This was one of the most uncomfortable interviews I've ever read.
The central thread is just this.
Trump is a traitor. He has no interest in preserving U.S. military and diplomatic power, which has served to keep the world relatively stable for 80 years. He may "get what he wants", but that is always and only defined by what benefits him personally. He would hand over his own granddaughters to a squad of sex-starved Russian soldiers if he thought he could profit from that encounter.
So what Mr. O'Brien really spotlights in his analysis is how important it is to have a leader of the United States of America who is patriotic, loyal to our history and Constitution, and humble enough to let true experts formulate foreign policy.
I can only imagine how demoralized all of our best intelligence analysts are right now, knowing that our country's fate is in the hands of this hopelessly noxious egomaniac.
I hope they can keep distracting him with toys and false flattery till he drops dead from a rotten heart.
It's not just Trump. It's the entire Republican Party that supports him. It has become what the US Communist Party could only have dreamed of. A major party dedicated to destroying US power and turning us into a shithole country. We'll played Vlad!
Jim, I agree, but more and more after a decade of looking at this relationship I’ve come to realize that it is not that Putin uses threats of blackmail to forward his interests. It is instead a transactional process between to international crime families where money laundering, offshore accounts, corrupt banks (Deutschebank for sure) and real estate (the greatest way to launder money by far) has been mutually beneficial.
All this income from corruption is now being parlayed into the realm of bitcoin, the ultimate money from nothing machine ever conceived…
It’s painful as hell coming to the realization that in the end evil and greed always triumph.
Trump may only be in it for the money, but Putin has long term strategic goals he wants to achieve. That makes Trump an easy target for him. The Billionaire Boys Club that surrounds Trump has two segments. The Wall Street gang is only in it for the money but the Tech Bros are actively trying to destroy democracy and replace it withe some kind of oligarchy.
You left out global BigOil&Gas & BigAg+CornEthanol, the crackpot GQP Sugar Daddies most responsible for our Slaveholder Court & Trump's gutting of the "party". The former taxpayer subsidy sucking oligarchs now being superceded by the TechBros.
EU and Ukraine need to just cut the orange jesus out of the picture altogether. What do they really need him for? If they would acknowledge their own strength and make a bold move to snuff out Putin, the world would be better off.
I’ve been hoping that the EU will quickly realize they can’t count on the U.S. anymore - that if a future POTUS is a good-faith partner it’s a bonus but nothing more. And that they will quickly firm up the alliance politically and militarily. The sight of the EU leaders flattering Trump last week was stomach turning.
I think you have the central thread pegged, LiverpoolFCfan, but another of O’Brien’s important observations is that Trump has a useful skill that he continues to employ with great success: he manipulates people and gets what he wants most of the time. What he wants will not be good for most people in the US, but it will be good for Trump. I think evidence shows that Trump knows what he is doing in that realm. What Trump is doing may also be good for a couple thousand other obscenely wealthy Americans. But it almost certainly will not be good for the other 99.99%.
I hope the same. Candles, do your thing. I am just so tired of every day waking up to a new outrage. Man, I would even take a conservative who is at least a patriot. My true preference is for a socially tolerant, open minded, fiscally prudent person. At one point I thought we might achieve universal health care. Do people remember when Biden left office, our economy was the envy of the world? Trump really is a Russian asset, but I hope our collective feeling of being American will prevail.
Regarding those demoralized intelligence agents...I hope that the Democratic Party is doing outreach to them and other ex-government workers who have been laid off, fired, forced out or bought out, so that a) Liberal political circles can benefit form their background and experience and b) be ready to rput truly competent and patriotic people into government when Democrats win majorities in House & Senate and once again run the Executive Branch. God knows there will be a lot of Trump sycophants to clear out.
Careful what you wish for. Trump seems just a a poisonous smokescreen. When he kicks the bucket or is cast aside the Vakryies will ride in thru the smoke with JDVance (another temp.) on their backs to finish the job of establishing the tech enabled fascist feudal regime to try to twin with Putin turned against the Chin and together also squash EU. Can't afford midterms! Watch out around Easter next year for the risen Godheaders.
And his dad had Alzheimer's, too. So there's always the 25th Amendment!
Interestingly, three of his siblings have already passed, so maybe he's not destined to limp along as long as his parents did. The presidency is a very stressful job.
It was refreshing to hear him say it makes no sense. None of this does ... his economic and foreign policies bring zero add to quality of life or safety.
This is truly a medieval oligarchy seeking dominion over people, resources and state.
These spam bots are getting a >lot< more clever. Whoever's behind them figured out how to create a profile with a real name instead of just three random letters.
On top of that, they "like" legitimate posts and notes to hide their own comments - which they invariably "like" - on their profile page.
Clearly T wants to align w/ Russia against all others. This has been clear since forever. And P wants to break up the US just like USSR broke up. Giant egos dancing and stepping all over everyone else. And T is handing the country to P and thinking he's smart. He's not. Stop the music. If it's not obvious yet that T is an asset, then someone has on blinders. And if Ukraine falls, there will not be peace; there will be the next incursion into Europe. And if the US breaks apart, there will be ???
Putin wants to restore the old Russian empire, which extended to the Balkans and included much of what is Poland today. That's what he has admitted to. That old empire also included Alaska; from what I read, he hinted at wanting that back. You are correct that the next move will be into Europe; that's the bulk of the old empire. Check out the map on Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire That's what Putin wants to restore.
Trump is delusional about his relationship with Putin. Trump said this to Macron when the European leaders came to Washington.
“I think he wants to make a deal *for me,* you understand, as crazy as it sounds,” Mr. Trump told President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday, in a moment caught on a hot mic.
If Putin wanted to do a deal FOR TRUMP, he would have done it on January 21, 2025.
Trump is not delusional. Sinister, malevolent, criminal and utterly corrupt, but not delusional. He is completely aware of what he is doing, which is to bring an end to democracy in the US and create a dictatorship like Russia.
Mr. Trotsky, I don’t think delusion is all that relevant. Evidence is that Trump develops idée fixe, of which he has many, and of course proceeds on the assumption is that he can “make a deal.” Further, the real problem we all face is that he is a “useful idiot.” He is doing the will of people like Peter Theil, Russell Vought, and Stephen Miller. For them, a proper nation is run by and for the benefit of its natural leaders—those men (not “people” by the way) who have demonstrated their natural greatness by having acquired great wealth. Trump appears to be “the great Oz,” but as in the Emerald City, look for the man (or men) behind the curtain.
Fortunately, I am a long long way from Trump and your lethal Trumpist disaster. However, after observing him ( more closely than you guys) for nigh on 40 years, I am totally with "Leon". The VENAL prick has been totally consistent in his snake oil brilliance to an audience of two dimensional idiots ( read most of Murica cos that comes with being the Disney EMPIRE). He is not losing his mind. He never had a normal mind. He is not in the slightest more Alzheimer's than he was 40 years ago.
You lot have swallowed the snakeoil via your disgustingly servile media and a metastasizing cancer called Republicanism. In one sense, Trump is the GOP patsy for something begun by Nixon and hyper charged onward by Reagan ( and your predatory capitalism).
What you sold the rest of us , TRUTH JUSTICE & THE AMERICAN WAY, was just the usual lie of all Empires.
It all breaks down to the "Useful Idiot" vs. "KGB Thrall" theories. The evidence, such that it is, trends strongly to the latter; within which the former provides plausible deniability.
Meanwhile, FOX News and RW media portrays Trump's recent about face and renewed subservience to Putin as "4-D chess."
Isolationism, yes, if it means straining or destroying NATO & SEATO. Yes, if it means alienating Canada and Mexico, our closest allies and trading partners.
Which is also exactly what Putin wants; *especially* if it weakens Ukraine. Primarily by denying them arms, and breaking up NATO's ability to aid them. But whenever Trump goes too far and angers GOP natsec and business elites, the WH and crony influencers trot out the "...have faith brothers, it's part of a deeper 4-D chess move by our brilliant, messianic, blessed-by-Jesus leader."
Right, Trump, Elon Musk and the techno oligarchs are all 100% subverted by Russian psyops. Putin's KGB figured out years ago that the conservative mind is programmable because it reacts so well to hate and fear. They masterfully pumped a liberal strawman enemy that used progressives (who are the useful idiots in their mental programming) to amplify the over the top social issues like transgender bathrooms and xenophobia.
Conservatives are by nature homophobic, xenophobic and racist. So, all the MAGA machinery was in place with social media (thanks to Zuckerberg) for someone like Putin to come along and disrupt the US democracy. Putin and his gang could not have done better with Trump as their tool to dismantle the Western global alliances established since WW2 and isolate Europe from America so China and Russia can now expand their empires at will.
It must be so bizarre for someone to go through the US government top secret clearance training on psyops knowing that our president and leader is literally a Russian agent, the number one threat that training is meant to identify and prevent. What a bizarre thing to happen at this point in time, the literal subversion of 77 million American voters around a subverted Russian agent leader that has dismantled the Western alliance against evil dictators such as Putin and Xi.
I am both in awe and terrified of how successful Russian and Chinese psyops can be. You can't even deprogram these 77 million MAGA voters. They'd rather destroy their own future and family than allow a brown liberal women be president and do nothing more than build on what was the most successful democracy in the world until now. It's truly unbelievable to watch Trump on a daily basis take American into a full blown fascist dictatorship destroying everything that had made America great. Republicans and conservatives have quite literally lost their minds. You have to wonder if COVID had some bizarre irreversible effect on the conservative brain?
There is no doubt that Russian propaganda mills have been working on the minds of peasants in the US and other democratic countries for years now. But to suggest that Russians have brainwashed a majority of the people, especially the oligarchs, is a hasty generalization. Murdoch and Fox News were around long before the Russian mills, and the tech giants don't have to listen Russia propaganda to be convinced that supporting the Dems is not in their financial interests. I would suggest that the SCOTUS decision to award victory to Citizen United had a lot more to do with the hijacking of democracy in the US than Russia.
