Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars for future generation to repay, stripping environmental protections, trying to hold back the tide of ethnic diversity in the United States are also on the list.
He is the fat, demented, criminal, racist Don Quixote of our time without the literary romance or love of humanity.
tRump is in the Oval Office because the Oligarchs/Special Interests paid for him to be there. He is the face of the whole architecture of special interest in our Economy and Financial system which makes everything in our system more expensive and less efficient. Perhaps the gross corruption on display for all to see, will finally engender the quiet revolution it will take to fix this. Perhaps.
Don't just blame the oligarchs. 77 million people voted for the guy, and most of them weren't Elon wannabes living in their parent's basement. Short-sightedness and stupidity are now as American as apple pie.
... and 30% of Americans tell polsters they would vote for Trump if the 2024 election were re-run today (20-Jul-2026). Decision makers outside the US look at this number and conclude that no deal they make with the US is worth the paper it's written on.
America has always had the short-sighted and plenty of stupidity. But oligarchs are giving them propaganda and their marching orders via their total takeover of mass media.
But again, my point is that tens of millions of people who aren't glued to Fox and don't worship the ground that Elon or Jeff or Peter walk on still voted for the guy twice. To some extent it's that politics and politicians have failed the people so often in the past 60 years. But even so, it takes a pretty short-sighted and/or stupid person to vote for someone like Trump not once, but twice. I really feel, without being able to prove it objectively, that people have gotten stupider over the past 25 or 35 years.
For what they are worth, exit polls in 2024 showed many white and Latino voters didn't want a woman, let alone one of color, as president. Biden's age and debility mattered in the brand image of the Democrats. People vote their resentments and blame the incumbent, e.g. for prices higher than five years ago. Most of all, between Garland's approach of "Let no one accuse me of impartiality, I will see no evil at the political source of the coup" and Biden's "Let the DoJ take care of it" Trump was left unpunished even when the country's mood was right to nail the repeat malefactor once for all. Democrats believe in policies and fairness, and Biden showed that again, but were tone-deaf on the anti-immigration resentments of many Americans and complacent that Trump was a spent force. They were also open to bribes (Manchin, Sinema, Gillibrand, Fetterman) from crypto and as a party relying on AIPAC. Biden and Harris warned of fascism and the threat to democracy. If they believed they were right, why did Biden also praise the "peaceful transition" to a fascist who was going to trample on the Constitution? Their collective bark was worse than their bite. Yes, Trump was mad, bad, and dangerous, as the famous quote about Byron goes, but people everywhere have short memories, and most voters don't understand economics or policies.
They are not all Christian Nationalists. Sadly, many ultra-religious Jews back Trump because he "loves" Israel. Many on the left care about Israel and its right to exist, but (IMO) rightly want Netanyahu and his far right government gone. Too many are unaware of this distinction.
And don't forget the guns. They love their guns more than their children and the know MAGA will uphold the 2nd Amendment come hell or high water. MAGA has built a coalition of gun lovers, Christian Nationalists, racists, low tax, low regulation zealots.
Trump tuned into their (generated) fear and bigotries. They also bought into the lie that Harris was a warmonger and Trump would stop endless wars.
People who got their faces eaten off (lost well-paid work in projects like solar and wind farms) echoed the anti-immigrant disinformation and/or the disdain for educated elites. They've been programmed with these talking points for decades and at last they found someone their pastors and podcasters liked.
I'm not so sure that old IQ testing directly maps out onto modern Neuropsychiatric testing, but in essence, you are on the right track. The problem is that our social fabric has been shredded and how to repair it is the $64,000 question.
Correct, there are many who watch Fox and other such propaganda mills and still don't vote Republican, but there are enough who do watch Fox and do vote Republican because of what they see on Fox. The argument is a non sequitur. Btw,, Fox has the largest viewership of all the news outlets, even though it doesn't have a news license.
Citizens United must be overturned. It won't happen in the Roberts Court. Oligarchs have not just taken over some media (not all), they fund huge PACs to sway voters with names that sound just, like "freedom," and the poorly education/ low-information voters believe them. On the plus side, 30% of voters who love Trump can't win any election if we turn out more of the other 70%. That must be the short-term goal.
Their pulpits and TV and radio and propagandist-infested social media provide them with all of the disinformation needed to elect more Republicans (or at least non-DEMONcrats).
Twenty-five years ago I was part of a movement that tried to point out the irrationality ("stupidity") of supernatural beliefs being used to corrupt education and policy. Trumpism isn't new: Ridiculous religious beliefs have long been defended as "harmless" even though they undermined scientific discoveries (vaccines, evolution, addiction, sexuality).
That is unfortunately so true. And also, despite everything that happened in the last 18 months, polls state that Trump’s approval on economy is 32%. 32%? Really? Who are those people? As I use to say, 10% the filthy riches and those benefiting from the system, fine. Even 20%, adding up the wannabes. But above 30%? That blows my mind.
I fear it cannot be both quiet and effective at the same time. Whispers offer faint resistance to oligarchs, special interests and hundred-billionaires.
Letter writing won't cut it, which these ideas are about. We are living in a corporatocracy, not a democracy. If Republican politicians are corrupting the system against the people in the interests of their paymasters/ruling oligarchs, as PK's article points out, letter writing to a Republican politician is a fool's errand. It's equivalent to writing Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him to stop the genocide in Palestine and give up all the territory in the occupied land. Don't waste your time.
That's exactly what MAGA tells itself every day. But you might want to ask yourself how effective has your letter writing campaign to Republican politicians been so far?
"Speaking up" when anyone who can do anything about it won't hear you is no different from screaming into the void. I passed a political protest at a major intersection (which I first thought was yet another can-shaking donor event), and I couldn't tell what the protest was about and pay attention to driving. They probably felt good comradeship while doing it, but they weren't telling me anything I didn't know and weren't likely to inform or change the minds of MAGAts.
SB - not only is our system more expensive and less efficient - it is also incapable of policing itself against the level of greed and stupidity that will cause the next bubble to burst .
The circuit breakers have been dismantled to insulate Main Street from the exuberance
of Wall Street . Couple that with less oversight from the Frderal Reserve , deregulation , the rise of private credit ( shadow banking ) ,
crypto insanity and out of control investment in AI - and it would not surprise me if our former allies would be looking to replace trading partners as well as the reserve currency of the world - the late great US $ .
Watch the level of bankrupt firms rise - and hold on to your wallet - it’s gonna be a bumpy ride .
I don't hold out much hope. With close to 40% of trumpers still supporting the villain and the villain's corruption of the November election, it's quite possible that democracy in the USA is finished. The only action stopping this coup will be people taking to the streets and possibly a lot of bodies dead. This, I'm afraid, is the most likely outcome.
This is a war against the future. But it is also a republican war against humanity. They do not want to help people in any way, especially if it’s help from the government. We only exist for the rich to extract from us. They need to be tried for crimes against humanity.
It's a very old saying - before Reagan? - that says (paraphrasing) that Republicans say that the government is bad and then they get into power and prove it.
And his understanding of economics and the banking system is nil.
For years, we had to rely on the unreliable USPS to get our payments to the vendors in 5 days and they still didn't always get there in time. And then you had to hope that it was posted the day it was received. And the banks still haven't figured out how to change the due date so that it doesn't fall on a Saturday or Sunday or a holiday.
I was a computer programmer for over 45 years and I could have written that code back in 1977 when I was a junior programmer.
My other pet peeve is why the fuck can't the pharmacies like Walgreens figure out that some months have 28,29,30 or 31 days. Again, elementary stuff. I've asked my pharmacist before on which 5 days of the year am I supposed to skip my medication. Just imagine on a 90 day script always picking it up on the same day each quarter.
If the pharmaceutical companies were losing money on each script instead of making money, they would fix it in a heartbeat. Again, this is junior programmer stuff.
I always wonder why an amount is subtracted from my balance as soon as I make a payment, but incoming money can't be credited until Monday or after a holiday.
The best way is to join one associated with your profession, or with a relative's profession. For years I had accounts with one where my father worked. Then I got accounts with one in the Telecommunications field. Now I'm with another that's less exclusive but had an office at my employer's building. I believe the original regulations that required a business connection have been removed.
So, find one or more in your area and check them out. If you like what you see and one of them will allow you to join, you're in. If you're in New Jersey, check out Affinity Federal Credit Union.
When Rite Aid shut down our prescriptions were transferred to Walgreens. At the time it was hard to imagine worse service than Rite Aid but now that seems like the good old days.
