If only the founding fathers had thought to include a coequal branch of government who could reign in a raging, narcissistic, demented toddler of a president.
That is something that needs to change if decency and common sense evrr returns. There has to be an amendment stating thst a convicted felon cannot be president.
I still do not understand how so many people thought that casting a vote for anyone with the ethical and criminal resume of Trump could turn out bank other way than very bad. He even showed us who he was in his first term. Oh…I forgot, he played a genius business man on TV. How can I be so silly?
Maybe not remove them completely. Definitely needs to be rules in place. Something like a clemency board that reviews cases where injustices occurred. They recommend a pardon and the President has the final say. One idea off t he top if my head. There are ways to stop it from being used in yhe blatantly corrupt way Trump is using it.
You think that, if there were a clemency board, Trump wouldn’t stack it with his cronies? A person who considers the Constitution a scrap of paper and “the rule of law” an empty platitude is not going to be inconvenienced by a board.
Trump will do anything to increase power an line his pockets. I basically came up withbthis as I was typing as an example of a way presidential pardon power could be revamped in t he future.
Thats should be the first thing the Democrats do if they control the Congress. Have constitutional amendment to forbid felons from running for President.
She's one-of-a-kind. The right tried to demonize her 24/7/365 but nothing really stuck: Just a nebulous hatred. All they had on her is that she was effective, shrewd and from California.
Well said, but “opportunity missed,” is a bit strong!
I don’t think anyone was creative enough to have conjured an image a “Trump” back in those days. Even the Mad King George had some semblance of dignity and honor; with Trump, not so much, and he’s just getting started…:)
I think the point is that they actually did conjure up a Trump like figure, and that they also conjured up a coequal branch (actually two coequal branches) that could rein him in.
Yep — but one problem — the founding fathers thought that coequal branch would be made up of people with some semblance of morality, character and honor.
Even better than relying on good character, they relied on members of Congress being so protective of their own power that they would fight every attempt by the executive branch to usurp Congressional power. The phrase in the Federalist Papers is, "Let ambition constrain ambition." They did not foresee a Congress dominated by cowards.
They did not foresee political parties becoming as powerful as they are today, so they didn't imagine that Congress would fail to act when faced with a clearly unfit President because that President's party also held the majority in Congress.
In the Federalist Papers, one of the reasons given for the Electoral College was to filter the vote of the ppl. Electors were to be independent. Of course, w the power of political parties, as you mentioned, the EC became a rubber stamp.
I've seen other comments on this thread suggesting parties are the problem. I don't see how. I have read articles suggesting the founders were not excited by the idea of political parties, but I'm also sure they were not oblivious to the idea that people would form associations with others who shared the same goals. You could even argue that the internet and loose campaign finance rules have weakened parties to the point that there are no longer party elites who worry about the "brand" of the party. Ultimately, I see no way to get rid of political parties without denying our right to form associations to advance a cause.
GOP politicians have rolled over to Trump out of fear of his base and because it's so much easier to win by riding his coattails than by actually doing anything.
The founding fathers simply could not envision how affluent and decadent the majority of Americans would become.
Robert - founders envisioned a mad king. They didn’t adequately equip us for a majority of one of the two political parties to go along with the self-declared monarch
The founding fathers in their great wisdom anticipated many things, but they did not anticipate the likes of Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Stephen Miller and Donald Trump.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, did. If only he'd been available to chime in during those hot weeks in Philadelphia...
Yeah, you would have thought the Senate would have an interest in preserving the NATO Treaty that it ratified after WW2? But I guess they're powerless.
All it took for tough guy Lindsey Graham to go from "that's it, it's been a great run, but count me out" to genuflecting at Trump's behind were a few people yelling at him in an airport. How pathetic.
It does, but the Republicans control the House and Senate which is why Theil and Voight have so much control over Trump. Project 2025 supports a unitary executive. So they don't want any oversight.
They are probably worried about the midterms and may try to prevent them. Maybe there will be ICE agents patrolling polling places in blue states to prevent "immigrants" from voting. Having worked many elections, that is impossible. But that won't keep them spreading lies.