Fox News didn't do this. It certainly helped create and attacks the strawman liberal night after night. But the push to extremism is what psyops does on top of what is already in place with the help of someone like Trump and it appears the pandemic had some play in isolating and dividing people. And the US intelligence agencies are years behind in psyops warfare. In fact so much so their leader is literally a subverted Russian agent right in front of them. It's fair to say it is a sum of the parts, but Russian psyops has been greatly underestimated by the West.
Note that old man Murdoch is currently married to Roman Abramovich's ex-mother-in-law. Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng "saved" Kushner & Ivanka's relationship before their marriage and all of these wealthy people ride around with one another on their (sugar) daddies' yachts, as per tabloid rags. What a shame if they'd have to pay the same percentage in taxes as W-2 wage slaves or 1099 gig workers/retirees, even!
Nebulous, I think you may have skipped a groove in your second 'graph. I have observed that a lot of "conservatives" aren't homophobes, for the simple reason that they are homosexuals themselves (I do not want to split any psychological hairs about "self-hate" etc.). Sometimes converts to a cause or a religion are the most rabidly evangelical -- thinking of Paul, the persecutor of early Christians becoming the great evangelist, and so on down the ages.
I think that Trump admires the power that Putin has over Russia, and would himself like to have similar power over the world. As well as having the weakness of being easily influenced by flattery.
There is likely also the prospect of a "Trump tower" in Moscow.
A lot of that is visible on an almost daily basis with his interactions with various people. The need of constant flattering, intolerance of the least criticism.
So Putin knows how to manipulate Trump, as Putin has often successfully manipulated other western leaders.
Reading excellent articles like this, one question jumps out. What is the source of the massive collective stupidity? In the US, you've got Trump, which is one giant self inflicted wound. But prior to Trump, there was GW Bush, another catastrophe. Why? Meanwhile, as noted in the article, Europe, a really huge wealthy entity, stood by and watched the US kick off a disastrous gulf war, nearly destroy the world financial system, and elect Trump, twice. And yet they're still groveling at Uncle Sam's feet. The stupidity is incomprehensible. Surely, at least in Europe, they have some grasp of history. How did the world get to this point?
France has never grovelled and I remain hopeful that as the US security umbrella becomes worthless other nations will learn to stand up for themselves.
and Canada - probably weaker than Eur militarily - and all our military tied into US supplies, data systems, technologies - with T threats on our longggggg border, my anti-military-spending convictions are being sorely challenged - see Steven Marche opinion pc. this week in Guardian UK addressing this problem: how can Canada defend itself?
Proud to say I distrusted him & didn't vote for him - wish NDP had some spine & a loud federal leadership - largely absent these days but I voted for them anyway
Certainly in the 30s and 40s, but even now, while Macron always kept a Gaullist posture of maintaining France friendship with the US while not (overly) depending on them, his influence on fellow European leaders seems to have almost vanished due to the current French budgetary and parliamentary crisis, both of his own making. Not familiar with O'Brien works, but his assessment in this talk about European leaders pusillanimity, though quite bleak, definitely strikes a chord, while it's time to wake up and take action.
Exactly ... both in the US and in Europe. We can now clearly point to the Republican strategy to gaslight the base while using election plays to disenfranchise 'undesirable' voters while creating distrust in free and fair elections.
To me this was a slow-moving train....starting with the dumbing down of public schools 60 years ago, supplanted by subtle propaganda and willful ignorance of mass media which didn't want to lose its readership = profits for its wealthy owners. In my mind, it's class warfare...the very wealthy willing to sell out their country for cash, vs the rest of us who are being milked dry to support them.
Anne, I am intrigued by your comment made almost in passing, that our "slow moving train" (to our present situation) started with the dumbing down of public schools 60 years ago.
Were you a student or parent or teacher back then. What did you observe that triggered your observation? I'm just curious.
Leave my name off - I assume you are responding to my earlier question to Anne, so I'll redirect this to you (it's just me being curious, it's not for a study or anything 'official').
So, if you were a student in public school during the Nixon era (1969 - 74), did you feel you had a solid education in civics, social studies or other core subjects? Perhaps more importantly, do you feel you had been challenged to develop your critical thinking skills while in secondary school? If so, do you think that later, something changed? If so, what?
I was barely in elementary by the end of his term. The Southern Strategy was the beginning of manipulating the blue collar workers and Main Street small businesses to vote against their better interests (era of the Powell Memo?), now that I've been around the block and away from the "back 40", so to speak. When cleaning out my parents' former home after the last one died, there were textbooks from their primary/secondary school years approved for the entire state's schools from late 1930's-early 1950's (schools in different counties but same textbooks). The US wasn't yet a super power when that occurred and browsing through them, my impression was that the US then did not have such an attitude of superiority relative to my era. I wonder if the majority white population didn't start to question our government until the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam conflict. Minority populations have always known the double standard. Growing up in a majority republican rural area and attending a state university later, I feel that the latter was basically just a grunt factory for petro and meat packing office labor. More prestigious institutions of higher learning are places to network, as obviously people like Epstein and a lot of financially successful or politically powerful people certainly weren't top scholars. There's really no difference between the street and the executive suite.
Hi RH....I thought I'd make a quick google search to back up my observations about what appears to me to be downward changes in basic education. I was in school starting in the 1950's....and am aghast at the basic ignorance of so many, mostly MAGA, commenters; one politician (Tommy Tuberville) not even knowing the 3 branches of government. The ignorance of many of our elected officials is breathtaking.
Hi Anne - Thanks for your comment and for sharing the AEI link.
I thought it interesting that the study you found was published by the American Enterprise Institute, which is an organization dedicated to helping develop a conservative political and economic agenda. Another analogous organization is The Heritage Foundation, now known for its controversial “Project 2025” outline followed by the Trump administration in de-liberalization of the federal government.
I found a short paper by the Heritage Foundation Center for Education Policy (link:
which reviewed NAEP Civics test results and found that” Scores have changed little since the first time the test was administered in 1998… only 22 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the proficient level, reflecting a solid command of academic performance and civics competence.” (This is not actually “news”: we’ve read something like this every year the results come out).
The paper’s authors contrasted present-day civics course curricula, which they characterized as preparing students more for protest and activism than acquiring factual information (as learning relevant names, dates and key facts being categorized as “rote learning”, which is highly unfashionable in these modern times).
The authors extracted quotes from early 20th century texts which emphasized learning about American history and our form of government as key to developing patriotism as well as character development.
The paper called out Florida and Louisiana for their civics courses, and noted that teaching civics was not a requirement in all states (and proposed that it should be).
Notwithstanding the conservative ideological slant present in both studies, which contracts with my own convictions, I find myself agreeing with the general conclusions of both studies. Americans’ understanding of how government works, and a citizen’s role in that process, is generally weak. Secondary school curricula do not go far enough in educating youth in this vital aspect of American life, and we should not be at all surprised that they grow up to adults whose view of politics is that it doesn’t matter much if at all to the daily lives of citizens, when in fact the opposite is the truth. Politics and government matter immensely, as we are finding out.
Thank you for your reply. As I googled it passed through my mind that I should research the source of the link to ensure that it wasn't corrupt in some way, but as it concurred with my opinion that the schools have been failing and there had to be reason why. By dumbing down the school system the Right is creating a base of uneducated and thereby helpless serfs to be ruled by the wealthy few. History repeating itself: George Washington and the landowners profiting from the work of slaves and indentured servants; 1800's plantation owners profiting off the back of slavery; Trump enriching himself by grifting with the help and support of clueless MAGA. Keep 'em dumb and desperate and they'll follow you like a god. Here's another quick google which shows where the US (doesn't ) stand in the top 10: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/well-developed-public-education-system
Ahh, thanks, Anne, nothing like a USNews Rankings report to rub it in, right? The USA of course doesn't even make the Top Ten, and hasn't for years.
I was a 6th grader in 1960, and was somewhat aware of the great issues of the day during the Nixon-Kennedy election, and then during all the turmoil of the decade that followed I became much more politically aware during the LBJ/Nixon years of Civil Rights, Viet Nam, the nuclear arms race and the Soviet threat.
But as for actual teaching about Civics -- well, let's just say there was not a big emphasis on that: part of a semester was spent reading one rather boring pamphlet about the three branches of government, the bi-cameral Legislature. Not much stuck.
I might have gotten a better handle on things had I been able to go on a field trip to our state capitol and see the legislators in action, but as I recall I had to take a sick day. I learned a lot more as an adult, but at least I had some idea of how politics and government worked.
There is a great deal of discussion in educational circles about whether educational outcomes are more the result of the quality of teaching, the amount of class time spent on academic tasks (instead of the busywork of running a classroom, grade, and school, with all the activities, announcements, lunch breaks, etc.) or the readiness and receptiveness of students to learn, which is strongly impacted by their learning environment (noisy, crowded classrooms are a negative factor, smaller, more orderly ones are a plus).
Then there is the question of how much emphasis should be placed on rote learning of basic, essential facts ( being able to correctly answer questions about the role of President or Senator or Legislator, for example).
No matter how you slice it, smaller class size, good, well-run facilities, well-structured curricula and assessment milestones, access to libraries and books, home computer & internet access, parents who participate with their kids schoolwork...all the things that are part of a students world have a big impact on how well they learn and how much they retain.
This seems to be the case. But the billionaires are truly stupid if they think they are going to survive the Frankenstein monster they've created and released. Their silence now is deafening. When, or rather, if, the US survives and restores democracy, the retribution against the oligarchs needs to be harsh, and thorough.
Europe has to make enormous changes and people resist that kind of change. They are willing to grovel to Trump to try to avoid it. Maybe Putin needs to bomb Berlin or Paris to get their full attention.
That's a good question. First, addressing Dubya and Trumpkopf - not to mention St. Reagan and King Bush I, I'd say it's intellectual laziness combined with a malignant reichwing propaganda machine.
As for Europe, they've long been dependent on the U.S. since WWII, and simply fell into the habit of going along with whatever the U.S. president demands - even when it's blatantly asinine.
> What is the source of the massive collective stupidity?