The New York Times home delivery is billed every 28 days. That gives it just over 13 billing periods per year instead of 12 months in the year. It is a way to gain more money while seeming to charge less per month until one does the math....
The Turkish president tried to guide him down a red carpet. Unfortunately, someone had placed a microphone beside it halfway down. No way was DonnyJon going to pass that up.
I do enjoy PK’s snark. “For example, should we shut down the U.S. postal service because it offers better and cheaper mail delivery than UPS or FedEx?”
Edit: I hadn’t intended to post this comment within an existing thread. 🙄 Oh well, I’ll leave it since deleting it would delete subsequent replies.
Enshitification keeps making its way into new areas. It’s been ages since I’ve had a FedEx or UPS package arrive by its original delivery date. Always delayed and half the time it seems like they are unsure as to where it even is. I had one recent UPS package arrive at the local facility (literally about 4 miles from me) ahead of time, marked out for delivery, only to somehow be sent three states away, finally making it’s way back to that same local facility to arrive several days after the original delivery date. Impressive, but not the sort I am looking for.
I'm sure the Trump administration would like to do just that. They've enshittified the postal service here in S. Oregon. Everything has to go up to Portland for distribution. It takes longer for mail to go across town than go across the country.
Not Don Quixote. Don Quixote was a man of honor. He believed in a code of conduct that was greater than himself, even if it was all just so much delusional romanticism. Trump's never done anything but gratify his own monstruous lusts all his life. Comparing him to Quixote in any way is an insult to Quixote and Cervantes.
While Drump is being particularly dumb headed about Brazil, this attitude is everywhere in the US banking system. Why do we still have ACH, with its inherent insecurity and 3-5 day settlement period? It's not as if we're trucking bags of checks to a central location any more ... it's banking greed. The same for the exorbitant credit card fees from companies that fight any attempt to introduce lower friction payment. M-Pesa showed the way forward a decade a go. Why is the rest of the world lagging behind?
OK. Both DJT and Don Quixote have issues with windmills but there’s nothing heroic about DJT who’s about as far from being a devotee of chivalry as could be.
In everything from energy and the military to finance and healthcare, Trump seems determined to make sure we are firmly planted in the 19th and 20th centuries
Not only that, but Brazil has a safe and very fast electronic voting system that delivers results minutes after voting ends. Oh, and Brazil has tried and jailed the ex-president for attempting a coup d’état and inciting a mob to storm and vandalize the capital of the country.
Marco Rubio is the one to blame here. He has a personal obsession with Cuba and is determined to keep the whole of Latin America on a US leash. Trump doesn’t know Brazil from Bolivia, but he likes the idea of having a long southern backyard that he can control at will, along with Canada and Greenland to the north.
Krugman nailed the reason for Republican and right/wing opposition to a digital dollar - they hate the idea of a government providing a service that could have been provided by the private sector especially when the government can provide better and cheaper service - Republican and right-wing policy objective is to continue the theft of wealth by billionaire oligarchs
In the 1980s wiring directly from your checking account instead of 'sending checks' was already the norm in Europe. I have a very nice Harvard article lying around here somewhere from the 1990s, where a clarifying question about innovation is asked and answered. Who is more innovative? The US for inventing ICs (chips), the Japanese for being the first to use them in consumer electronics and competing US and EU consumer electronics companies (audio, TV) into oblivion, or the Europeans who digitised their payments far, far before the US did creating a very cheap and efficient payment infra? The answer is, none. They all are equally innovative. They just innovate in a different style. Efficiency-innovation is a typically Dutch cultural thing, for instance.
Interesting, but as I remember Europe in the 1980s, Eastern Europe was communist and the EU did not exist, so there was no Euro. I think you need to narrow down your experiences to the country in question.
I remember sending lots of checks in the 1980s and transfering money via Postal Giro for free. The Postal Giro part was privatized during the 1990s and sold to the banks and checks were replaced by credit/debit cards. At least where I live in Europe.
Western Europe indeed, and it varied by country then. There was a predecessor of the EU (EEG, which was after EGKS just after WW2) and yes, it was all country internal and different countries had different systems (still do). We had checks (Eurocheque) which we could use to pay, and there was something in The Netherlands that was 'Acceptgiro' (still exists in a way) where you could pay bills by signing the payment request and send it to your bank. I had a bank card already in the 1970s (but still with signature on the back and signing), but I think in the 1980s already I was wiring money to other people using a written card I could send (for free) to the bank. So you hardly sent checks to other people, almost nobody had a credit card (still many people do not, it's mostly debit).
I probably never sent anyone a paper check in my life and I started doing my own financial things in the second half of the 1970s. How checks were sent and got cleared in the US in the 1990s (and how finance worked) when we visited seemed totally arcane to us. By the time we went there, the checks had been discontinued in The Netherlands already.
And nowadays you can bank-transfer money from, say, Italy to Germany instantly, from any bank to any other bank. No extra fee, no delay, a Telegram (not Whatsapp) message saying, "Hi, I sent You the money", and you can already spend it. Online, e.g. on Aliexpress, not on Amazon, of course, wouldn't like Bezos to get even richer with my money
Our community started the public/private services scams after manufacturing left the Midwest in the mid-1980s through the 1990s. Take away legitimate ways to earn a living, and the financialization of the economy revved up.
Could such a system involve credit, or would it be a strictly debit system. If not, what might be the effect on credit worthiness or the cost of credit?
Trump’s behavior, shows a pattern of cognitive instability: the rambling speeches, the fragmented thoughts, the invented stories delivered with absolute certainty. The confusion, the slips, the contradictions — all of it paints a picture of a man struggling to maintain mental clarity while holding immense power. These symptoms, taken together, suggest he is not well mentally and that his decision‑making is just based on vague ideas fed to him by his incompetent team
Maybe his team isn't incompetent. I think they are evil, bigoted, and self serving and have figured out a way to steal from and scam the rest of us. I call that competent in the worst way! It's what we must fight against!
You have a point. In his first run, his handlers came up with the idea of a border wall to keep Trump concentrating on the immigration battles. If it hadn't been for them, he would still be a has-been living in Manhattan.
Trump has always pretty much behaved like this. I mean, re "invented stories delivered with absolute certainty," think Revolutionary era airports. Confusion, slips, contradictions - yep, you can find them all 10 years ago. He's never been "mentally well." Psychopath, pathological liar, instinctive grifter - and moron. Is he somewhat worse now? Maybe but it's honestly hard to tell.
I fear that if DJT were to die and return as a mindless, brain-eating zombie, the MAGA base would still adore him. "He's one of the guys! He understands ordinary people. He never lies."
The end of a great American era is underway. Like all "Empires", it is always hubris that brings it down. Can you think of more descriptive word than "hubris" for the characterization of Trump's administration?
We spent 50 years or so in the halo of the post World War II dominance enjoyed by the U.S. Bouyed by a determined and competitive population who came from far and wide to pursue thier dreams. Americans, many of whom were the first generation born here carried on in the spirit of "we are all in this together" and shared resources this land is blessed with to prove that 'E Pluribus Unum" was acheivable.
Today, we are faced with a political landscape that has abandoned the very principles which underlie how capitalism will thrive in a democratic Republic. Instead we are hamstrung with politics as blood sport and have embraced "socialism",.... FOR THE RICH.
Fascism is equally bad whether it comes from the far right or the far left. it just ends badly.
I'm beginning to appreciate other countries for their sanity. Next to them, and I could name quite a few, we're sinking further and further into 3rd world status with bigoted and evil rulers!
When the issued the "gold" Presidential coins there was so much blowback they stopped circulating them. And now the moron in chief wants to start issuing them again when NOBODY fucking wants them.
"But it would be an indestructible coin, the most indestructible coin in the world, a coin with such high demand from collectors that no one want to have it in circulation and destroy its value."
Sadly, "Loonie" has already been used as the nickname for Canadian one dollar coins; otherwise, it would have been an excellent moniker for the one dollar Trump coin.
(By the way, our nickname refers to the bird that appeared on the back of the first one dollar coins, not our head of state on the front.)
I immediately have to think of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" where he warns against listening to 'undertakers' (=entrepreneurs) too much when deciding on public policy. He warns that in the end they are in it for their bottom line only. His example was, as I recall, existing entrepreneurs arguing against the monopolies of the guilds (as opposed to free markets), but the argument itself was more generic. The free market is an optimum-seeking system, but the players in it want their own optimum, not society's. Society needs a government to make sure the market is a 'fair market'.
