Good piece, but one caution. When an abuser starts to lose his ability to intimidate people into submission, to get to the liberation that comes in the mid to long term, you often have to get through some dangerous short term lashing out.
Yea I hope this is true, but I think the ship has sailed on trying to restore the traditional checks and balances on the executive. More importantly, the first Trump election could be dismissed as a fluke. But with everything the American public knew about Trump’s first term, PLUS January 6, the American public reelected Trump for a second term by a clear margin. So what makes anyone believe there won’t be another Trump type candidate—or worse—elected in the future even if the Democrats win a clean sweep in 2028? Then what about 2032 or 2036? I think especially Europeans don’t get it. The US has fundamentally changed and Europe had better get its act together on universal European defense and military and economic independence or it is going to end very, very badly for the European experiment. The US ultimately can survive on its own, but European countries are badly prepared for a return to a balance of powers world akin to the 19th century, economically, politically, and militarily.
Trump has a 95% Republican approval rating. The rest is fake news media gaslighting and ranting. In the end the people have to consider that the alternative is nasty, dirty, woke-corrupted Democrats. You probably still believe those same media reports that Hillary and Kamala were going to win by a landslide.
A predictable opinion from the quarter that this comes. In response another opinion, "For a variety of reasons, President Trump is a more pre-eminent figure in the world than any of his predecessors since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a four-term president who led the nation out of the Great Depression and to the brink of victory in Europe and the Pacific. Even Trump-haters are now having great difficulty uttering the autocue jeremiad of American decline. It will be remembered that 10 years ago it was impossible to set foot out of doors anywhere in the world without someone telling you that China was about to surpass the United States as the world’s greatest economy. As of last year, China’s GDP was approximately US$20 trillion and that of the United States was US$31 trillion. The economy of the United States is now growing at a rate of almost 4 percent per year, while China has continued to adhere to its policy of declining to have an official statement or publish an official figure that is adequately supported to be believable." Attributable to a Canadian, Conrad Black.
Conrad Black is an obsequious buffoon and convicted felon who is a pre-eminent member of the pardoned-by-Trump club and hasn't a clue what he's talking about. You might as well be quoting Steve Bannon or Juan Orlando Hernandez or Joe Arpaio.
"Even Trump haters are now having great difficulty uttering the autocue jeremiad of American decline." Is he kidding? Whatever your opinion of Trump, that's just straight up baloney. The United States' standing in the world has never been lower, and it is entirely thanks to Trump. I can assure you we Trump "haters" have zero problem justifying the notion of American decline, as Trump has provided a veritable cornucopia of indefensible actions on the world stage to fume over.
Trump has trampled our alliances, greatly diminished trust in our economic competence and our overall reliability as an ally, threatened the privileged position of the dollar in the world economy, and cast serious doubt upon our commitment to Western, democratic values. His reign of terror over American cities and anyone who even looks like an immigrant has cratered our tourism industry and made America just about the least desirable destination in the free world.
The questions that Francis Fukuyama talks about getting from foreign allies? You hear that from virtually every prominent American who lives overseas, from Brian Klass to Anne Applebaum. The concerns are ubiquitous, and you have to have your head completely up your rear-end to deny it. NATO might as well vote us out at this point since it's entirely clear Trump would have no intention of upholding our obligations under the treaty were they to be called upon.
We can't even be relied upon to support Ukraine—the Western-friendly democracy—over Russia, the autocratic oligarchy openly hostile to the West. America's position as leader of the free world is effectively over, because the world can't count on us to stand up for the values we once unquestionably championed when it depends on a small sliver of Midwestern voters every four years.
Especially since our government, once a paragon of checks and balances where even powerful officials could be brought down and sent to prison for corrupt behavior, has now become a rat's nest of open wheeling and dealing after our reckless Supreme Court handed Trump an immunity ruling and he has unfettered pardon power—which he has used without hesitation in the kind of blatant quid-pro-quo that past Presidents wouldn't have dared even risk the appearance of.
And China? What is Black smoking? China is a serious threat to American hegemony and liberal democracy in general, and this fool President just negated one of our principle advantages by removing export controls to China for some of our most powerful CPUs. Meanwhile they can out-manufacture us with one arm tied behind their back, leaving us at a distinct disadvantage in a potential armed conflict.