Seems to be the human default setting? What I can't figure out is, what is the source of our ability to occasionally transcend our collective stupidity in certain times and places?
A thoughtful, sincere attempt at truth-telling, such as Prof Krugman demonstrates in his posts, would change the world. Adds oxygen back to the discussion instead of smothering us with the CO2 of lies and propaganda.
I'm glad you said that because both O'Brien and Krugman are level headed enough not to rely on conspiracy theory. Their pieces rely on provable facts, which is why this interview was particularly depressing, good analyses but bleak.
They always have, also xenophobia. But this "latest" outbreak of profound stupidity has occurred in a period of relatively benign conditions, where you would have assumed a declining influence of these "traditions."
Someone I know mentioned Sarah Kendzior (on Substack and book author) who now lives in St. Louis. Lots of money from there, including presently Sam Altman, the Prescotts of former 1st lady Barbara Prescott Bush, while the city itself is rust belt personified with areas of gentrification by exploiting minorities (mainly Black). What I perceive as now a backwater state that I now live in, next to the one of my childhood, is one that was wealthy enough over a century ago to have TWO federal reserves! Before that, I suspect the power elite here liked to fancy themselves on the level of the southern plantation owners of the Gulf coastal states, although at most, the "plantations" here may have had < half dozen slaves. While reading Wealth & Democracy by Kevin Phillips about the Progressive era, it occurred to me that was also the era of rail road/bank robber Jesse James & gang, gangland murder at Union Station, Bonnie & Clyde....
Not in all places or classes. Places where there is what I'd call an obsessive fascination with the past and one's forbears -- the tie in to good ol' "Blood and Soil" identity -- is where you'll find society inclined to cling to traditional values, some of which include negative attitudes about people who are not white, and sexist stereotypes. These ideas are found in every region, but the old Confederate States are steeped in this stuff. In New England I feel it's a kind of Puritanical snobbery that local folk feel towards people "from away".
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Well, the moron in charge now is certainly not the first moron we’ve put in power, but he is hands down the most moronic. I wish I knew why we collectively are so stupid. Maybe we should all be shipped off to Mars, clean out the planet of Homo sapiens, and let a species of being emerge that truly appreciates itself and what we’ve been given here on Earth.
Chris, good points as always, and it returns to what should be the main focus: will Europe step up? Is “Europe” so infantilised, so craven that it cannot muster the willingness to do what is required, or does it REALLY not (quite) have the resources to armour-plate Ukraine without the US? I’d love Phillips et al to address this. Is it only intelligence support and Patriot systems or is it more? If “Europe” can in fact make the difference, will it? If it now (at last) realises the US under Trump is not going to save it, the war will not be “won” but as in Korea, it can be fought to a stalemate with an impenetrable UKR border, an armed hedgehog properly supported, and UKR admitted into the EU and de facto into NATO, and a resounding assertion of European values, not to mention a defeat of Putin’s irredentist ambitions. So, there’s resources and there’s will….
Europe got lazy post colonial and too nice. USA polity has always been very faulty and based on individuality and greed not really collective. See also "Gilded age". Rem when Naploean got back to France within weeks he had 100k plus suckers following him to war. Humans seem to have a have a thing about 'strong leaders'. Communes seems great in theory but commun-ism? Ask Joe the clerical student minus 30million.
Then God(s) -The worst leadership delusion of all!!!!
Friends are one of the best investments in life. They help you to be happy. You do the same for them. You have forgive them on occasion. Nobody said it was easy.
Trump never had many friends. He never will. He knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Roy Cohn, his mentor whose funeral he didn't attend. I know people like that....transactional. Good time friends--but never there when the chips are down.
They also know history. The first hand-held tank killers were the bazooka and panzerfaust of WWII. Ukraine's new "cruise missile" is an vastly improved (especially in accuracy) Fieseler V-1, also from WWII. Line-guided missiles and glider bombs also have a long history. I saw a video of a Ukrainian farmer who cleared mines from his fields with an imitation of the flail mechanism that the US mounted on Sherman tanks during WWII.
"I would say that 2026 elections will show not whether America can come back, but whether it has a chance to come back, or whether the period we're going into could be a lot longer and darker than we imagined."
With the accelerating authoritarianism of the last few months, my money's on longer and darker than we imagined. What I'd really like to understand is why prosperous and stable societies periodically decide to destroy themselves. It's excruciating to watch.
Ada Palmer commented on that in her book on the Renaissance. The US has lasted longer than many, but it has always happened in the past (as you point out). Palmer wrote that most people ask what destroyed the Roman civilization, while the true question to ask is how it lasted so long.
Bullshit- as an American living in Europe for 30 years- I can assure you Europe has not been infantilised by the US. Macron, Starmer et al know what the US is- especially now. Ineffective and seriously misguided.
Europe is not stupid and is much stronger than realised. Trump has brought the US to its knees. I wait for the strong military coup to take trump and his intellectually lacking administration out. The heat is dialing up. War on American soil is possible.
Europe has a huge economy and the technical ability to develop a defense industry as good as the USA. The first Trump administration was a clear message and warning that this country is capable of electing an utter incompetent with zero respect or understanding of alliances and economics. That should have given them the incentive to reduce dependence on the US. Now we have an even more corrupt and incompetent Trump 2.0 so hopefully the Europeans clearly understand the US is no longer dependable and take the actions they must to defend themselves in a world where America stands alone.
A rational defence acquisition plan for Europe would include buying weapons from South Korea, China, Japan, and Turkey. Stop treating the weapons industry as a welfare program and look at cold hard calculations of bang for the buck. As Ukraine has shown, and Stalin specifically noted, "quantity has its own quality." Wars are demolition derbys not Formula 1 races. The US defense industry you don't want to emulate. They build complex extraordinarily expensive to buy, maintain, and operate systems, in very small numbers, with no surge capability.
Well it's a fact that the Brits have always had a sneering disgust of America as silly & full-of-itself, so all the cooperation going on has always been with a wink & a nod to each other while telling America how wonderful it is ! Many Europeans have American friends who do not fit this stereotype of course, but those old influences still float around ! The current trump admin is merely the very worst example of such "American values". That has never changed AFAICS - the Brits know they are now a tiny place which has to have affiliations & the colonies are no longer owned & able to be used as they wish. They keep their place in the world by behaving as tho nothing has changed - they still 'matter', and so far the world has largely accepted that; the former colonies are allies, and I think there is a grudging admiration of France's stance on the world lately, entirely due to Prez Macron ! I am in the US & quite scared of where things are going - but I am hoping trump's life will not extend too much longer, and Vance can somehow be eliminated from the picture - HE is far more dangerous than trump IMO !
Americans ARE silly and full of themselves. As one, I feel I have the right to say this. I did not know the extent to which we Americans were filled to the ears with propaganda until I left to live abroad. My family back home are coming around slowly- but still suffer from years of indoctrination…America the best etc. It’s Not the best. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong. I’m proud to be American but it’s not the best- it’s just another. Americans are waking up to this fact. The world is a small place. Americans don’t generally leave the confines of the states to ‘live’. They accept what they are told without question, until now.
A lot of that is by design. Only the wealthy & lucky can buy a decent education. There’s plenty of information out there but you have to know how to sort through it, and most importantly have the drive & will to do so. For many years people have been getting crap put in their food to keep them fat, and medicines to keep them sedated & constant advertisements to keep them buying. The goal was for people to only see themselves as consumers nothing more. It’s encouraging that anyone is waking up from this stupor. I saw a video of a guy (I think he was Ukrainian) talking about how Americans have been living in the belly of the beast for years & years. I agree.
Yes, I once had a boyfriend who admired Trump, didn't read much (dyslexic) but he did own a copy of Art of the Deal. I've never seen the appeal of blowhard. BTW, that former boyfriend has not married his baby's mama--the whole reason why I imagine she got knocked up intentionally. I read that story in NYT about some young lady from NY who went to Arkansas to dig up her own diamond (rarity of all rarities) for an engagement ring to convince her boyfriend to propose. She needs to ditch him, imo, and use men like they use women when she's affluent in a few years.
Trump is delusional about his relationship with Putin. Trump said this to Macron when the European leaders came to Washington.
“I think he wants to make a deal *for me,* you understand, as crazy as it sounds,” Mr. Trump told President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday, in a moment caught on a hot mic.
If Putin wanted to do a deal FOR TRUMP, he would have done it on January 21, 2025.
I think the idea that everyone is talking about handing over territory in Ukraine misses the point that it is a bad negotiating tactic to give up a position before it is negotiated away from you . I mean for example I go into buying a car knowing I will pay more than my offer price but I don't state that before we start negotiating . I want them to earn that so they can feel like they won something to make the deal go down. So Donnie stating out loud and in advance that Ukraine will give up land is just stupid and counter productive to getting a deal done .
Exactly. Buying a car is a perfect example; not just knowing what one is willing to pay, but doing research so one can negotiate (I purchased a car in 2023 and received a lower interest rate from the dealer as I knew what I could get from the bank). But the other mistake Trump is making is opening negotiations with a serious concession. Start by offering something you know is not really important.
Seems to me that T's clear error - stemming from simple lack of education & intelligence (ie reasoning abilities) & rank narcissism - is going into negotiations at all!
Nothing to 'negotiate' with war criminals. Would US have negotiated with Hitler in midst of WWII? No.
I fear and abhor war, but at this point in world barbarism, WW 3 is inevitable IMHO.
In fact the only thing that will stop Putinism is united military confrontation, fearlessly engaged.
Hate the entire idea of this as I've been an implacable antiwar & anti-imperialist activist for 6 decades, and a socialist to boot, But as T says (!), the death must stop. The violation of all 'rules' in intl law must be punished & ended or they have no meaning. Won't happen with the US leadership & Europe/Canada not yet in a position to defend themselves. But realism points only to this solution.
PS- And while we're at it, how about a solid line of tens of thousands of intl peace-keeping troops bursting onto the Israel-Gaza/WestBank borders and Isr-controlled waters - a surprise move, in defiance of the Israeli govt & military - like ... THIS WEEK!!! No, I'm not crazy, aware this won't/can't happen, but what EFFECTIVE solutions does anyone propose?