With lots of money in politics, the 'free market' politicians Milton-Friedman-simplistic style, understand so little and believe such 'simplisms' that they actually work against a *free* market. The existing oligarchs create an unfree-market. Not just illiberal-democracies, but also non free 'markets'. Highly irritating, the utter stupidity of it all.
Mancur Olson covers this topic well. He noted that the longer a democratic government is in place, the more the institutions are bought off by rent seekers.
I know this is a really dumb question but why would dog catcher be an elected office?
As a Canadian, it seems that many elected positions in the USA have an inherent conflict of interest as the mere fact that the position is an elected one influences the office holder to make decisions which are popular rather than ones that are right, just, or fair.
Not dumb at all. The US is overly 'electified'. Judges are elected, sheriffs are elected, etc. Everything is 'politicised'. This makes the system unstable (as does 1-seat-per-district based voting). You need to have some influence over the 'career officials' but it needs to be at a very safe distance. And in the case of judges it is extra dangerous, it destroys the separation of powers which is one of the most important sources of both 'good governance' and 'wealth'. The latter has to do with the fact that only a really independent judiciary creates a situation where people can trust their (ownership) rights, claims and so forth and I have read research once that showed a strong correlation between an independent judiciary and economic growth. Who dares to invest if what you do can be taken away on a whim by the powers that be?
Until Citizens United and various other ludicrous court decisions on campaign finance are repealed, the GOP will remain a oligarch financed cesspool of racists, xenophobes, and religious fanatics.
US foreign policy in the hands of a nutter. Hasn't he done enough damage to the US? Well, apparently not. I guess this is what happens when you put a man driven primarily by resentment and greed in charge of your country & (apparently) have no mechanism for removing him, however poor his decision making. The Borgias would have had an eleganct solution to this. Yes, I know about amendment 25. Sadly, it needs a second mechanism involving an objective body who can make the decision to remove said nutter, and, unfortunately, they are nutters all the way down...
The entire political strategy at the top is completely broken and based on stopping progress around the world. We trusted the American uniform and gave everything for the alliance on the ground, but the leaders in safe rooms forgot about us as soon as the mission ended. They completely left their Afghan allies behind
Completely predictable , we've always abandoned allies once we get bored and move on to the really important stuff like tax cuts for corporations and the Epstein class.
Now Iran is striking US military bases. There are about 800 of these outside the US around the world. As an American citizen, can you name even one military base outside the US? Talk about a shadow government.
Here's just one of the frightening but true things you've set before us this morning: "this administration is hostile to progress whenever that progress works against the interests and ideology of the oligarchs who have poured money into Trump’s campaigns and his pockets." The others are equivalently concerning. I've been sensing that we've been captured and are being ravaged by the 'cabal' for decades now. Such is the sad fate of intuitive people with no credentials entitling them to a hearing. Although it's a day late and a dollar short I'm so grateful that someone like you is now offering such cogent observations and warnings to those who are willing to pay attention. Maybe we can save the house from burning to the ground. Keep sounding the alarm.
And, meanwhile, we have in the news that this will be a huge el Nino year. Amazonian deforestation is one of the drivers of this as well as aberrations in the monsoon. When we distance the US from Brazil, we lose influence to help Brazil deal with environmental problems that are worldwide in scope.
The interesting thing is that cellphone availability across all levels of society is well above ve 90%, and a digital currency allows even the poorest of people to deal with currency in a safe manner, without a bank. That is huge in developing countries, but it is also a reality in the US. At some point, a progressive politician or two here will start to promote exactly this notion, that this is a way for people to lower expenses, because it removes some credit card fees from their lives.
In rural areas we still don't have reliable cell service. I have no cell service at my house, I use wifi. Our original carrier, US Cellular, was the best in the area. It was recently taken over by T Mobile who immediately enshittified and now no one has cell service in our small town. You have to drive 10 miles to get cell service. I hear they took out the tower that served the area.
It wasn't just us. I was on vacation to another outback area, no cell service...and talked to a woman from another rural area...US Cellular got taken over by T Mobile and now her service is severely diminished.
The best thing that could happen there is that the current administration lose ALL influence. And not just in Brazil, either. Their idea of dealing with environmental problems is to clear-cut everything to reduce forest fires. Give them time, they'll put ticket sales around Old Faithful (and everything else they can market).
I refused to use PayPal after they enabled phishing way back when they first started. I don't want to use a product who's owners don't care ( or actively encourage) fraud.
Yes. And to point at another way that companies don’t care to make things easier/better/cheaper for consumers…PP and Venmo don’t talk to one another. You can’t merge accounts or transfer between them.
Paypal is no longer owned by South African entities. According to geographic ownership data, entities and individuals in South Africa hold only about 0.02% of PayPal’s total shares. Currently, most shareholders are American.
Thwy aren't really complaining about gas prices much, about electricity prices - honestly, in some places, people would be on the streets complaining about prices. Remember the drumbeat of inflation news under Biden, and the news stories about struggling people. The newspapers and big media made it a story, and people voted against Biden because of it. The media is subservient to the oligarchy.
Yes... and sadly, it's not just the media that's the problem. I've been saying over and over that the Democratic party needs to not only clarify its mission but also change its name. People are way too hung up on labels. Almost half of America would vote against Jesus if he had a 'D' next to his name.
Many of those folks would cry conspiracy when it turned out that the Jesus they saw on their screens was actually a middle eastern man instead of a blue eyed white guy. Never mind how his interview and debate answers wouldn’t jive with the way they practice their “Christianity”.
There was a cool refrigerator magnet with a middle eastern Jesus saying, "I saw that." I liked that. My son who goes to church more than the rest of us got it.
Nothing would be better if we all followed the teachings of Jesus, especially MAGA.
My previous postal carrier’s name was Jesús. There had been a rash of burglaries from roofing and construction crew vehicles. I was out walking my dog and Jesus was walking in the opposite direction and asked me to tell the roofing crew on the corner that the mailman said for them to lock their trucks because some guys were on there way to steal their stuff. When I got up to the house, I realized why he said “the mailman said” and not, “Jesús said.” We laughed about it later. “Jesus just told me to tell you that you’re about to be robbed.” 😂
Brazil handled the first tariffs intelligently for that. They started selling their coffee to Canadian companies, who sold it in the States. The tariffs on Canadian goods were much lower than those on Brazil. Everyone was fairly happy about it, with the exception of the old U.S. importers who lost all of their Brazilian contacts. Of course, now DonnyJon is threatening high tariffs on Canada. Because of course he is.
To quote a yard sign in Minneapolis: “It ends when enough of us say it ends.” I’m looking at voters that sat out 2024 and that 30% of us that don’t vote.
when WE vote them all out. VOTE FOR PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES!
demand Ranked Choice voting and open primaries, the criminalization of Big Money in politics, support INDEPENDENT MEDIA and LOCAL FARMERS, let's take back our independence from the wealthy and tax them out of existence so the rest of us can have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
When is Congress going to pull the plug on corruption and stupidity? Answer: When the corrupt and stupid GOP are voted out and replaced by ethical and intelligent leadership.
Congress won't do anything until we change the Primary system. The Primary system, with safe seats, is what is keeping Trump powerful. He can rule the Republican party because all he has to appeal to is the most radical 30% who vote in the primaries. He successfully "primaried" several prominent Republicans for lack of total fealty. You can bet all Republicans took notice. He's also got thugs in waiting who threaten the unfaithful and their families...Margorie Taylor Greene.
Everyone needs to subvert the Primary system. Some states have open primaries. Vote for the party that is dominant in your district. We don't have open primaries where I live, so I registered Republican so I could vote for the party that mattered in my district. I DO NOT HAVE TO VOTE REPUBLICAN IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. (There was an excellent young man running for state representative, Republican, who I was proud to vote for.)
Vote strategically in the primaries!!! If you are in a safe Republican district, vote Republican in the Primary. If that's too embarrassing LIE, or obfuscate. No one needs to know.
Where I live, there's no competition in the Republican primary. The only way that could change is if Chris Smith offends Trump in some way, and I wouldn't want to vote for either candidate if that occurs.
There is nothing that a single person can do. However, it is a movement that only requires individuals to act. It doesn't require a constitutional amendment or federal legislation.
If people start voting in the dominant party's primary, and let it be known they are doing so, it will encourage a different type of candidate. As it stands now, only a small percentage of Republicans or Democrats are choosing who will be in office. Those are the most dogmatic and extreme.
