Gate shows how stuff can break through the public attention. The MAGA-verse might never desert him but it takes only 2-4pc of persuadable voters to switch and he and his thugs and clowns are gone. Another thing: mockery and humour are far more potent than rage. Have you seen the crowd-funded ads on London bus shelters and the Underground? This, from the land where Musk declared “free speech is dead”. From the land of Monty Python and the Goons. Ya gotta love the Brits.
Yes, but who is that person? I have some folks it should not be (Schumer, Pelosi, Clinton, Carville, Harris, etc., etc.) but I do not know who it could be. I,m hoping someone emerges—soon! Thanks, okayish intheBlue. I appreciate your response!
Well, when AOC was sworn in (2019 - so long ago!) I may have been the first to be amused by the thought "In 2028 she'll be old enough to run for President!" Now, especially considering she's studying with Bernie (but not studying personnel selection, we hope), I'm wondering if I was wrong to think of it as a joke.
Although seeing my fellow countrymen taking to the streets was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes, we still cannot win.
We can't win.
We are fighting against the existence of at least 150 Conservative Republican foundations that have existed since 1938 and are funded by industrialists, religious conservatives, munition manufacturers, oil billionaires, protestant evangelical leaders, and Christian extremists. Billionaires support these organizations, which are well-organized operations run by efficient executives with excellent credentials. These executives assist in staffing government agencies, establishing European branches, and establishing active university branches. They are well-organized, practical, and well-financed conservative organizations with a highly successful track record. We are no match for them. These foundations include the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the State Policy Network, the Franklin Center, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. They are an active lobbying organization affecting national, state, and local elections.
Most recently, the conservative organization Heritage Foundation produced a manual called "Project 2025," outlining changes that should be made to our constitution and legislative body. This formidable opponent had existed since 1971 when Coors of Coors Beer invested $250,000 to start the Heritage Foundation. This foundation established and financed an active political arm called the Active Heritage.
We have no matching progressive organizations with funding matching what these conservative organizations have. These conservative organizations are not going away and will exist even after we can change the 2026 election in our favor. They have been active in our politics, influencing the presidencies of Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, the Tea Party of 2010, and the Trump presidency.
These organizations use their money without limitations in every manner to influence Senators, members of Congress, newspapers, universities, journalists, and judges.
Congress passed the Citizens United decision in January 2010, providing a means for billionaires to exert influence. While wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups have long spent money on campaigns, their role has expanded significantly due to the Supreme Court's decisions in Citizens United and subsequent rulings, resulting in a fusion of private wealth and political power unseen since the late 19th century.
So we are outmatched, outfinanced, outmaneuvered, and eventually, we will have to live in an oligarchy, authoritarian state.
I know a way to win, but no one wants to consider it.
I agree with everything you said. With that out of the way, it was the SCOTUS, not Congress, that rendered the Citizens United decision.
As for the way to win that you think no one wants to consider, I doubt you're the only one who thought of it. But it's a last resort. Numerous studies have shown that peaceful resistance of at least 3.5% of the population is enough to dislodge an authoritarian state.
With a current population of over 341.5 million, that comes out to approximately 12 million. We're already fairly close to that now.
I disagree. Unless their goal is genocide, martyrdom will be a powerful weapon. MLK was so powerful because of the shame of the violent attacks in the face of passive resistance.
I'm friends with a lot of magas and they are susceptible to shame.
I agree with you about Trump/Musk/Vance 2025. However, I grew up with magas and know many of them. I get along with them just fine. They are misinformed/uninformed/indoctrinated. The propaganda has been going on for a long time and is very effective.
Sadly, I think you're right, which might be the reason the Dems have been so paralyzed. At this point, the only thing I think will work is secession... the blue states, especially those that border Canada, could try forming their own country or joining Canada if Canada would allow it. Of course, that would probably also mean forming their own army or armies, or siphoning off military who have been dumped by Trump or are willing to defect. I assume we would eventually need to fight to maintain our new country (or save Canada). Maybe Europe would come to our defense....
Blue states are only blue in the large metropolitan areas. We're looking at an urban/rural divide. If you go county by county the vast majority of land mass is MAGA. Not by population.
One of the things I have not seen discussed about tariffs is that they may actually cause US firms to build plants offshore because if they locate in Mexico or Asia, they will not be subject to retaliatory tariffs as the goods were not shipped from the US.
That is a very interesting point! It would mean they can still trade and export with the rest of the world, promote their brand and product, make profits. Let the Americans pay more for everything, who cares, it is now a failed country anyway!
The corporations would need to build manufacturing both in the US and outside the US to avoid tariffs. There is little possibility of accomplishing either before the economy collapses, possibly the world economy.
The argument for tariffs is foreign companies will come to the US to avoid tariffs. But that can't happen if foreign companies maintain control of the U.S-based assets. What companies would willingly do business in the US with that uncertainty? But it explains why the UAW leadership would cut off its own foot so to speak, by embracing tariffs in the United States at the expense of UAW workers in Canada. UAW in the United States is lining up first to get preferential treatment from the oligarchs who will run the new US economy.
Bessent should have known. All the good people with sterling reputations from past careers watched them being shredded by working for Trump 1 (some, like Mattis, had the integrity to resign and were of course followed out the door by Trump’s calumnies and slurs - no one is allowed to quit on the emperor, even if he keeps his mouth shut). This will not end well for Bessent either. Of course, Hegseth, Patel, Walz, Miller, Ratcliffe and Gabbard had no integrity or good reputation to begin with; they were partisan hacks and do stayed true to form. Rubio, who has some principles, is like Bessent. Let’s see who lasts in this clown circus.
When Larry Summers talks people listen. Bessent and every other poor excuse for a cabinet member can change their last names to Sycophant. The actions of this so called administration are reprehensible and attack every aspect of what was great about America. How can you make America great again when you are destroying everything that made it great. Thanks for you insights Professor Krugman and look out for potholes as they are bad on the rims.
"Make America Great Again" is - and always has been - a meaningless bumper sticker slogan coined by Ronald Reagan to distract Americans from the damage he was doing, and usurped by Trumpkopf for the same purpose.
Thanks to its ambiguity, it can mean different things to different MAGAnuts. What it really means is "Make America Safe for Klaners and Nazi's Again".