I can't bear more months of images of civilian horrors greeting me in each morning's news and the profound helplessness & daily tears.
Well Gaza is a huge display of hypocrisy and barbarism and greed by Israel . No idea what we can do about it but bitch to our political leaders every day . As far as WWIII I am not feeling it but if it happens it will be because of our perceived weakness so strength in Ukraine solves a couple of problems I think.
I think Phillips makes a point that Trump is getting benefits for Putin more than for the US or Europe, because he's given Putin recognition, tamped down consideration of more sanctions, and encouraged talk of Ukraine giving up territory.
Trump is obviously negotiating more for Putin’s benefit than anyone else.
Well he stated that Donnie was winning and possibly smarter than we think in that the land for peace option was being discussed by many . I contend that is not winning and Donnie is stupid.
OK, I just want to make it clear what definition of "smart" I'm talking about. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt to Phillips, who I think is saying that we should not underestimate our enemies--Trump being one of them. However, I thought Phillips should have been clear what he meant by "smart" so here is my interpretation.
Trump is not a complete idiot, or else he would not be so dangerous. He is good at deception and manipulation, at understanding what people want so he can play to their emotions and say want they want to hear.
In that vein, he is deceiving people who think that he will act in the best interests of the US, and that he actually wants peace. But what he accomplishes is not actually in the best interest of the US at all; he is most effective in furthering the interests of Putin. This is consistent with what he's done all along.
Why does he like Putin so much? Possibly Putin is even better at manipulation and telling Trump what he wants to hear; maybe Trump just sees Putin as another megalomaniac that he can relate with. Paul and Phillips speculate that there is kompromat, but it's hard to know. In the end it doesn't matter why--just that he's doing it and messing with Europe because he knows they want to be on his good side.
Let me be clear that I think what Trump is doing--being buddies with Putin, giving him any air to breathe, while letting Ukraine continue to bleed out, is a colossally stupid move for the US, the Ukraine, for Europe, and for the whole world. But we need to understand how Trump ticks and how he holds onto power, because we need to take him down and start undoing all the damage that he and all the complicit MAGAs and Republicans have been doing for the past several decades.
I appreciate your including an easy link to O’Brien’s book, but does it have to be an Amazon link? This is simply supporting the billionaire club that is propping up the current regime.
The most logical explanation for how Trump sees Putin is that he thinks he can peel Russia away from China in a great feat of strategic geopolitics. But he has no idea that Putin's aims are really very regional, focused on Ukraine and basically in a confrontation not with the US but with the EU. He kind of needs to split the US from the EU, in order to deal more easily with the EU. So he gives trump some hope of a US-Russia rapprochement, but Trump never understands that it's not about China: it's about Europe.
Yes, the Europeans are kind of teary-eyed about the US umbrella, but they're gradually realizing they're on their own. The mission to Washington was really about being able to place orders for weapons from US manufacturers and nothing else. They echo Trump about land for peace, but they know that's a non-starter. Even security guarantees is just empty talk. The real deal is getting US factories to turn out weapons for Ukraine, and keep Starlink operational, and maybe US air logistics if they really have to move European troops to the Ukraine border.
The Europeans know this war will go indefinitely. So does Putin. They both echo Trump for different reasons.
trump 'sees' putin only as his owner - because he took Russian oligarch funds to the tune of multi-millions & now has NO way to escape the strings being pulled by putin ! Once you take that into consideration NOTHING trump does needs any other explanation. And his little jabs at putin to try to hide the truth of the ownership are just that - little attempts to make himself look 'powerful'. But trump's terrifed look when he met with putin all those years ago told us all we needed to know - putin is his boss !!!!
If that's true -- and I think there is some good probability that Putin has a bunch of IOU's he could make public -- the problem for Putin is that once he does that Trump goes up in smoke, and so does his leverage over the US. So he has to restrain himself, and Trump knows that too. So the two play this intricate game of how much they can "threaten" each other, to keep the whole thing believable to other parties.
But the larger picture is that Russia has lost its connection (and hold) over Europe, and has become a Chinese client-state. In the meantime, for good geostrategic reasons, the US can't really divorce itself from Europe (think of all those air bases connecting to the M.East and ports it needs to operate in the Med and North Atlantic), so inevitably it's Russia that's being pulled apart by having so much of its population in the west of the country (and European in outlook), and China able to walk into eastern Russia.
It explains why Putin (and the Russian elite by and large) is so desperate to hang on to Ukraine.
I got to here and was like, wait, what? Don't we all know t got all his $$ loans from Russia when nobody else would fund his failing bizzes? "I think there's got to be some financial history incentive. I've heard that he had an interesting history with Russia in the past. They know a lot about his business dealings and other dealings so it's much better for him to get along with the Russians. So it could be that."
Trump is probably terrified that Putin will whip aside the curtain to expose the "billionaire businessman" Wizard of Oz as what he really is and always was: a financial failure.
Wouldn't happen. Maga would never believe it. There's nothing Putin could say or do that would make them believe Trump is anything but the God-given savior of the US.
I think Trump likes Putin. He envies Putin and is doing his best to emulate him.
I wonder when Trump's opposition is going to start falling out of windows.
Prof Krugman. Please share your insight in new industrial policy under Trump. Why US has taken 10% stake in chip maker Intel? What's the purpose of it? Any strategic vision or is it just more idiocy?
Mr O’Brien is so wrong about Europe. It has survived two millennia, the US cannot even survive two centuries. You are rotting from within. The EU/UK leaders very quickly realised the dangers of the takeover. The optics are one thing, and I cannot find an excuse for Rutte’s ‘daddy’ remark, but the urgent trip to Washington last Monday was to assess the state of the presidency, as well of course protecting President Zelenskyy from another outrageous takedown. Yes, Russia is a threat but you are a much greater one.
I believed the EU leaders coming here was a show of force. Boy was I wrong. After all the years, the lies, the betrayals to our allies and the EU STILL thinks Trump is going to keep his word? Are they really that stupid? It can't be.
Trump is a traitor to the U.S. Everything harmful he said he would do to America he has done successfully. Everything helpful he said he would do for Putin he has done successfully. What part of that isn't traitorous?
Yes a show of force protecting President Zelenskyy but, Europe no more trusts you than they trust any snake oil salesman . Keep one’s friends close, but keep one’s enemies closer. We weep for you.
Nor should they trust the government. And thank you for your sympathy. I'd like to point out that of the people who voted in this country, more voted for someone other than Trump. He won by an extremely slim margin. There are more of us here who loathe him than not.
Maybe. But I think don’t think trust enters into it. Countries try to solve problems in the least expensive way possible. Flattering Trump gets Europe through the next few months while they come up with better solutions. What those might be I have no idea but whatever they are I doubt the Europeans will tell Trump in advance.
Anyway, it’s hard to deal with the completely irrational, particularly if a lot of the options are off the table. After all, you can’t legally section the current US. Government, though it needs to be.
I watch a lot of British police procedurals. “Being sectioned” is a common shorthand for being involuntary committed to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
This was one of the most uncomfortable interviews I've ever read.
The central thread is just this.
Trump is a traitor. He has no interest in preserving U.S. military and diplomatic power, which has served to keep the world relatively stable for 80 years. He may "get what he wants", but that is always and only defined by what benefits him personally. He would hand over his own granddaughters to a squad of sex-starved Russian soldiers if he thought he could profit from that encounter.
So what Mr. O'Brien really spotlights in his analysis is how important it is to have a leader of the United States of America who is patriotic, loyal to our history and Constitution, and humble enough to let true experts formulate foreign policy.
I can only imagine how demoralized all of our best intelligence analysts are right now, knowing that our country's fate is in the hands of this hopelessly noxious egomaniac.
I hope they can keep distracting him with toys and false flattery till he drops dead from a rotten heart.
It's not just Trump. It's the entire Republican Party that supports him. It has become what the US Communist Party could only have dreamed of. A major party dedicated to destroying US power and turning us into a shithole country. We'll played Vlad!
Jim, I agree, but more and more after a decade of looking at this relationship I’ve come to realize that it is not that Putin uses threats of blackmail to forward his interests. It is instead a transactional process between to international crime families where money laundering, offshore accounts, corrupt banks (Deutschebank for sure) and real estate (the greatest way to launder money by far) has been mutually beneficial.
All this income from corruption is now being parlayed into the realm of bitcoin, the ultimate money from nothing machine ever conceived…
It’s painful as hell coming to the realization that in the end evil and greed always triumph.
I’ll be happy to read your response.
Trump may only be in it for the money, but Putin has long term strategic goals he wants to achieve. That makes Trump an easy target for him. The Billionaire Boys Club that surrounds Trump has two segments. The Wall Street gang is only in it for the money but the Tech Bros are actively trying to destroy democracy and replace it withe some kind of oligarchy.
You left out global BigOil&Gas & BigAg+CornEthanol, the crackpot GQP Sugar Daddies most responsible for our Slaveholder Court & Trump's gutting of the "party". The former taxpayer subsidy sucking oligarchs now being superceded by the TechBros.
And the world would go into instant partying mode if some other attempt at assasination actually succeeded !!!
EU and Ukraine need to just cut the orange jesus out of the picture altogether. What do they really need him for? If they would acknowledge their own strength and make a bold move to snuff out Putin, the world would be better off.
Right now, Patriot missile systems, most prominently.
Drone tech prime now. These glass fibres are very thin but could sweeping lasers cut them if got right mix/frequencies?
I’ve been hoping that the EU will quickly realize they can’t count on the U.S. anymore - that if a future POTUS is a good-faith partner it’s a bonus but nothing more. And that they will quickly firm up the alliance politically and militarily. The sight of the EU leaders flattering Trump last week was stomach turning.
No kidding.
I think you have the central thread pegged, LiverpoolFCfan, but another of O’Brien’s important observations is that Trump has a useful skill that he continues to employ with great success: he manipulates people and gets what he wants most of the time. What he wants will not be good for most people in the US, but it will be good for Trump. I think evidence shows that Trump knows what he is doing in that realm. What Trump is doing may also be good for a couple thousand other obscenely wealthy Americans. But it almost certainly will not be good for the other 99.99%.
