I had just started to write the same thing and then looked up along the comment thread. The editorial cartoon practically creates itself: a torpedo or a tank labeled “Invincible ignorance.”
I like to share a proposal how we can measure the opposition to Trumps crazy policies. It just requires to shift our purchases from Trump Tuesday to Freedom Friday. The daily sales statistics would measure how many people CARE enough to show their opposition by shifting purchses. Imagine a Trump Tuesday when the money flow slows down noticeably.
It's a good one! I struggle to find the proper phrasing because he's off the charts stupid. Like unfathomably dumb. We need new words because he's taken it to another level!
I don’t believe Trump is ignorant. I think he deliberately misleads the less informed segments of the American public—especially those in the Rust Belt who voted for him and ended up among the losers of globalization.
If he were truly ignorant, would he, his wife, and his son all be launching their own cryptocurrencies to expand their personal wealth?
Trump suggests that ordinary families don’t need to buy too many dolls for their children—yet he and his family, despite having billions in assets, use his former presidential status to issue cryptocurrency and exploit political influence for personal profit.
How many billions are enough for this greedy family?
Well they are worst criminals in the history of this country
They are at the bernie madoff level of financial crimes. Madoff i consider the gold standard. And we know the crime family loves gold painted everything!
He listens to other rich people. They told him it's a great untraceable way of making money and is what's making other rich people around the world wealthy. It's the new cool thing to do. Trump also has the power to make it legal and get rid of the pesky rules.
Juan, There is a difference between “ignorance” and “criminal.” Establishing a cryptocurrency company while you are President of the United States is the most egregious act of fraud in our history. Foreign governments and Corporations are buying shares in his company. If he happens to favor these individuals, who can prove it. Yes, the Trump Family are Master Criminals.
My dad, who was British, would have loved that phrase too. The one he always used, though, was 'blithering idiot' spoken with contempt and disgust in his voice.
“Invincibly ignorant “ was a term created by the Church to answer the question about people who lived and died before Christ
Someone like Socrates
Rather than be damned to Hell , they were deemed worthy of Purgatory (if I remember correctly) as their ignorance of God’s grace was through no fault of their own
Paul, it’s ok to give the musical coda a hiatus. I heard you mention that it is the hardest part of making a post. You will not make us mad if you drop it, be free! Thank you for sharing your insight with us!
Be free...but also, independent of the codas, do keep telling us when you find new groups you like. I've gotten to hear music I never would have encountered that way.
The musical codas make my day. I always try to listen when I can. Dr. Krugman's tastes are eclectic and remarkable. It's another example of something that he was not able to do while toiling for the Gray Lady. It enriches us.
So, I once skimmed a book on learning and, though I've forgotten most of it, the part I remember is that you will impact more of your audience when your message stimulates multiple neurological centers. You gotta keep the coda.
Personally, I enjoy learning about Paul's taste in music and discovered some musicians i hadn't been aware of. But since that isn't why I read his articles, a _short_ hiatus might be ok 😉
Are you insane? The musical coda is the best part of the post. Complete disagreement with you. You must not listen to it, so you should refrain from commenting. 😇
I’m okay without the musical lagniappe. I pay for the musical coda the same way I pay Amazon for Amazon Music, Citi for “concierge services,” or Verizon for their free cloud storage—which is to say, not. 😉
I can’t believe that Trump still thinks that every time a Canadian sells a widget to an American for $10, Canada has ripped off the United States to the tune of $10 (unless, coincidentally, another Canadian buys another widget from another American for $10—then we’re even and we don’t have to annex Canada in the name of national security).
I can. tRump has never been a bright guy... and now that he is becoming demented it is even worse. One of my medical aphorisms is that 'dementia makes preexisting personality disorders worse'. Never have I encountered anyone who is so generously endowed with major personality disorders... He will stubbornly resist retreating until it is too late to stop the damage which will ripple out through the Economy and Nation. We are likely headed into one of those inflection points - a bottom - which makes an intervention possible, but the damage/carnage will be awful.
And it is truly shameful that virtually NONE of the Rs in Congress or state leadership have condemned this blatant destruction of both our and Asian economies? They know better but the cowards support this idiot as he brings them down with the rest of us? Any comment on that is welcome?
But, really they want what he is giving them. They are reactionaries and they want the kind of regressive and authoritarian society he does. They are just as propagandized as he and the base are. Faux Snooze is the metronome of rethuglican RealSpeak and RealThink. They tell the faithful what to think and when to think it.
Generally I agree particularly in deep red and relatively rural states, but there are some Congressional Rs in CA, NY, PA, IL and others who know damn well that his tarriffs disaster is really bad for everyone. But they keep their mouths shut even though they are in safe CDs which I hope will put even 5 to 10 of them in trouble next yr? Can happen!
