I'm in my 80's. I've seen lots of corruption over the years! This beats them all. I cannot do much but am determined to attend whichever protests that I am able to.
Im 81 and no longer strong enough to stand up and walk for hours in these rallies. As a result I am extending myself financially a little beyond where I can be comfortable just to give to the right causes and keep the motion going.
In addition, I am going to websites of elected Senators and Reps and writing to them in order to share links to articles and data (including U.S. Gov't links) to remind them that we DO see through the gaslighting, lies, and deception.
This is a very interesting piece laying out a very intriguing hypothesis of tactics used or at least in the toolkit of allies, including Canada and Japan. Certainly raises awareness that the current regime is ill-equipped and unable to win a trade war. US needs to act fast to remove tariffs and halt trade war or we will be harmed more and long into the future.
There is CNBC reporting that Japan (and China) were selling US Treasuries, but this isn't necessarily proof that discussions during earlier EU, Canada, and Japan meetings and other bilateral conversations were the only or primary motivation for the sales. In addition, there is reporting in Canada by CBC which published the following: "Following the chaos in the bond market, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and his Japanese counterpart, Katsunobu Kato, shared concerns about the U.S.'s slate of tariffs in a phone conference, according to the ministry. Canada is the current chair of the G7. The ministry says Canada is working with Japan and the European Union to maintain global stability in financial markets and the financial system."
Would be interesting if experts such as Professor Krugman (someone who travels in those circles) are able to confirm or refute specifics in the piece.
I have some issues with Dean Blundell's piece; for example, the amount of US treasury held by Canada (per treasury link above) was actually higher at the end of Dec 2024 (378.8B) than end of Jan 2025 (350.8B). In fact, the 350.8B is less than the month end holdings of most of the previous year.
Likewise, Mr. Carney only became PM in Canada in mid March 2025 so it's unclear how much influence he had in all this. (It's certainly possible that he had given some advice to his predecessor.)
Does anyone know of any other sources corroborating some of the other statements in Blundell's piece?
Dennis, thank you for these points and further discussion. I was able to find some anecdotal evidence that does keep open the possibility possibility that discussions among allies -- Canada, EU countries, UK, Japan -- may have influenced decisions made about US Treasuries by allies such as Japan's sales. Of course, those discussions among allies would not have included China which also is reported to have sold US Treasuries. Maybe the important observation here is that allies with large holdings of US Treasuries can individually, jointly, or even individually but concurrently exert significant impact on the US economy and financial position. Also, I subsequently found a Snopes.com article which cites the timeline mismatch that you mention but more broadly was neither able to confirm nor refute the hypothesis.
However, in my mind the important 'take away' is more about the fact that the US does not hold 'all the cards', and in fact, other countries acting together can put significant hurt on us. By mistreating allies, we raise this risk of them acting jointly against us.
This statement from a CNBC article is a more general statement about what is at risk and how allies and others are thinking: "'The market is re-assessing the structural attractiveness of the dollar as the world’s global reserve currency and is undergoing a process of rapid de-dollarization,' Deutsche Bank strategist George Saravelos said in a note to clients Friday."
Blundell’s description of Carney’s moves made sense to me. Carney may have more effect if he is not widely given credit. Stealth plus economic expertise?
It's nice that you send links, but I doubt they bother to look at them, since any link could contain malicious code, from their point of view. I suggest mentioning an article and where it's published and why you think it's important. Infrequently, your actual note might get to a member. One of mine did.
Thank you, Barbara. This is a fair point. As with the earlier post, I usually try to provide both the link and the source. I'll just provide the source in the future.
Can you get someone to help you go with a wheelchair? That may sound callous, but the last protest I went to there were people in wheelchairs and I thought it was a powerful statement.
You also don't need to go for hours. The protests I've been to were very safe and had a good vibe. Money just isn't going to cut it now. I think bodies in the street count. I also think this is a fight best done by old people who aren't going to be tempted into stupidity. Let's face it, attacking grandma is a very, very bad look...especially to maga men.
I’d be happy to go in a wheelchair . In fact, I’m about to go to California to visit family and am renting a wheelchair there. The nearest protest is several miles away and it makes more sense for me to support the protest organizers.
One of the reasons I need a wheelchair is that I went to the original Women’s March when Trump was first elected. I walked 15 miles that day and sadly did permanent damage to my right foot. Still, I wouldn’t have missed that experience for anything!
Ms. Lane, you are my hero! I did some long protest marches against the Iraq War -- one in a pouring downpour in the streets of Los Angeles -- but nothing to compare to your ordeal.
I'm 77 and am attending every local protest I can and I bring signs. I use cardboard and wide markers to write big words so they can be seen. Bring back Mr. Garcia! Bring back our migrants! Send Elon and Eric to CECOT! Hands off my right to vote! Arrest the Felon for murdering Palestinians! 5 signs. Do what you can. Bring your wheelchair, cane, walker! Better yet bring 3 friends with signs!
I garden and learn to watercolor paint in the rest of my day that isn't spent taking care of my husband who is recovering from rectal cancer and knee surgery to repair quads that were severed from his kneecap.
Yes, at our Hands Off rally one of our speakers was in a wheelchair and spoke eloquently about disability rights and the impact of cutting Medicaid. Also talked about being the canaries in the coal mine.
But, the demonstrators often don't set the tone of the demonstration. Take a look at civil rights demonstrations and demonstrations on campuses in the Sixties.
Shannon. It’s fair your offer & provide your expertise and opinion on protests. But in consideration of improving the present situation —I believe it’s not beneficial to only provide statements or info based in your historical opinion that that protests won’t work. You need to also provide info and/or opinions on SOLUTIONS that may work.
Providing your knowledge on what will work combined with what you know hasn’t worked —will add credibility & positivity to your words
I don't claim to have any ideas. Do you? I'm still thinking. Just not wasting energy and time on futile events. Right now my approach is: stay home, grow food, hope to have enough to give away when the real crunch comes. Subscribe to my free gardening substack for more tips.
I have been to perhaps fifty of these protests in my lifetime. I organized a lot of them in my twenties. I am 70 now. In my own community, I photographed dozens of protests beginning in 2016 and donated my archive to the local university.
Street protests may make YOU feel better, but in the last 40 years in the US, they have changed almost nothing about public policy. I began to realize that protests are a party to make liberals feel better about themselves, to feel as if they're doing something, but since they're just for one day usually, they change nothing. The oligarchs ignore these events, because they can.
Even the protests that last for days, weeks and months accomplish little except to harden the power brokers' resolve and make them more hateful and vindictive. See my example below:
What changed my feeling about public protests was spending eleven years in the gun violence prevention movement in TN, beginning in 2012. In 2023 there was a horrible school shooting. There were lots of protests and direct action and lobbying legislatures on our part. Some of these events included kids who were survivors of school shootings. The TN legislature ended up doubling down on loosening gun laws, as if to make their point that nothing we did mattered at all. They like "owning the libs," which in this case was grieving mothers and children.
It doesn't matter how YOU feel during and after a protest. Or it matters only a little. What matters is: does anything change? It does not. Not any more.
I know this is hard to hear. But I really feel as if constant lobbying is the only thing that might be even minimally effective, and even that is not very effective, at least not in TN. The only thing that will change the current swing to the Right in America is for Republican voters to change. This may happen if the Trump people bungle things catastrophically. But it may only change things for one election cycle. Republicans seem unable to remember that their leaders have wrecked the economy over and over.
It does make you feel better and it's kind of fun. That's the main value. In my family, the younger generation does NOT take its cues from the old people! They think we're clueless.
Admittedly, protests against gun violence don't seem to have had much effect. However, being 70, you may remember the protests against the Vietnam war. Those certainly contributed to change. So do protests work? Apparently sometimes.
Agree. That's why I organized several protests in TN during the late 1970s. This was when TVA had the biggest nuclear plant build-out program in the US. They planned not only regular nuclear reactors but also breeder reactors which created plutonium for bombs.
This activism had little to no effect. TVA didn't build all of the nuclear plants that it planned because they turned out to be very expensive, and the electricity was nowhere near "too cheap to meter." They did build the Sequoyah Nuclear plant near Chattanooga where I lived at the time.