Re: "It’s time for Europe to see what time it is."
When I was in, what?, junior high school? We learned about the run-up to WWII, that Neville Chamberlain claimed he'd purchased "Peace in our time" by turning over the Sudetenland to Hitler and that it didn't work and appeasing Hitler just strengthened him and encouraged him to continue. The big message: appeasement doesn't work.
Everyone knew this. Everyone understood this. It wasn't really a point of historical debate.
And now here we are. And the Europeans are looking wobbly. To quote Margaret Thatcher, "This is no time to go wobbly."
It's terrible. Terrible things will happen. But they have to happen because the United States is governed by a madman that no one around him is willing to confront.
I always want to add that Chamberlain wasn't completely taken in. The UK, at the time, was in no condition to go to war and part of the reason for "peace in our time" was to BUY time. But yeah, it didn't work.
But neither was Germany, Hitler was bluffing a lot of what he needed was still on the production lines. The Czech’s on the other hand had a very well defended mountainous border and the largest arms factory in Europe. They may not have one, but they would have inflicted a lot of damage.
It's also worth noting that after the carnage of WWI, and the toll that war took on European nations that averting another conflict wasn't an unreasonable idea.
People who operate only with hindsight lack that context. Britain and most of Europe was in horrible shape economically and had lost a lot of population to war.
The reason it didn't work with Hitler and in other cases is because for example Hitler already had it in his mind/plans to take over everything. He just used appeasement to further his plans. The same with Putin on Ukraine and the same with Trump on whatever he is going after.
So, essentially, it doesn't work with guys who want to take over everything, which is the situation we find ourselves in today. Appeasing Trump is not going to make anything better.
Like TACO they had countless accomplices eager to do everything from strategic planning to grunt work. Many even willing to risk their life. But there's a difference. Hitler had, and Putin has, an obsession to be "King of the World." With TACO the only thing that matters is feeding his insatiable instant gratification. It was his accomplices who convinced him that the best way to do that is for them to make him "King of the World."
I am haunted by the feeling that we are condemned to repeat the 20th century, and possibly even the 19th. And worse yet, quite possibly the 21st century experience of Iraq and Afghanistan. WTF people! It feels like that TV show (Sliders?) where the protagonists kept finding themselves in a different point in time. 😬 😱
Interesting that you bring up Thatcher! I'm reading a 2009 biography of her (neither a hagiography nor a screed) and boy did she have some Trumpian qualities. She went after university funding to the point where many British scientists fled to the US, the "liberal" media and bipartisanship in general.
Worst of all, she was quite the chum to Rupert Murdoch and helped him as best she could with his right-wing propaganda project. Thanks, Maggie!
But yes, she did admire Churchill greatly. For all his flaws, we could sure use a Churchill in country.
I don’t think this is a fair reading of what Europe is doing right now, and it misapplies the Munich analogy.
Appeasement in 1938 meant secret negotiations, unilateral concessions, exclusion of the affected party, and the surrender of territory in the hope that a revisionist power would be satisfied. None of that is happening here.
What we are seeing instead is the opposite: public unity, coordinated statements, institutional decision-making, and an explicit refusal to trade sovereignty for “stability.” The EU, Denmark, the UK, Norway, Sweden and others have issued joint declarations, reaffirmed Greenland’s non-negotiability, and begun preparing legal and economic countermeasures rather than offering concessions.
That is not wobbling. That is restraint combined with structure.
Europe is not trying to “buy peace.” It is deliberately refusing bilateral deals, routing responses through NATO and EU institutions, and signalling that coercion will trigger consequences rather than rewards. That is precisely the lesson learned from the 1930s.
The danger today is not appeasement by Europe. It is the temptation to misread calm, institutional discipline as weakness, when in fact it is how modern democracies avoid escalation while holding firm.
Munich was secrecy and surrender.
This moment is transparency and collective resolve.
They may be doing all those things, but they need to KEEP doing all those things. If they listen to their bankers and business leaders, they might lose the spine they’re showing now.