I also think if we can shift back to where actual majorities of voters participate in the primaries, it will stymie the worse of the special interests. As it is all they have to do is figure out which buttons to push for the furthest left or right.
Yes and no. I'm running my mouth whenever, it seems appropriate. I am proudly a Subversive RINO. I should get a bumper sticker that says RINO and proud of it.
As long as Trump has the ability to determine who will win in the primaries, Republican representatives and senators will support him. They don't want to lose their seats. Where else can you legally use insider information to enrich yourself? It's is called insider trading anywhere else and it's aa crime, or at least it used be.
We have a prior example of law that precludes study - the study of gun violence. Was that a good idea? I don't think so. Driving a wedge between understanding reality and fantasy leads us to think we live in cartoon world - Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote. Reality doesn't make exceptions for beliefs that disagree; the consequences are very real.
I still have no idea what the big deal is. We in Europe already use instantaneous wire transfer of Euros from one bank account to another, without any additional fees like PayPal would charge. Just this morning I used it to settle a bill.
I wish someone would explain what this "digital currency" thing is about.
But you still require a private company (your bank) as an intermediary (and your bank does charge you for its services). A digital currency like the planned digital Euro does not require private companies to work and no terms and conditions apply. Infrastructure (digital wallet) is state managed.
"A digital currency like the planned digital Euro does not require private companies to work"
Thank you for the explanation. I'm not sure I'll cancel my bank account just yet though, because:
"Infrastructure (digital wallet) is state managed."
Aye, there's the rub. In Germany where I live, "state managed IT infrastructure" is an indictment, and a guarantee that it won't work.
Just last week a fluke in the IT infrastructure of Germany's capital Berlin led to a total collapse of all judicial services: No E-Mail for state employees, no access to court files, no nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNpAxHFvr8
You don't want to depend on clowns like these when it comes to having the ability to settle bills or pay for food at the supermarket, do you?
Better clowns who occasionally fail than crooks who provide overly expensive service...or no service at all if the profit isn't there. That's what rural America faces.
Private ownership does not necessarily mean better performance, in the same way that public ownership does not necessarily mean worse performance. There are private companies that are awful (like those owned by Musk), and public companies that are very well run (like some rail systems in Europe).
Naturally, a private bank charges you for its services. I checked and the bank that I have (100% Internet, no offices) charges me absolutely nothing for basic services as receiving/sending money and paying bills. A debit card with them would be around €25 a year, so I have a debit card from a niche bank that cost €0 a year. Those two banks makes their profit on loans and savings mainly and since I'm debt free I'm not being skinned.
I'm with a credit union and my situation is similar, except that my ATM card (a debit card) is free. The only charges for me in the last year have been the two times I forgot about outstanding checks and wound up with overdraft fees ($30 each time).
I think this topic is very US-specific. The digital currency is about giving digital money the same attributes as minted money, i.e. cash digital money with no handling fees. Could be pre-paid payment cards.
The big deal about that is that all banking transactions currently go through the U.S.. That allows the U.S. to apply sanctions on anyone anywhere. Brazil cut itself out of that years ago, and this is just the latest move. I visited Brazil three years ago. The situation at that time was that U.S. credit cards were not accepted, though you *could* get money from an ATM if you could handle the prompts (not easy if you don't read Portuguese). The money, of course, would be reals. So, even then, your typical Brazilian could not be sanctioned by the U.S. government.
I'm pretty sure that the current administration really doesn't understand that situation and thinks this is the first step against sanctions, instead of it being one of the last.
"The big deal about that is that all banking transactions currently go through the U.S."
I'm not sure what you mean. In what way does it "go through the U.S." when a German customer pays a French supplier via a SEPA transfer? Can you explain what makes you believe this?
"The dollar’s centrality to the system of global payments also increases the power of U.S. financial sanctions. Almost all trade done in U.S. dollars, even trade among other countries, can be subject to U.S. sanctions, because they are handled by so-called correspondent banks with accounts at the Federal Reserve. By cutting off the ability to transact in dollars, the United States can make it difficult for those it blacklists to do business." - from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/dollar-worlds-reserve-currency
And, as Paul has repeatedly pointed out, the dollar is frequently the intermediate currency in transactions, though this should not be the case if both parties share the same currency.
It doesn't really answer Rainer's question since the SEPA system (Single Euro Payments Area) only facilitates payments in Euro.
The main thing about US$ is that virtually all commodities on the world market are traded in US$, which is why US$ is the world's reserve currency, a.k.a. the Petrodollar, the latter since oil is traded via US$.
And, as you've mentioned, trading in US$ also makes the deal within reach of the U.S. government and the U.S. judicial system.
The issue with national digital currencies is not primarily due to the loss of the Petrodollar's influence, but because Banking America (credit card companies) gets little influence in that particular market.
Then I don't really understand why the new Brazilian system is causing such a fuss. When I was in Brazil a few years ago, you couldn't use "Banking America" for anything much down there. The best thing a traveler could do was to take $20 bills to a money changer and exchange them for reals. I was given to understand that it was illegal for local businesses to take Visa cards, with the exception of hotels. I could, of course, have been misinformed.
You actually describe what the fuss is about - Banking America can't be used for anything much in Brazil. Pix renders Banking America unwanted. Banking America is not interested in Pix when they're not welcome, ergo the headline of this article.
PIX, in Brazil, enables most people, even those without bank accounts to make or receive electronic payments at no cost to them. All that is needed is a smartphone and either a bank account or a digital wallet. This empowers a considerable part of Brazil's poor population. In this regard, the European context is completely different from Brazil's.
The problem in the US is that Congress, pushed by corporations who benefit from the status quo (mostly credit/debit card companies and others like Paypal, Visa, etc.) are completely opposed to the implementation of a system similar to PIX, which would benefit a large majority of the US population.
This is just one of Trump's wars on the future.
Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars for future generation to repay, stripping environmental protections, trying to hold back the tide of ethnic diversity in the United States are also on the list.
He is the fat, demented, criminal, racist Don Quixote of our time without the literary romance or love of humanity.
Trump's only interests are here, now and him.
tRump is in the Oval Office because the Oligarchs/Special Interests paid for him to be there. He is the face of the whole architecture of special interest in our Economy and Financial system which makes everything in our system more expensive and less efficient. Perhaps the gross corruption on display for all to see, will finally engender the quiet revolution it will take to fix this. Perhaps.
Don't just blame the oligarchs. 77 million people voted for the guy, and most of them weren't Elon wannabes living in their parent's basement. Short-sightedness and stupidity are now as American as apple pie.
... and 30% of Americans tell polsters they would vote for Trump if the 2024 election were re-run today (20-Jul-2026). Decision makers outside the US look at this number and conclude that no deal they make with the US is worth the paper it's written on.
The Donald never made a deal in his life that was worth the paper it was written on. He's ripped off so many people, going back decades. . . .
America has always had the short-sighted and plenty of stupidity. But oligarchs are giving them propaganda and their marching orders via their total takeover of mass media.
But again, my point is that tens of millions of people who aren't glued to Fox and don't worship the ground that Elon or Jeff or Peter walk on still voted for the guy twice. To some extent it's that politics and politicians have failed the people so often in the past 60 years. But even so, it takes a pretty short-sighted and/or stupid person to vote for someone like Trump not once, but twice. I really feel, without being able to prove it objectively, that people have gotten stupider over the past 25 or 35 years.
For what they are worth, exit polls in 2024 showed many white and Latino voters didn't want a woman, let alone one of color, as president. Biden's age and debility mattered in the brand image of the Democrats. People vote their resentments and blame the incumbent, e.g. for prices higher than five years ago. Most of all, between Garland's approach of "Let no one accuse me of impartiality, I will see no evil at the political source of the coup" and Biden's "Let the DoJ take care of it" Trump was left unpunished even when the country's mood was right to nail the repeat malefactor once for all. Democrats believe in policies and fairness, and Biden showed that again, but were tone-deaf on the anti-immigration resentments of many Americans and complacent that Trump was a spent force. They were also open to bribes (Manchin, Sinema, Gillibrand, Fetterman) from crypto and as a party relying on AIPAC. Biden and Harris warned of fascism and the threat to democracy. If they believed they were right, why did Biden also praise the "peaceful transition" to a fascist who was going to trample on the Constitution? Their collective bark was worse than their bite. Yes, Trump was mad, bad, and dangerous, as the famous quote about Byron goes, but people everywhere have short memories, and most voters don't understand economics or policies.