I've read that Bessent was only ever successful working for Soros and never on his own. His greatest achievement: betting against the pound. He appears as someone who schmoozes well at cocktail parties with that smug look as if he's arrived.
"Losing trust" is an understatement. Everybody outside of U.S. will de-Americanize to de-risk. Even after Trump is out. The risk is the american political system itself, which could not be trusted to not elevate absolute lunatics to positions of absolute power. The damage is done, everybody sees that, over.
This is absolutely correct. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said as much yesterday, with respect to de-risking from America. He also said that the old relationship with the U.S., based on economic integration and close cooperation in defence and security “is over”. Because it isn’t just about Trump, it’s about the fact that at any time the U.S. can elect an administration as bad as—or worse than—this Trump administration and that there are no guardrails, no functioning checks & balances against the arbitrary abuse of power.
The legacy of Trump is that the U.S. can never be trusted again. This makes me (a Canadian) almost feel worse for Americans than for the rest of us. We will suffer until we can re-engineer our economy & our security partnerships, but the U.S. will be alone for the foreseeable future. This seems like a great tragedy.
For the foreseeable future, the US is locked into a disastrous election process. Gerrymandering in the House and the electoral college for the White House are sclerotic systems that have created the minoritarian regime that now rules the nation.
Don’t overlook the abhorrent influence of Citizens United.
That marked the beginning of the end
Citizens United was seed from which pluto-populism sprouted, which bloomed into the democracy choking weed of authoritarianism today.
And with the rise of The Internet and the decline of traditional media there is no shared sense of reality. Everyone is in their respective bubble, but worse on the right. No going back from this.
Media needs to be separated from large corporate interests. Bezos who owns WaPo has huge contracts in front of the US government. That was fine until now when we have an administration that weaponizes every tax dollar and regulatory agency.
And what's worse is when the courts rule that Gerrymandering is illegal and needs to be fixed, the state legislatures simply thumb their noses (a polite euphemism) and ignore the orders.
Or draw up an even more gerrymandered district and claim they have to use it because "the election is too close."
superficial nonsense.
"Because it isn’t just about Trump, it’s about the fact that at any time the U.S. can elect an administration as bad as—or worse than—this Trump administration and that there are no guardrails, no functioning checks & balances against the arbitrary abuse of power."
Exactly right.
Someone from outside the U.S. that I was reading in 2016 observed that electing Obama after Bush made the country look like it was finally checking itself into rehab. But electing Trump after Obama made it look like the perpetual fuck-up that might clean up its act from time to time but would always fall back off the wagon eventually.
Now apply the same logic to electing Trump AGAIN...
There was a mention on today's Morning Joe of Kennedy's response to the CIA after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The president told the deputy director that if we had a parliamentary form of government Kennedy would be forced to resign.
You are right Chris. There is something deeply flawed about US.
Presidents make mistakes. That's not a reason to resign. All presidents in all countries make mistakes. No one ever blamed the US for making mistakes too. What Trump proves is that, for decades now, rightwing media managed to create a propaganda machine that made the American people elect neofascists who are destroying America's democratic institutions. That's something entirely different than making mistakes...
Oy, Kennedy was pointing out the seriousness of the CIA driven fiasco and its potential consequences. He demanded resignations of subordinates who got out over their skis. Attacking countries is not a "mistake". Kennedy, who had actually fought (with his body) in a war knew that. If Trump had been in Kennedy's position the CIA would have suffered no consequence from the bay of pigs. That is the point Chris is making. Our system relies too heavily on the individual. A deeply flawed individual such as our current president can circumvent all of our vaunted balances with bogus checks.
Isn't it interesting, if you read The Devil's Chessboard, what happened after that? This country has always had sociopaths in positions of power.
Not only the right-wing media, for decades, the whole right-wing was operating politically to pass laws in red States using ALEC to create circumstances that would lead to a new Constitutional conference to discard the current Constitution and write a new one that aligns with their racist, misogynist, white Christian nationalist fascist values.
The digital age has also helped manipulate the many weak-minded voters.
👆🎯
Many of us love Canada and are heartbroken about what has happened....
Thank you. But the trouble is, it isn't, "what has happened."
It's still happening, and will likely get worse.
You're absolutely right....
Y
Thank you. A nice change after being told by a WSJ commenter that Canada was “freeloading” on the US.
I live near the border. I can't believe this admin. is doing this to one of our strongest allies!
This will be a catastrophic impact to US economy. After Canada ends economic and probably military cooperation, EU will be not far behind. It may take longer for them to act because they aren't immediately threatened by tarrifs war. But the end result is a smaller US economy, less jobs, more unemployment. We will not be able to absorb this body blow in the long term.
None of our former friends are going to say it to our face, we're still too powerful, but you can bet they're all working to disentangle themselves from us as fast as possible.
Our adversaries who want us diminished couldn't have devised a better strategy than Trump/Musk/2025. You can see a huge smile on Putin's face. I think Xi would rather deal with rational people, though he thinks democracy is a failing system.
My Republican friends (some extremely RW - yes, we’re still friends!) laughed at me when I predicted that Trump would betray Europe (as well as Ukraine) and would kow-tow to the CCP and China, and Poland, Japan and South Korea would start exploring nukes - they have excellent civilian nuclear industries and could weaponise very quickly. Sadly, I was right. In my own country Australia there is a sense of foreboding; the U.S. as a reliable ally has plummeted from 70pc to 20pc in the public’s eye. Just like you in Canada, we did nothing to deserve the tariffs, and Lutnick, not content to imposing them anyway, couldn’t resist giving Australia a kick as a send-off message.
Lutnick is an absolute sociopath. He said that no one should be upset about losing a Social Security check, and that if people complain it means they are 'fraudsters'!!
Canada having stronger ties to Europe has already begun. No more total reliance on the US. Trump tore up the treaties. The “old relationship is over”. Everything is from the beginning, no renegotiation, it’s moment one. Also, Australia with our new radar.
Oh, but the tariff war is coming to the EU tomorrow on "Liberation Day"
I think that's true. Our only hope for resurrecting our good reputation is a serious overhaul of our political system. Much of our good governance was based on "norms" being followed. Independence of the justice system, which is critical, is a norm and not enshrined in the constitution. Our "rule of law" which has been the source of our national strength is based on "norms" and people willingly following them.