I’m really impressed with how they’ve been managing this latest insanity.
They’re not. That’s my point. They can’t go wobbly. If they give in, Trump will take whatever he wants and he won’t stop. They need to hang tough and I sincerely hope they will.
America has lost control of our government. It’s up to the rest of the world now.
Okay. I also think there are (necessarily) a lot of things going on out of the public eye. Europe talks to Europe (and the UK and Canada). This week in Davos will be 'interesting '.
Re: "“I don’t give a rip about Epstein,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told Politico last week."
And what do the people of her congressional district think about Epstein? Somebody ought to ask. Or, better yet, somebody ought to run against her. Just a thought. Maybe somebody ought to make the point that she doesn't really need to care about Epstein. Nobody does. But we all ought to care about Epstein's victims who are not getting the justice they deserve and have earned because of people like Lauren Boebert.
She may be thinking that her Colorado constituents are now more concerned with getting her friend Tina Peters a “get out of jail free” card. Those 2 groups have some overlap.
I know what you mean. She is in one of those extremely conservative district. I know. I live in one that elected Michele Bachman and "screaming" Tom Emmer to congress. And that is in Minnesota where the state's Republican congressman support ICE and feel the shooting of Renee Good (remember her name) was justified.
Trump is butt-hurt that Norway did not exercise corrupt control over the selection of this year's Nobel Peace Prize recipient--or he does not know that it is not the country Norway that awards prizes. Either way, Greenland is now the candy story that it would be too bad if something was to happen to...
This note is the smoking gun to prove abuse of the public trust. Impeach now.
It's both. He is both grotesquely selfish and stunningly stupid.
Yet there are people who have committed their energies and reputations to arguing that the vile and absurd person we can easily see is actually a man of special wisdom, common sense and heroic patriotism, guided by a moral purpose.
Or that he is, at least, better than a Democrat. That would be The Worst, the End of Our American Way of Life and All That We Hold Dear, to elect a Democrat.
This is the result of decades of programming starting with Rush Limbaugh and many churches, which have "hardened their hearts". And so we will be getting more plagues.
Yes, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. have spent the last two decades teaching their followers to hate Democrats and to consider them "evil" beyond belief, using false stories, gross exaggeration, and selective reporting on Trump to advance their hateful agenda. They have harmed America in the process.
This is my experience within my small community of friends and loved ones. R on the ballot is the only thing that matters because Democrats are demonic terrorists. We don’t share a reality.
If only they could figure out that Trump is the actual Red. Inserting himself into private enterprise, picking winners and losers. He wants a command economy, not free enterprise.
Those people are low-information FOX viewers/voters. Those defending seats in 10 months are not so simple minded. Either they vote to impeach now or they pay the price and see him impeached afterward anyway.
Not all of them. There are well-educated people among the Trump apologists. I think they tell themselves that they have the special insight - or at least the "common sense" -- to see his true virtue.
But it's probably a matter of deciding that he would be useful for their ideological agenda and then digging themselves into a position where defending him at all times is more comfortable than admitting how wrong they've been.
Or at least they're determined that they will never, ever be on the same side as their ideological opponents, even if it's to admit that a demented psychopath should not be the president.
He's crossing lines here far beyond being unruly, stupid and cruel. His behavior sees and raises all of the underlying bad behavior leading to impeachment in Britain and the US combined.
No, falling in line by realizing that being complicit in destroying said 80 year alliance is far worse for their futures than being primaried by sitting president who has lost his marbles.
Cassidy anesthetized his scruples enough to confirm RFK. Jr. as HHS head, and he’s getting primaried with Trump’s blessing for his troubles. Thank you, may I have another? He should be standing there beside Murkowski and Bacon.
So that you might see it, start to believe it. The question is not whether they *want to* dump Trump, it is whether we can make them do it anyway, to save their seats. I add that if I'm a MAGA Republican whose seat is up in 10 months, I do not relish having to defend this shit on the campaign trail.
They probably have enough votes in the House to impeach him. The Senate finding Trump guilty is another question. However, if the Cook Political Report drops another 20 or so districts and Senate seats to 'leans Republican or to toss up', more might get in line.