Quite so, I agree.
Hear, hear!!
And MAGA Christian Nationalism has welcomed those stupid people with open arms..
They are not all Christian Nationalists. Sadly, many ultra-religious Jews back Trump because he "loves" Israel. Many on the left care about Israel and its right to exist, but (IMO) rightly want Netanyahu and his far right government gone. Too many are unaware of this distinction.
And don't forget the guns. They love their guns more than their children and the know MAGA will uphold the 2nd Amendment come hell or high water. MAGA has built a coalition of gun lovers, Christian Nationalists, racists, low tax, low regulation zealots.
Trump tuned into their (generated) fear and bigotries. They also bought into the lie that Harris was a warmonger and Trump would stop endless wars.
People who got their faces eaten off (lost well-paid work in projects like solar and wind farms) echoed the anti-immigrant disinformation and/or the disdain for educated elites. They've been programmed with these talking points for decades and at last they found someone their pastors and podcasters liked.
I'm not so sure that old IQ testing directly maps out onto modern Neuropsychiatric testing, but in essence, you are on the right track. The problem is that our social fabric has been shredded and how to repair it is the $64,000 question.
Correct, there are many who watch Fox and other such propaganda mills and still don't vote Republican, but there are enough who do watch Fox and do vote Republican because of what they see on Fox. The argument is a non sequitur. Btw,, Fox has the largest viewership of all the news outlets, even though it doesn't have a news license.
Citizens United must be overturned. It won't happen in the Roberts Court. Oligarchs have not just taken over some media (not all), they fund huge PACs to sway voters with names that sound just, like "freedom," and the poorly education/ low-information voters believe them. On the plus side, 30% of voters who love Trump can't win any election if we turn out more of the other 70%. That must be the short-term goal.
Their pulpits and TV and radio and propagandist-infested social media provide them with all of the disinformation needed to elect more Republicans (or at least non-DEMONcrats).
Twenty-five years ago I was part of a movement that tried to point out the irrationality ("stupidity") of supernatural beliefs being used to corrupt education and policy. Trumpism isn't new: Ridiculous religious beliefs have long been defended as "harmless" even though they undermined scientific discoveries (vaccines, evolution, addiction, sexuality).
But the oligarchs own the press and media, the primary source of information and propaganda to feed the peasants. It's manufactured consent.
That is unfortunately so true. And also, despite everything that happened in the last 18 months, polls state that Trump’s approval on economy is 32%. 32%? Really? Who are those people? As I use to say, 10% the filthy riches and those benefiting from the system, fine. Even 20%, adding up the wannabes. But above 30%? That blows my mind.
I fear it cannot be both quiet and effective at the same time. Whispers offer faint resistance to oligarchs, special interests and hundred-billionaires.
We can fight back. Here is one way:
https://tdhawkes.substack.com/p/how-to-start-fighting-back-against
Letter writing won't cut it, which these ideas are about. We are living in a corporatocracy, not a democracy. If Republican politicians are corrupting the system against the people in the interests of their paymasters/ruling oligarchs, as PK's article points out, letter writing to a Republican politician is a fool's errand. It's equivalent to writing Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him to stop the genocide in Palestine and give up all the territory in the occupied land. Don't waste your time.
Believe what you will. So will I. Free country here.
That's exactly what MAGA tells itself every day. But you might want to ask yourself how effective has your letter writing campaign to Republican politicians been so far?
"Speaking up" when anyone who can do anything about it won't hear you is no different from screaming into the void. I passed a political protest at a major intersection (which I first thought was yet another can-shaking donor event), and I couldn't tell what the protest was about and pay attention to driving. They probably felt good comradeship while doing it, but they weren't telling me anything I didn't know and weren't likely to inform or change the minds of MAGAts.
Here's hoping!
This is the cause of the "Cory Doctorowization" of American life.
SB - not only is our system more expensive and less efficient - it is also incapable of policing itself against the level of greed and stupidity that will cause the next bubble to burst .
The circuit breakers have been dismantled to insulate Main Street from the exuberance
of Wall Street . Couple that with less oversight from the Frderal Reserve , deregulation , the rise of private credit ( shadow banking ) ,
crypto insanity and out of control investment in AI - and it would not surprise me if our former allies would be looking to replace trading partners as well as the reserve currency of the world - the late great US $ .
Watch the level of bankrupt firms rise - and hold on to your wallet - it’s gonna be a bumpy ride .
Gold, AI, Housing, Stocks are all bubbles now. I truly believe tRump is pumping for the next depression.
I don't hold out much hope. With close to 40% of trumpers still supporting the villain and the villain's corruption of the November election, it's quite possible that democracy in the USA is finished. The only action stopping this coup will be people taking to the streets and possibly a lot of bodies dead. This, I'm afraid, is the most likely outcome.
This is a war against the future. But it is also a republican war against humanity. They do not want to help people in any way, especially if it’s help from the government. We only exist for the rich to extract from us. They need to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Republicans want to PROVE that government can’t work well for the people.
That’s why they should never be given the keys to the government.
In the last month or so, how many times have you heard or read that "Republicans can't govern"? I know I've heard it several times a week.
It's a very old saying - before Reagan? - that says (paraphrasing) that Republicans say that the government is bad and then they get into power and prove it.
Years ago, George Will wrote, "You can't put the reins of government in the hands of the people who hate government."
I always found that suspect seeing as he was a Republican. If he meant it, wouldn't he have switched parties?
He basically has.
And his understanding of economics and the banking system is nil.
For years, we had to rely on the unreliable USPS to get our payments to the vendors in 5 days and they still didn't always get there in time. And then you had to hope that it was posted the day it was received. And the banks still haven't figured out how to change the due date so that it doesn't fall on a Saturday or Sunday or a holiday.
I was a computer programmer for over 45 years and I could have written that code back in 1977 when I was a junior programmer.
My other pet peeve is why the fuck can't the pharmacies like Walgreens figure out that some months have 28,29,30 or 31 days. Again, elementary stuff. I've asked my pharmacist before on which 5 days of the year am I supposed to skip my medication. Just imagine on a 90 day script always picking it up on the same day each quarter.
If the pharmaceutical companies were losing money on each script instead of making money, they would fix it in a heartbeat. Again, this is junior programmer stuff.
I always wonder why an amount is subtracted from my balance as soon as I make a payment, but incoming money can't be credited until Monday or after a holiday.
Look up the meaning of “playing the float” and you’ll have your answer. It’s a major source of revenue for both banks and insurers of various types.
It is the banking equivalent to "kiting checks," which is classified as criminal
Maybe the discrepancy allows the financial institution to earn interest for itself on money that isn’t in specific accounts yet.
That's not the case with my credit union.
How to join a credit union?
The best way is to join one associated with your profession, or with a relative's profession. For years I had accounts with one where my father worked. Then I got accounts with one in the Telecommunications field. Now I'm with another that's less exclusive but had an office at my employer's building. I believe the original regulations that required a business connection have been removed.
So, find one or more in your area and check them out. If you like what you see and one of them will allow you to join, you're in. If you're in New Jersey, check out Affinity Federal Credit Union.
I hear the voice of fellow disgustipated former programmer regarding the enshitification of Walgreens!!
“Disgustipated!”
Perfect.
May I steal this?
Many thanks!
Please do!!
When Rite Aid shut down our prescriptions were transferred to Walgreens. At the time it was hard to imagine worse service than Rite Aid but now that seems like the good old days.
Good to know. I believe I will stick with local pharmacies. My limited experience with CVS would add it to your two chains.
And now that Walgreens has been sold to a private equity firm, things are going from bad to worse.
And worser if that’s possible
The New York Times home delivery is billed every 28 days. That gives it just over 13 billing periods per year instead of 12 months in the year. It is a way to gain more money while seeming to charge less per month until one does the math....
Not Don Quixote; more like Sancho Panza, yo creo.
or someone to guide him along walkways.
The Turkish president tried to guide him down a red carpet. Unfortunately, someone had placed a microphone beside it halfway down. No way was DonnyJon going to pass that up.
I do enjoy PK’s snark. “For example, should we shut down the U.S. postal service because it offers better and cheaper mail delivery than UPS or FedEx?”
Edit: I hadn’t intended to post this comment within an existing thread. 🙄 Oh well, I’ll leave it since deleting it would delete subsequent replies.