We need electoral reform ending gerrymandering and something like open primaries that will neuter the extremists of both parties.
Even if we have a real political reckoning and make real changes to make it hard for a strongman to come in and wreak havoc, it will take decades to rebuild our reputation. In two months Trump/Musk/2025 have shown the world we are not to be trusted. We have no friends anymore only adversaries and minions to bully.
I feel deeply ashamed of our political leaders and the mis-informed who support them.
Right. Who comes after Trump? JD Vance? No improvement there.
Very well said. I'm an American and had been lazily thinking if we can just survive Trump, things would quickly return to normal. BTW, I feel confident saying the number of Americans who feel any animosity toward Canadians is infinitesimally small. Here in northern Minnesota I have not heard one negative comment about Canada or Canadians.
Frankly, I was shocked that any trust in the U.S. at all endured past Trump's first election. All those steps to disengage from the U.S. or at least reduce dependence on it (especially in national security terms) that are currently being taken or considered by U.S. allies should have been started within hours of Hillary Clinton's concession speech.
The fact that it's taken eight years for us to get to this point speaks volumes about how much the rest of the free world WANTED to maintain the U.S. friendship, wanted to give the U.S. more chances, wanted to believe that this was just a passing glitch and the U.S. system could right itself. The current situation is the U.S. having finally burned through an almost inexhaustible supply of second chances. If things have gotten this bad, it's hard to see how it bounces back.
Europe, Canada and Australia probably felt that shared cultural origins would prevail. And the US operated as a social safety valve for Europe until the 1920s, so it would be hard to stop thinking of it as a backstop. It’s shocking even for many Americans to go from British and Western European values to Russian feudalism, although we’ve been living in the same communities with people who prefer the latter.
It’s happening now because Trump declared (immediately after he was elected) that he wanted to make Canada the 51st state (something he had never mentioned before). It is true that Canada had trouble with Trump during his first term, but our country was still able to negotiate a fair free trade deal (thanks to a very strong Chrystia Freeland). The United States has always benefitted from their soft power and the Americanization of the world. Trump is spewing insane despicable lies and Canadians now see our previous “best friend” as untrustworthy and a threat. ♥️💪🇨🇦
If the rest of the world can bring the US to its knees economically, they will be doing a favor to the world and half the US.
please do, yes...the sooner the better
You forget how bad the current administration is compared to the first Trump admin., as evidently many voters did. The first group withheld Trump from realizing his worst inclinations; the second group is completely unqualified, except for their salutes to Dear Leader.
I think we all hoped Trump 1 WAS an aberration...sadly, now we know better...
Half the country did not vote GOP.
Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. Of the 3 “buckets” of voters, “did not vote” came in at 90 million, 15 million more than either of the 2 candidates received. 37% of those eligible couldn’t be bothered to “keep the Republic.”
I think this is the first time Krugman has used the word "totalitarian", no longer just a simple autocracy. Long overdue in my opinion considering how viciously the bully regime goes after opposition.
Many Americans now say they fear fascism. I've feared fascism since 2016. I'm afraid Americans' sudden fearfulness of fascism is too late.
Seeing people being snatched off of the street by the (Secret Pol)ICE is terrifying.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-28/rumeysa-ozturk-s-detention-by-ice-is-a-wake-up-call
Yes! 😲 They're disappearing people, not yet to mass graves to the best of my knowledge; probably in ICE detention centers, Gitmo, or El Salvador's prison. But all dictatorships end up resorting to the same atrocities, don't they? Being familiar with the disappearances under many different autocratic regimes, this sets off lots of alarms as to where we are now.
One of my colleagues fled Ukraine in 2014.
He assures me that, yes, this is how it starts.
Maybe they shouldn't have voted for the narcissist sociopath who tried to coup the country in 2020. I honestly just feel ashamed to even share a country with these dumbasses but I hate the non voters more. We are now a dictatorship cause a few million rational people in this country were too fucking lazy to spend ten minutes of their lives voting to stop a fascist from taking over. SMDH.
They're no doubt now re-assessing their decision.
I seriously doubt that. In fact, it would not surprise me (if we get a chance at another presidential election) to see even fewer voters step into the voting booth. It was ‘too hard’ or ‘pointless’ before. We can add ‘afraid’ to the next one.
The voters who stayed home last time didn't grasp either that Krasnov really meant what he said, or the impact it would really have. They weren't paying attention. They sure as hell are now. Even the GOPers who voted for Chump are going to town halls and screaming at their reps - at least the reps who actually show up. Otherwise they're screaming at effigies of their reps, or attending town halls held by Dems.
Yeah, there's a realignment happening, and it ain't in the GOP's favor.
Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
Don't let up folks, it's working:
Boycott TE卐LA! Boycott Swastikar!
Short TE卐LA! Short Swastikar!
Boycott 卐tarlink!
Boycott 卐/Twitter!
I'm getting almost daily emails from Tesla suggesting that I upgrade my Model Y to the new model. Yeah .. no.
I still like my Y, even if her grandad has succumbed to Feral Billionaire Syndrome.
that's 'X' I believe...eXit 'X'
LISTEN to Fox News and everything is ROSY with trumps BRILLIANT PLANS ! And also main stream media also puts a shine of the 'bullshit' which yes is a task
I don't think they put a shine on it, but they're very careful about calling out the bullshit. For good reason too.
John, yes. Do you remember what Benjamin Franklin said in 1776 when asked what kind of government they had: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Seems half of the country didn’t want to.
That 37% consists of people who aren’t interested in politics. They don’t follow the news closely enough to be able to see through the Republicans’ lies. David Shor says that a majority of them would have voted for Trump if they had voted.
Guess we’ll never know.
Those nonvoters are just as responsible for electing the fascists nationally as are Republican voters.
this point has been made a million times.
ONLY 76 million more Trump voters to go!! Yay, team!
MORE THAN HALF
I don't know who's more pissed off - the people who voted against Trump because they knew he was a piece of shit, or the people who voted for him and are finally finding out that he's a lying piece of shit.
How could someone just now find out about Donald? He has been on stage for ten or 15 years and anyone who has eyes and ears could/can tell what he is. These people who voted for Donald and now have "buyer's remorse" must be deaf, dumb, and blind.
Foreign countries should be concerned about American -- specifically about the American electorate.