I feel there are many Republicans who see that Trump is ruining the country and ruining their chances of reelection. It will take some guts on their part, but Trump may be pushing the envelope just a little too much. I pray every day that at least a dozen Republicans will stand up. If they do, I'm sure a few more will be willing to follow in their footsteps - as long as they are not the first to step into the breach. Courage is contagious.
Before the New Year, my feeling was should the Democrats win back the House, they should *not* impeach Trump and allow him to do as much damage as possible. After all, that's what 77 million people elected him to do and I believe they shouldn't be insulated from the consequences of their choice. But the first three weeks of this year has turned me around on this. The man has completely and utter lost whatever tenuous connection to reality he may have had. It'll never happen, but he needs to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment. Otherwise we're probably going to end up with a shooting war with our erstwhile allies.
When I consider that 3 out of 10 Americans are cheering this madness on, I realize that getting rid of Trump cannot solve our biggest problem: 3 out of 10 Americans are moral monsters.
They are like activated viruses. They've always been agnostic at best about authoritarianism and cruelty to the 'other'. But they were mostly dormant until Trump fed their inner beasts. Now, social media will provide sustenance so this cruelty will always be stoked. Sad and dangerous times for now and a generation.
My wife and I started watching "IT: Welcome to Derry" last night, and I believe that Derry's citizens and Trump voters are one in the same. There was a scene where three boys were beating the shit out of another boy in front of everyone and no one (save one woman) attempted to help the boy being beaten. Sounds like a morally vacuous people, doesn't it? Trump people, in other words.
Thank you for highlighting social media. It's destroying our society, yet the typical response is basically "it's a plus for me!"
Between 2010 and 2012, Facebook added their "like" button, and Twitter added their "share" button. By then, they also had very sophisticated algorithms for addicting us. Then Cambridge analytical, using Facebook data on millions of voters, helped get Trump elected in 2016.
How has our society become so drawn to entertainment, outrage, and convenience - and so self centered - that tens of millions of us refused to see where this would lead??
Right! His niece, Mary Trump, says this all the time. Sociopathic narcissists are never satiated and the sociopath part means they feel no guilt, regret, or empathy for their actions.
But Trump scales in the psychopath range which means he also has a large sadistic and paranoid component. This is why he's out to get his enemies, enjoys watching the ICE brutality porn, and eggs on the cruelty. I can now add delusional to his profile because on some level he knows his dementia is showing but is incapable of acknowledging it. However, that delusional component is driving a lot of what he is currently engaged in and how he thinks about it. Perfect example is the letter to the Norwegian ambassador.
He's a walking, talking black hole of need and desire. Nothing -- wealth, sex, power -- has ever filled him up. It's time, far past time, that someone or something tells him no and to piss off.
I keep wondering when America’s oligarchs will decide that Trump is becoming a threat to him and try to remove him via the Senate. The oligarchs seem to have forgotten that he now controls the armed forces.
You bring up something interesting. An underappreciated reason why these people have "fuck you" money is because they've had the rule of law to protect them, and they've enjoyed the shield that NATO has provided them. You'd think that these people would consider what would happen to their bottom line if a successful alliance was blown up...
...or maybe they have and they figured out they could get even richer. And if that's that case, don't get me started on how to deal with that.
That letter is delusional. An egomaniacal and mentally deteriorating 79-year-old has his finger on about 1700 active thermonuclear weapons, in addition to all the conventional forces of the US Military. That alone should be enough to replace him.
When this is all over, Michael, whether by Trump's passing, the destruction of the United States, or something in between, books will be written about why the great and good American people allowed this man to ascend to the presidency. And those books will not be kind to us. Nor should they be.
I don't know. I remember watching the movie version of, "On the Beach" some years ago, and then more recently, reading the Neville Shute book on which the movie was based. There ultimately wasn't anyone left to write or read such books to realize they had us to thank for their demise.
On the more hopeful side, however, Ian McEwan's "What We Can Know" suggests something like 60% of the world's population has been taken out by climate disasters, tribal wars and nuclear oopsies, but the people remaining were indeed pretty well pissed at what we left them with.