I think that since the Vietnam War protests and the civil rights movement, protests have NOT worked. Also, the govt figured out that the real cause of anti-war protests was the draft, and they switched to the all-volunteer army. Protest against foreign wars, even very stupid ones, evaporated. The few demonstrations that occurred in the early aughties were inconsequential. (I participated on one such protest in Houston.)
The biggest street protests since that era have been the BLM protests. You could argue that these protests resulted in some police depts using body cameras, but that is about the extent of it. Cops still shoot unarmed people at about the same rate as they did before 2020.
I think that our political system has changed so that street protests no longer make a difference. I can't explain exactly why. It may be that the combined novelty of TV and protests in the 1960s was key. TV and protests are no longer novel. IN some cases protests actually cause backlash and more authoritarianism. I think it could be argued that the BLM protests may have in the long run empowered the authoritarian Right. They certainly contributed to gun sales.
What about the pro-Palestinian "encampments"? Have they changed anything at all? Gaza is still a mess. The Trump people can now claim that universities are somehow "anti-semitic" for allowing these protests to continue.
There was also the ill-fated Occupy "movement." Nada.
The fact that street protests no longer "work" may be the result of work on the part of what we used to call The Establishment. They were alarmed and caught off guard by the actions of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. But since then, they have been able to safely ignore these events. They may send out police on occasion, as during the BLM protests, which lasted longer than, say, the Women's March.
ONe day events are just parties for liberals. More sustained efforts like the BLM protests are more serious challenges to the status quo, but as we saw, they were rather brutally suppressed with arrests and some beatings. Most liberals don't have the stomach to stay in the streets for days, as Ukrainians did during the Maidan events, or as Chinese people did at Tiananmen Square. Perhaps this is the problem. A one-day march, while fun, is no threat to anybody.
Yes, but those were major demonstrations with 100K-500K people. When I see the numbers from the April 5 demonstrations, they don't even qualify as demonstrations compared to what I did sixty years ago (15,000 in one demonstration was the first one in 1965). And how many went to MLK's demonstration on the Mall? 500 people is not much by my standards.
Did you go to the recent protests in the US? It seems that you live in Mexico now, in San Miguel. I've heard that's a nice place with a lot of artsy rich Americans. I am still here in rural TN, in a red county in a red state. Not leaving. Not going abroad. Not going anywhere.
Shannon, I've lived in TN, understand (I think) your frustration, and applaud whatever efforts you feel you can make in whatever way you can make them. Surviving at all is success.
Lorraine, I'm sorry you are ill. I understand your feelings were hurt by an assumption that you were a wealthy elitist of sorts, when the truth may be very different and you have also worked very hard to help others (thank you).
We all fear the fall of our democracy, which I fear is ever more likely the more fractured -- and fractious -- we become.
In the words of the prophet, "Can't we all just get along?".
If you doubt what I wrote above, listen to Ezra Klein's podcast about DOGE recently. Apparently DOGE was waiting for people to get mad about them zeroing out USAID. People DID get mad. Did DOGE reinstate USAID? No.
I'm only 75, but I remember the riots in Berkeley when I was a teenager. I don't want to find myself in the same situation now and endangering other people by being less mobile. I've spent my entire life supporting causes when I could, and now other people will have to step up.
You should try to have a chat with the organizers the indivisible folks. You might find them extremely interested finding ways to make the rallies accessible to yourself so that you can add yourself to the numbers.
If you are healthy enough to go, they might find a way to include you in the rallies and anyone else who’s elderly, but otherwise fit to spend a couple hours in the sunshine or shade
Many people I know are boycotting Amazon and have been doing so for the past 3 months. In the process, we are all seeking out the makers of the products we want to purchase and are ordering directly from them. This takes more work, but it's worth it. It's also a good discipline for those of us who are trying to save money in the midst of this economic uncertainty. A wise thing to do.
It’s most important to boycott gasoline and other fossil fuels.
Many people have boycotted Nestle since the CEO said humans don’t deserve clean water. After Nestle took a large position in L’Oreal (soon after Lillian Betancourt died) that corporation was added to the boycott.
"It’s most important to boycott gasoline and other fossil fuels."
Difficult for those of us a) not wealthy enough to buy a new EV, b) not lucky enough to be near a charging network (if we rent) , and c) somewhere public transport is a shambles. My own, nominally 'liberal' city is cutting bus lines like the one by my house; when they do I'll have to walk a half mile to the nearest east-west line. Potentially in 115° summer heat. We recently broke the all-time record for 'earliest day for a 100° high temp'. We've been keeping records here since the 1880's...
B WAS being helped by the Inflation Reduction Act, but of course that's been cancelled by Malicious Mussolini because we have to reverse anything Biden signed.
It's a "matter of degree" and no one should feel compelled to make an immediate investment needed to curb use of fossil fuels. But the next vehicle purchased by anyone with a conscience and a brain should use as little fossil fuel as possible - not stupidly big and heavy...hopefully at least a hybrid, if not a PHEV or EV. A very big difference could be made if masses of people were willing to make incremental changes.
The ironic thing is, until the Orange Moron blew up the US economy..we were looking at getting one. As it is, we're making strategic purchases of some things now, and putting off larger ones for now. I'm not alone in this either.
I hear you. I’m in Jacksonville FL where TPTB associate public transit with federally court-ordered bussing to achieve school desegregation in the 1970s. The public transit is intentionally messed up and few white people will go near it. Uber and similar are somewhat more successful. Pedestrians and bicyclists risk fatal injury from motorists.
I didn’t know Nestle had taken over L’Oreal. That’s off my shopping list too, now. It may not be much but our purchasing power is the most direct we have. I haven’t used Amazon for years. Didn’t like the way they treat their workers. Also, some years ago they persuaded Swansea Council in Wales to build a road to a new distribution centre they were developing, saying it would provide 1000’s of jobs. As soon as it opened, Amazon explored large scale automation. Neither my husband nor I have bought anything from it since. Can be a bit inconvenient, but worth it. Never been on Facebook - too boring
Interesting timing this next protest date of April 19 when one considers April 20 is the date Trump can invoke whatever powers under the Insurrection Act. Coincidence?
April 18th-19th is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the "shot heard 'round the world". Although there were actions taken preceding these dates, it's generally considered to be the start of the American Revolution, leading to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. NO KINGS!!!
Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act any time - since nobody seems to hold him to the actual presence of an emergency requiring it. On April 20, he gets a report from 'advisors' about the need for it, so he will have a little cover.
It's pretty clear from all the news, including the actual marching of 5 million people with not even a traffic ticket to show for it, than the opposition to him is not (yet) an insurrection. That won't change from April 19 to April 20...
The U.S. military (who would enforce the Insurrection Act's martial law imposition) has sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not to obey illegal orders from Mango Mussolini.
Since they're openly disappearing people because allegedly their words are danger to US National Security, actually meeting the legal definition of "insurrection" is not likely to deter him.
According to MSNBC, they are now deporting for thoughts and actions that haven’t even occurred but could happen in the future. Nothing says “Orwell was right” more than this!
If it *is* coincidence, I just lost a lot of respect for the organizations that planned these nationwide protests and set the dates. I really, really don't think those organizations are run by people who are that stupid and unaware of what's happening in Trump's administration, though. If they were that dumb and unobservant, they wouldn't be organizing repeated nationwide protests in the first place!
Also we need to use American Flags! More more more. We need to take over the image that WE are the patriots. More flags people. More flags. Have never had one in my life but I'm getting one!
At the Pensacola HANDS OFF event we had a couple of large service flags which added emphasis to the numerous handmade signs opposing cuts to the VA. This area has a large military presence and as some active duty personnel (BDUs, helmets, reflective vests) rode motorcycles to or from their stations I watched them turn their heads towards the flags -- they caught eyeballs. These warriors had the self discipline to not wave or give other signs of support while in uniform, but they recognized their family. More of this, please!