Trump came down the escalator on my dad’s birthday. As Mary Trump so eloquently laid out in her first book, her uncle “is generously endowed with major personality disorders.” My dad died in 2021 of Alzheimer’s. As I watch, read, or god help me, listen to Trump, I am astounded by the similarities of their descent into darkness and the loss of their minds. My dad wasn’t perfect, but at least he didn’t have a bucket of genetic personality disorders to go with the dementia. Trump is just off the rails and I’m so tired of it being ignored.
I'm reminded of an old Bill Cosby joke about cocaine use. Q. "Why would somebody do cocaine?" A. "It enhances your personality." Q. "But what if you're an (anal sphincter)?"
Agree completely and very well said. Having LBD, I have pity for others with such afflictions, even Trump, though the damage he's causing may take decades to fix.
That explains Drumpf but not those imbeciles in Congress who are enabling the dismantling of democracy and ushering in ..what? Even when death rids us of him, there are other morons waiting in the wings, eg JD Vance Marjorie Tsylor Green, etc and it's the
Ignorant electorate thar is leading them by the nose
They too are propagandized and want the world tRump has had put into his head by Faux and Friends and his handlers. Besides, they have a good gig going - why rock the boat.
Perhaps if enough people like yourself decide to spend your winter vacations in another country it will dawn on the economic geniuses of MAGA that their math isn't woke enough.
Easier said than done, I bougth my house in 2013, when Obama was president! Getting it ready to be sold means more investments. And like my real estate agent replied when I said I wanted to sell: "To whom?"
I would love to and we are planning for it... once the Florida house is sold. Meanwhile, Google Map is still looking for the "no toll" road 🤦 to Sydney!
It does count in the trade deficit, but is hard to measure so it is estimated. Canada surveys a sample of Canadians returning from the United States to estimate how much a typical Canadian tourist spends per day in the United States. The United States tracks the number of Canadian tourists currently in the United States. Multiplying the two numbers gives an estimate of how much Canadian tourists are spending in the United States.
Sorry, but in trumpian math that $10 purchase means the American has been ripped off for about $23, applying the trumpian inconstant to the calculation. In trumpian math the answer is always "trump said it!"
And we must annex Canada and Greenland because trump will then be the bigliest big boy to ever embiggen America. And America is not secure until the void in trump that weeps for approval is filled.
If we were to take all of the qualities that characterize an exceptional leader (integrity, intelligence, trustworthiness, humility, visionary, strength of character, etc.) and look for its polar opposite, we’d end up with trump and his minions. Such a sad gathering of greedy, incompetent, self-absorbed buffoons. How did we get here and how can we get out?
Remember Trump was bred by papa Trump, who was so vile Woody Guthrie wrote words to a song about his vile behavior. Then DT(s) was nurtured by Roy Cohn who was a mover for McCarthy.
In a very real sense we have. It's Trumpist/Fascist/Techno-Feudalism. We haven't seen the end of it yet, unfortunately. However, it's contingent on us to do everything possible to resist and fight this scourge, by any and all means possible and necessary. Every single one of us.
"It's almost impossible to believe he exists. It's as if we took everything that was bad about America, scraped it up off the floor, wrapped it all up in an old hot dog skin, and then taught it to make noises with its face." - Mark Hammill (Luke Skywalker in Starwars)😁
Spot on the days of cheap manufacturing in this country is over ,nobody wants to see 10 year old children slumped over sewing machines or in coal mines following their father’s footsteps.The old Tennessee Ernie Fords song ,What do I get another day older and deeper in dept .I’m sure the billionaire class would love it but teenagers won’t,they would rather be influencers on their phones making millions!
All of my grandparents (Finnish immigrants) and dad worked in the copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula. My dad used to sing that song to us kids when he put us to bed. Fortunately, after WWII service because of the GI bill, my dad was able to get a college degree and get out of the copper mine.
Not to worry - tRump's Sec of Education is going to take care of those pesky colleges and universities. Your kids will work where the Oligarchs tell them to.
Yes. My paternal grandparents would also have been under suspicion given the socialist leanings of some of their relatives. The FBI did come looking for one of my great uncles. They didn't find him.
The finns in America were great socialists in their time and some of their labor halls are still standing though now repurposed. The FBI hounded the finn labor organizers back in those days. It is good that you remind us of our history and sadly history may repeat itself.