Have a read of the recent National Security Strategy—practically written in crayon—to get a sense of how badly we're capitulating to China and effectively inviting them to claim ownership of the Indo-Pacific region. Good luck, Japan and South Korea. Nice knowing you, Taiwan.
The only reason this article is predictable is because it's incontrovertibly true. Two plus two predictably equals four, Trump is predictably destroying America's standing in the world, and people with any awareness of what's going on in the real world are predictably calling it out.
Bill Browder's book, Red Notice, describes Russia during the 1990's when its economy crashed, there was massive inflation, and the Russian oligarchs stole everything they possibly could. According to information contained therein, wealthy Russians had 6,000 times the net worth of the poorest members of society during the Soviet era. By the mid to late 1990's, with the oligarchs stealing every financial resource, commodity and manufacturing facility they could imagine, the ratio became 250,000 to 1. The breathtaking income inequality made the populace angry, desperate and dejected. Russian income inequality has hardly improved during the intervening 30 years and the regime is more repressive than ever. Watching the current devolution of society in the United States and comparing it to the contents of Red Notice brings little confidence that there will be a correction in the current administration's corruption and malfeasance. Kushner and Witkoff are working hard to bring 1997 Russia to the United States. We are becoming Russia.
If our system survives - maybe. But a cornered animal who knows he will be trapped won’t play by any of the rules you depend on for your optimism to be true. If you think Jan 6 was something, just think what a guy in charge of the justice dept, military, and ICE militia might be willing to do. What story won’t he tell to justify it? What deepfake AI videos won’t be shared on Truth Social to suspend the system you believe will end him?
Good piece, but one caution. When an abuser starts to lose his ability to intimidate people into submission, to get to the liberation that comes in the mid to long term, you often have to get through some dangerous short term lashing out.
If the pathetic Dems would just walk away from wokeness and offer the people a sane and responsible government they could win a landslide.
End of history, end of Trump? Don't speak too soon...
Yea I hope this is true, but I think the ship has sailed on trying to restore the traditional checks and balances on the executive. More importantly, the first Trump election could be dismissed as a fluke. But with everything the American public knew about Trump’s first term, PLUS January 6, the American public reelected Trump for a second term by a clear margin. So what makes anyone believe there won’t be another Trump type candidate—or worse—elected in the future even if the Democrats win a clean sweep in 2028? Then what about 2032 or 2036? I think especially Europeans don’t get it. The US has fundamentally changed and Europe had better get its act together on universal European defense and military and economic independence or it is going to end very, very badly for the European experiment. The US ultimately can survive on its own, but European countries are badly prepared for a return to a balance of powers world akin to the 19th century, economically, politically, and militarily.
Foolish wet underwear musings based on Democrat unicorn fantasies.
Unicorn fantasies lead to wet underwear. Who knew?
Pay absolutely no attention to Frank Lee. He only subscribes to Persuasion so that he can "own some libs" with his sophomoric trolling.
Clearly you are not paying much attention, or are choosing to ignore what is right in front of you.
Trump has a 95% Republican approval rating. The rest is fake news media gaslighting and ranting. In the end the people have to consider that the alternative is nasty, dirty, woke-corrupted Democrats. You probably still believe those same media reports that Hillary and Kamala were going to win by a landslide.
LOL
"The president has done exceptional damage over the past year. Now he's losing steam.”
True enough, but with a caveat. No animal is more dangerous than when it feels cornered, and Trump is most defiantly feeling cornered.
A predictable opinion from the quarter that this comes. In response another opinion, "For a variety of reasons, President Trump is a more pre-eminent figure in the world than any of his predecessors since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a four-term president who led the nation out of the Great Depression and to the brink of victory in Europe and the Pacific. Even Trump-haters are now having great difficulty uttering the autocue jeremiad of American decline. It will be remembered that 10 years ago it was impossible to set foot out of doors anywhere in the world without someone telling you that China was about to surpass the United States as the world’s greatest economy. As of last year, China’s GDP was approximately US$20 trillion and that of the United States was US$31 trillion. The economy of the United States is now growing at a rate of almost 4 percent per year, while China has continued to adhere to its policy of declining to have an official statement or publish an official figure that is adequately supported to be believable." Attributable to a Canadian, Conrad Black.