I'm starting to believe a lot of us don't care about what we've leaving for future generations. I'm not sure why that is. Someone like Tom Nichols would suggest narcissism is a factor. At the end of the day, I think the difference between a wise person and an idiot is the former understands every action has intended and unintended consequences, and I believe what we're seeing right now is ten years of unintended consequences finally rearing its ugly head.
Europe understands because two world wars were fought largely on their soil. Since the Civil War, we've been shielded by geography, and our most recent wars have been fought by a volunteer army. Trump is trying his best to teach us all a lesson (inadvertently) and he may yet succeed.
I would add William Gibson's Jackpot trilogy. The Peripheral on Amazon Prime is based on the one of the three books. Sadly, Covid prevented filming of the next book, but one can of course, read the books.
I think that even the people who aren't amoral halfwits or delusional drinkers of the FOX News Kool-Aid have this gut-level feeling that nothing REALLY bad can ever happen to America. It's been so long since we've had a war on our own land that we've literally forgotten what true hardship and privation look like. So they just don't see the existential danger of overturning the post WW ll global order in favor of returning to the pre WW ll global order.
Yeah, there's that. That entire side of the aisle is going to get us killed. But given Johnson is one of those Evangelical-types, maybe inducing the end of the world is the desired goal?
Funny you should mention that. I was just thinking yesterday, what if we ARE in the end times, and the Book of Revelations predicted Trump (rather than Napoleon, as some would have it)? Or perhaps Revelations was an allegory about the fall of the Roman Empire, and all Empires end in strife, famine, pestilence, and death.
Interesting reading, th Wikipedia chapter on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:
We certainly need to impeach any impeachable cabinet members that are whispering in his ear, telling him he is the greatest President of all time and that America supports him in becoming the bully of the free world. When they go on TV enabling his most insane policies they just fuel his insane narcissism. They all have to go. Unfortunately, I don't think Miller is impeachable.
I'm old enough to remember when Trump wanted more Norwegians to immigrate to the United States. Now, Norway is this close to joining the countries on the Muslim ban list.
(sigh.) Love this, Bill. My heart hurts for the time we are in now. I hope my son can one day know an America once again striving for its true ideals, led by persons of honor.
But he's apparently now told the folks in Norway that since they didn't give him the Peace Prize he no longer cares about peace. Transactional all the way. Perhaps he's now going for a War Prize from Putin or Xi.
It's scary how much of this Trump is doing in a pathetic attempt to earn the respect of Putin and Xi. Pathetic --sometimes I feel almost feel sorry for Trump because deep down he never will feel equal to those he admires and envies the most.
Putin and Xi are hard men who have fought every step of the way to the top, against tremendous odds and great danger, using great intelligence and skill. Trump does have a considerable energy, showmanship, charisma, and feral cunning, but he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and mainly just lucked into the presidency through the weakness of others. And a little help from China and Russia on the social media front, allegedly.
I was just looking at Xi's early years in Wikipedia -- harrowing!!! Same with Putin's family.
Yesterday we started our worship service at First Parish Congregational Church in Yarmouth, Maine with "We Shall Overcome". We discussed the reality of ICE coming to Portland, Maine and how it's impacting families and how frightened we all are. We celebrated the gift of MLK,jr.'s life and his accomplishments. It was good to be with like minded folks on a cold, snowy morning in Maine.
I seem to be on the verge of tears often these days. Most recently watching the inauguration of Virginia's new governor on Saturday. Bill's beautiful words about Reverend King fed my soul this morning. Thank you.
There is no end to what shocks and surprises us regarding actions of DJT. This morning while skimming the news, I saw a CNN headline that says that Trump's snub of the Nobel prize led to his actions on Greenland. Naturally I thought this was an opinion/analysis piece. But I checked NBC and CBS. Same story. I am simply flabbergasted! This is beyond amazement. There are opinions that we have a president with the mindset of a toddler or seven year old spoiled brat. But that is truly an insult to toddlers and seven year old spoiled brats.