They can no longer afford cable because Elon Musk stopped them from receiving so much public assistance - so now they can't watch Fox 24 hours a day? Maybe.
Have you ever watched FOX for any length of time? I have seen it a few times and I don't know how people stand to watch it. The people on there are so hyper and relentless in their attacks on whomever is the victim for the day. I remember they were going after Ms. Hilary Clinton one day years ago. It was almost comical -- they were after her for every sin in the book from losing emails to jaywalking in Little Rock one day in 1995.
It should be no surprise that about half of the nation seems to be in a coma. Watching FOX will destroy a person's brain and turn it to mush.
^^^Ever so much this, and they yell, and lie, and yell, then lie some more!
Decades of right wing propaganda cooked the brains of millions of our citizens so badly they are delusional and dont live in the same reality as the rest of us. This makes them easy to manipulate and somehow also makes them unable to see that Trump is the most obvious snake oil salesman con man of all time.
I guess the distinction is a might subtle…for some people.
Trump's true believers will never change. The swing voters who went GOP in 2024 might change
I tried to imagine being the voter excited Trump was going to lower grocery prices and then instead he lets Elon Musk fire you for no reason and also tanks the economy starting a trade war with our allies for no reason. That person exists out there in America right now. Goddamn I would feel so stupid if I were them.
“True Believers”? How about “worshipers of the anti-Christ”?
Shallow and infantile
And your point, sir?
It's a contrarian. He changes his name now and then, and is very tedious.
Ah, thank you.
Unfortunately that doesn't matter as the GQP is in power
For now, but not for long. I can see America finally starting to come out of its "Reagan Revolution" trance.
Let's hope. We need to get $ out if politics. That is one huge cause if all this chaos
Indeed. It's the primary cause.
If you read the story of the rise and fall empires, it is always the same old story. We humans form civilizations and prosper until we find ourselves unable to prevent the concentration of wealth and political power until the empire disintegrates from out- of- control greed. Structures collapse that supported the lives of the people - trade, economy, social institutions, legal structures disappear. Chaos reigns as gangs of "strongmen" try to take what is left. Violence reigns as people struggle to survive. They called it the Dark Ages for a reason.
Note to Winston: Facing a bit of an uphill battle, now that Trump & Co. have grabbed nearly all the reins of power (and are busy destabilizing everything else).
Of course they don't 100% own Congress or the Courts, but then again, neither Congress nor the Courts have a well-equipped army at their disposal.
Ah well,. Democracy, we hardly knew ye.
Trumpty-Dumpty doesn't necessarily have the military at his disposal either. Recall the Pentagon "leak" to the NYT about Chump trying to have Musky Odor "read into" top secret plans.
The NYT put it on their front page, and The Orange Scourge backed off it immediately.
This just goes to show the Pentagon isn't prepared to just go along with any old Trumpkopf fantasy.
For the moment, yes, but remember that Trumpty-Dumpty had a great fall but was able to get back up his wall and now has people intimidated, running scared and obeying in advance. Resistance will be harder now because in v.2.0 he has no guardrails to restrain him, no cordon sanitaire of principled advisers to counteract the dangerous shit-disturbers.
In fact no one voted for GOP, since the GOP was converted to MAGA party during past years.
Reagan was another Trump.
A logical absurdity. Perhaps you meant to say "Trump is another Reagan"? (Also questionable, but at least making chronological sense).
The GOP transformed into the GQP and from there became the modern day incarnation of the NSDAP.
What’s GQP?
Q probably refers to Q-anon
I call them Q-twits
They're all right-wingers .
There is a big difference between classical conservatism and Fascism. It is comparable to the difference between Stalin's communism and Labor parties.
Maybe, but those "traditional conservatives" from center-right to far-right all voted for and implemented actions to suppress the vote, reduce voters' rights, and gerrymander to rig the elections. Sure, the Dems had to gerrymander too to level the playing field.
I will forever view all right-wingers with contempt for their underhanded approach to democracy. I don't know if I could ever respect any right-winger. I believe to be a right-winger, you have to be on the sociopathic spectrum. It is a personality disorder.
The US Republicans were always more nationalist than UK's Tories or Europe's Christian Democrats who are more classical conservative . With this nationalist ideology the GOP risked to support the emergence of right-wing extremism
Almost 1/3 of the country did not vote. There lies the real problem.
This assertion pops up frequently, but the default assumption should be that if those who didn’t vote had voted, their votes would have broken about the same way as the votes that were cast. Any other assumption would need to be supported by evidence. My guess is that if there had been a 100% turnout, the felon would have done even better.
Indeed. Strikes me that a pragmatic analysis would focus on the fact the 10 million voters who went for Biden couldn't/wouldn't vote for Harris. Make of that what you will (misogyny, racism, eggism), it was remarkably shortsighted.
An electorate that wasn't paying sufficient attention to...anything.
Yeah, maybe, but if the usual number were paying attention, that’s even worse.
Only a third of you voted against trump
More people voted against Trump than for him. And a third sat at home. It's more people voting against him or he didn't vote for him.
So? How in the name of god is that a helpful observation?
ask God
She still doesn't respond to my texts.
More than half.
We need to change that
Once we defenestrate The Orange Scourge, we'll need a slew of amendments to patch up the weaknesses and holes in the Constitution. It won't be easy, but it will be doable.
And how will this defenestration happen? Your former allies can't see it.
It's only been two months. Look at how long it took for Germany, Serbia and Hungary. It might not be so visible to outsiders, but the resistance is growing, as is the anger. Just you watch us.
WS ,
I hope you’re correct- but there is evidence that
Big Orange Brother is co-opting the military to
resist the resistance. I know of one major base that the admiral in charge is slated to depart
probably this summer- t-Rump will undoubtedly replace him with a MAGA clone . How many protesters will “disappear “ under this fascist regime?
If it comes down to it - I’m ready to share a
cell with you in Gitmo - but I would rather
witness Republican Senators finally refusing to
ingest the cool-aid .
It would be nice if GOP Senators would snap out of it, but we can't count on them.
That the Pentagon "leaked" Trumpkopf's attempt to have MuskRat "read into" top secret plans is an encouraging development.
King MAGA can't eliminate all of the top brass. Even if he did, the military would be split between the blind obedient followers and those who take their oath to the Constitution seriously - which I'll bet is most.