Enshitification keeps making its way into new areas. It’s been ages since I’ve had a FedEx or UPS package arrive by its original delivery date. Always delayed and half the time it seems like they are unsure as to where it even is. I had one recent UPS package arrive at the local facility (literally about 4 miles from me) ahead of time, marked out for delivery, only to somehow be sent three states away, finally making it’s way back to that same local facility to arrive several days after the original delivery date. Impressive, but not the sort I am looking for.
I'm sure the Trump administration would like to do just that. They've enshittified the postal service here in S. Oregon. Everything has to go up to Portland for distribution. It takes longer for mail to go across town than go across the country.
Not Don Quixote. Don Quixote was a man of honor. He believed in a code of conduct that was greater than himself, even if it was all just so much delusional romanticism. Trump's never done anything but gratify his own monstruous lusts all his life. Comparing him to Quixote in any way is an insult to Quixote and Cervantes.
While Drump is being particularly dumb headed about Brazil, this attitude is everywhere in the US banking system. Why do we still have ACH, with its inherent insecurity and 3-5 day settlement period? It's not as if we're trucking bags of checks to a central location any more ... it's banking greed. The same for the exorbitant credit card fees from companies that fight any attempt to introduce lower friction payment. M-Pesa showed the way forward a decade a go. Why is the rest of the world lagging behind?
OK. Both DJT and Don Quixote have issues with windmills but there’s nothing heroic about DJT who’s about as far from being a devotee of chivalry as could be.
“Trump's only interests are here, now and him.”—> Like all psychopaths!
I cant find your comment. anxiousfor news!
Good morning Jane. I just tried again, this time on a message app that I hadn't noticed before You can also call me at 413-446-1220
In everything from energy and the military to finance and healthcare, Trump seems determined to make sure we are firmly planted in the 19th and 20th centuries
Not necessarily in that order.
And money
The maga cult will not realize that by the end of his term the war with the future will be lost.
The MAGA cult doesn't want the future. They want to return to the past.
darn right! hello Erik!
Hi Jane!
I'm going to your sub stack to tell you some news you should know
xo, erik
Après nous, le déluge
Back in the 1980's, Brazil was doing same-day clearing of checks while the US standard was three days. Those Third World countries are so backwards!
Not only that, but Brazil has a safe and very fast electronic voting system that delivers results minutes after voting ends. Oh, and Brazil has tried and jailed the ex-president for attempting a coup d’état and inciting a mob to storm and vandalize the capital of the country.
Which is why Chump really, really hates it....
Marco Rubio is the one to blame here. He has a personal obsession with Cuba and is determined to keep the whole of Latin America on a US leash. Trump doesn’t know Brazil from Bolivia, but he likes the idea of having a long southern backyard that he can control at will, along with Canada and Greenland to the north.
Krugman nailed the reason for Republican and right/wing opposition to a digital dollar - they hate the idea of a government providing a service that could have been provided by the private sector especially when the government can provide better and cheaper service - Republican and right-wing policy objective is to continue the theft of wealth by billionaire oligarchs
In the 1980s wiring directly from your checking account instead of 'sending checks' was already the norm in Europe. I have a very nice Harvard article lying around here somewhere from the 1990s, where a clarifying question about innovation is asked and answered. Who is more innovative? The US for inventing ICs (chips), the Japanese for being the first to use them in consumer electronics and competing US and EU consumer electronics companies (audio, TV) into oblivion, or the Europeans who digitised their payments far, far before the US did creating a very cheap and efficient payment infra? The answer is, none. They all are equally innovative. They just innovate in a different style. Efficiency-innovation is a typically Dutch cultural thing, for instance.
Interesting, but as I remember Europe in the 1980s, Eastern Europe was communist and the EU did not exist, so there was no Euro. I think you need to narrow down your experiences to the country in question.
I remember sending lots of checks in the 1980s and transfering money via Postal Giro for free. The Postal Giro part was privatized during the 1990s and sold to the banks and checks were replaced by credit/debit cards. At least where I live in Europe.
Western Europe indeed, and it varied by country then. There was a predecessor of the EU (EEG, which was after EGKS just after WW2) and yes, it was all country internal and different countries had different systems (still do). We had checks (Eurocheque) which we could use to pay, and there was something in The Netherlands that was 'Acceptgiro' (still exists in a way) where you could pay bills by signing the payment request and send it to your bank. I had a bank card already in the 1970s (but still with signature on the back and signing), but I think in the 1980s already I was wiring money to other people using a written card I could send (for free) to the bank. So you hardly sent checks to other people, almost nobody had a credit card (still many people do not, it's mostly debit).
I probably never sent anyone a paper check in my life and I started doing my own financial things in the second half of the 1970s. How checks were sent and got cleared in the US in the 1990s (and how finance worked) when we visited seemed totally arcane to us. By the time we went there, the checks had been discontinued in The Netherlands already.
And nowadays you can bank-transfer money from, say, Italy to Germany instantly, from any bank to any other bank. No extra fee, no delay, a Telegram (not Whatsapp) message saying, "Hi, I sent You the money", and you can already spend it. Online, e.g. on Aliexpress, not on Amazon, of course, wouldn't like Bezos to get even richer with my money
Yep. And within the SEPA area transfers are free.
Our community started the public/private services scams after manufacturing left the Midwest in the mid-1980s through the 1990s. Take away legitimate ways to earn a living, and the financialization of the economy revved up.
Could such a system involve credit, or would it be a strictly debit system. If not, what might be the effect on credit worthiness or the cost of credit?
Was that era when there was high inflation? Wait 3 days and your money was gone.
Trump’s behavior, shows a pattern of cognitive instability: the rambling speeches, the fragmented thoughts, the invented stories delivered with absolute certainty. The confusion, the slips, the contradictions — all of it paints a picture of a man struggling to maintain mental clarity while holding immense power. These symptoms, taken together, suggest he is not well mentally and that his decision‑making is just based on vague ideas fed to him by his incompetent team
Maybe his team isn't incompetent. I think they are evil, bigoted, and self serving and have figured out a way to steal from and scam the rest of us. I call that competent in the worst way! It's what we must fight against!
Exactly. He’s just a useful tool and has always been too foolish to realize how incompetent he is.
Pretty competent about enriching himself though!
Grover Norquist only wanted a potus who could sign his name. Got his wish.
Doesn't look that way any more. His last few signatures seem to have way too many "m"s.
@Nancy Bingo! Trump is just a vehicle for the evil people around his that want to destroy democracy and promote oligarchy. Project 2025.
I think they're all of those things but also mostly incompetent.
You have a point. In his first run, his handlers came up with the idea of a border wall to keep Trump concentrating on the immigration battles. If it hadn't been for them, he would still be a has-been living in Manhattan.
Trump has always pretty much behaved like this. I mean, re "invented stories delivered with absolute certainty," think Revolutionary era airports. Confusion, slips, contradictions - yep, you can find them all 10 years ago. He's never been "mentally well." Psychopath, pathological liar, instinctive grifter - and moron. Is he somewhat worse now? Maybe but it's honestly hard to tell.
He has so much support around him, it's hard to tell if he's gotten worse or if he just has a stronger group of allies behind him.
I fear that if DJT were to die and return as a mindless, brain-eating zombie, the MAGA base would still adore him. "He's one of the guys! He understands ordinary people. He never lies."
The end of a great American era is underway. Like all "Empires", it is always hubris that brings it down. Can you think of more descriptive word than "hubris" for the characterization of Trump's administration?
We spent 50 years or so in the halo of the post World War II dominance enjoyed by the U.S. Bouyed by a determined and competitive population who came from far and wide to pursue thier dreams. Americans, many of whom were the first generation born here carried on in the spirit of "we are all in this together" and shared resources this land is blessed with to prove that 'E Pluribus Unum" was acheivable.
Today, we are faced with a political landscape that has abandoned the very principles which underlie how capitalism will thrive in a democratic Republic. Instead we are hamstrung with politics as blood sport and have embraced "socialism",.... FOR THE RICH.
Fascism is equally bad whether it comes from the far right or the far left. it just ends badly.
Think Rome. Late Rome.
I'm beginning to appreciate other countries for their sanity. Next to them, and I could name quite a few, we're sinking further and further into 3rd world status with bigoted and evil rulers!
Hear, hear!!
A Marine with a degree in Philosophy,...... a man after my own heart.
P.S. General Mattis would approve. That's why he could not stomach Donald Trump.
I am both amazed and relieved that Republicans have NOT moved a bill to replace the dollar with TrumpCoin.