A 2025 remake of The Manchurian Candidate seems in order; except new title is the Russian Candidate.
Mebbe Chin are that crafty?
I hope the same. Candles, do your thing. I am just so tired of every day waking up to a new outrage. Man, I would even take a conservative who is at least a patriot. My true preference is for a socially tolerant, open minded, fiscally prudent person. At one point I thought we might achieve universal health care. Do people remember when Biden left office, our economy was the envy of the world? Trump really is a Russian asset, but I hope our collective feeling of being American will prevail.
Regarding those demoralized intelligence agents...I hope that the Democratic Party is doing outreach to them and other ex-government workers who have been laid off, fired, forced out or bought out, so that a) Liberal political circles can benefit form their background and experience and b) be ready to rput truly competent and patriotic people into government when Democrats win majorities in House & Senate and once again run the Executive Branch. God knows there will be a lot of Trump sycophants to clear out.
Careful what you wish for. Trump seems just a a poisonous smokescreen. When he kicks the bucket or is cast aside the Vakryies will ride in thru the smoke with JDVance (another temp.) on their backs to finish the job of establishing the tech enabled fascist feudal regime to try to twin with Putin turned against the Chin and together also squash EU. Can't afford midterms! Watch out around Easter next year for the risen Godheaders.
Last night I searched and Wiki stated his dad died at 93 and his mother at 88...he's only 79.
:(
And his dad had Alzheimer's, too. So there's always the 25th Amendment!
Interestingly, three of his siblings have already passed, so maybe he's not destined to limp along as long as his parents did. The presidency is a very stressful job.
Don't forget that the money that initially funded the Trump family real estate purchases was from California brothels.
Test
O'Brien was agonizing over why Trump has been happily shredding all of our alliances...Alliances that were the root of our power.
It's because Trump is almost certainly a KGB (FSB) intelligence thrall. And has been since at least the 1990's.
It was refreshing to hear him say it makes no sense. None of this does ... his economic and foreign policies bring zero add to quality of life or safety.
This is truly a medieval oligarchy seeking dominion over people, resources and state.
Musk's DOGE Is Inspired by Pro Kremlin Monarchists and 1930's TechnoFascism - BylineSupplement.com
DANGER!!!
***THIS "LINK" DOES NOT CONNECT TO A MEDIUM ACCOUNT!!!***
SPAM???
Beware. Reported.
These spam bots are getting a >lot< more clever. Whoever's behind them figured out how to create a profile with a real name instead of just three random letters.
On top of that, they "like" legitimate posts and notes to hide their own comments - which they invariably "like" - on their profile page.
This is a very clever spam bot. A "handle" that looks like a real name, posting a link to an "article" that contains a spam link. Beware. Reported.
Thank you, Winston Smith.
No sweat :)
And it’s gone!
"Tammy" -above - might be another one.
The Medium "account" that it links to - that does not exist.
Confirmed. "Tammy" is definitely a spam bot. I've reported it both here and on its profile page.
Clearly T wants to align w/ Russia against all others. This has been clear since forever. And P wants to break up the US just like USSR broke up. Giant egos dancing and stepping all over everyone else. And T is handing the country to P and thinking he's smart. He's not. Stop the music. If it's not obvious yet that T is an asset, then someone has on blinders. And if Ukraine falls, there will not be peace; there will be the next incursion into Europe. And if the US breaks apart, there will be ???
And adding to the obvious evidence that T is a Russian asset, he appointed another Russian asset to be Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard. She just announced that she's gutting the ODNI. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tulsi-gabbard-latest-cuts-expose-162939252.html
She's trying to remain relevant. It won't work and we will all be less safe.
She never was, so it's all been uphill, for her.
She’s awful. Just all his picks.
Putin wants to restore the old Russian empire, which extended to the Balkans and included much of what is Poland today. That's what he has admitted to. That old empire also included Alaska; from what I read, he hinted at wanting that back. You are correct that the next move will be into Europe; that's the bulk of the old empire. Check out the map on Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire That's what Putin wants to restore.
Peter Zeihan predicted this in his 2013 book. He's worth listening to.
Yes, but you have to somehow get past his "know-it-all" attitude.
His "know it all" attitude is kind of pallatable because he's willing to change his views and admit he was wrong about stuff when he is wrong.
LOL. I'm similarly afflicted so it doesn't bother me. And I try to remember Dunning-Kruger.
Trump is delusional about his relationship with Putin. Trump said this to Macron when the European leaders came to Washington.
“I think he wants to make a deal *for me,* you understand, as crazy as it sounds,” Mr. Trump told President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday, in a moment caught on a hot mic.
If Putin wanted to do a deal FOR TRUMP, he would have done it on January 21, 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/us/politics/trump-government-expertise.html
Trump is not delusional. Sinister, malevolent, criminal and utterly corrupt, but not delusional. He is completely aware of what he is doing, which is to bring an end to democracy in the US and create a dictatorship like Russia.
Mr. Trotsky, I don’t think delusion is all that relevant. Evidence is that Trump develops idée fixe, of which he has many, and of course proceeds on the assumption is that he can “make a deal.” Further, the real problem we all face is that he is a “useful idiot.” He is doing the will of people like Peter Theil, Russell Vought, and Stephen Miller. For them, a proper nation is run by and for the benefit of its natural leaders—those men (not “people” by the way) who have demonstrated their natural greatness by having acquired great wealth. Trump appears to be “the great Oz,” but as in the Emerald City, look for the man (or men) behind the curtain.
Fortunately, I am a long long way from Trump and your lethal Trumpist disaster. However, after observing him ( more closely than you guys) for nigh on 40 years, I am totally with "Leon". The VENAL prick has been totally consistent in his snake oil brilliance to an audience of two dimensional idiots ( read most of Murica cos that comes with being the Disney EMPIRE). He is not losing his mind. He never had a normal mind. He is not in the slightest more Alzheimer's than he was 40 years ago.
You lot have swallowed the snakeoil via your disgustingly servile media and a metastasizing cancer called Republicanism. In one sense, Trump is the GOP patsy for something begun by Nixon and hyper charged onward by Reagan ( and your predatory capitalism).
What you sold the rest of us , TRUTH JUSTICE & THE AMERICAN WAY, was just the usual lie of all Empires.
And now it's...OVER!
It all breaks down to the "Useful Idiot" vs. "KGB Thrall" theories. The evidence, such that it is, trends strongly to the latter; within which the former provides plausible deniability.
Meanwhile, FOX News and RW media portrays Trump's recent about face and renewed subservience to Putin as "4-D chess."
I’ve heard about the 4-D chess. Are they pushing that? He’s 100% isolationist.
Isolationism, yes, if it means straining or destroying NATO & SEATO. Yes, if it means alienating Canada and Mexico, our closest allies and trading partners.
Which is also exactly what Putin wants; *especially* if it weakens Ukraine. Primarily by denying them arms, and breaking up NATO's ability to aid them. But whenever Trump goes too far and angers GOP natsec and business elites, the WH and crony influencers trot out the "...have faith brothers, it's part of a deeper 4-D chess move by our brilliant, messianic, blessed-by-Jesus leader."
Indeed.
Right, Trump, Elon Musk and the techno oligarchs are all 100% subverted by Russian psyops. Putin's KGB figured out years ago that the conservative mind is programmable because it reacts so well to hate and fear. They masterfully pumped a liberal strawman enemy that used progressives (who are the useful idiots in their mental programming) to amplify the over the top social issues like transgender bathrooms and xenophobia.
Conservatives are by nature homophobic, xenophobic and racist. So, all the MAGA machinery was in place with social media (thanks to Zuckerberg) for someone like Putin to come along and disrupt the US democracy. Putin and his gang could not have done better with Trump as their tool to dismantle the Western global alliances established since WW2 and isolate Europe from America so China and Russia can now expand their empires at will.
It must be so bizarre for someone to go through the US government top secret clearance training on psyops knowing that our president and leader is literally a Russian agent, the number one threat that training is meant to identify and prevent. What a bizarre thing to happen at this point in time, the literal subversion of 77 million American voters around a subverted Russian agent leader that has dismantled the Western alliance against evil dictators such as Putin and Xi.
I am both in awe and terrified of how successful Russian and Chinese psyops can be. You can't even deprogram these 77 million MAGA voters. They'd rather destroy their own future and family than allow a brown liberal women be president and do nothing more than build on what was the most successful democracy in the world until now. It's truly unbelievable to watch Trump on a daily basis take American into a full blown fascist dictatorship destroying everything that had made America great. Republicans and conservatives have quite literally lost their minds. You have to wonder if COVID had some bizarre irreversible effect on the conservative brain?
There is no doubt that Russian propaganda mills have been working on the minds of peasants in the US and other democratic countries for years now. But to suggest that Russians have brainwashed a majority of the people, especially the oligarchs, is a hasty generalization. Murdoch and Fox News were around long before the Russian mills, and the tech giants don't have to listen Russia propaganda to be convinced that supporting the Dems is not in their financial interests. I would suggest that the SCOTUS decision to award victory to Citizen United had a lot more to do with the hijacking of democracy in the US than Russia.
Fox News didn't do this. It certainly helped create and attacks the strawman liberal night after night. But the push to extremism is what psyops does on top of what is already in place with the help of someone like Trump and it appears the pandemic had some play in isolating and dividing people. And the US intelligence agencies are years behind in psyops warfare. In fact so much so their leader is literally a subverted Russian agent right in front of them. It's fair to say it is a sum of the parts, but Russian psyops has been greatly underestimated by the West.
Note that old man Murdoch is currently married to Roman Abramovich's ex-mother-in-law. Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng "saved" Kushner & Ivanka's relationship before their marriage and all of these wealthy people ride around with one another on their (sugar) daddies' yachts, as per tabloid rags. What a shame if they'd have to pay the same percentage in taxes as W-2 wage slaves or 1099 gig workers/retirees, even!