Interesting times ahead.
The grunts in the military take an oath to obey the President as well as defend and protect the Constitution.
Of the 3 countries you mention, I'd point out that for Germany it took 12 years (including 6 brutal years of war) and losing WW2 and over 10% of its total population, as well as the active involvement of the victorious allies who imposed democracy and forced the remaining population to face up to what they'd done (or allowed to be done in their name). Who will fill that role after the collapse of democracy in the "United" States?
I was referring to the recent protests over there. Many thousands of Germans were protesting against reichwing extremism in general, and AfD in particular.
https://apnews.com/article/germany-afd-protests-farright-elections-b318328d080b026424137653513e37ac
Right-wingers must be held responsible. All right-wingers.
Local, State and nationally.
Absolutely and totally.
Well said. I wonder if economists have models for quantifying the value of a brand and how much damage to the American brand Trump has done in going from pride to embarrassment.
The American political system and the American voter.
Don’t underestimate the massive loss of confidence in Americans themselves.
Bingo! I was going to post something very similar, but you beat me to it. We're witnessing with Trump the destruction of a system of international security and economic relations that has served this country incredibly well since the end of WW II, and only a fool would think that the trust in the U.S. that underlay that system will miraculously be restored once Trump is gone. It won't. It can't. Trust does not work like that. Once trust is gone, it's basically gone forever unless the one who’s responsible for losing that trust behaves very, very well for a very, very long time. And, given where America's politics are right now, who is silly enough to bet on that? Not I.
Interestingly, the first thought in western nations about de-risking was actually regarding China in wake of pandemic. Western nations did not wish to rely on Chinese technology and supply chains including for reasons of national security.
Now the world has turned upside down. Now western nations (Canada & EU) are thinking of de-risking from America and minimize their reliance on American security architecture and defense because insane people have taken over America.
While Chinese are anti-liberal and anti-democracy, at least they have a sanity.
Paul’s assessment here is well substantiated. If the US has learned anything after a 2nd Trump presidency, I would hope it includes awareness of the folly of having a presidential structure that rests on a SINGLE human, to wield this much power—no matter how bad or good that person is. Checks & Balances? Sure, a great idea in theory, for a system built on the honor system predicated by a minimal amount of mutual respect and civility. For us, that’s gone. Who has the guts to fix our system? No one enters that chat.
It was a mistake of Biden to continue Trump's nationalist trade politics. He did it on a softer level, but with the same consequences. This was the main cause for inflation.
The main causes for inflation were (1) catching up demand after the COVID pandemic and (2) rising energy prices due to (sanctions in response to) Russia's war on Ukraine. Neither were really under control of Biden or any other politician. The result was felt equally in other countries, especially in Europe. I'm sorry, but in general Americans are so poorly informed and/or educated that they make "strange" choices at elections. Unfortunately it is not only USA citizens, but a whole lot of world citizens that are affected
that's why we need to make primary day a holiday in each jurisdiction so moderate voters vote and choose moderate candidates to run in the general-i hope
Not only primary day but Election Day too (or hold it on a Saturday). Other do-able reforms? Ranked choice voting for all offices; open primaries; all primaries to be held on the same day, no more than three months from the election; repeal Citizens United; independent election commissioners to decide electorates: no more gerrymanders. None of these is complicated.
all true,but primary day is the key-with low turn-out,extremist voters-and their candidates-will continue to dominate-primaries on the same day 3 mo. or less from election are good ideas but would be opposed by powerful lobbies-this is now big business-your ideas aren't complicated but are opposed by entrenched interests-it'll be a fight
He did retain Trump’s deal with Canada & Mexico.
corporate greed was cause of inflation.
Greed, possibly -- but don't forget fear, ignorance, poverty and lust in your list of what drive human events.
Don't believe it. The massive global disruption called COVID caused supply shortages while demand did not drop commensurately. In any case, as you yourself point out, Biden merely allowed some of Trump's protectionist policies (mainly aimed at China) to "continue". The inflation due to such policies, therefore, was already a foregone conclusion, which COVID intensified.
What we really have here is a Incel Inspired White Supremacist Misogynist Death Cult Dictatorship, Of the Incels, For the Incels, By the deranged, delusional Incels.
How big can the trouble we are in grow.
If that is a question, here is a possible answer: the United States of America can become more intolerant, less able to care for its own affairs, poorer, sicker and far less able to influence global outcomes.
Brilliant!
This is close to being perfect, pardon the margin of implied error that all things outside religious beliefs have.
Trump is stupid. Musk is overcome with hubris. I don't see how you can call them incel given that they both have numerous children. Henry Kisinger once said that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. I think it could be money. They both have both.
The incel part doesn’t work.
you are right. I found them in different nations, but literally only American choose this one as president.
Trump's son Baron told him whose podcasts to go on to get the Incel vote and it worked.
Thx for the important insights Paul. Enjoy the biking! An open letter written by a Florida judge about the CANADA/USA relationships & history.
By Robert Meadows (Circuit Court Judge, Florida).
Here is one American’s take on the growing trade war with the US and Canada.
"Have you ever stopped to consider how lucky we Americans are to have the neighbors we have? Look around the globe at who some folks have been stuck sharing a border with over the past half century:
North Korea / South Korea
Greece / Turkey
Iran / Iraq
Israel / Palestine
India / Pakistan
China / Russia
"We’ve got Canada! Canada. About as inoffensive a neighbor as you could ever hope for. In spite of all our boasts of “American exceptionalism” and chants of “America first,” they just smile, do their thing and go about their business. They are on average more educated, have a higher standard of living, free health care, and almost no gun problems. They treat immigrants respectfully and already took in over 35,000 Syrians in the last two years.
"They’re with us in NATO, they fought alongside us in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, Afghanistan, the Kosovo War and came to our defense after 9/11. There was that one time when Canada took a pass on one of our wars: Vietnam. Turned out to be a good call.
"They’ve been steady consumers of American imports, reliable exporters of metals and petroleum products (they are the biggest importer of U.S. products from 37 states), and partnered with NASA in our space missions.
"During 9/11 many aircraft were diverted to Newfoundland, an island province off Canada's east coast where Americans were housed in people's homes for two weeks and treated like royalty. In return for their hospitality, this administration slapped a 20% tariff on the products of Newfoundland's only paper mill, thereby threatening it's survival.