I think Arkansas with Sarah Huckabee Sanders as governor has at least attempted to roll back child labor laws. If the children are working, they won't need as many dolls. 🙄
Girls won’t need dolls because they’ll have real babies. Trump initially said children, but since then it’s all been about girls not having dolls. Considering their ongoing crusade against reproductive care, he isn’t forecasting paid employment but is hinting that girls will be tied to an impoverished male while trying to care for multiple kids. A return to the lifestyle most of our ancestors sought to escape.
Maybe that is indeed the plan. Perhaps in their minds child labor and even slavery are ideas from America’s past that need revisiting. That would at least partially explain their mania for rewriting the history to make it not so bad.
The wait and see aspect of this madness is madness in and of itself. The markets are blithely drifting up and around as if there is an imminent tariff resolution. The Democrats in congress are supporting the regime's bitcoin grift with these absurd "Stable" and "Genius" acts. And so many are not paying attention because there's still stuff on the shelves an the prices haven't started going up in earnest yet and Project 2025 was just a joke and it's funny that we're threatening Canada and Greenland and Panama and Mexico, and blah, blah, blah. We need to be in the streets like the students in Serbia and the protesters in Hungary and Turkey. It seems as though only economic collapse is going to make that happen.
BobK - my fear is that even if we do hit the streets in tens of millions, it may do no good. The malefactors will use the Constitution they so despise and call us insurrectionists.
Me too, Michael. But it's worth noting that the protests have been remarkably peaceful and trouble-free. If the regime cracks down it will only show their illegitimacy and desperation. For me it would mark the beginning of their end. Besides, it's apparently the only way to stop this madness as the elections that are coming need such protests to raise awareness and highlight the stakes.
I would agree, KOB, with the exception that in all these other examples of authoritarian takeovers the regimes took years to effect their changes. The menace that now runs our government is trying to do it in months. If we don’t see the writing on the wall, in the economy, and in the glaring court rulings now, we and the world are headed to a more catastrophic wake-up call. We shouldn’t be finding false solace in the thinking that this has taken other countries years, we need to recognize what’s happening here and get in the streets. That’s the only way to stop it.
One of the only ways to stop it is to in both the House and Senate in just 18 months! We all must do our part in these months by registering younger voters ONLY in “TRULY COMPETITIVE” CDs and states: please go to www.TurnUp.US run by brilliant Harvard students…really effective and tax deductible too. Please start now with a monthly contribution?
Trump is nothing more than a collection of prejudices, most of which he’s harbored for decades. These include: Imports bad. Tariffs good. Africa bad. EU bad. Russia good. White good. Immigrants bad. Refugees really bad. Cities bad. Putin good. Autocrats good. Constitution bad. Judges bad. Professors bad. Science bad. Wealthy good. Ultra-wealthy ultra-good. Economists bad. TV good. TV stars extra good. Windmills bad. Coal good. Solar bad. Petroleum good. Opera bad. MMA good.
Prejudices like these form the walls of his castle of invincible ignorance. These walls are solid, and thick.
There was a Porky Pig Warner Brothers cartoon that I loved as a kid. ( Certain channels played these incessantly. Who knew that they were classics?). If I recall it correctly, Porky Pig had about 50 cents and wanted to save money to buy something. The narrator then shows Porky more and more expensive consumer items with the tag line—you didn’t buy this and this today. You saved x and x dollars. At the end, he had ‘saved’ a million dollars, which he then demanded of the narrator. But at the end of the cartoon he still had only 50 cents! He was not a happy pig.
We should care about the Bengalis because, like us, they are people with hopes and dreams. The women who sew in their clothing factories are mothers and wives, grandmothers, sisters, daughters. They have kids to feed and dinner to cook, homes to keep clean and furbished; networks of relations to tend to--including us, their erstwhile customers. For we ARE all connected, and when one people suffers, the ripple effects slowly expand until we can almost, almost, feel them lapping against our skin, like far-away weather, moving in. Trump will never care. What makes him even more monstrous than his invincible ignorance is his heartless disregard toward everyone other than himself and his offspring. Everyone else is dispensable and I think it's now obvious that that includes we the people of these no-longer-if-ever-United States. How are we different than Bengalis? Not by much.
Is there any chance at all that tRump reads your insightful column? I don’t think so. As JC Harris once said, “it’s hard to lead a one-eyed mule on the blind side.
I sincerely hope that he and his are blissfully unaware that it exists. About 25 years ago, I saw a newsgroup destroyed by an automailer sending a post of garbage every few seconds. Substack will disappear in a few days if it becomes a target of Musk's "clever kids."
I spent my career setting up manufacturing lines in Europe, Asia and Mexico. As the standard of living in Japan rose, the low margin products moved to Taiwan until the standard of living there rose. Then they moved to Malaysia and then on to Vietnam. In Mexico, the manufacturing started in the major border communities the moved further down. The last lines I set up were in Caborca, primarily a ranching area. The assembly facility was the largest employer by far.