I've decided to not accept a Trump dollar coin as legitimate currency when it comes out. How about you?
Agree.
When the issued the "gold" Presidential coins there was so much blowback they stopped circulating them. And now the moron in chief wants to start issuing them again when NOBODY fucking wants them.
Have you seen a Sacagawea dollar lately? Same deal, for different reasons.
Yet .
"But it would be an indestructible coin, the most indestructible coin in the world, a coin with such high demand from collectors that no one want to have it in circulation and destroy its value."
Sadly, "Loonie" has already been used as the nickname for Canadian one dollar coins; otherwise, it would have been an excellent moniker for the one dollar Trump coin.
(By the way, our nickname refers to the bird that appeared on the back of the first one dollar coins, not our head of state on the front.)
I immediately have to think of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" where he warns against listening to 'undertakers' (=entrepreneurs) too much when deciding on public policy. He warns that in the end they are in it for their bottom line only. His example was, as I recall, existing entrepreneurs arguing against the monopolies of the guilds (as opposed to free markets), but the argument itself was more generic. The free market is an optimum-seeking system, but the players in it want their own optimum, not society's. Society needs a government to make sure the market is a 'fair market'.
With lots of money in politics, the 'free market' politicians Milton-Friedman-simplistic style, understand so little and believe such 'simplisms' that they actually work against a *free* market. The existing oligarchs create an unfree-market. Not just illiberal-democracies, but also non free 'markets'. Highly irritating, the utter stupidity of it all.
Mancur Olson covers this topic well. He noted that the longer a democratic government is in place, the more the institutions are bought off by rent seekers.
Vote against all GOP candidates above dogcatcher
What have dogs done to deserve that?
Above. Not at and above
I'm with you .🌊🌊🌊
What? Including dogcatchers.
I know this is a really dumb question but why would dog catcher be an elected office?
As a Canadian, it seems that many elected positions in the USA have an inherent conflict of interest as the mere fact that the position is an elected one influences the office holder to make decisions which are popular rather than ones that are right, just, or fair.
Not dumb at all. The US is overly 'electified'. Judges are elected, sheriffs are elected, etc. Everything is 'politicised'. This makes the system unstable (as does 1-seat-per-district based voting). You need to have some influence over the 'career officials' but it needs to be at a very safe distance. And in the case of judges it is extra dangerous, it destroys the separation of powers which is one of the most important sources of both 'good governance' and 'wealth'. The latter has to do with the fact that only a really independent judiciary creates a situation where people can trust their (ownership) rights, claims and so forth and I have read research once that showed a strong correlation between an independent judiciary and economic growth. Who dares to invest if what you do can be taken away on a whim by the powers that be?
Hear, hear!!
You will never see anyone run against Chris Smith in the NJ District 4 Republican primary. The Republican party would be fools to allow it.
Until Citizens United and various other ludicrous court decisions on campaign finance are repealed, the GOP will remain a oligarch financed cesspool of racists, xenophobes, and religious fanatics.
US foreign policy in the hands of a nutter. Hasn't he done enough damage to the US? Well, apparently not. I guess this is what happens when you put a man driven primarily by resentment and greed in charge of your country & (apparently) have no mechanism for removing him, however poor his decision making. The Borgias would have had an eleganct solution to this. Yes, I know about amendment 25. Sadly, it needs a second mechanism involving an objective body who can make the decision to remove said nutter, and, unfortunately, they are nutters all the way down...
Actually, there are mechanisms to remove him. We just don't have enough people with the moral courage to use them.
The entire political strategy at the top is completely broken and based on stopping progress around the world. We trusted the American uniform and gave everything for the alliance on the ground, but the leaders in safe rooms forgot about us as soon as the mission ended. They completely left their Afghan allies behind
Completely predictable , we've always abandoned allies once we get bored and move on to the really important stuff like tax cuts for corporations and the Epstein class.
and the Kurds amd Yazidis
Now Iran is striking US military bases. There are about 800 of these outside the US around the world. As an American citizen, can you name even one military base outside the US? Talk about a shadow government.
Here's just one of the frightening but true things you've set before us this morning: "this administration is hostile to progress whenever that progress works against the interests and ideology of the oligarchs who have poured money into Trump’s campaigns and his pockets." The others are equivalently concerning. I've been sensing that we've been captured and are being ravaged by the 'cabal' for decades now. Such is the sad fate of intuitive people with no credentials entitling them to a hearing. Although it's a day late and a dollar short I'm so grateful that someone like you is now offering such cogent observations and warnings to those who are willing to pay attention. Maybe we can save the house from burning to the ground. Keep sounding the alarm.
And, meanwhile, we have in the news that this will be a huge el Nino year. Amazonian deforestation is one of the drivers of this as well as aberrations in the monsoon. When we distance the US from Brazil, we lose influence to help Brazil deal with environmental problems that are worldwide in scope.
The interesting thing is that cellphone availability across all levels of society is well above ve 90%, and a digital currency allows even the poorest of people to deal with currency in a safe manner, without a bank. That is huge in developing countries, but it is also a reality in the US. At some point, a progressive politician or two here will start to promote exactly this notion, that this is a way for people to lower expenses, because it removes some credit card fees from their lives.
Totally agree about Amazonian deforestation. Frankly, Bolsonaro showed have been sent to prison for that, also.
In rural areas we still don't have reliable cell service. I have no cell service at my house, I use wifi. Our original carrier, US Cellular, was the best in the area. It was recently taken over by T Mobile who immediately enshittified and now no one has cell service in our small town. You have to drive 10 miles to get cell service. I hear they took out the tower that served the area.
It wasn't just us. I was on vacation to another outback area, no cell service...and talked to a woman from another rural area...US Cellular got taken over by T Mobile and now her service is severely diminished.
The best thing that could happen there is that the current administration lose ALL influence. And not just in Brazil, either. Their idea of dealing with environmental problems is to clear-cut everything to reduce forest fires. Give them time, they'll put ticket sales around Old Faithful (and everything else they can market).
The band is Catalan, and here they're singing in Portuguese.
Remind me, Brazil speaks Portuguese? So, related tangentially.
Yes. I think that was his point. Note grammar of his musical coda presentation.
Venmo & PayPal are not useful unless you're Amazon.
I won't use Amazon, Venmo is truly strange, they label people as scam artists without proof, and PayPal is run by S. African nazis.
My credit union is great though!
Agree... I avoid PayPal like the plague. Most of my utilities are on auto-pay.
I refused to use PayPal after they enabled phishing way back when they first started. I don't want to use a product who's owners don't care ( or actively encourage) fraud.
Doesn’t PayPal own Venmo?
Yes. And to point at another way that companies don’t care to make things easier/better/cheaper for consumers…PP and Venmo don’t talk to one another. You can’t merge accounts or transfer between them.
Paypal is no longer owned by South African entities. According to geographic ownership data, entities and individuals in South Africa hold only about 0.02% of PayPal’s total shares. Currently, most shareholders are American.
Doubt Americans will complain unless morning coffee gets really expensive
Thwy aren't really complaining about gas prices much, about electricity prices - honestly, in some places, people would be on the streets complaining about prices. Remember the drumbeat of inflation news under Biden, and the news stories about struggling people. The newspapers and big media made it a story, and people voted against Biden because of it. The media is subservient to the oligarchy.
it was never about prices
Yes... and sadly, it's not just the media that's the problem. I've been saying over and over that the Democratic party needs to not only clarify its mission but also change its name. People are way too hung up on labels. Almost half of America would vote against Jesus if he had a 'D' next to his name.
Many of those folks would cry conspiracy when it turned out that the Jesus they saw on their screens was actually a middle eastern man instead of a blue eyed white guy. Never mind how his interview and debate answers wouldn’t jive with the way they practice their “Christianity”.
There was a cool refrigerator magnet with a middle eastern Jesus saying, "I saw that." I liked that. My son who goes to church more than the rest of us got it.
Nothing would be better if we all followed the teachings of Jesus, especially MAGA.
More than that wouldn’t vote for him because his name is Jesus!
Sounds Hispanic, eh?
Exactly!
My previous postal carrier’s name was Jesús. There had been a rash of burglaries from roofing and construction crew vehicles. I was out walking my dog and Jesus was walking in the opposite direction and asked me to tell the roofing crew on the corner that the mailman said for them to lock their trucks because some guys were on there way to steal their stuff. When I got up to the house, I realized why he said “the mailman said” and not, “Jesús said.” We laughed about it later. “Jesus just told me to tell you that you’re about to be robbed.” 😂
More specifically, it's subservient to the right - which is who supports the oligarchy.