Exactly! I wore a sparkly red, white and blue cowboy hat at the last Hands off protest and until folks saw my sign, they thought I was Maga. Yes, flags and show our patriotism
I'm so glad you can do that. I am 78 and uncomfortable with crowds due to autoimmune disorders, so I am donating money and also writing here and elsewhere as much as possible. I write and edit voter information for my local Democratic Party as well as other pieces, including a recent commentary for an online newspaper. There is plenty for all of us to do with our time and talent.
This nation will not survive this level of corruption and incompetence for 4 years. The damage they've done in just three months is astonishing. Something has to be done.
This nation survived decades of slavery, a century keeping women from voting, a civil war, economic depressions in which a quarter of the country was out of work, political assassinations and riots.
We won’t look the same and the suffering will be real. And as long as people are willing to keep speaking up and organizing we will turn the tide. Might just take a while
If you look at the history of other mass movements like civil rights or labor rights, they developed over decades of organizing and building. Collective action can be powerful, but it requires persistence.
Agreed. The 19th Amendment, expanding to women the right to vote, took many years. Susan B. Anthony and many other leaders of the movement did not live to see its passage and be able to vote.
What I cannot fathom is why Trump just gets away with everything he does with zero consequences. If Biden or any Dem President did anything as stupid as this he or she would be gone. But with Trump he is given a pass (especially from the press) time and time again. It’s infuriating.
It's the right wing press - they are singing the praises of the brilliant Trump. They stuck with him through the whole tariff thing, despite a few Republicans peeling off. They will never cover protests, or will say it's a handful of paid or antifa left wing, darkly hinting about twrrorism or betrayal. They convinced millions of voters, if not directly by word of mouth, that an excellent economy was bad, that a border brought under control was an invasion, that solud management if the country was destroying it. It's the elephant in the room. And we have no counter, as the mainstream press panders and sane-washes.
The MAGA movement is still strong. The new line is that the good effects of the tariffs will take time. They also firmly believe that all these countries have high tariffs and are “ripping America off.”
He has tanked the economy on his own. His cabinet members go on an app to discuss classified info. He golfs rather than governs and those trips cost tax payers a fortune (and the $$$ goes to his golf resorts). and probably did insider trading. He lets the richest man in the world destroy the infrastructure- Yet, the press is quiet. I’ll say it again, Biden or any other Dem president could not get a pass on all of that like Trump does.
Biden did not (and so far as I know does not) have dementia. He was slow on the update at the gotcha pace of the debate, especially since he had a torrent of lies coming at him and he was trying to speak the truth.
His resting demeanor is definitely disengaged, but that does not mean his mind is.
A month after the debate, he gave an unrehearsed hour-long discussion of foreign policy after the NATO meeting, in the presence of the press, and was very coherent and knowledgeable. He muffed a couple of names but his strategic analysis was not wrong. No dementia there.
Trump could not talk foreign policy for 2 minutes, except about the imaginary horrors of immigration. He doesn't know the difference between 'asylum' as safety from persecution and 'asylum' as a place to keep people who are mentally ill. Recall his shark-and-electric-boat ramble.... that was an answer to a question about what he would do specifically about child poverty. THAT is dementia!
Your junk science isn’t real science. And look, an Aussie nut job who can’t read the room calls me a Trump supporter, lol. I love a doctor of chiropractic pitching “science” to me, of all things. Get lost.
" Much of the law fare against Trump was uncalled for. "
If you or I absconded with boxes and boxes of classified documents upon leaving office, then lied to the FBI and the National Archives about possessing them, you or I would be in prison serving a long long sentence.
It you or I instigated an armed assault on Congress with the aim of overturning the results of a presidential election, you or I would be in prison serving a life sentence. WE ALL SAW THAT WITH OUR OWN EYES.
We have the recording of the phone call where he begged the Georgia Governor to "just find me enough votes to win" and he directed people to subvert the Electoral process by getting cronies in state Republican parties to seat "alternate electors" which is fraud, plain and simple.
Biden's alleged 'dementia' has nothing to do with any of that.
No point in trying to refute the trolls spouting easily debunked talking points.
Being in a cult requires the members to believe certain myths that, even though they are easily debunked, they will never stop believing. Because once they admit reality once they know they will have to start accepting they have been massively conned, and their ego can't handle that.
So they stand behind their criminal orange Dear Leader come Hell or high water because the alternative is worse: Admitting liberals were right.
Call your senators, especially the Rs. Call them EVERY DAY and demand they remember the declaration of Independence when we refused to pay taxes without representation. The constitutional over reach is the biggest betrayal. I'm calling John Thune every day and I'm a dem from Massachusetts.
This was a coup, many years in the making. The forces of greed and fanaticism came together to put their useful idiot-king in the seat of power. SCOTUS and the rethugs in Congress seem content to let him crash the Nation.
Not really. They don't need to please the voters. They just have to delay the court cases. They are already driving out all the federal workers who don't agree.
Voter sentiment does matter. Think of the carve outs republicans in congress are getting for their districts. The House thinks to the next two years. If they won’t get re-elected, they’re gonna look for ways to push back against the agenda to placate their voters
They're terrified of getting primaried by even more MAGA opponents. So long as the X/YouTube/Facebook/TikTock/Fox News propaganda machine keeps pumping out the dopamine hits for ever-increasing hatred, MAGAt's will vote against their own interests just to hurt those 'other' people.
The more his popularity sinks the less terrified they will be. By 2027 if we don't have enough Democrats in the senate to convict there will be some Republicans willing to go Goldwater on this Nixon to preserve their own political hides.
The problem is that the felon is doing exactly what his supporters elected him to do. Deporting people they don’t like, especially students pursuing graduate degrees? Check. Disappearing people with tattoos and dark skin in hell holes? Check. Defunding Ivy League schools? Check. They haven’t ordered the National Guard to murder any peaceful protesters yet, but if they do, their supporters will cheer, just like most white Americans did after the Kent State murders. The felon is not the crux of the problem. The problem is 77 million US voters. Always has been. Some of the murderous throng that cheered Kent State have died, but they’ve been replaced by people just as bad who now have the advantage of a well-organized, well-financed crew of nefarious operatives running the Republican Party and using the votes of the murderous throng to hand them the reins of power unimpeded by legal constraints.
I think that tRump taking the oath of office and immediately pardoning the J6ers is him "giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists", and disqualifies him from being president.
If Andy is hand wringing, you’ve given up! How is that any better? At least with hand wringing, which I don’t agree with in this situation, there’s room for hope.
“Garden variety hand wringing”… I’m not sure that is helpful either. But I agree, many of us are feeling desperate- if not for our immediate selves- certainly for our sense of what our nation should be. I feel that we all have to exert our own power, as small as it may seem. We have to say “No”. “No more”. A General Strike is the one idea that seems to have the needed power.
I *am* up in the middle of the night. The U.S. is in the grip of a kind of mass hysteria, presenting in its paralytic form. One mad king on his mad throne is not the problem, its the sheer number of abetting sycophants that he has surrounded himself with and in congress.
You know, the legendary mass suicide of lemmings has been revealed to have been a hoax, but I think we have an actual example here in human affairs.
And there’s all those fucks who voted for him. I would be so relieved if the general elections were rigged last time and 70 some million US voters didn’t vote for the current occupant.
Problem is, anti-corruption law enforcement has been politicized, weaponized, and corrupted by Trump. So who’s watching the chicken coop? Oh, it’s the fox!
Im in Singapore right now. It’s a country that made it from 3rd to 1st world status in a little less than 100 years through competent and considerate leadership. It’s not an easy trick to pull off. Trump is making the opposite trick look really easy though!
All the chaos around tariffs has taken Signalgate out of the headlines. He wants chaos. My greatest fear is at some point soon, when his approval rating drops even more, he will say there is no way to guarantee free and fair elections and will cancel the 2026 mid-terms. Good bye Constitution.
SCOTUS and the MAGA Congress have already killed the Constitution. SCOTUS created a king last year with its immunity ruling and has knocked off Habeas corpus this year, while MAGA Congresspeople refuse to perform their duty as the check and balance. Even if there were free and fair elections in 2026, they would refuse any results that didn’t confirm MAGAs. See North Carolina’s state Supreme Court for their playbook.