The Russians have added their bit.
https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/active-measures-chapter-4-putins
Nebulous, I think you may have skipped a groove in your second 'graph. I have observed that a lot of "conservatives" aren't homophobes, for the simple reason that they are homosexuals themselves (I do not want to split any psychological hairs about "self-hate" etc.). Sometimes converts to a cause or a religion are the most rabidly evangelical -- thinking of Paul, the persecutor of early Christians becoming the great evangelist, and so on down the ages.
https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/active-measures-chapter-4-putins
Absolutely. Putin has been busy not just the US, but Europe, pushing a conservative supposedly Christian agenda. Free to read:
https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/active-measures-chapter-4-putins
I think that Trump admires the power that Putin has over Russia, and would himself like to have similar power over the world. As well as having the weakness of being easily influenced by flattery.
There is likely also the prospect of a "Trump tower" in Moscow.
A lot of that is visible on an almost daily basis with his interactions with various people. The need of constant flattering, intolerance of the least criticism.
So Putin knows how to manipulate Trump, as Putin has often successfully manipulated other western leaders.
Reading excellent articles like this, one question jumps out. What is the source of the massive collective stupidity? In the US, you've got Trump, which is one giant self inflicted wound. But prior to Trump, there was GW Bush, another catastrophe. Why? Meanwhile, as noted in the article, Europe, a really huge wealthy entity, stood by and watched the US kick off a disastrous gulf war, nearly destroy the world financial system, and elect Trump, twice. And yet they're still groveling at Uncle Sam's feet. The stupidity is incomprehensible. Surely, at least in Europe, they have some grasp of history. How did the world get to this point?
France has never grovelled and I remain hopeful that as the US security umbrella becomes worthless other nations will learn to stand up for themselves.
and Canada - probably weaker than Eur militarily - and all our military tied into US supplies, data systems, technologies - with T threats on our longggggg border, my anti-military-spending convictions are being sorely challenged - see Steven Marche opinion pc. this week in Guardian UK addressing this problem: how can Canada defend itself?
I agree (fellow Canadian here). Yesterday Carney removed our counter tariffs!
Proud to say I distrusted him & didn't vote for him - wish NDP had some spine & a loud federal leadership - largely absent these days but I voted for them anyway
Agree.
True. I can't see the bulk of Europe continuing to ignore the obvious. Its surprising how slow the process has been.
Europe treated Russia like a normal country, making trade deals. They’re very slow to shed that attitude.
Well ...... Maybe a little in 1940.
Certainly in the 30s and 40s, but even now, while Macron always kept a Gaullist posture of maintaining France friendship with the US while not (overly) depending on them, his influence on fellow European leaders seems to have almost vanished due to the current French budgetary and parliamentary crisis, both of his own making. Not familiar with O'Brien works, but his assessment in this talk about European leaders pusillanimity, though quite bleak, definitely strikes a chord, while it's time to wake up and take action.
What about Macron hosting Trump for that huge military parade?
Exactly ... both in the US and in Europe. We can now clearly point to the Republican strategy to gaslight the base while using election plays to disenfranchise 'undesirable' voters while creating distrust in free and fair elections.
To me this was a slow-moving train....starting with the dumbing down of public schools 60 years ago, supplanted by subtle propaganda and willful ignorance of mass media which didn't want to lose its readership = profits for its wealthy owners. In my mind, it's class warfare...the very wealthy willing to sell out their country for cash, vs the rest of us who are being milked dry to support them.
Anne, I am intrigued by your comment made almost in passing, that our "slow moving train" (to our present situation) started with the dumbing down of public schools 60 years ago.
Were you a student or parent or teacher back then. What did you observe that triggered your observation? I'm just curious.
Nixon era?
Leave my name off - I assume you are responding to my earlier question to Anne, so I'll redirect this to you (it's just me being curious, it's not for a study or anything 'official').
So, if you were a student in public school during the Nixon era (1969 - 74), did you feel you had a solid education in civics, social studies or other core subjects? Perhaps more importantly, do you feel you had been challenged to develop your critical thinking skills while in secondary school? If so, do you think that later, something changed? If so, what?
I was barely in elementary by the end of his term. The Southern Strategy was the beginning of manipulating the blue collar workers and Main Street small businesses to vote against their better interests (era of the Powell Memo?), now that I've been around the block and away from the "back 40", so to speak. When cleaning out my parents' former home after the last one died, there were textbooks from their primary/secondary school years approved for the entire state's schools from late 1930's-early 1950's (schools in different counties but same textbooks). The US wasn't yet a super power when that occurred and browsing through them, my impression was that the US then did not have such an attitude of superiority relative to my era. I wonder if the majority white population didn't start to question our government until the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam conflict. Minority populations have always known the double standard. Growing up in a majority republican rural area and attending a state university later, I feel that the latter was basically just a grunt factory for petro and meat packing office labor. More prestigious institutions of higher learning are places to network, as obviously people like Epstein and a lot of financially successful or politically powerful people certainly weren't top scholars. There's really no difference between the street and the executive suite.
Hi RH....I thought I'd make a quick google search to back up my observations about what appears to me to be downward changes in basic education. I was in school starting in the 1950's....and am aghast at the basic ignorance of so many, mostly MAGA, commenters; one politician (Tommy Tuberville) not even knowing the 3 branches of government. The ignorance of many of our elected officials is breathtaking.
Here's one article: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/the-changing-global-distribution-of-highly-educated-manpower-1950-2040-findings-and-implications/
Hi Anne - Thanks for your comment and for sharing the AEI link.
I thought it interesting that the study you found was published by the American Enterprise Institute, which is an organization dedicated to helping develop a conservative political and economic agenda. Another analogous organization is The Heritage Foundation, now known for its controversial “Project 2025” outline followed by the Trump administration in de-liberalization of the federal government.
I found a short paper by the Heritage Foundation Center for Education Policy (link:
https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/BG3909.pdf)
which reviewed NAEP Civics test results and found that” Scores have changed little since the first time the test was administered in 1998… only 22 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the proficient level, reflecting a solid command of academic performance and civics competence.” (This is not actually “news”: we’ve read something like this every year the results come out).
The paper’s authors contrasted present-day civics course curricula, which they characterized as preparing students more for protest and activism than acquiring factual information (as learning relevant names, dates and key facts being categorized as “rote learning”, which is highly unfashionable in these modern times).
The authors extracted quotes from early 20th century texts which emphasized learning about American history and our form of government as key to developing patriotism as well as character development.
The paper called out Florida and Louisiana for their civics courses, and noted that teaching civics was not a requirement in all states (and proposed that it should be).
Notwithstanding the conservative ideological slant present in both studies, which contracts with my own convictions, I find myself agreeing with the general conclusions of both studies. Americans’ understanding of how government works, and a citizen’s role in that process, is generally weak. Secondary school curricula do not go far enough in educating youth in this vital aspect of American life, and we should not be at all surprised that they grow up to adults whose view of politics is that it doesn’t matter much if at all to the daily lives of citizens, when in fact the opposite is the truth. Politics and government matter immensely, as we are finding out.
Thank you for your reply. As I googled it passed through my mind that I should research the source of the link to ensure that it wasn't corrupt in some way, but as it concurred with my opinion that the schools have been failing and there had to be reason why. By dumbing down the school system the Right is creating a base of uneducated and thereby helpless serfs to be ruled by the wealthy few. History repeating itself: George Washington and the landowners profiting from the work of slaves and indentured servants; 1800's plantation owners profiting off the back of slavery; Trump enriching himself by grifting with the help and support of clueless MAGA. Keep 'em dumb and desperate and they'll follow you like a god. Here's another quick google which shows where the US (doesn't ) stand in the top 10: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/well-developed-public-education-system
Ahh, thanks, Anne, nothing like a USNews Rankings report to rub it in, right? The USA of course doesn't even make the Top Ten, and hasn't for years.
I was a 6th grader in 1960, and was somewhat aware of the great issues of the day during the Nixon-Kennedy election, and then during all the turmoil of the decade that followed I became much more politically aware during the LBJ/Nixon years of Civil Rights, Viet Nam, the nuclear arms race and the Soviet threat.
But as for actual teaching about Civics -- well, let's just say there was not a big emphasis on that: part of a semester was spent reading one rather boring pamphlet about the three branches of government, the bi-cameral Legislature. Not much stuck.
I might have gotten a better handle on things had I been able to go on a field trip to our state capitol and see the legislators in action, but as I recall I had to take a sick day. I learned a lot more as an adult, but at least I had some idea of how politics and government worked.
There is a great deal of discussion in educational circles about whether educational outcomes are more the result of the quality of teaching, the amount of class time spent on academic tasks (instead of the busywork of running a classroom, grade, and school, with all the activities, announcements, lunch breaks, etc.) or the readiness and receptiveness of students to learn, which is strongly impacted by their learning environment (noisy, crowded classrooms are a negative factor, smaller, more orderly ones are a plus).
Then there is the question of how much emphasis should be placed on rote learning of basic, essential facts ( being able to correctly answer questions about the role of President or Senator or Legislator, for example).
No matter how you slice it, smaller class size, good, well-run facilities, well-structured curricula and assessment milestones, access to libraries and books, home computer & internet access, parents who participate with their kids schoolwork...all the things that are part of a students world have a big impact on how well they learn and how much they retain.
How well will they fare in a new dangerous world with an aggressive Russia and China? (Xi is similar to Putin, he also have territorial ambitions.)
It's a billionaire's oligarchy.
This seems to be the case. But the billionaires are truly stupid if they think they are going to survive the Frankenstein monster they've created and released. Their silence now is deafening. When, or rather, if, the US survives and restores democracy, the retribution against the oligarchs needs to be harsh, and thorough.
Europe has to make enormous changes and people resist that kind of change. They are willing to grovel to Trump to try to avoid it. Maybe Putin needs to bomb Berlin or Paris to get their full attention.
Give Putin a little more time.
He’s definitely got his eye on the Baltics.