Brazil handled the first tariffs intelligently for that. They started selling their coffee to Canadian companies, who sold it in the States. The tariffs on Canadian goods were much lower than those on Brazil. Everyone was fairly happy about it, with the exception of the old U.S. importers who lost all of their Brazilian contacts. Of course, now DonnyJon is threatening high tariffs on Canada. Because of course he is.
Seriously, when is congress going to pull the plug on the corruption and stupidity?
To quote a yard sign in Minneapolis: “It ends when enough of us say it ends.” I’m looking at voters that sat out 2024 and that 30% of us that don’t vote.
Hear, hear!!
when WE vote them all out. VOTE FOR PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES!
demand Ranked Choice voting and open primaries, the criminalization of Big Money in politics, support INDEPENDENT MEDIA and LOCAL FARMERS, let's take back our independence from the wealthy and tax them out of existence so the rest of us can have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
they ARE the corruption
When is Congress going to pull the plug on corruption and stupidity? Answer: When the corrupt and stupid GOP are voted out and replaced by ethical and intelligent leadership.
Congress won't do anything until we change the Primary system. The Primary system, with safe seats, is what is keeping Trump powerful. He can rule the Republican party because all he has to appeal to is the most radical 30% who vote in the primaries. He successfully "primaried" several prominent Republicans for lack of total fealty. You can bet all Republicans took notice. He's also got thugs in waiting who threaten the unfaithful and their families...Margorie Taylor Greene.
Everyone needs to subvert the Primary system. Some states have open primaries. Vote for the party that is dominant in your district. We don't have open primaries where I live, so I registered Republican so I could vote for the party that mattered in my district. I DO NOT HAVE TO VOTE REPUBLICAN IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. (There was an excellent young man running for state representative, Republican, who I was proud to vote for.)
Vote strategically in the primaries!!! If you are in a safe Republican district, vote Republican in the Primary. If that's too embarrassing LIE, or obfuscate. No one needs to know.
Where I live, there's no competition in the Republican primary. The only way that could change is if Chris Smith offends Trump in some way, and I wouldn't want to vote for either candidate if that occurs.
There is nothing that a single person can do. However, it is a movement that only requires individuals to act. It doesn't require a constitutional amendment or federal legislation.
If people start voting in the dominant party's primary, and let it be known they are doing so, it will encourage a different type of candidate. As it stands now, only a small percentage of Republicans or Democrats are choosing who will be in office. Those are the most dogmatic and extreme.
I also think if we can shift back to where actual majorities of voters participate in the primaries, it will stymie the worse of the special interests. As it is all they have to do is figure out which buttons to push for the furthest left or right.
I hope you're not sitting on your front porch waiting for that to happen....
Yes and no. I'm running my mouth whenever, it seems appropriate. I am proudly a Subversive RINO. I should get a bumper sticker that says RINO and proud of it.
As long as Trump has the ability to determine who will win in the primaries, Republican representatives and senators will support him. They don't want to lose their seats. Where else can you legally use insider information to enrich yourself? It's is called insider trading anywhere else and it's aa crime, or at least it used be.
We have a prior example of law that precludes study - the study of gun violence. Was that a good idea? I don't think so. Driving a wedge between understanding reality and fantasy leads us to think we live in cartoon world - Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote. Reality doesn't make exceptions for beliefs that disagree; the consequences are very real.
I still have no idea what the big deal is. We in Europe already use instantaneous wire transfer of Euros from one bank account to another, without any additional fees like PayPal would charge. Just this morning I used it to settle a bill.
I wish someone would explain what this "digital currency" thing is about.
But you still require a private company (your bank) as an intermediary (and your bank does charge you for its services). A digital currency like the planned digital Euro does not require private companies to work and no terms and conditions apply. Infrastructure (digital wallet) is state managed.
"A digital currency like the planned digital Euro does not require private companies to work"
Thank you for the explanation. I'm not sure I'll cancel my bank account just yet though, because:
"Infrastructure (digital wallet) is state managed."
Aye, there's the rub. In Germany where I live, "state managed IT infrastructure" is an indictment, and a guarantee that it won't work.
Just last week a fluke in the IT infrastructure of Germany's capital Berlin led to a total collapse of all judicial services: No E-Mail for state employees, no access to court files, no nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNpAxHFvr8
You don't want to depend on clowns like these when it comes to having the ability to settle bills or pay for food at the supermarket, do you?
Better clowns who occasionally fail than crooks who provide overly expensive service...or no service at all if the profit isn't there. That's what rural America faces.
Private ownership does not necessarily mean better performance, in the same way that public ownership does not necessarily mean worse performance. There are private companies that are awful (like those owned by Musk), and public companies that are very well run (like some rail systems in Europe).
Naturally, a private bank charges you for its services. I checked and the bank that I have (100% Internet, no offices) charges me absolutely nothing for basic services as receiving/sending money and paying bills. A debit card with them would be around €25 a year, so I have a debit card from a niche bank that cost €0 a year. Those two banks makes their profit on loans and savings mainly and since I'm debt free I'm not being skinned.
I'm with a credit union and my situation is similar, except that my ATM card (a debit card) is free. The only charges for me in the last year have been the two times I forgot about outstanding checks and wound up with overdraft fees ($30 each time).
Yes, Portugal has had MBWay for more than 10 years.
I think this topic is very US-specific. The digital currency is about giving digital money the same attributes as minted money, i.e. cash digital money with no handling fees. Could be pre-paid payment cards.
The big deal about that is that all banking transactions currently go through the U.S.. That allows the U.S. to apply sanctions on anyone anywhere. Brazil cut itself out of that years ago, and this is just the latest move. I visited Brazil three years ago. The situation at that time was that U.S. credit cards were not accepted, though you *could* get money from an ATM if you could handle the prompts (not easy if you don't read Portuguese). The money, of course, would be reals. So, even then, your typical Brazilian could not be sanctioned by the U.S. government.
I'm pretty sure that the current administration really doesn't understand that situation and thinks this is the first step against sanctions, instead of it being one of the last.
"The big deal about that is that all banking transactions currently go through the U.S."
I'm not sure what you mean. In what way does it "go through the U.S." when a German customer pays a French supplier via a SEPA transfer? Can you explain what makes you believe this?
"The dollar’s centrality to the system of global payments also increases the power of U.S. financial sanctions. Almost all trade done in U.S. dollars, even trade among other countries, can be subject to U.S. sanctions, because they are handled by so-called correspondent banks with accounts at the Federal Reserve. By cutting off the ability to transact in dollars, the United States can make it difficult for those it blacklists to do business." - from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/dollar-worlds-reserve-currency
And, as Paul has repeatedly pointed out, the dollar is frequently the intermediate currency in transactions, though this should not be the case if both parties share the same currency.
It doesn't really answer Rainer's question since the SEPA system (Single Euro Payments Area) only facilitates payments in Euro.
The main thing about US$ is that virtually all commodities on the world market are traded in US$, which is why US$ is the world's reserve currency, a.k.a. the Petrodollar, the latter since oil is traded via US$.
And, as you've mentioned, trading in US$ also makes the deal within reach of the U.S. government and the U.S. judicial system.
The issue with national digital currencies is not primarily due to the loss of the Petrodollar's influence, but because Banking America (credit card companies) gets little influence in that particular market.
Then I don't really understand why the new Brazilian system is causing such a fuss. When I was in Brazil a few years ago, you couldn't use "Banking America" for anything much down there. The best thing a traveler could do was to take $20 bills to a money changer and exchange them for reals. I was given to understand that it was illegal for local businesses to take Visa cards, with the exception of hotels. I could, of course, have been misinformed.
You actually describe what the fuss is about - Banking America can't be used for anything much in Brazil. Pix renders Banking America unwanted. Banking America is not interested in Pix when they're not welcome, ergo the headline of this article.
PIX, in Brazil, enables most people, even those without bank accounts to make or receive electronic payments at no cost to them. All that is needed is a smartphone and either a bank account or a digital wallet. This empowers a considerable part of Brazil's poor population. In this regard, the European context is completely different from Brazil's.
The problem in the US is that Congress, pushed by corporations who benefit from the status quo (mostly credit/debit card companies and others like Paypal, Visa, etc.) are completely opposed to the implementation of a system similar to PIX, which would benefit a large majority of the US population.
Hope this makes it easier to understand.