Interesting thought. I see where a notary public might have liability if they don’t properly vet people they’re certifying. Do Congressional Reps have surety bonds? You have any source that tells us? I worked for many years in “the deep state” and never was bonded even though I had amounts with many zeros and commas under my control.
Other pages I have read say that the bond for the official taking the oath covers their subordinates, and that they don't really want people to know that they can make claims on the bonds, but they have to tell you the bond company if you ask.
Any stories about how DOGEd FEMA is handling the March storms that killed at least 39 and the April floods that have killed at least 19? Flooding the zone indeed.
How many congressional Republicans got tipped-off about the 90 day relaxation of tariffs beforehand so they could jump in to a depressed market and ride it up?
Not a single decision taken so far by the Trump administration has been thought through for possible adverse consequences. The "Reciprocal Tariff" board was probably the most conspicuous idiocy, but the list is much too long to start to enumerate here. Very worrying is that so far I read little comment on the risk to the US and the rest of the world of a long term sell down of US Treasuries ($800Bn in Chinese hands and rising), and almost no mention of the catastrophically low US private savings ratio.
Accidentally the EU couple of weeks ago loudly broadcasted a plan to issue extra 800B debt to cover it's crash defense program. So the money withdrawn from US bond market can be safely and orderly moved to EU. This means billions in profit for EU in lower borrowing costs and probably eases the mood of investors.
It is hard to monitor simultaneously what is going on in European countries, but at least in Poland the government is traveling the country with an open checkbook, visiting one manufacturing or research association after another. The checks are sandwiched with abolition of regulations at a large scale, meaning a fast decision-to-breaking-ground cycle. That deregulation is now an official EU program, again meaning that investment money can be soaked in quite fast.
I do not think above EU actions were intentionally timed for the US period of nausea, but the accidental fit came handy.
You may be right Karen, but to me "reptile brain" ("The Economist") looks all too kind - gnat brain would be closer to the truth. I am even getting concerned that the gant brain is disfunctional.
In this age of strongmen, politics are ruled by sentiments. Like current US economic policy, Brexit was founded on a hoax. There's no money to be found in leaving a very profitable, economic union. No matter what you put on the side of a bus. Just as with the UK, the notion that the USA are a special country, with its manifest Destiny's, needs to be left. 'God bless America', indeed, but what about the rest of the world?
Watch the film MARGIN CALL to see a dramatized version of what trading rooms looked like this past week. Jeremy Iron's character tells the conference room full of subordinates that the way to survive is to "Be first, be smarter or cheat.." so they proceed to crash the market first to have enough cash at the end of the day to remain in the game. Sound familiar?
This bunch of clowns don't know what game the US has been playing all these years.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries brought about a blockade on Qatar in 2017 thinking they would kneecap the country's economy. Qatar is now more independent and Qatari businesses have flourished as a result.
The USA benefitted enormously in the aftermath of WW2 by simply being the guarantor of any business between any two parties across the world. Now, my guess is, the EU would carry that mantle. This gives an opening for the UK as well (after their Brexit fiasco). China would have been the natural successor, but its aggressive posturing defeats itself in the larger scheme of things.
I live in Switzerland and when you say „it ain‘t America“ they respond that Trump‘s corruption is also America and that I am deluded by the sense of moral superiority of American elites.
Painful, but I cannot refute this statement until there is a sustained institutional change in American conduct.
Aah… With this administration, price-relevant decisions are conspicuously often made over the weekend when the stock markets are closed. This was already the case during Trump's first term in office. Go long quickly on Friday - and reap huge profits on Monday...?
"So just like that we’re turning into a nation where policies are ill-considered and constantly changing, and business success depends not on what you know but on who you know and whether you pay them off."
See, that's the thing - this isn't DT "suddenly" turning into a charlatan, he's been one all his life for God's sake. We've hired the Creature from the Black Lagoon as swamp-drainer-in-chief, and - Oh, my God!! - it turns out he's a criminal con man!!
I'm in my 80's. I've seen lots of corruption over the years! This beats them all. I cannot do much but am determined to attend whichever protests that I am able to.
Im 81 and no longer strong enough to stand up and walk for hours in these rallies. As a result I am extending myself financially a little beyond where I can be comfortable just to give to the right causes and keep the motion going.
That's what I'm doing as well.
In addition, I am going to websites of elected Senators and Reps and writing to them in order to share links to articles and data (including U.S. Gov't links) to remind them that we DO see through the gaslighting, lies, and deception.
This is a very interesting piece laying out a very intriguing hypothesis of tactics used or at least in the toolkit of allies, including Canada and Japan. Certainly raises awareness that the current regime is ill-equipped and unable to win a trade war. US needs to act fast to remove tariffs and halt trade war or we will be harmed more and long into the future.
see DEAN BLUNDELL Substack -- "Carney’s Checkmate: How Canada's Quiet Bond Play Forced Trump to Drop Tariffs" (you can search directly in Substack and for convenience I'm posting the link here: https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/carneys-checkmate-how-canadas-quiet).
To see the major foreign holders of US Treasury Securities, a search to the effect will bring up various Treasury.gov websites. This Treasury.gov one, titled, "Table 5: Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities", shows country-level data including Jan. 2025. (https://ticdata.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/slt_table5.html)
There is CNBC reporting that Japan (and China) were selling US Treasuries, but this isn't necessarily proof that discussions during earlier EU, Canada, and Japan meetings and other bilateral conversations were the only or primary motivation for the sales. In addition, there is reporting in Canada by CBC which published the following: "Following the chaos in the bond market, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and his Japanese counterpart, Katsunobu Kato, shared concerns about the U.S.'s slate of tariffs in a phone conference, according to the ministry. Canada is the current chair of the G7. The ministry says Canada is working with Japan and the European Union to maintain global stability in financial markets and the financial system."
Would be interesting if experts such as Professor Krugman (someone who travels in those circles) are able to confirm or refute specifics in the piece.
I’m definitely going to use these links and I’m a big fan of Paul Krugman.
I have some issues with Dean Blundell's piece; for example, the amount of US treasury held by Canada (per treasury link above) was actually higher at the end of Dec 2024 (378.8B) than end of Jan 2025 (350.8B). In fact, the 350.8B is less than the month end holdings of most of the previous year.
Likewise, Mr. Carney only became PM in Canada in mid March 2025 so it's unclear how much influence he had in all this. (It's certainly possible that he had given some advice to his predecessor.)
Does anyone know of any other sources corroborating some of the other statements in Blundell's piece?
Dennis, thank you for these points and further discussion. I was able to find some anecdotal evidence that does keep open the possibility possibility that discussions among allies -- Canada, EU countries, UK, Japan -- may have influenced decisions made about US Treasuries by allies such as Japan's sales. Of course, those discussions among allies would not have included China which also is reported to have sold US Treasuries. Maybe the important observation here is that allies with large holdings of US Treasuries can individually, jointly, or even individually but concurrently exert significant impact on the US economy and financial position. Also, I subsequently found a Snopes.com article which cites the timeline mismatch that you mention but more broadly was neither able to confirm nor refute the hypothesis.
However, in my mind the important 'take away' is more about the fact that the US does not hold 'all the cards', and in fact, other countries acting together can put significant hurt on us. By mistreating allies, we raise this risk of them acting jointly against us.
This statement from a CNBC article is a more general statement about what is at risk and how allies and others are thinking: "'The market is re-assessing the structural attractiveness of the dollar as the world’s global reserve currency and is undergoing a process of rapid de-dollarization,' Deutsche Bank strategist George Saravelos said in a note to clients Friday."
Sweet.
I love love love original sources like the treasury.gov site.
Thanks
Thanks for the Dean Blundell link. Excellent!!!
Blundell’s description of Carney’s moves made sense to me. Carney may have more effect if he is not widely given credit. Stealth plus economic expertise?
Carney not wanting credit must be such an alien concept to Trump.
It's nice that you send links, but I doubt they bother to look at them, since any link could contain malicious code, from their point of view. I suggest mentioning an article and where it's published and why you think it's important. Infrequently, your actual note might get to a member. One of mine did.