All the factories I worked in were clean, well lit and had good ventilation. The workers were happy and seemed to have discretionary income.
I loved my job and loved the people I worked with and I believe it was reciprocal.
Yeah, I'd be very surprised if robot sewing is not already a real thing. I've seen laser pattern cutting operations and I don't think one could scale that operation any higher but there certainly seems to be room to automate and scale sewing. My guess is that the only reason it is not the industry standard is because cheap labor makes it difficult to justify the capital commitment needed.
It seems to me that if Bangladeshi government had some foresight that they would facilitate the capital commitment needed to make the country the world clothing leader instead of losing that manufacturing opportunity when cheaper labor somewhere else beckons.
I think I’m going to start collecting descriptions of Trump. “Invincibly ignorant” is probably one of the best I’ve seen.
I too was struck be the elegance of that simple description. Thanks to Paul!
I'm struck by how many of us were struck. I thought I was the only one . Now I feel I'm in a family.
I had just started to write the same thing and then looked up along the comment thread. The editorial cartoon practically creates itself: a torpedo or a tank labeled “Invincible ignorance.”
Cheeto Jesus...
Praise Cheesus!
I like to share a proposal how we can measure the opposition to Trumps crazy policies. It just requires to shift our purchases from Trump Tuesday to Freedom Friday. The daily sales statistics would measure how many people CARE enough to show their opposition by shifting purchses. Imagine a Trump Tuesday when the money flow slows down noticeably.
https://www.djtpresidentiallibrary.com/shop-freedom-fridays
This is an easy, safe, and cheap way to show what we think.
It's a good one! I struggle to find the proper phrasing because he's off the charts stupid. Like unfathomably dumb. We need new words because he's taken it to another level!
I like “unfathomably dumb” too!
Yes, it's obvious Trump is obliviously innate!
Would that he were inert.
I like "off the charts stupid". So many descriptions, though, are appropriate for that bottom-feeding moron.
fukkin’ moron always works for me! he defines the word.
Mr. Tillerson was correct.
simple is best for trump and his band of maggots.
I think unfathomably dumb is the equal of invincibly ignorant!
I'm comfortably numb.
He's comfortably dumb.
Here’s one description - breathlessly inane. (From a PA court opinion re teaching creationism. The phrase the judge used was “breathless inanity”)
"Invincibly ignorant" improved my day too, Joan : )
I don’t believe Trump is ignorant. I think he deliberately misleads the less informed segments of the American public—especially those in the Rust Belt who voted for him and ended up among the losers of globalization.
If he were truly ignorant, would he, his wife, and his son all be launching their own cryptocurrencies to expand their personal wealth?
Trump suggests that ordinary families don’t need to buy too many dolls for their children—yet he and his family, despite having billions in assets, use his former presidential status to issue cryptocurrency and exploit political influence for personal profit.
How many billions are enough for this greedy family?
Well they are worst criminals in the history of this country
They are at the bernie madoff level of financial crimes. Madoff i consider the gold standard. And we know the crime family loves gold painted everything!
He listens to other rich people. They told him it's a great untraceable way of making money and is what's making other rich people around the world wealthy. It's the new cool thing to do. Trump also has the power to make it legal and get rid of the pesky rules.
Is the gold still inside Ft Knox?
Not all, some of it is now all over the Oval Office decor.
Yeah, it's there, but it's all been made radioactive so it's not actually worth anything. 😆
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfinger_(film)
Juan, There is a difference between “ignorance” and “criminal.” Establishing a cryptocurrency company while you are President of the United States is the most egregious act of fraud in our history. Foreign governments and Corporations are buying shares in his company. If he happens to favor these individuals, who can prove it. Yes, the Trump Family are Master Criminals.
Short fingered vulgarian remains one of my favorites.
The OA, orange asshole.
Ha! You too? I’ve been collecting them and creating “text replacements” so I don’t forget them. This is a really great one. Thank you Dr. Krugman!
That's great. Please post your collection. I could use a resource like this!
OK—here they are. Quite a few of them thanks to posts I read ink Slate Magazine:
Bellowing bully; catastrofuck; craven lickspittles; Donnie and the grifters; Manchurian Cantaloupe; Fanta Menace; Trumpty Dumpty; Tweedledrumpf
And for Vance: hillbilly hypocrite; Shillbilly
Well here are a few more:
Orange Obscenity, Mango Menace, Cretinous Combover, Mendacious Malignancy, I could go on
Orange Caligula is one of my favorites. Or just Dump.
the orange felon covers it
Manchurian Cantaloupe—good one.