What really befuddles me is the mentality of certain highly educated people who have zealously defended him. Their acceptance if his idiocy is more puzzling than the poverty of their moral judgment.
They should take a closer look at that market - international stocks are outpacing US stocks (which is the opposite of what we usually see in the market).
The ability of this guy to astound is amazing. Even tho you know what he is capable of. And I keep saying; why in the world can 37-40% still support him! In normal times You could see like 25%
I know! I've decided to take the approach of being flabbergasted, gobsmacked, dumbfounded, etc., when he does something decent and selfless. It's easier on my psyche.
I volunteered at a local National Park site for 10 years. We would often host a day of cleaning up the park as park of MLK Day a Day of Service. There is not one this year. Of course it is also the dead of Winter in NJ but I looked on line and don't see any nearby volunteer opportunities. This seems to be part of an effort to go backward.
We have a vibrant state park system here in CA, for which Newsom made a point of honoring free MLK Day admission. Yay federalism! Tho it does feel strange to so happily intone states’ rights…
NY has a superlative state park system. Most all the parks are either state or county with fewer National parks-- there are some natural areas (like Fire Island National Seashore, the Appalachian Trail) and historic sites (Saratoga Battlefield)/monuments (Statue of Liberty) that are maintained by the National Park Service but it doesn't have any areas officially designated as a "National Park." We get the state park pass every year and try to hit as many lakes/beachfronts we can along Lake Ontario, Lake George, Thousand Islands, and the Finger Lakes in the summer.
I get the CA state pass every year too. So much still to explore, now with a heightened sense of purpose knowing the Orange Menace can’t get his tiny paws on any of it. I 💙 my state!
Reading Andrew's opening paragraph was much more satisfying than my usual practice of muttering FFS to myself. Gotta love the malevolence in service of absurdity.
When I read about Trump prior to his first term, one thing that stood out was that he needed to be wrested to the ground, so to speak, in order to actually comply with contracts, etc. As we have seen, appeasement does not work. Europe is going to have to get tough and wrestle him to the ground, with all the requisite damage that will occur to all sides. Otherwise, they will just lose more and more as Trump wants more and more.
I wish Europe would just give him the collective middle finger: turn their backs, and refuse to deal with him on anything. The EU could say, "You want to screw up our alliance, you silly sausage? Your loss. Well, then we'll conduct our business (economic, military, etc.) without you." (They are sort of doing some of this now...) Continue to circle up their defenses around Greenland. The Orange One wants his shows of alpha strength to be in-and-out fast military actions, made for good social media fodder—big and sparkly; sneaky operations and things that go "boom!" But he also seems to want low cost in terms of public opinion (aka no boots on the ground, very few American casualties). I'm no expert in war, but my guess is that if the EU gangs up and stands together and doesn't make common cause with this deranged fascist, he will retreat. Because he doesn't want to risk losing. It's the way with bullies. If they pick on you and you go after them, they retreat. They are big scaredy-cats. Dangerous, but, as Ruth Ben-Ghiat often says, they are primarily motivated by fear.
I don’t think the Europeans are afraid, but it is hard to suddenly reorient 80 years of policy and relationships. You can argue the Europeans haven’t carried their load, but we wanted to be in control. We provided the security guarantees, we provided the troops that still remain in Europe because that gave us control and leverage. Trying to unwind that on the whims of a demented old man are never easy. The European response to Greenland has been clear eyed and united, and isn’t the evidence of a scared Europe.
Part of what Europe will need to do is to figure out how to protect Ukraine. In the event of Europe standing their ground, I can see Trump abandoning Ukraine and fully side with Putin.
I can see Trump deciding that if the Euro’s won’t buy American arms anymore to support Ukraine or themselves, then they’re “making him” sell those same weapons to Putin, maybe even at a discount.
I wonder to what extent they haven't already turned their backs on us but are simply maintaining a smooth facade. I can't believe the other members of the Five Eyes are didn't stop sharing anything damaging to their networks years ago in very subtle ways.