"...since any link could contain malicious code."
I was about to point out that a .gov site should be safe, then I remembered that Muskrats could have been crawling all over it.
I was referring to links that Majorie was sending and whether a stranger would click on them. But your point is well taken for other circumstances.
Thank you, Barbara. This is a fair point. As with the earlier post, I usually try to provide both the link and the source. I'll just provide the source in the future.
Thank you again!
Thanks Marjorie. I appreciate your efforts. We should all do what you do.
Links to another Substack aren’t malicious.
There’s a spam link posted near the top. I tried to report it but “Submit Report” doesn’t work on my iPhone.
Can you get someone to help you go with a wheelchair? That may sound callous, but the last protest I went to there were people in wheelchairs and I thought it was a powerful statement.
You also don't need to go for hours. The protests I've been to were very safe and had a good vibe. Money just isn't going to cut it now. I think bodies in the street count. I also think this is a fight best done by old people who aren't going to be tempted into stupidity. Let's face it, attacking grandma is a very, very bad look...especially to maga men.
I’d be happy to go in a wheelchair . In fact, I’m about to go to California to visit family and am renting a wheelchair there. The nearest protest is several miles away and it makes more sense for me to support the protest organizers.
One of the reasons I need a wheelchair is that I went to the original Women’s March when Trump was first elected. I walked 15 miles that day and sadly did permanent damage to my right foot. Still, I wouldn’t have missed that experience for anything!
Ms. Lane, you are my hero! I did some long protest marches against the Iraq War -- one in a pouring downpour in the streets of Los Angeles -- but nothing to compare to your ordeal.
I have a son and daughter in law in Los Angeles and will be there later this month. Can’t wait!
I'm 77 and am attending every local protest I can and I bring signs. I use cardboard and wide markers to write big words so they can be seen. Bring back Mr. Garcia! Bring back our migrants! Send Elon and Eric to CECOT! Hands off my right to vote! Arrest the Felon for murdering Palestinians! 5 signs. Do what you can. Bring your wheelchair, cane, walker! Better yet bring 3 friends with signs!
I garden and learn to watercolor paint in the rest of my day that isn't spent taking care of my husband who is recovering from rectal cancer and knee surgery to repair quads that were severed from his kneecap.
My best to you and your husband. You sound amazing.
Yes, at our Hands Off rally one of our speakers was in a wheelchair and spoke eloquently about disability rights and the impact of cutting Medicaid. Also talked about being the canaries in the coal mine.
But, the demonstrators often don't set the tone of the demonstration. Take a look at civil rights demonstrations and demonstrations on campuses in the Sixties.
Also use 5 Calls. AOC says it makes a difference. I'm not sure all the protests make any difference at all.
I think the protests are helpful if for no other reason than to educate others.
Shannon. It’s fair your offer & provide your expertise and opinion on protests. But in consideration of improving the present situation —I believe it’s not beneficial to only provide statements or info based in your historical opinion that that protests won’t work. You need to also provide info and/or opinions on SOLUTIONS that may work.
Providing your knowledge on what will work combined with what you know hasn’t worked —will add credibility & positivity to your words
I don't claim to have any ideas. Do you? I'm still thinking. Just not wasting energy and time on futile events. Right now my approach is: stay home, grow food, hope to have enough to give away when the real crunch comes. Subscribe to my free gardening substack for more tips.
The protests certainly can’t hurt.
They do. https://youtu.be/YJSehRlU34w?si=RmgvcbqNreTK8O7Q
I have been to perhaps fifty of these protests in my lifetime. I organized a lot of them in my twenties. I am 70 now. In my own community, I photographed dozens of protests beginning in 2016 and donated my archive to the local university.
Street protests may make YOU feel better, but in the last 40 years in the US, they have changed almost nothing about public policy. I began to realize that protests are a party to make liberals feel better about themselves, to feel as if they're doing something, but since they're just for one day usually, they change nothing. The oligarchs ignore these events, because they can.
Even the protests that last for days, weeks and months accomplish little except to harden the power brokers' resolve and make them more hateful and vindictive. See my example below:
What changed my feeling about public protests was spending eleven years in the gun violence prevention movement in TN, beginning in 2012. In 2023 there was a horrible school shooting. There were lots of protests and direct action and lobbying legislatures on our part. Some of these events included kids who were survivors of school shootings. The TN legislature ended up doubling down on loosening gun laws, as if to make their point that nothing we did mattered at all. They like "owning the libs," which in this case was grieving mothers and children.
It doesn't matter how YOU feel during and after a protest. Or it matters only a little. What matters is: does anything change? It does not. Not any more.
I know this is hard to hear. But I really feel as if constant lobbying is the only thing that might be even minimally effective, and even that is not very effective, at least not in TN. The only thing that will change the current swing to the Right in America is for Republican voters to change. This may happen if the Trump people bungle things catastrophically. But it may only change things for one election cycle. Republicans seem unable to remember that their leaders have wrecked the economy over and over.
You may be right, but I think it's our obligation to the younger generation to try to do something.
It may take decades or generations, but its better to do something than nothing.
It does make you feel better and it's kind of fun. That's the main value. In my family, the younger generation does NOT take its cues from the old people! They think we're clueless.
Admittedly, protests against gun violence don't seem to have had much effect. However, being 70, you may remember the protests against the Vietnam war. Those certainly contributed to change. So do protests work? Apparently sometimes.
Agree. That's why I organized several protests in TN during the late 1970s. This was when TVA had the biggest nuclear plant build-out program in the US. They planned not only regular nuclear reactors but also breeder reactors which created plutonium for bombs.
This activism had little to no effect. TVA didn't build all of the nuclear plants that it planned because they turned out to be very expensive, and the electricity was nowhere near "too cheap to meter." They did build the Sequoyah Nuclear plant near Chattanooga where I lived at the time.
I think that since the Vietnam War protests and the civil rights movement, protests have NOT worked. Also, the govt figured out that the real cause of anti-war protests was the draft, and they switched to the all-volunteer army. Protest against foreign wars, even very stupid ones, evaporated. The few demonstrations that occurred in the early aughties were inconsequential. (I participated on one such protest in Houston.)
The biggest street protests since that era have been the BLM protests. You could argue that these protests resulted in some police depts using body cameras, but that is about the extent of it. Cops still shoot unarmed people at about the same rate as they did before 2020.
I think that our political system has changed so that street protests no longer make a difference. I can't explain exactly why. It may be that the combined novelty of TV and protests in the 1960s was key. TV and protests are no longer novel. IN some cases protests actually cause backlash and more authoritarianism. I think it could be argued that the BLM protests may have in the long run empowered the authoritarian Right. They certainly contributed to gun sales.
What about the pro-Palestinian "encampments"? Have they changed anything at all? Gaza is still a mess. The Trump people can now claim that universities are somehow "anti-semitic" for allowing these protests to continue.
There was also the ill-fated Occupy "movement." Nada.
The fact that street protests no longer "work" may be the result of work on the part of what we used to call The Establishment. They were alarmed and caught off guard by the actions of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. But since then, they have been able to safely ignore these events. They may send out police on occasion, as during the BLM protests, which lasted longer than, say, the Women's March.
ONe day events are just parties for liberals. More sustained efforts like the BLM protests are more serious challenges to the status quo, but as we saw, they were rather brutally suppressed with arrests and some beatings. Most liberals don't have the stomach to stay in the streets for days, as Ukrainians did during the Maidan events, or as Chinese people did at Tiananmen Square. Perhaps this is the problem. A one-day march, while fun, is no threat to anybody.
Yes, but those were major demonstrations with 100K-500K people. When I see the numbers from the April 5 demonstrations, they don't even qualify as demonstrations compared to what I did sixty years ago (15,000 in one demonstration was the first one in 1965). And how many went to MLK's demonstration on the Mall? 500 people is not much by my standards.
My sentiments also. All of the street protests in Israel (anti-Bibi) and in Hungary (anti-Orban) over the years have accomplished exactly nothing.