I like one that's just popped up "Donnie Two Dolls."
You're going to need a lot of storage. That's going to be a long list.
It’s a phrase my dad loved to use, and as
a result I like to use, so it is a pleasure to see it used in print. 🙂
My dad, who was British, would have loved that phrase too. The one he always used, though, was 'blithering idiot' spoken with contempt and disgust in his voice.
Totally agree with you!
“Invincibly ignorant” is priceless!
King Midas?
It's the best counter to his "negative criminals " bullshit.
Ummm... wouldn't a negative criminal be a good citizen? The term is essentially a double negative... 🤔
Personally, I like Charlie Angus's description; "a malignant, narcissistic slug"
Try virulent malignancy ?
“Invincibly ignorant “ was a term created by the Church to answer the question about people who lived and died before Christ
Someone like Socrates
Rather than be damned to Hell , they were deemed worthy of Purgatory (if I remember correctly) as their ignorance of God’s grace was through no fault of their own
This phrase also struck me as a perfect description for Trump.
Invincibly Ignorant is a keeper, most certainly! Surely George Conway will add that to his list, too.
Paul, it’s ok to give the musical coda a hiatus. I heard you mention that it is the hardest part of making a post. You will not make us mad if you drop it, be free! Thank you for sharing your insight with us!
Be free...but also, independent of the codas, do keep telling us when you find new groups you like. I've gotten to hear music I never would have encountered that way.
I love Paul’s musical codas cuz I love his taste in music…It was the final hook on why this retired woman on a fixed income sprung for a subscription.
Dr. K's taste in literature is also very good. I started reading Charles Stross because of Dr. K, and feel gratitude with each new book.
The musical codas make my day. I always try to listen when I can. Dr. Krugman's tastes are eclectic and remarkable. It's another example of something that he was not able to do while toiling for the Gray Lady. It enriches us.
Or, ask us for suggestions. We could supply Paul with hundreds of musical coda ideas. Outsourcing!
And this was an easy one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Liaf8hUmU
Apt choice! I went with Mad World, thinking of India and Pakistan
The sewing machine song?
https://youtu.be/999ph8iRT4o
Thanks and absolutely perfect for today's column!
https://youtu.be/C_TfBbR6L0M?si=Qb2bYeeXgxqrtQ-D
So, I once skimmed a book on learning and, though I've forgotten most of it, the part I remember is that you will impact more of your audience when your message stimulates multiple neurological centers. You gotta keep the coda.
I like the codas!!!
Hey, I like the musical coda. It’s the icing on the cake.
Personally, I enjoy learning about Paul's taste in music and discovered some musicians i hadn't been aware of. But since that isn't why I read his articles, a _short_ hiatus might be ok 😉
I look forward to the musical coda. Paul has such interesting choices. My favorite so far has been Sara Jarosz singing a Prince song
I love the codas too!
Hey Matt-I agree with your words and they were very kind. Are you also on Substack? I am
Are you insane? The musical coda is the best part of the post. Complete disagreement with you. You must not listen to it, so you should refrain from commenting. 😇
Mark. Does your name ever cause issues for you?
I’m okay without the musical lagniappe. I pay for the musical coda the same way I pay Amazon for Amazon Music, Citi for “concierge services,” or Verizon for their free cloud storage—which is to say, not. 😉
Jet lag = No Coda!
I can’t believe that Trump still thinks that every time a Canadian sells a widget to an American for $10, Canada has ripped off the United States to the tune of $10 (unless, coincidentally, another Canadian buys another widget from another American for $10—then we’re even and we don’t have to annex Canada in the name of national security).
You shouldn't use the word 'trump' and 'think' in the same sentence. The words are incompatible. ; )
I was speaking loosely
Understood!
I disagree. Trump does think. He's just really bad at it.
I can. tRump has never been a bright guy... and now that he is becoming demented it is even worse. One of my medical aphorisms is that 'dementia makes preexisting personality disorders worse'. Never have I encountered anyone who is so generously endowed with major personality disorders... He will stubbornly resist retreating until it is too late to stop the damage which will ripple out through the Economy and Nation. We are likely headed into one of those inflection points - a bottom - which makes an intervention possible, but the damage/carnage will be awful.
And it is truly shameful that virtually NONE of the Rs in Congress or state leadership have condemned this blatant destruction of both our and Asian economies? They know better but the cowards support this idiot as he brings them down with the rest of us? Any comment on that is welcome?
But, really they want what he is giving them. They are reactionaries and they want the kind of regressive and authoritarian society he does. They are just as propagandized as he and the base are. Faux Snooze is the metronome of rethuglican RealSpeak and RealThink. They tell the faithful what to think and when to think it.