That's a good question. First, addressing Dubya and Trumpkopf - not to mention St. Reagan and King Bush I, I'd say it's intellectual laziness combined with a malignant reichwing propaganda machine.
As for Europe, they've long been dependent on the U.S. since WWII, and simply fell into the habit of going along with whatever the U.S. president demands - even when it's blatantly asinine.
> What is the source of the massive collective stupidity?
Seems to be the human default setting? What I can't figure out is, what is the source of our ability to occasionally transcend our collective stupidity in certain times and places?
A thoughtful, sincere attempt at truth-telling, such as Prof Krugman demonstrates in his posts, would change the world. Adds oxygen back to the discussion instead of smothering us with the CO2 of lies and propaganda.
I'm glad you said that because both O'Brien and Krugman are level headed enough not to rely on conspiracy theory. Their pieces rely on provable facts, which is why this interview was particularly depressing, good analyses but bleak.
plus a very evident & healthy ability to after-the-fact admit uncertainty or rejection of ideas expressed in past when new evidence emerges
Oxygen versus being smothered with CO2 of lies & propaganda...good metaphor. I'm a collector; mind if I use that one?
Racism and sexism run deep in the US.
They always have, also xenophobia. But this "latest" outbreak of profound stupidity has occurred in a period of relatively benign conditions, where you would have assumed a declining influence of these "traditions."
Someone I know mentioned Sarah Kendzior (on Substack and book author) who now lives in St. Louis. Lots of money from there, including presently Sam Altman, the Prescotts of former 1st lady Barbara Prescott Bush, while the city itself is rust belt personified with areas of gentrification by exploiting minorities (mainly Black). What I perceive as now a backwater state that I now live in, next to the one of my childhood, is one that was wealthy enough over a century ago to have TWO federal reserves! Before that, I suspect the power elite here liked to fancy themselves on the level of the southern plantation owners of the Gulf coastal states, although at most, the "plantations" here may have had < half dozen slaves. While reading Wealth & Democracy by Kevin Phillips about the Progressive era, it occurred to me that was also the era of rail road/bank robber Jesse James & gang, gangland murder at Union Station, Bonnie & Clyde....
Not in all places or classes. Places where there is what I'd call an obsessive fascination with the past and one's forbears -- the tie in to good ol' "Blood and Soil" identity -- is where you'll find society inclined to cling to traditional values, some of which include negative attitudes about people who are not white, and sexist stereotypes. These ideas are found in every region, but the old Confederate States are steeped in this stuff. In New England I feel it's a kind of Puritanical snobbery that local folk feel towards people "from away".
Mencken saw this coming 100 years ago;
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Well, the moron in charge now is certainly not the first moron we’ve put in power, but he is hands down the most moronic. I wish I knew why we collectively are so stupid. Maybe we should all be shipped off to Mars, clean out the planet of Homo sapiens, and let a species of being emerge that truly appreciates itself and what we’ve been given here on Earth.
Chris, good points as always, and it returns to what should be the main focus: will Europe step up? Is “Europe” so infantilised, so craven that it cannot muster the willingness to do what is required, or does it REALLY not (quite) have the resources to armour-plate Ukraine without the US? I’d love Phillips et al to address this. Is it only intelligence support and Patriot systems or is it more? If “Europe” can in fact make the difference, will it? If it now (at last) realises the US under Trump is not going to save it, the war will not be “won” but as in Korea, it can be fought to a stalemate with an impenetrable UKR border, an armed hedgehog properly supported, and UKR admitted into the EU and de facto into NATO, and a resounding assertion of European values, not to mention a defeat of Putin’s irredentist ambitions. So, there’s resources and there’s will….
Europe got lazy post colonial and too nice. USA polity has always been very faulty and based on individuality and greed not really collective. See also "Gilded age". Rem when Naploean got back to France within weeks he had 100k plus suckers following him to war. Humans seem to have a have a thing about 'strong leaders'. Communes seems great in theory but commun-ism? Ask Joe the clerical student minus 30million.
Then God(s) -The worst leadership delusion of all!!!!
What if those cooperative Asians end up leaving us all in the dust?
There’s a severe lack of leadership in Europe. And in the Democratic Party. (Although Newsom is finally stepping over the redistricting.)
Friends are one of the best investments in life. They help you to be happy. You do the same for them. You have forgive them on occasion. Nobody said it was easy.
Trump never had many friends. He never will. He knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Well said.
He seems to think Putin is his friend.
He had one a while back. Can't remember the name of the guy - something like Sexstein? Whatever happened to him?
Roy Cohn, his mentor whose funeral he didn't attend. I know people like that....transactional. Good time friends--but never there when the chips are down.
But, he made it to the position of being in charge with his transactional relationships...the Wiki on his father is really very telling.
If there ever was an example of the adage: "Necessity is the Mother of Invention"... Ukraine's innovations are it.
They also know history. The first hand-held tank killers were the bazooka and panzerfaust of WWII. Ukraine's new "cruise missile" is an vastly improved (especially in accuracy) Fieseler V-1, also from WWII. Line-guided missiles and glider bombs also have a long history. I saw a video of a Ukrainian farmer who cleared mines from his fields with an imitation of the flail mechanism that the US mounted on Sherman tanks during WWII.
"I would say that 2026 elections will show not whether America can come back, but whether it has a chance to come back, or whether the period we're going into could be a lot longer and darker than we imagined."
With the accelerating authoritarianism of the last few months, my money's on longer and darker than we imagined. What I'd really like to understand is why prosperous and stable societies periodically decide to destroy themselves. It's excruciating to watch.
What grieves me is that my father risked his life fighting the Fascists in WWII, and now, fat and dumb, we're letting them in the front door.
Ada Palmer commented on that in her book on the Renaissance. The US has lasted longer than many, but it has always happened in the past (as you point out). Palmer wrote that most people ask what destroyed the Roman civilization, while the true question to ask is how it lasted so long.
That's a good point--perhaps freedom and self-government are the exceptions, not the norm.
I really enjoyed Palmer's interview with Professor Krugman. Just read a sample of her book (Inventing the Renaissance) and am going to buy it.
You will enjoy it - she's excellent and has a good sense of humor.
Bullshit- as an American living in Europe for 30 years- I can assure you Europe has not been infantilised by the US. Macron, Starmer et al know what the US is- especially now. Ineffective and seriously misguided.
Europe is not stupid and is much stronger than realised. Trump has brought the US to its knees. I wait for the strong military coup to take trump and his intellectually lacking administration out. The heat is dialing up. War on American soil is possible.
Europe has a huge economy and the technical ability to develop a defense industry as good as the USA. The first Trump administration was a clear message and warning that this country is capable of electing an utter incompetent with zero respect or understanding of alliances and economics. That should have given them the incentive to reduce dependence on the US. Now we have an even more corrupt and incompetent Trump 2.0 so hopefully the Europeans clearly understand the US is no longer dependable and take the actions they must to defend themselves in a world where America stands alone.
Unfortunately, developing that industry takes time, of which we are a bit short.
A rational defence acquisition plan for Europe would include buying weapons from South Korea, China, Japan, and Turkey. Stop treating the weapons industry as a welfare program and look at cold hard calculations of bang for the buck. As Ukraine has shown, and Stalin specifically noted, "quantity has its own quality." Wars are demolition derbys not Formula 1 races. The US defense industry you don't want to emulate. They build complex extraordinarily expensive to buy, maintain, and operate systems, in very small numbers, with no surge capability.
Well it's a fact that the Brits have always had a sneering disgust of America as silly & full-of-itself, so all the cooperation going on has always been with a wink & a nod to each other while telling America how wonderful it is ! Many Europeans have American friends who do not fit this stereotype of course, but those old influences still float around ! The current trump admin is merely the very worst example of such "American values". That has never changed AFAICS - the Brits know they are now a tiny place which has to have affiliations & the colonies are no longer owned & able to be used as they wish. They keep their place in the world by behaving as tho nothing has changed - they still 'matter', and so far the world has largely accepted that; the former colonies are allies, and I think there is a grudging admiration of France's stance on the world lately, entirely due to Prez Macron ! I am in the US & quite scared of where things are going - but I am hoping trump's life will not extend too much longer, and Vance can somehow be eliminated from the picture - HE is far more dangerous than trump IMO !
Americans ARE silly and full of themselves. As one, I feel I have the right to say this. I did not know the extent to which we Americans were filled to the ears with propaganda until I left to live abroad. My family back home are coming around slowly- but still suffer from years of indoctrination…America the best etc. It’s Not the best. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong. I’m proud to be American but it’s not the best- it’s just another. Americans are waking up to this fact. The world is a small place. Americans don’t generally leave the confines of the states to ‘live’. They accept what they are told without question, until now.
A lot of that is by design. Only the wealthy & lucky can buy a decent education. There’s plenty of information out there but you have to know how to sort through it, and most importantly have the drive & will to do so. For many years people have been getting crap put in their food to keep them fat, and medicines to keep them sedated & constant advertisements to keep them buying. The goal was for people to only see themselves as consumers nothing more. It’s encouraging that anyone is waking up from this stupor. I saw a video of a guy (I think he was Ukrainian) talking about how Americans have been living in the belly of the beast for years & years. I agree.
Definitely Vance is very dangerous. People keep saying he has no charisma. But I don’t see charisma in Trump although apparently some do.
Yes, I once had a boyfriend who admired Trump, didn't read much (dyslexic) but he did own a copy of Art of the Deal. I've never seen the appeal of blowhard. BTW, that former boyfriend has not married his baby's mama--the whole reason why I imagine she got knocked up intentionally. I read that story in NYT about some young lady from NY who went to Arkansas to dig up her own diamond (rarity of all rarities) for an engagement ring to convince her boyfriend to propose. She needs to ditch him, imo, and use men like they use women when she's affluent in a few years.
Right.
So the European leaders are patting DonnyJon on the head and saying "good boy" while keeping their own counsel? That would be good news.
As Trumbull said in 1931 "Diplomacy consists in saying 'nice doggie,' until you can pick up a rock." Let's hope they find their rock soon.