Conrad Black is an obsequious buffoon and convicted felon who is a pre-eminent member of the pardoned-by-Trump club and hasn't a clue what he's talking about. You might as well be quoting Steve Bannon or Juan Orlando Hernandez or Joe Arpaio.
"Even Trump haters are now having great difficulty uttering the autocue jeremiad of American decline." Is he kidding? Whatever your opinion of Trump, that's just straight up baloney. The United States' standing in the world has never been lower, and it is entirely thanks to Trump. I can assure you we Trump "haters" have zero problem justifying the notion of American decline, as Trump has provided a veritable cornucopia of indefensible actions on the world stage to fume over.
Trump has trampled our alliances, greatly diminished trust in our economic competence and our overall reliability as an ally, threatened the privileged position of the dollar in the world economy, and cast serious doubt upon our commitment to Western, democratic values. His reign of terror over American cities and anyone who even looks like an immigrant has cratered our tourism industry and made America just about the least desirable destination in the free world.
The questions that Francis Fukuyama talks about getting from foreign allies? You hear that from virtually every prominent American who lives overseas, from Brian Klass to Anne Applebaum. The concerns are ubiquitous, and you have to have your head completely up your rear-end to deny it. NATO might as well vote us out at this point since it's entirely clear Trump would have no intention of upholding our obligations under the treaty were they to be called upon.
We can't even be relied upon to support Ukraine—the Western-friendly democracy—over Russia, the autocratic oligarchy openly hostile to the West. America's position as leader of the free world is effectively over, because the world can't count on us to stand up for the values we once unquestionably championed when it depends on a small sliver of Midwestern voters every four years.
Especially since our government, once a paragon of checks and balances where even powerful officials could be brought down and sent to prison for corrupt behavior, has now become a rat's nest of open wheeling and dealing after our reckless Supreme Court handed Trump an immunity ruling and he has unfettered pardon power—which he has used without hesitation in the kind of blatant quid-pro-quo that past Presidents wouldn't have dared even risk the appearance of.
And China? What is Black smoking? China is a serious threat to American hegemony and liberal democracy in general, and this fool President just negated one of our principle advantages by removing export controls to China for some of our most powerful CPUs. Meanwhile they can out-manufacture us with one arm tied behind their back, leaving us at a distinct disadvantage in a potential armed conflict.
Have a read of the recent National Security Strategy—practically written in crayon—to get a sense of how badly we're capitulating to China and effectively inviting them to claim ownership of the Indo-Pacific region. Good luck, Japan and South Korea. Nice knowing you, Taiwan.
The only reason this article is predictable is because it's incontrovertibly true. Two plus two predictably equals four, Trump is predictably destroying America's standing in the world, and people with any awareness of what's going on in the real world are predictably calling it out.
Bill Browder's book, Red Notice, describes Russia during the 1990's when its economy crashed, there was massive inflation, and the Russian oligarchs stole everything they possibly could. According to information contained therein, wealthy Russians had 6,000 times the net worth of the poorest members of society during the Soviet era. By the mid to late 1990's, with the oligarchs stealing every financial resource, commodity and manufacturing facility they could imagine, the ratio became 250,000 to 1. The breathtaking income inequality made the populace angry, desperate and dejected. Russian income inequality has hardly improved during the intervening 30 years and the regime is more repressive than ever. Watching the current devolution of society in the United States and comparing it to the contents of Red Notice brings little confidence that there will be a correction in the current administration's corruption and malfeasance. Kushner and Witkoff are working hard to bring 1997 Russia to the United States. We are becoming Russia.
If our system survives - maybe. But a cornered animal who knows he will be trapped won’t play by any of the rules you depend on for your optimism to be true. If you think Jan 6 was something, just think what a guy in charge of the justice dept, military, and ICE militia might be willing to do. What story won’t he tell to justify it? What deepfake AI videos won’t be shared on Truth Social to suspend the system you believe will end him?