Did you go to the recent protests in the US? It seems that you live in Mexico now, in San Miguel. I've heard that's a nice place with a lot of artsy rich Americans. I am still here in rural TN, in a red county in a red state. Not leaving. Not going abroad. Not going anywhere.
Hey, Girls, please play nice.
We're all on the same team.
Shannon, I've lived in TN, understand (I think) your frustration, and applaud whatever efforts you feel you can make in whatever way you can make them. Surviving at all is success.
Lorraine, I'm sorry you are ill. I understand your feelings were hurt by an assumption that you were a wealthy elitist of sorts, when the truth may be very different and you have also worked very hard to help others (thank you).
We all fear the fall of our democracy, which I fear is ever more likely the more fractured -- and fractious -- we become.
In the words of the prophet, "Can't we all just get along?".
Wow. I'm impressed, Lorraine. You're good at cussin'. We value that in rural TN.
If you doubt what I wrote above, listen to Ezra Klein's podcast about DOGE recently. Apparently DOGE was waiting for people to get mad about them zeroing out USAID. People DID get mad. Did DOGE reinstate USAID? No.
Me too.
I'm only 75, but I remember the riots in Berkeley when I was a teenager. I don't want to find myself in the same situation now and endangering other people by being less mobile. I've spent my entire life supporting causes when I could, and now other people will have to step up.
You should try to have a chat with the organizers the indivisible folks. You might find them extremely interested finding ways to make the rallies accessible to yourself so that you can add yourself to the numbers.
If you are healthy enough to go, they might find a way to include you in the rallies and anyone else who’s elderly, but otherwise fit to spend a couple hours in the sunshine or shade
I also stepped up my political donations.
Me too.
This makes the teapot dome scandal look like a tea party.
Get lost spammer!
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
April 19 is the next nationwide rally, be there or be square!
//
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!
https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
https://indivisible.org/
https://handsoff2025.com/
https://www.teslatakedown.com/
https://www.riseandresist.org/
https://thirdact.org
Add boycott Amazon and boycott Meta!
Many people I know are boycotting Amazon and have been doing so for the past 3 months. In the process, we are all seeking out the makers of the products we want to purchase and are ordering directly from them. This takes more work, but it's worth it. It's also a good discipline for those of us who are trying to save money in the midst of this economic uncertainty. A wise thing to do.
It’s most important to boycott gasoline and other fossil fuels.
Many people have boycotted Nestle since the CEO said humans don’t deserve clean water. After Nestle took a large position in L’Oreal (soon after Lillian Betancourt died) that corporation was added to the boycott.
"It’s most important to boycott gasoline and other fossil fuels."
Difficult for those of us a) not wealthy enough to buy a new EV, b) not lucky enough to be near a charging network (if we rent) , and c) somewhere public transport is a shambles. My own, nominally 'liberal' city is cutting bus lines like the one by my house; when they do I'll have to walk a half mile to the nearest east-west line. Potentially in 115° summer heat. We recently broke the all-time record for 'earliest day for a 100° high temp'. We've been keeping records here since the 1880's...
B WAS being helped by the Inflation Reduction Act, but of course that's been cancelled by Malicious Mussolini because we have to reverse anything Biden signed.
It's a "matter of degree" and no one should feel compelled to make an immediate investment needed to curb use of fossil fuels. But the next vehicle purchased by anyone with a conscience and a brain should use as little fossil fuel as possible - not stupidly big and heavy...hopefully at least a hybrid, if not a PHEV or EV. A very big difference could be made if masses of people were willing to make incremental changes.
The ironic thing is, until the Orange Moron blew up the US economy..we were looking at getting one. As it is, we're making strategic purchases of some things now, and putting off larger ones for now. I'm not alone in this either.
And that is precisely what fuels a recession.
I hear you. I’m in Jacksonville FL where TPTB associate public transit with federally court-ordered bussing to achieve school desegregation in the 1970s. The public transit is intentionally messed up and few white people will go near it. Uber and similar are somewhat more successful. Pedestrians and bicyclists risk fatal injury from motorists.
I remember visiting our in-laws in Ft Meyers and was struck how insanely hostile the environment is to anyone not in a car.
I didn’t know Nestle had taken over L’Oreal. That’s off my shopping list too, now. It may not be much but our purchasing power is the most direct we have. I haven’t used Amazon for years. Didn’t like the way they treat their workers. Also, some years ago they persuaded Swansea Council in Wales to build a road to a new distribution centre they were developing, saying it would provide 1000’s of jobs. As soon as it opened, Amazon explored large scale automation. Neither my husband nor I have bought anything from it since. Can be a bit inconvenient, but worth it. Never been on Facebook - too boring
Definitely!
Although for many folks Amazon is a necessary evil.
Interesting timing this next protest date of April 19 when one considers April 20 is the date Trump can invoke whatever powers under the Insurrection Act. Coincidence?
April 18th-19th is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the "shot heard 'round the world". Although there were actions taken preceding these dates, it's generally considered to be the start of the American Revolution, leading to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. NO KINGS!!!
"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
— Thomas Jefferson
Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act any time - since nobody seems to hold him to the actual presence of an emergency requiring it. On April 20, he gets a report from 'advisors' about the need for it, so he will have a little cover.
It's pretty clear from all the news, including the actual marching of 5 million people with not even a traffic ticket to show for it, than the opposition to him is not (yet) an insurrection. That won't change from April 19 to April 20...
He won't need a reason. He'll just do it. Who is there to step up and actually stop him?
The U.S. military (who would enforce the Insurrection Act's martial law imposition) has sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not to obey illegal orders from Mango Mussolini.
One can hope, but we've yet to see even a hint of courage to obey that oath.
Since they're openly disappearing people because allegedly their words are danger to US National Security, actually meeting the legal definition of "insurrection" is not likely to deter him.
According to MSNBC, they are now deporting for thoughts and actions that haven’t even occurred but could happen in the future. Nothing says “Orwell was right” more than this!
I don't think it is a coincidence at all. It's a real emergency.
If it *is* coincidence, I just lost a lot of respect for the organizations that planned these nationwide protests and set the dates. I really, really don't think those organizations are run by people who are that stupid and unaware of what's happening in Trump's administration, though. If they were that dumb and unobservant, they wouldn't be organizing repeated nationwide protests in the first place!
And show up at your LOCAL meetings of elected officials, cities, townships, counties. Ask what they are doing to protect their residents. https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahagreen1/p/local-action-for-democracy
Agreed 👍
Trade is the one thing that Musk has fought against. He wants zero tariffs.
but he wants zero regulations and ALL the govt contracts
Saturday, April 19th. Bless you for that determination - remember, you can car-protest too (drive by with signs in the passenger-side windows, giving honks & thumbs-up to the protesters). Here's a link to more info: https://www.newsweek.com/nationwide-trump-protest-april19-50501-handsoff-2056119
Also we need to use American Flags! More more more. We need to take over the image that WE are the patriots. More flags people. More flags. Have never had one in my life but I'm getting one!
At the Pensacola HANDS OFF event we had a couple of large service flags which added emphasis to the numerous handmade signs opposing cuts to the VA. This area has a large military presence and as some active duty personnel (BDUs, helmets, reflective vests) rode motorcycles to or from their stations I watched them turn their heads towards the flags -- they caught eyeballs. These warriors had the self discipline to not wave or give other signs of support while in uniform, but they recognized their family. More of this, please!
Exactly! I wore a sparkly red, white and blue cowboy hat at the last Hands off protest and until folks saw my sign, they thought I was Maga. Yes, flags and show our patriotism
Totally agree! I will buy a flag to take to next protest.
Have always flown mine, with many replacements when weather worn.
Nearly 80. And me too.
I am in a very similar situation at age 81.
Me too. And I'm 91.
I’m 87 and I agree, but my physical condition precludes actual attendance. I’ll just help support those who can physically attend!
I'm so glad you can do that. I am 78 and uncomfortable with crowds due to autoimmune disorders, so I am donating money and also writing here and elsewhere as much as possible. I write and edit voter information for my local Democratic Party as well as other pieces, including a recent commentary for an online newspaper. There is plenty for all of us to do with our time and talent.