"And what do Canadians expect of us in return? To be respected for who and what they are: Canadians. That’s what I call a good neighbor.
"But the King of Chaos couldn’t leave well enough alone. Based on his delusions of perpetual victimhood, out of the clear blue, he’s declared economic war on Canada. On CANADA! And he did it based on Canada being a national security risk to the US! For no good reason, other than the voices in his head that told him it was a war he could win. So why not do it, then?
"Again, we’re talking about Canada. Our closest ally, friend and neighbor.
"On behalf of an embarrassed nation, people of Canada, I apologize for this idiotic and wholly unnecessary attack. Please leave the back channels open. We the People of progressive persuasion stand with you."
One of the many things that doesn't get nearly enough attention in history class is just how lucky the U.S. has been to exist in a world where nowhere in the Americas does it have any peer competitors that could pose a meaningful threat to it - in the way that, say, France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, or England could threaten each other, and at various points actually invaded, pillaged, conquered, and/or regime-changed each other.
The only exception for the longest time was Canada, or more precisely, the British Empire of which Canada was the nearest outpost. After the early dust-ups of the Revolution and the follow-up in 1812, the British decided that they had no real interest in messing with the U.S. anymore, and vice-versa. The British weren't HAPPY per se that the United States existed and would continue to expand, but they were happier with them becoming the dominant power in the Americas than any of their European rivals. The Americans in turn weren't HAPPY that the British remained such a powerful force in the Americas, but again, they were happier to have them around than any other European powers. So they settled into a status quo that suited both of them, which gradually turned into actual friendly relations. (Which continued as Canada gradually became independent from Britain).
The British on the northern border could've made life a hell of a lot more unpleasant for the United States at many points in its existence. Heck, if they'd chosen to involve themselves in the Civil War, there wouldn't BE a United States. It's a hell of a 200 year relationship to be throwing away.
With his aggressive politics Trump like Kaiser Wilhelm II forces other nations to build an Entente against him and encircle him.
Yes, and not to quibble, but YOU fought alongside Canada in WW1 and WW2 not the other way around - Canada signed up in 1914, 3 years before the U.S., and in 1939, over two years before the U.S., in both wars.
So many are taught a poor grasp of history through a jingoistic lens. If they absorb any history at all. Too many think we singlehandedly ended the war. They should have talked to my father who was there.
I? Love the quibble and the caps ... very drumpian! One of my favorite comments is "I'm not gonna do what I just did!"
Not to be too picky, but Canada does not have "free" health care. What it does have is sensible universal health care, but it costs. In the United States we have "free" national security. Of course, it's not free, but no one personally pays for it. Except for taxes.
Now this is not a knock. The postwar bipolar world practically demanded U.S. hegemony. In a way you might say we were very altruistic, Sacrificing many social benefits that our protectees enjoyed so that we could protect them at our expense.
Of course, it's never that simple.
Another thing that's less than simple: The USA spends more on health care than anybody else. (For the BEST IN THE WORLD? Don't believe everything you hear on the radio from a star who's paid hundreds of millions a year for his propaganda). A good test of actual medical care for a nation is life expectancy; so look that up on the website cia.gov; yes, the CIA publishes a lot of public data and is glad to share. We are generally around the 40th best in that regard, tending to be between Croatia and Cuba.
All of the Trump chaos makes sense from the point of view that the point is to destroy government as we have known it and replace it with totalitarian power for the benefit of the filthy rich. Basically Project 2025 is being implemented with the complete collapse of our current government. Just look at DOGE firings to see the devastation.
We are in the midst of a coup. Everyone needs to understand that and act accordingly.
Do they really think they can maintain control once they've destabilized the US government? They are not only delusional, they're hopelessly naive.
The big question is what does it mean to act accordingly.
One way to act accordingly is for governors of the states surrounding Washington to prepare their National Guards to take action under the 2nd Amendment if Trump refuses to leave office after noon on 1/20/29.
"A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state..."
I know this requires an act of faith but I do think they will overreach and eventually fall flat on their faces. The chaos has been infinitely worse (and quicker to arrive) than I’d thought, but so has the incompetence and stupidity to go with the cruelty. When will something change? When Republican senators start to worry about being re-elected. The leading indicator of that will be when the GOP loses the House in 2026. Until then, buckle down.
Maybe they aren't planning on free and fair elections from here on out.
I doubt that Bessent really thinks these tariffs are sensible policy but he spouts nonsense for one reason only--fear of pissing off the Leader. In this respect the White House is like the Kremlin.
More than that - the White House is acting on behalf of the Kremlin.
Ding, ding, ding, Winner! Once you realize that, the craziness makes sense. The subordinate posture with Putin, coming out of the back room in Helsinki, trump slumped and defeated, with tiny Putin looming large over him, confident in his ownership. I don't know why the whole world didn't see the obvious body language!
Trump doesn’t actually believe the crap he says. His brain never fully developed. He’s still a sad, lonely, 12 year old boy. Everything he does is to placate his hurt feelings. I don’t understand why the other people have jumped into this. How desperate are these people for status that they believe being in a Trump administration is worth it? Maybe he doesn’t believe this but then why is he so thirsty for this job then? He probably was bullied or his dad didn’t love him either.
If Bessent hopes to have a decent reputation post-MAGA he’s wrong. Of course there may not be a post-MAGA Republican Party.
Tariffs are a virtual attack on other nations, which hurts us as well. Serious, yes, but it gets worse. Trump is also threatening war against our neighbors, Canada and Greenland. Americans may think that's a joke, but our neighbors certainly don't.
I'd say a vast majority of Americans do >not< think it's a joke. We do >not< support such outrageous actions as The Orange Scourge is inflicting everywhere. We >will< get rid of him. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it will happen. Just watch us.
I think your prediction has a 10% chance of coming true in the next 50 years. I have the chances of the US becoming Russia West at 60% leaving a 30% chance that the US simply stumbles around like a drunk old man going from one stupid initiative to another until it becomes totally dysfunctional and breaks apart.
And what is the basis for these numbers?
I would say from the same place as anyone else making a prediction.
It can't happen soon enough !
Believe me, we feel the same way. That's not an excuse to give up though. We're working on it.