If only the founding fathers had thought to include a coequal branch of government who could reign in a raging, narcissistic, demented toddler of a president.
Opportunity missed there guys. 😐
They even forgot to say we couldn’t elect a convicted felon, but to be fair, Thomas Paine thought we had common sense.
That is something that needs to change if decency and common sense evrr returns. There has to be an amendment stating thst a convicted felon cannot be president.
I still do not understand how so many people thought that casting a vote for anyone with the ethical and criminal resume of Trump could turn out bank other way than very bad. He even showed us who he was in his first term. Oh…I forgot, he played a genius business man on TV. How can I be so silly?
Also, the amendment has to remove presidential pardon powers.
We need to check all his pardons for bribery too. Lets just not do a Ford take.
Maybe not remove them completely. Definitely needs to be rules in place. Something like a clemency board that reviews cases where injustices occurred. They recommend a pardon and the President has the final say. One idea off t he top if my head. There are ways to stop it from being used in yhe blatantly corrupt way Trump is using it.
You think that, if there were a clemency board, Trump wouldn’t stack it with his cronies? A person who considers the Constitution a scrap of paper and “the rule of law” an empty platitude is not going to be inconvenienced by a board.
Trump will do anything to increase power an line his pockets. I basically came up withbthis as I was typing as an example of a way presidential pardon power could be revamped in t he future.
Nice going there Thomas!
I think we fooled him. Fooled me too! I always thought we had common sense. Not so much, any more!
Hell...with the demise of the penny...we don't even have common cents.
Thats should be the first thing the Democrats do if they control the Congress. Have constitutional amendment to forbid felons from running for President.
Yeah and what red state would vote for it?
Maybe with the right marketing.
They actually they did but the congress and Senate have given it away.
Ah yes! I remember a thing called Congress! That was fun!
Even Steve Bannon calls Congress the Duma.
All roads lead to Putin - Nancy Pelosi
She's one-of-a-kind. The right tried to demonize her 24/7/365 but nothing really stuck: Just a nebulous hatred. All they had on her is that she was effective, shrewd and from California.
Dunzel would be an appropriate term
That’s the joke.
Well said, but “opportunity missed,” is a bit strong!
I don’t think anyone was creative enough to have conjured an image a “Trump” back in those days. Even the Mad King George had some semblance of dignity and honor; with Trump, not so much, and he’s just getting started…:)
I think the point is that they actually did conjure up a Trump like figure, and that they also conjured up a coequal branch (actually two coequal branches) that could rein him in.
Yep — but one problem — the founding fathers thought that coequal branch would be made up of people with some semblance of morality, character and honor.
Even better than relying on good character, they relied on members of Congress being so protective of their own power that they would fight every attempt by the executive branch to usurp Congressional power. The phrase in the Federalist Papers is, "Let ambition constrain ambition." They did not foresee a Congress dominated by cowards.
They did not foresee political parties becoming as powerful as they are today, so they didn't imagine that Congress would fail to act when faced with a clearly unfit President because that President's party also held the majority in Congress.
In the Federalist Papers, one of the reasons given for the Electoral College was to filter the vote of the ppl. Electors were to be independent. Of course, w the power of political parties, as you mentioned, the EC became a rubber stamp.
I've seen other comments on this thread suggesting parties are the problem. I don't see how. I have read articles suggesting the founders were not excited by the idea of political parties, but I'm also sure they were not oblivious to the idea that people would form associations with others who shared the same goals. You could even argue that the internet and loose campaign finance rules have weakened parties to the point that there are no longer party elites who worry about the "brand" of the party. Ultimately, I see no way to get rid of political parties without denying our right to form associations to advance a cause.
Oh, the Federalist Papers didn't say, "Unless rolling over and showing your belly seems safer" after that quotation? 🤔
GOP politicians have rolled over to Trump out of fear of his base and because it's so much easier to win by riding his coattails than by actually doing anything.
The founding fathers simply could not envision how affluent and decadent the majority of Americans would become.
True, be they didn’t envision a two party system….:)
They did envision “factions”, it’s precursor.