Generally I agree particularly in deep red and relatively rural states, but there are some Congressional Rs in CA, NY, PA, IL and others who know damn well that his tarriffs disaster is really bad for everyone. But they keep their mouths shut even though they are in safe CDs which I hope will put even 5 to 10 of them in trouble next yr? Can happen!
We need to be looking for points where we can goad the Orange Oaf into making supernally stupid decisions, then we can win this thing!
Yeah, especially with Sleazeball Miller whispering in his ear.
Several people have praised “invincible ignorance,” but “generously endowed with major personality disorders” is even better.
Trump came down the escalator on my dad’s birthday. As Mary Trump so eloquently laid out in her first book, her uncle “is generously endowed with major personality disorders.” My dad died in 2021 of Alzheimer’s. As I watch, read, or god help me, listen to Trump, I am astounded by the similarities of their descent into darkness and the loss of their minds. My dad wasn’t perfect, but at least he didn’t have a bucket of genetic personality disorders to go with the dementia. Trump is just off the rails and I’m so tired of it being ignored.
I'm reminded of an old Bill Cosby joke about cocaine use. Q. "Why would somebody do cocaine?" A. "It enhances your personality." Q. "But what if you're an (anal sphincter)?"
Agree completely and very well said. Having LBD, I have pity for others with such afflictions, even Trump, though the damage he's causing may take decades to fix.
That explains Drumpf but not those imbeciles in Congress who are enabling the dismantling of democracy and ushering in ..what? Even when death rids us of him, there are other morons waiting in the wings, eg JD Vance Marjorie Tsylor Green, etc and it's the
Ignorant electorate thar is leading them by the nose
They too are propagandized and want the world tRump has had put into his head by Faux and Friends and his handlers. Besides, they have a good gig going - why rock the boat.
As a Canadian snowbird, I spend over 20,000USD per year in Florida. Yet, this doesn't count in the trade deficit.
Perhaps if enough people like yourself decide to spend your winter vacations in another country it will dawn on the economic geniuses of MAGA that their math isn't woke enough.
Easier said than done, I bougth my house in 2013, when Obama was president! Getting it ready to be sold means more investments. And like my real estate agent replied when I said I wanted to sell: "To whom?"
ugh. My condolences.
Australia and New Zealand are gorgeous and I'm sure they would welcome your money.
I would love to and we are planning for it... once the Florida house is sold. Meanwhile, Google Map is still looking for the "no toll" road 🤦 to Sydney!
That is a long ass flight.
It does count in the trade deficit, but is hard to measure so it is estimated. Canada surveys a sample of Canadians returning from the United States to estimate how much a typical Canadian tourist spends per day in the United States. The United States tracks the number of Canadian tourists currently in the United States. Multiplying the two numbers gives an estimate of how much Canadian tourists are spending in the United States.
I saw a clip of Lutnick yesterday and he sounded just as deluded as Trump.
Lutnick is a ridiculous zillionaire who apparently is the leader of the cabinet in kissing trump’s ass every hour!
Trump is, if nothing else, a small-minded person. I believe he's never grown out of the adolescent phase of life.
He has never outgrown being a terrible toddler. He lives his life by the 3 toddler words: me, mine, No!
Sorry, but in trumpian math that $10 purchase means the American has been ripped off for about $23, applying the trumpian inconstant to the calculation. In trumpian math the answer is always "trump said it!"
And we must annex Canada and Greenland because trump will then be the bigliest big boy to ever embiggen America. And America is not secure until the void in trump that weeps for approval is filled.
But certainly not in the way he predicted.
I'm not sure he made a prediction. His followers ASSUMED that he meant a better economy than the one Biden created, but .........
The last time the world saw an economy like the one Trump is heading for, it took the Marshall Plan to fix the damage.
Oh we've had it before, it's was called the Great Depression.
If we were to take all of the qualities that characterize an exceptional leader (integrity, intelligence, trustworthiness, humility, visionary, strength of character, etc.) and look for its polar opposite, we’d end up with trump and his minions. Such a sad gathering of greedy, incompetent, self-absorbed buffoons. How did we get here and how can we get out?
The answer to the first question is easy, the GOP has been moving us in this direction since the McCarthy era. TrumPox is the culmination of this.
The answer to the second question is for us to continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
//
Don't let up folks, it's working:
Boycott TE卐LA! Boycott Swastikar!
Short TE卐LA! Short Swastikar!
Boycott 卐tarlink!
Boycott 卐/Twitter!
Curb your DOGE!