April 5:
https://handsoff2025.com/?SQF_SOURCE=thirdact
Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
Don't let up folks, it's working:
Boycott TE卐LA! Boycott Swastikar!
Short TE卐LA! Short Swastikar!
Boycott 卐tarlink!
Boycott 卐/Twitter!
I would like to see trump tied to every mention of Musk and or DOGE.
These days the connection is automatic!
I’m not sure it’s a “vast” majority although it is a majority.
I'm quite sure.
As Carney said yesterday, the old US-Canada alliance, and friendship, is dead. We're so done, and we're not coming back. This is historic level of betrayal and treaty-breaking, and it's all in shreds. Now fuck off and find some shithole country who will share your values. Russia is one. El Salvador another.
Worthless as an ally. I hope my Canadian compatriots hold that thought while we bear the burden of distancing ourselves from -- and defending ourselves against -- our former partner.
Trump has not yet made any sort of offer of flowers and a promise to stop beating us for what was, of course, our fault. When and if he does, I hope we maintain our resolve to remain free of this toxic former partner.
Trump has never apologized for anything in his life, and has never been held accountable for anything. It is not going to start now. When he is called on something, he digs in and down.
No, but he just showed up with a bouquet of flowers for "Prime Minister of Canada" "Mark".
Please do. Don't capitulate to the bully. We may be able to beat you up pretty badly, but we won't go unscathed.
This about face of Canada bad, Russia good, is hard for even magas to understand. They see it as Trump being Trump trolling, but they don't see Canada as the enemy.
I hope everyone is attending this weekend's Tesla Takedown and next weekend's Hands Off rallies in your communities if you can't go to DC.
I have tried to point out to trumpists exactly this. I guess they need to experience the pain inflicted by these policies firsthand. It’s coming, unfortunately.
It’ll take a very long time for the pain to register based on a PBS Newshour report from Nebraska yesterday. The reporter interviewed a federal employee who lost her job but voted for Trump and seems to think she can easily find another one as a microbiologist who works on vaccines (apparently she hasn’t been paying attention to Big Pharmacy stock losses following the appointment of Brain Worm Boy to DHHS. Employment opportunities aren’t going to be what they once were). A soybean and corn farmer was also interviewed, and he still supports Trump although retaliatory tariffs will affect his ability to sell his produce. He figures crop insurance and federal bailouts like in Trump 1 will keep him solvent. Denial is a powerful drug.
This amount of confidence in Trump shows just how out of touch these people are with what is really happening. With the sane washing of this administration’s policies by MSM, either by lies or fear of retribution, this unfounded narrative continues. The worst is yet to come and this administration is telegraphing its intentions. The people need to wake up and show their anger.
I have a longtime friend who is an ardent maga. Trump 1 trashed the family dairy business and they're hurting even worse now. I'm sure she's still all in on Trump because she's absorbed right wing bullshit for decades. Immigrants are a big thing for her even though they employ a lot of Mexicans and she has Mexican friends.
MAGA isn't logical, its faith based.
Sharon, 100% agree. My entire family represent the same situation as the friend you describe (dairy farm, pig business, ardent MAGA, Rush L. and Fox as sources of 'news', etc.). I've offered helping them sort through information sources as I explained that my training as a scientist is helpful in identifying sources that are more credible versus those that are less credible. This offer resulted in bristling reactions.
It is very painful to visit my own family. In addition to other travesties listed in comments here, I also place a great deal of blame on right-wing 'anger-tainment'.
The business term for this is "sunk cost investment." You have invested so much that it's hard to back away and see reality.
Another term is “cult”.
It’s definitely a cult.
especially when denial morphs into delusion, which seems pretty obvious in the cases here, especially for the woman who works on vaccines!
Not to mention the dismantling of the NIH and the CDC.
Will Musk permit bailouts of tariff-stricken farmers? He might not.
It's already happening. Just witness the GOP town halls - absent the GOP reps.
And then what? Will we even have real elections? Will we do what’s morally necessary when we realize elections are frauds?
Doug Tarnopol makes a great point. We don’t yet see the full implications of the direction Trump is taking us. Which is why the Resistance needs a coherent plan for all the contingencies. I’m fully in support of Bernie and AOC going to districts where there are vulnerabilities for Republicans to get re-elected, to pressure them to think that maybe supporting Trump in everything isn’t a winning plan. But, this approach assumes that they have to worry about free and fair elections going forward. Not so fast, my friends. The Resistance doesn’t need a cadre of independent actors, tackling one part of the problem at a time. We need to gather a group of credible leaders who can think through the contingencies, and develop a plan to address them. Ideally, this leadership would come from the Dems, but they have proved themselves incapable of organizing anything like a coherent resistance. Maybe we need someone like Zelensky, a homegrown version, who can pull people together.
George, the Dems couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. Bernie and AOC are showing the way; so is the Prof. It might seem that we are all whistling in the dark but Signature-Gate shows how stuff can break through the public attention. The MAGA-verse might never desert him but it takes only 2-4pc of persuadable voters to switch and he and his thugs and clowns are gone. Another thing: mockery and humour are far more potent than rage. Have you seen the crowd-funded ads on London bus shelters and the Underground? This, from the land where Musk declared “free speech is dead”. From the land of Monty Python and the Goons. Ya gotta love the Brits.
I want our own Shawn Fain. We need more than Bernie's and AOC's speeches. We need an organizer!
Yes, but who is that person? I have some folks it should not be (Schumer, Pelosi, Clinton, Carville, Harris, etc., etc.) but I do not know who it could be. I,m hoping someone emerges—soon! Thanks, okayish intheBlue. I appreciate your response!
Well, when AOC was sworn in (2019 - so long ago!) I may have been the first to be amused by the thought "In 2028 she'll be old enough to run for President!" Now, especially considering she's studying with Bernie (but not studying personnel selection, we hope), I'm wondering if I was wrong to think of it as a joke.
Thanks and enjoy your bike ride!
We can not win.
Although seeing my fellow countrymen taking to the streets was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes, we still cannot win.
We can't win.