Me too, I’m 78 and as we both know nonviolent protesting is important… we are all in this together …. Unfortunately again…. Protest🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Awesome! You are keeping up to date with Substack, very impressive! 👍
April 19
You must be as dumb as a box of rocks to want to keep these criminals in your town/state.
I fully agree but am afraid that protests will not be enough to stop these guys.
Greetings from Europe.
💪🇨🇦
Excellent! (Sincerely)
This nation will not survive this level of corruption and incompetence for 4 years. The damage they've done in just three months is astonishing. Something has to be done.
This nation survived decades of slavery, a century keeping women from voting, a civil war, economic depressions in which a quarter of the country was out of work, political assassinations and riots.
We won’t look the same and the suffering will be real. And as long as people are willing to keep speaking up and organizing we will turn the tide. Might just take a while
If you look at the history of other mass movements like civil rights or labor rights, they developed over decades of organizing and building. Collective action can be powerful, but it requires persistence.
Agreed. The 19th Amendment, expanding to women the right to vote, took many years. Susan B. Anthony and many other leaders of the movement did not live to see its passage and be able to vote.
Yea but you listed the progress that has been made, now we are going backwards, fast and far more deeply than what anyone could have imagined.
Going backwards is a self-inflicted wound for sure. Just not the end of America
And the United States of America will always be under construction. It is our duty to make sure that the construction is for the better.
Is still being built
What I cannot fathom is why Trump just gets away with everything he does with zero consequences. If Biden or any Dem President did anything as stupid as this he or she would be gone. But with Trump he is given a pass (especially from the press) time and time again. It’s infuriating.
It's the right wing press - they are singing the praises of the brilliant Trump. They stuck with him through the whole tariff thing, despite a few Republicans peeling off. They will never cover protests, or will say it's a handful of paid or antifa left wing, darkly hinting about twrrorism or betrayal. They convinced millions of voters, if not directly by word of mouth, that an excellent economy was bad, that a border brought under control was an invasion, that solud management if the country was destroying it. It's the elephant in the room. And we have no counter, as the mainstream press panders and sane-washes.
Look no further than the R wingnuts in congress. They are getting essentially what they want without casting a vote nor taking much blame.
The MAGA movement is still strong. The new line is that the good effects of the tariffs will take time. They also firmly believe that all these countries have high tariffs and are “ripping America off.”
I see their comments at the WSJ all the time.
He has tanked the economy on his own. His cabinet members go on an app to discuss classified info. He golfs rather than governs and those trips cost tax payers a fortune (and the $$$ goes to his golf resorts). and probably did insider trading. He lets the richest man in the world destroy the infrastructure- Yet, the press is quiet. I’ll say it again, Biden or any other Dem president could not get a pass on all of that like Trump does.
Biden did not (and so far as I know does not) have dementia. He was slow on the update at the gotcha pace of the debate, especially since he had a torrent of lies coming at him and he was trying to speak the truth.
His resting demeanor is definitely disengaged, but that does not mean his mind is.
A month after the debate, he gave an unrehearsed hour-long discussion of foreign policy after the NATO meeting, in the presence of the press, and was very coherent and knowledgeable. He muffed a couple of names but his strategic analysis was not wrong. No dementia there.
Trump could not talk foreign policy for 2 minutes, except about the imaginary horrors of immigration. He doesn't know the difference between 'asylum' as safety from persecution and 'asylum' as a place to keep people who are mentally ill. Recall his shark-and-electric-boat ramble.... that was an answer to a question about what he would do specifically about child poverty. THAT is dementia!
That nonsesense explanation is about as meaningful as vaccine conspiracy, which you traffic in. Do better.
Your junk science isn’t real science. And look, an Aussie nut job who can’t read the room calls me a Trump supporter, lol. I love a doctor of chiropractic pitching “science” to me, of all things. Get lost.
There were millions who took the covid-19 vaccines, and the hundreds of thousands who died were those who were not vaccinated.
BTW, myocarditis is a possible symptom of covid-19, not of any vaccination. (Look in up via Google.)
" Much of the law fare against Trump was uncalled for. "
If you or I absconded with boxes and boxes of classified documents upon leaving office, then lied to the FBI and the National Archives about possessing them, you or I would be in prison serving a long long sentence.
It you or I instigated an armed assault on Congress with the aim of overturning the results of a presidential election, you or I would be in prison serving a life sentence. WE ALL SAW THAT WITH OUR OWN EYES.
We have the recording of the phone call where he begged the Georgia Governor to "just find me enough votes to win" and he directed people to subvert the Electoral process by getting cronies in state Republican parties to seat "alternate electors" which is fraud, plain and simple.
Biden's alleged 'dementia' has nothing to do with any of that.
No point in trying to refute the trolls spouting easily debunked talking points.
Being in a cult requires the members to believe certain myths that, even though they are easily debunked, they will never stop believing. Because once they admit reality once they know they will have to start accepting they have been massively conned, and their ego can't handle that.
So they stand behind their criminal orange Dear Leader come Hell or high water because the alternative is worse: Admitting liberals were right.
The tariffs are not irrational. They are a big money maker for Trump.
Funny, after Trumps bizarre performances since 2016 or before, some talk about Biden's dementia.
How is it Biden was able to express himself publicly clearly, and much more logically than Trump, except when he had covid during the debate ?
As for occasional memory loss, Trump is so scatter-brained that his memory loss is overlooked.
Irrational? Maliciously, treasonously insane!
Can’t survive a year.
The USA? there will be a shell of something. It's a big country, full of morons.
According to the last election, somewhat less than half full.
Call your senators, especially the Rs. Call them EVERY DAY and demand they remember the declaration of Independence when we refused to pay taxes without representation. The constitutional over reach is the biggest betrayal. I'm calling John Thune every day and I'm a dem from Massachusetts.
Saw an article about Democrats starting to talk about impeachment. I will be surprised if Trump lasts beyond 2027 at the latest.
It starts with never, ever voting for a Republican again. They are the brand and the chief enablers of this shitshow.
Protest when you can, let your voice be heard🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Have you tried screaming at your congress peoples? Fear of reelection defeat is their only motivation.
Totally agree! There has to be some way we can rid our country of him and his horrid minions, and have another election!
You have it right Andy.
You are so right. I really don’t know how to survive this shattering of EVERYTHING….
This was a coup, many years in the making. The forces of greed and fanaticism came together to put their useful idiot-king in the seat of power. SCOTUS and the rethugs in Congress seem content to let him crash the Nation.
Rethuglicans no longer think, they just react - to whatever Faux Snooze tells them to be angry at on any given day.
The less popular he becomes, the harder it is for more of his agenda to get done.
Not really. They don't need to please the voters. They just have to delay the court cases. They are already driving out all the federal workers who don't agree.
Voter sentiment does matter. Think of the carve outs republicans in congress are getting for their districts. The House thinks to the next two years. If they won’t get re-elected, they’re gonna look for ways to push back against the agenda to placate their voters
They're terrified of getting primaried by even more MAGA opponents. So long as the X/YouTube/Facebook/TikTock/Fox News propaganda machine keeps pumping out the dopamine hits for ever-increasing hatred, MAGAt's will vote against their own interests just to hurt those 'other' people.
The fashion right now is wearing Dear Leader pins https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trumps-new-loyalty-test-golden-trump-bust-lapel-pins/ar-AA1CDffm to show your loyalty. No more American Flag pins....
The more his popularity sinks the less terrified they will be. By 2027 if we don't have enough Democrats in the senate to convict there will be some Republicans willing to go Goldwater on this Nixon to preserve their own political hides.
The problem is that the felon is doing exactly what his supporters elected him to do. Deporting people they don’t like, especially students pursuing graduate degrees? Check. Disappearing people with tattoos and dark skin in hell holes? Check. Defunding Ivy League schools? Check. They haven’t ordered the National Guard to murder any peaceful protesters yet, but if they do, their supporters will cheer, just like most white Americans did after the Kent State murders. The felon is not the crux of the problem. The problem is 77 million US voters. Always has been. Some of the murderous throng that cheered Kent State have died, but they’ve been replaced by people just as bad who now have the advantage of a well-organized, well-financed crew of nefarious operatives running the Republican Party and using the votes of the murderous throng to hand them the reins of power unimpeded by legal constraints.