Trump is delusional about his relationship with Putin. Trump said this to Macron when the European leaders came to Washington.
“I think he wants to make a deal *for me,* you understand, as crazy as it sounds,” Mr. Trump told President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday, in a moment caught on a hot mic.
If Putin wanted to do a deal FOR TRUMP, he would have done it on January 21, 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/us/politics/trump-government-expertise.html
Putin wants to take over Eastern Europe, at a minimum. That's the deal he wants trump to make for him.
I think the idea that everyone is talking about handing over territory in Ukraine misses the point that it is a bad negotiating tactic to give up a position before it is negotiated away from you . I mean for example I go into buying a car knowing I will pay more than my offer price but I don't state that before we start negotiating . I want them to earn that so they can feel like they won something to make the deal go down. So Donnie stating out loud and in advance that Ukraine will give up land is just stupid and counter productive to getting a deal done .
Exactly. Buying a car is a perfect example; not just knowing what one is willing to pay, but doing research so one can negotiate (I purchased a car in 2023 and received a lower interest rate from the dealer as I knew what I could get from the bank). But the other mistake Trump is making is opening negotiations with a serious concession. Start by offering something you know is not really important.
Seems to me that T's clear error - stemming from simple lack of education & intelligence (ie reasoning abilities) & rank narcissism - is going into negotiations at all!
Nothing to 'negotiate' with war criminals. Would US have negotiated with Hitler in midst of WWII? No.
I fear and abhor war, but at this point in world barbarism, WW 3 is inevitable IMHO.
In fact the only thing that will stop Putinism is united military confrontation, fearlessly engaged.
Hate the entire idea of this as I've been an implacable antiwar & anti-imperialist activist for 6 decades, and a socialist to boot, But as T says (!), the death must stop. The violation of all 'rules' in intl law must be punished & ended or they have no meaning. Won't happen with the US leadership & Europe/Canada not yet in a position to defend themselves. But realism points only to this solution.
PS- And while we're at it, how about a solid line of tens of thousands of intl peace-keeping troops bursting onto the Israel-Gaza/WestBank borders and Isr-controlled waters - a surprise move, in defiance of the Israeli govt & military - like ... THIS WEEK!!! No, I'm not crazy, aware this won't/can't happen, but what EFFECTIVE solutions does anyone propose?
I can't bear more months of images of civilian horrors greeting me in each morning's news and the profound helplessness & daily tears.
Well Gaza is a huge display of hypocrisy and barbarism and greed by Israel . No idea what we can do about it but bitch to our political leaders every day . As far as WWIII I am not feeling it but if it happens it will be because of our perceived weakness so strength in Ukraine solves a couple of problems I think.
He thinks a deal maker but as we see he is really stupid.
I think Phillips makes a point that Trump is getting benefits for Putin more than for the US or Europe, because he's given Putin recognition, tamped down consideration of more sanctions, and encouraged talk of Ukraine giving up territory.
Trump is obviously negotiating more for Putin’s benefit than anyone else.
Well he stated that Donnie was winning and possibly smarter than we think in that the land for peace option was being discussed by many . I contend that is not winning and Donnie is stupid.
OK, I just want to make it clear what definition of "smart" I'm talking about. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt to Phillips, who I think is saying that we should not underestimate our enemies--Trump being one of them. However, I thought Phillips should have been clear what he meant by "smart" so here is my interpretation.
Trump is not a complete idiot, or else he would not be so dangerous. He is good at deception and manipulation, at understanding what people want so he can play to their emotions and say want they want to hear.
In that vein, he is deceiving people who think that he will act in the best interests of the US, and that he actually wants peace. But what he accomplishes is not actually in the best interest of the US at all; he is most effective in furthering the interests of Putin. This is consistent with what he's done all along.
Why does he like Putin so much? Possibly Putin is even better at manipulation and telling Trump what he wants to hear; maybe Trump just sees Putin as another megalomaniac that he can relate with. Paul and Phillips speculate that there is kompromat, but it's hard to know. In the end it doesn't matter why--just that he's doing it and messing with Europe because he knows they want to be on his good side.
Let me be clear that I think what Trump is doing--being buddies with Putin, giving him any air to breathe, while letting Ukraine continue to bleed out, is a colossally stupid move for the US, the Ukraine, for Europe, and for the whole world. But we need to understand how Trump ticks and how he holds onto power, because we need to take him down and start undoing all the damage that he and all the complicit MAGAs and Republicans have been doing for the past several decades.
I appreciate your including an easy link to O’Brien’s book, but does it have to be an Amazon link? This is simply supporting the billionaire club that is propping up the current regime.
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/phillips-payson-obrien/war-and-power/9781541606975/?lens=publicaffairs
Also contains links to other booksellers
https://bookshop.org/p/books/war-and-power-who-wins-wars-and-why-phillips-payson-o-brien/22446782?ean=9781541606975&next=t
Welcome to Feudalism in Amerika Bruce😢
The most logical explanation for how Trump sees Putin is that he thinks he can peel Russia away from China in a great feat of strategic geopolitics. But he has no idea that Putin's aims are really very regional, focused on Ukraine and basically in a confrontation not with the US but with the EU. He kind of needs to split the US from the EU, in order to deal more easily with the EU. So he gives trump some hope of a US-Russia rapprochement, but Trump never understands that it's not about China: it's about Europe.
Yes, the Europeans are kind of teary-eyed about the US umbrella, but they're gradually realizing they're on their own. The mission to Washington was really about being able to place orders for weapons from US manufacturers and nothing else. They echo Trump about land for peace, but they know that's a non-starter. Even security guarantees is just empty talk. The real deal is getting US factories to turn out weapons for Ukraine, and keep Starlink operational, and maybe US air logistics if they really have to move European troops to the Ukraine border.
The Europeans know this war will go indefinitely. So does Putin. They both echo Trump for different reasons.
trump 'sees' putin only as his owner - because he took Russian oligarch funds to the tune of multi-millions & now has NO way to escape the strings being pulled by putin ! Once you take that into consideration NOTHING trump does needs any other explanation. And his little jabs at putin to try to hide the truth of the ownership are just that - little attempts to make himself look 'powerful'. But trump's terrifed look when he met with putin all those years ago told us all we needed to know - putin is his boss !!!!
If that's true -- and I think there is some good probability that Putin has a bunch of IOU's he could make public -- the problem for Putin is that once he does that Trump goes up in smoke, and so does his leverage over the US. So he has to restrain himself, and Trump knows that too. So the two play this intricate game of how much they can "threaten" each other, to keep the whole thing believable to other parties.
But the larger picture is that Russia has lost its connection (and hold) over Europe, and has become a Chinese client-state. In the meantime, for good geostrategic reasons, the US can't really divorce itself from Europe (think of all those air bases connecting to the M.East and ports it needs to operate in the Med and North Atlantic), so inevitably it's Russia that's being pulled apart by having so much of its population in the west of the country (and European in outlook), and China able to walk into eastern Russia.
It explains why Putin (and the Russian elite by and large) is so desperate to hang on to Ukraine.
This is so depressing
I got to here and was like, wait, what? Don't we all know t got all his $$ loans from Russia when nobody else would fund his failing bizzes? "I think there's got to be some financial history incentive. I've heard that he had an interesting history with Russia in the past. They know a lot about his business dealings and other dealings so it's much better for him to get along with the Russians. So it could be that."
Trump was propped up with Russian money for decades, and I'm certain they have lots of dirt on him as well. He's thoroughly under their control.
Trump is probably terrified that Putin will whip aside the curtain to expose the "billionaire businessman" Wizard of Oz as what he really is and always was: a financial failure.
Wouldn't happen. Maga would never believe it. There's nothing Putin could say or do that would make them believe Trump is anything but the God-given savior of the US.
I think Trump likes Putin. He envies Putin and is doing his best to emulate him.
I wonder when Trump's opposition is going to start falling out of windows.
MAGAs are unbelievably delusional.
"Other dealings" being video evidence of his dalliances with Epstein's under-aged women? That OBriens is really being polite.
Prof Krugman. Please share your insight in new industrial policy under Trump. Why US has taken 10% stake in chip maker Intel? What's the purpose of it? Any strategic vision or is it just more idiocy?
He's a closet socialist. Pass it around.
Trump wants to be our country's version of Putin is what someone commented today to me.
Mr O’Brien is so wrong about Europe. It has survived two millennia, the US cannot even survive two centuries. You are rotting from within. The EU/UK leaders very quickly realised the dangers of the takeover. The optics are one thing, and I cannot find an excuse for Rutte’s ‘daddy’ remark, but the urgent trip to Washington last Monday was to assess the state of the presidency, as well of course protecting President Zelenskyy from another outrageous takedown. Yes, Russia is a threat but you are a much greater one.
I believed the EU leaders coming here was a show of force. Boy was I wrong. After all the years, the lies, the betrayals to our allies and the EU STILL thinks Trump is going to keep his word? Are they really that stupid? It can't be.
Trump is a traitor to the U.S. Everything harmful he said he would do to America he has done successfully. Everything helpful he said he would do for Putin he has done successfully. What part of that isn't traitorous?
Yes a show of force protecting President Zelenskyy but, Europe no more trusts you than they trust any snake oil salesman . Keep one’s friends close, but keep one’s enemies closer. We weep for you.
Nor should they trust the government. And thank you for your sympathy. I'd like to point out that of the people who voted in this country, more voted for someone other than Trump. He won by an extremely slim margin. There are more of us here who loathe him than not.
Acknowledged.
Maybe. But I think don’t think trust enters into it. Countries try to solve problems in the least expensive way possible. Flattering Trump gets Europe through the next few months while they come up with better solutions. What those might be I have no idea but whatever they are I doubt the Europeans will tell Trump in advance.
Anyway, it’s hard to deal with the completely irrational, particularly if a lot of the options are off the table. After all, you can’t legally section the current US. Government, though it needs to be.
"You can't legally section the current US Government"? I'm not sure what you mean by section.
I watch a lot of British police procedurals. “Being sectioned” is a common shorthand for being involuntary committed to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.