We are fighting against the existence of at least 150 Conservative Republican foundations that have existed since 1938 and are funded by industrialists, religious conservatives, munition manufacturers, oil billionaires, protestant evangelical leaders, and Christian extremists. Billionaires support these organizations, which are well-organized operations run by efficient executives with excellent credentials. These executives assist in staffing government agencies, establishing European branches, and establishing active university branches. They are well-organized, practical, and well-financed conservative organizations with a highly successful track record. We are no match for them. These foundations include the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the State Policy Network, the Franklin Center, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. They are an active lobbying organization affecting national, state, and local elections.
Most recently, the conservative organization Heritage Foundation produced a manual called "Project 2025," outlining changes that should be made to our constitution and legislative body. This formidable opponent had existed since 1971 when Coors of Coors Beer invested $250,000 to start the Heritage Foundation. This foundation established and financed an active political arm called the Active Heritage.
We have no matching progressive organizations with funding matching what these conservative organizations have. These conservative organizations are not going away and will exist even after we can change the 2026 election in our favor. They have been active in our politics, influencing the presidencies of Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, the Tea Party of 2010, and the Trump presidency.
These organizations use their money without limitations in every manner to influence Senators, members of Congress, newspapers, universities, journalists, and judges.
Congress passed the Citizens United decision in January 2010, providing a means for billionaires to exert influence. While wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups have long spent money on campaigns, their role has expanded significantly due to the Supreme Court's decisions in Citizens United and subsequent rulings, resulting in a fusion of private wealth and political power unseen since the late 19th century.
So we are outmatched, outfinanced, outmaneuvered, and eventually, we will have to live in an oligarchy, authoritarian state.
I know a way to win, but no one wants to consider it.
I agree with everything you said. With that out of the way, it was the SCOTUS, not Congress, that rendered the Citizens United decision.
As for the way to win that you think no one wants to consider, I doubt you're the only one who thought of it. But it's a last resort. Numerous studies have shown that peaceful resistance of at least 3.5% of the population is enough to dislodge an authoritarian state.
With a current population of over 341.5 million, that comes out to approximately 12 million. We're already fairly close to that now.
Passive resistance only. Violence is exactly what "they" want.
Yes, we keep it peaceful right up to the last possible moment. But the moment they use violence on us, all bets are off.
I disagree. Unless their goal is genocide, martyrdom will be a powerful weapon. MLK was so powerful because of the shame of the violent attacks in the face of passive resistance.
I'm friends with a lot of magas and they are susceptible to shame.
"I'm friends with a lot of magas and they are susceptible to shame."
That's the first time I've heard anyone say something like that. Most interesting. Too bad their Dear Leader isn't.
I agree with you about Trump/Musk/Vance 2025. However, I grew up with magas and know many of them. I get along with them just fine. They are misinformed/uninformed/indoctrinated. The propaganda has been going on for a long time and is very effective.
Martyrdom could result in frightening the public into retreat or enrage the public and inspire them to rise up and force the fascists out.
I don't know which way it will play out. But I have no doubt that Hegseth and the military will obey trumps orders to put down any dissent.
But most of those conservative organizations aren’t MAGA.
Looks to me like all right-wingers are MAGA.
Where are all those right-wingers that are standing up for democracy?
What??
I would like to know!
Sadly, I think you're right, which might be the reason the Dems have been so paralyzed. At this point, the only thing I think will work is secession... the blue states, especially those that border Canada, could try forming their own country or joining Canada if Canada would allow it. Of course, that would probably also mean forming their own army or armies, or siphoning off military who have been dumped by Trump or are willing to defect. I assume we would eventually need to fight to maintain our new country (or save Canada). Maybe Europe would come to our defense....
Blue states are only blue in the large metropolitan areas. We're looking at an urban/rural divide. If you go county by county the vast majority of land mass is MAGA. Not by population.
One of the things I have not seen discussed about tariffs is that they may actually cause US firms to build plants offshore because if they locate in Mexico or Asia, they will not be subject to retaliatory tariffs as the goods were not shipped from the US.
That is a very interesting point! It would mean they can still trade and export with the rest of the world, promote their brand and product, make profits. Let the Americans pay more for everything, who cares, it is now a failed country anyway!
The corporations would need to build manufacturing both in the US and outside the US to avoid tariffs. There is little possibility of accomplishing either before the economy collapses, possibly the world economy.
The argument for tariffs is foreign companies will come to the US to avoid tariffs. But that can't happen if foreign companies maintain control of the U.S-based assets. What companies would willingly do business in the US with that uncertainty? But it explains why the UAW leadership would cut off its own foot so to speak, by embracing tariffs in the United States at the expense of UAW workers in Canada. UAW in the United States is lining up first to get preferential treatment from the oligarchs who will run the new US economy.
Bessent should have known. All the good people with sterling reputations from past careers watched them being shredded by working for Trump 1 (some, like Mattis, had the integrity to resign and were of course followed out the door by Trump’s calumnies and slurs - no one is allowed to quit on the emperor, even if he keeps his mouth shut). This will not end well for Bessent either. Of course, Hegseth, Patel, Walz, Miller, Ratcliffe and Gabbard had no integrity or good reputation to begin with; they were partisan hacks and do stayed true to form. Rubio, who has some principles, is like Bessent. Let’s see who lasts in this clown circus.
I really can't remember a time when Rubio had principles.
That's because he never had any.
When Larry Summers talks people listen. Bessent and every other poor excuse for a cabinet member can change their last names to Sycophant. The actions of this so called administration are reprehensible and attack every aspect of what was great about America. How can you make America great again when you are destroying everything that made it great. Thanks for you insights Professor Krugman and look out for potholes as they are bad on the rims.
"Make America Great Again" is - and always has been - a meaningless bumper sticker slogan coined by Ronald Reagan to distract Americans from the damage he was doing, and usurped by Trumpkopf for the same purpose.
Thanks to its ambiguity, it can mean different things to different MAGAnuts. What it really means is "Make America Safe for Klaners and Nazi's Again".
Yeah but MAGA can be turned into so many rude things like maggot.
The MAGAmaggots.
I've read that Bessent was only ever successful working for Soros and never on his own. His greatest achievement: betting against the pound. He appears as someone who schmoozes well at cocktail parties with that smug look as if he's arrived.
It would be interesting to know who is shorting the market (betting on the markets to crash) right now.
I don't know if that information is available, but it would tell you a lot about the rich and powerful.
Thanks for pointing out the bogus justification for trump tariffs. That needs a lot more attention.