I think that tRump taking the oath of office and immediately pardoning the J6ers is him "giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists", and disqualifies him from being president.
🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞
If Andy is hand wringing, you’ve given up! How is that any better? At least with hand wringing, which I don’t agree with in this situation, there’s room for hope.
I’m fantasizing about an Air Force one plane crash 😉
“Garden variety hand wringing”… I’m not sure that is helpful either. But I agree, many of us are feeling desperate- if not for our immediate selves- certainly for our sense of what our nation should be. I feel that we all have to exert our own power, as small as it may seem. We have to say “No”. “No more”. A General Strike is the one idea that seems to have the needed power.
Disagree. Stretching people’s necks is a time honored method of dealing with dictators.
I *am* up in the middle of the night. The U.S. is in the grip of a kind of mass hysteria, presenting in its paralytic form. One mad king on his mad throne is not the problem, its the sheer number of abetting sycophants that he has surrounded himself with and in congress.
You know, the legendary mass suicide of lemmings has been revealed to have been a hoax, but I think we have an actual example here in human affairs.
And there’s all those fucks who voted for him. I would be so relieved if the general elections were rigged last time and 70 some million US voters didn’t vote for the current occupant.
That might just yet prove to be the case.
https://electiontruthalliance.org/
Wow, I didn't know about this. In case anyone is interested, here's the explanation:
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56
And yeah, MAGAnuts are the real Lemmings.
Problem is, anti-corruption law enforcement has been politicized, weaponized, and corrupted by Trump. So who’s watching the chicken coop? Oh, it’s the fox!
The fox even has his own news channel.
😂
FCPA has been suspended https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/pausing-foreign-corrupt-practices-act-enforcement-to-further-american-economic-and-national-security/
Orwell cringes at the title. The irony is too thick to slice.
It's like he's daring us to call him out on it.
Incredible. Just incredible.
Im in Singapore right now. It’s a country that made it from 3rd to 1st world status in a little less than 100 years through competent and considerate leadership. It’s not an easy trick to pull off. Trump is making the opposite trick look really easy though!
Thanks to thermodynamics, disorder and chaos are the default form of reality.
All the chaos around tariffs has taken Signalgate out of the headlines. He wants chaos. My greatest fear is at some point soon, when his approval rating drops even more, he will say there is no way to guarantee free and fair elections and will cancel the 2026 mid-terms. Good bye Constitution.
SCOTUS and the MAGA Congress have already killed the Constitution. SCOTUS created a king last year with its immunity ruling and has knocked off Habeas corpus this year, while MAGA Congresspeople refuse to perform their duty as the check and balance. Even if there were free and fair elections in 2026, they would refuse any results that didn’t confirm MAGAs. See North Carolina’s state Supreme Court for their playbook.
Yup. NC is a great example of where “they” are going with this whole election thing.
We have to take out the Repubs that aren't doing their jobs.
Make a complaint on their surety bonds: https://bondsforthewin.com/
Interesting thought. I see where a notary public might have liability if they don’t properly vet people they’re certifying. Do Congressional Reps have surety bonds? You have any source that tells us? I worked for many years in “the deep state” and never was bonded even though I had amounts with many zeros and commas under my control.
My search foo is failing me, but this surety company site says it's from 1792. https://suretybondauthority.com/public-official-bonds/
Other pages I have read say that the bond for the official taking the oath covers their subordinates, and that they don't really want people to know that they can make claims on the bonds, but they have to tell you the bond company if you ask.
I say it's worth a try. This company site says you can claim misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance. https://suretyone.com/blog/public-official-bond-needed-newly-elected-public-officers/
Any stories about how DOGEd FEMA is handling the March storms that killed at least 39 and the April floods that have killed at least 19? Flooding the zone indeed.
The ship is tipping hard. All hands opposite the mutinous captain and his mutineers!
Ty
How many congressional Republicans got tipped-off about the 90 day relaxation of tariffs beforehand so they could jump in to a depressed market and ride it up?
According to HCR this morning, AOC is asking the same question. Congress members' financial reports are due May 15.
“Congress members' financial reports are due May 15.”
How many of those report will be submitted with fingers crossed?
If the SEC hasn’t been gutted by DOGE yet, it doubtless will be soon.
Not a single decision taken so far by the Trump administration has been thought through for possible adverse consequences. The "Reciprocal Tariff" board was probably the most conspicuous idiocy, but the list is much too long to start to enumerate here. Very worrying is that so far I read little comment on the risk to the US and the rest of the world of a long term sell down of US Treasuries ($800Bn in Chinese hands and rising), and almost no mention of the catastrophically low US private savings ratio.
Accidentally the EU couple of weeks ago loudly broadcasted a plan to issue extra 800B debt to cover it's crash defense program. So the money withdrawn from US bond market can be safely and orderly moved to EU. This means billions in profit for EU in lower borrowing costs and probably eases the mood of investors.
It is hard to monitor simultaneously what is going on in European countries, but at least in Poland the government is traveling the country with an open checkbook, visiting one manufacturing or research association after another. The checks are sandwiched with abolition of regulations at a large scale, meaning a fast decision-to-breaking-ground cycle. That deregulation is now an official EU program, again meaning that investment money can be soaked in quite fast.
I do not think above EU actions were intentionally timed for the US period of nausea, but the accidental fit came handy.
No, I think it's all been thought through. Project 2025 is pretty detailed. The risk and chaos is deliberate.
You may be right Karen, but to me "reptile brain" ("The Economist") looks all too kind - gnat brain would be closer to the truth. I am even getting concerned that the gant brain is disfunctional.
In this age of strongmen, politics are ruled by sentiments. Like current US economic policy, Brexit was founded on a hoax. There's no money to be found in leaving a very profitable, economic union. No matter what you put on the side of a bus. Just as with the UK, the notion that the USA are a special country, with its manifest Destiny's, needs to be left. 'God bless America', indeed, but what about the rest of the world?
Watch the film MARGIN CALL to see a dramatized version of what trading rooms looked like this past week. Jeremy Iron's character tells the conference room full of subordinates that the way to survive is to "Be first, be smarter or cheat.." so they proceed to crash the market first to have enough cash at the end of the day to remain in the game. Sound familiar?
Heaven helped the people trading on margin.
I would love to have heard the conversation between Trump and the groveling Tim Cooke.
This bunch of clowns don't know what game the US has been playing all these years.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries brought about a blockade on Qatar in 2017 thinking they would kneecap the country's economy. Qatar is now more independent and Qatari businesses have flourished as a result.
The USA benefitted enormously in the aftermath of WW2 by simply being the guarantor of any business between any two parties across the world. Now, my guess is, the EU would carry that mantle. This gives an opening for the UK as well (after their Brexit fiasco). China would have been the natural successor, but its aggressive posturing defeats itself in the larger scheme of things.
I live in Switzerland and when you say „it ain‘t America“ they respond that Trump‘s corruption is also America and that I am deluded by the sense of moral superiority of American elites.
Painful, but I cannot refute this statement until there is a sustained institutional change in American conduct.
I think that is partially true in the sense of all of the citizens supporting this craziness
Clearly Trump has lots of enablers. And is nothing without them.
Aah… With this administration, price-relevant decisions are conspicuously often made over the weekend when the stock markets are closed. This was already the case during Trump's first term in office. Go long quickly on Friday - and reap huge profits on Monday...?
The stench is indeed putrid, while the global human suffering infinite. What criminals…
"So just like that we’re turning into a nation where policies are ill-considered and constantly changing, and business success depends not on what you know but on who you know and whether you pay them off."
See, that's the thing - this isn't DT "suddenly" turning into a charlatan, he's been one all his life for God's sake. We've hired the Creature from the Black Lagoon as swamp-drainer-in-chief, and - Oh, my God!! - it turns out he's a criminal con man!!
Who knew??