Remember Trump was bred by papa Trump, who was so vile Woody Guthrie wrote words to a song about his vile behavior. Then DT(s) was nurtured by Roy Cohn who was a mover for McCarthy.
Oh yeah, absolutely. The psychopathy is inherited. Roy Cohn was front and center right along with McCarthy and Tricky Dickie.
Here he is ...
https://youtu.be/VwcKwGS7OSQ?si=L31SV51ue6whTCgy
I hope you're right. What I'm afraid of is that we haven't seen the culmination yet.
In a very real sense we have. It's Trumpist/Fascist/Techno-Feudalism. We haven't seen the end of it yet, unfortunately. However, it's contingent on us to do everything possible to resist and fight this scourge, by any and all means possible and necessary. Every single one of us.
We got here because many of us bought the snake oil. We'll get out when enough of us stop drinking it.
"It's almost impossible to believe he exists. It's as if we took everything that was bad about America, scraped it up off the floor, wrapped it all up in an old hot dog skin, and then taught it to make noises with its face." - Mark Hammill (Luke Skywalker in Starwars)😁
Today’s coda should be the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKYQNtF11eg
A great song and great, great lyric.
But I'll go with Sir George on this.
Nice
Spot on the days of cheap manufacturing in this country is over ,nobody wants to see 10 year old children slumped over sewing machines or in coal mines following their father’s footsteps.The old Tennessee Ernie Fords song ,What do I get another day older and deeper in dept .I’m sure the billionaire class would love it but teenagers won’t,they would rather be influencers on their phones making millions!
All of my grandparents (Finnish immigrants) and dad worked in the copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula. My dad used to sing that song to us kids when he put us to bed. Fortunately, after WWII service because of the GI bill, my dad was able to get a college degree and get out of the copper mine.
Not to worry - tRump's Sec of Education is going to take care of those pesky colleges and universities. Your kids will work where the Oligarchs tell them to.
Yes. My paternal grandparents would also have been under suspicion given the socialist leanings of some of their relatives. The FBI did come looking for one of my great uncles. They didn't find him.
The finns in America were great socialists in their time and some of their labor halls are still standing though now repurposed. The FBI hounded the finn labor organizers back in those days. It is good that you remind us of our history and sadly history may repeat itself.
https://youtu.be/BSvORvIjZiU
I think Arkansas with Sarah Huckabee Sanders as governor has at least attempted to roll back child labor laws. If the children are working, they won't need as many dolls. 🙄
Girls won’t need dolls because they’ll have real babies. Trump initially said children, but since then it’s all been about girls not having dolls. Considering their ongoing crusade against reproductive care, he isn’t forecasting paid employment but is hinting that girls will be tied to an impoverished male while trying to care for multiple kids. A return to the lifestyle most of our ancestors sought to escape.
My first wife's grandfather couldn't read. He spent his childhood working in the Georgia cotton mills.
The good old days—according to Trump.
She is heinous.
Maybe that is indeed the plan. Perhaps in their minds child labor and even slavery are ideas from America’s past that need revisiting. That would at least partially explain their mania for rewriting the history to make it not so bad.
You broke the code.
Not sure about that. Ending slavery was the ‘woke’ of its day and we are very clear about what some people think about woke.
The wait and see aspect of this madness is madness in and of itself. The markets are blithely drifting up and around as if there is an imminent tariff resolution. The Democrats in congress are supporting the regime's bitcoin grift with these absurd "Stable" and "Genius" acts. And so many are not paying attention because there's still stuff on the shelves an the prices haven't started going up in earnest yet and Project 2025 was just a joke and it's funny that we're threatening Canada and Greenland and Panama and Mexico, and blah, blah, blah. We need to be in the streets like the students in Serbia and the protesters in Hungary and Turkey. It seems as though only economic collapse is going to make that happen.
BobK - my fear is that even if we do hit the streets in tens of millions, it may do no good. The malefactors will use the Constitution they so despise and call us insurrectionists.
Me too, Michael. But it's worth noting that the protests have been remarkably peaceful and trouble-free. If the regime cracks down it will only show their illegitimacy and desperation. For me it would mark the beginning of their end. Besides, it's apparently the only way to stop this madness as the elections that are coming need such protests to raise awareness and highlight the stakes.
I would agree, KOB, with the exception that in all these other examples of authoritarian takeovers the regimes took years to effect their changes. The menace that now runs our government is trying to do it in months. If we don’t see the writing on the wall, in the economy, and in the glaring court rulings now, we and the world are headed to a more catastrophic wake-up call. We shouldn’t be finding false solace in the thinking that this has taken other countries years, we need to recognize what’s happening here and get in the streets. That’s the only way to stop it.
One of the only ways to stop it is to in both the House and Senate in just 18 months! We all must do our part in these months by registering younger voters ONLY in “TRULY COMPETITIVE” CDs and states: please go to www.TurnUp.US run by brilliant Harvard students…really effective and tax deductible too. Please start now with a monthly contribution?
Trump is nothing more than a collection of prejudices, most of which he’s harbored for decades. These include: Imports bad. Tariffs good. Africa bad. EU bad. Russia good. White good. Immigrants bad. Refugees really bad. Cities bad. Putin good. Autocrats good. Constitution bad. Judges bad. Professors bad. Science bad. Wealthy good. Ultra-wealthy ultra-good. Economists bad. TV good. TV stars extra good. Windmills bad. Coal good. Solar bad. Petroleum good. Opera bad. MMA good.
Prejudices like these form the walls of his castle of invincible ignorance. These walls are solid, and thick.
Double standards are twice as good?
AND Trump good, Trump good, Trump good, Trump a genius!
Only three “Trump good”? Laura Loomer is going to have you deported.
I "self-deported" in 1983 (I checked, before she was born) :)
I had checked the "other" b Boebert, but I see Loomer is even younger
I don't subscribe to Dr. Krugman's substack for the musical codas, but have appreciated them occasionally.
Rather, I appreciate his expository primers on economics, and his acerbic humor. Keep going!
But music, it lifts the soul in times like these.
Cue-in the Hallelujah Chorus.
Either morale improves or there is a coup.
A counter coup. I'm on board for that.
There was a Porky Pig Warner Brothers cartoon that I loved as a kid. ( Certain channels played these incessantly. Who knew that they were classics?). If I recall it correctly, Porky Pig had about 50 cents and wanted to save money to buy something. The narrator then shows Porky more and more expensive consumer items with the tag line—you didn’t buy this and this today. You saved x and x dollars. At the end, he had ‘saved’ a million dollars, which he then demanded of the narrator. But at the end of the cartoon he still had only 50 cents! He was not a happy pig.
I always enjoy your posts! Way smarter than me and I even sort of understand them. Thanks. And welcome home!
WHOOPS not winning
India just agreed a massive trade deal – but it’s not with the US
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/india-just-agreed-a-massive-trade-deal-but-it-s-not-with-the-us/ar-AA1Eh6mm?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=8852becefd0b4991a2bd1b441525f5cc&ei=15
We should care about the Bengalis because, like us, they are people with hopes and dreams. The women who sew in their clothing factories are mothers and wives, grandmothers, sisters, daughters. They have kids to feed and dinner to cook, homes to keep clean and furbished; networks of relations to tend to--including us, their erstwhile customers. For we ARE all connected, and when one people suffers, the ripple effects slowly expand until we can almost, almost, feel them lapping against our skin, like far-away weather, moving in. Trump will never care. What makes him even more monstrous than his invincible ignorance is his heartless disregard toward everyone other than himself and his offspring. Everyone else is dispensable and I think it's now obvious that that includes we the people of these no-longer-if-ever-United States. How are we different than Bengalis? Not by much.
Is there any chance at all that tRump reads your insightful column? I don’t think so. As JC Harris once said, “it’s hard to lead a one-eyed mule on the blind side.
Is there any chance at all that Trumpkopf reads at all? Anything other than "Mein Kampf" that is.
I sincerely hope that he and his are blissfully unaware that it exists. About 25 years ago, I saw a newsgroup destroyed by an automailer sending a post of garbage every few seconds. Substack will disappear in a few days if it becomes a target of Musk's "clever kids."
I spent my career setting up manufacturing lines in Europe, Asia and Mexico. As the standard of living in Japan rose, the low margin products moved to Taiwan until the standard of living there rose. Then they moved to Malaysia and then on to Vietnam. In Mexico, the manufacturing started in the major border communities the moved further down. The last lines I set up were in Caborca, primarily a ranching area. The assembly facility was the largest employer by far.
All the factories I worked in were clean, well lit and had good ventilation. The workers were happy and seemed to have discretionary income.
I loved my job and loved the people I worked with and I believe it was reciprocal.
Yeah, I'd be very surprised if robot sewing is not already a real thing. I've seen laser pattern cutting operations and I don't think one could scale that operation any higher but there certainly seems to be room to automate and scale sewing. My guess is that the only reason it is not the industry standard is because cheap labor makes it difficult to justify the capital commitment needed.
It seems to me that if Bangladeshi government had some foresight that they would facilitate the capital commitment needed to make the country the world clothing leader instead of losing that manufacturing opportunity when cheaper labor somewhere else beckons.