Conjure is a great description for the current incarnation in the White House.
Robert - founders envisioned a mad king. They didn’t adequately equip us for a majority of one of the two political parties to go along with the self-declared monarch
They did warn about political parties, not that it did any good.
Agreed…:)
I don't think they conceived a world where an intellugent, free thinking person would actually vote for a criminal with no moral compass.
It’s pretty obvious that they wildly overestimated the intelligence and sense of the American voter.
Honor MLK and join a NoKings/Stop ICE rally. As someone who grew up in the Civil Rights era, I am.
The founding fathers in their great wisdom anticipated many things, but they did not anticipate the likes of Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Stephen Miller and Donald Trump.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, did. If only he'd been available to chime in during those hot weeks in Philadelphia...
Yeah, you would have thought the Senate would have an interest in preserving the NATO Treaty that it ratified after WW2? But I guess they're powerless.
Still afraid of Trump's mob.
All it took for tough guy Lindsey Graham to go from "that's it, it's been a great run, but count me out" to genuflecting at Trump's behind were a few people yelling at him in an airport. How pathetic.
They did, but it's been slowly neutered over time, esp the last 50 years or so. Now the current administration just ignores them without penalty.
It does, but the Republicans control the House and Senate which is why Theil and Voight have so much control over Trump. Project 2025 supports a unitary executive. So they don't want any oversight.
They are probably worried about the midterms and may try to prevent them. Maybe there will be ICE agents patrolling polling places in blue states to prevent "immigrants" from voting. Having worked many elections, that is impossible. But that won't keep them spreading lies.
That was a good un. Funny! But not.
Re: "It’s time for Europe to see what time it is."
When I was in, what?, junior high school? We learned about the run-up to WWII, that Neville Chamberlain claimed he'd purchased "Peace in our time" by turning over the Sudetenland to Hitler and that it didn't work and appeasing Hitler just strengthened him and encouraged him to continue. The big message: appeasement doesn't work.
Everyone knew this. Everyone understood this. It wasn't really a point of historical debate.
And now here we are. And the Europeans are looking wobbly. To quote Margaret Thatcher, "This is no time to go wobbly."
It's terrible. Terrible things will happen. But they have to happen because the United States is governed by a madman that no one around him is willing to confront.
I always want to add that Chamberlain wasn't completely taken in. The UK, at the time, was in no condition to go to war and part of the reason for "peace in our time" was to BUY time. But yeah, it didn't work.
But neither was Germany, Hitler was bluffing a lot of what he needed was still on the production lines. The Czech’s on the other hand had a very well defended mountainous border and the largest arms factory in Europe. They may not have one, but they would have inflicted a lot of damage.
Yes, are you an Alan Furst fan?
Not familiar, but I will have to look him up.
It's also worth noting that after the carnage of WWI, and the toll that war took on European nations that averting another conflict wasn't an unreasonable idea.
People who operate only with hindsight lack that context. Britain and most of Europe was in horrible shape economically and had lost a lot of population to war.
That often is forgotten.
The reason it didn't work with Hitler and in other cases is because for example Hitler already had it in his mind/plans to take over everything. He just used appeasement to further his plans. The same with Putin on Ukraine and the same with Trump on whatever he is going after.
So, essentially, it doesn't work with guys who want to take over everything, which is the situation we find ourselves in today. Appeasing Trump is not going to make anything better.
Like TACO they had countless accomplices eager to do everything from strategic planning to grunt work. Many even willing to risk their life. But there's a difference. Hitler had, and Putin has, an obsession to be "King of the World." With TACO the only thing that matters is feeding his insatiable instant gratification. It was his accomplices who convinced him that the best way to do that is for them to make him "King of the World."
I am haunted by the feeling that we are condemned to repeat the 20th century, and possibly even the 19th. And worse yet, quite possibly the 21st century experience of Iraq and Afghanistan. WTF people! It feels like that TV show (Sliders?) where the protagonists kept finding themselves in a different point in time. 😬 😱
Well, you know the old line about those who do not learn history ...
Interesting that you bring up Thatcher! I'm reading a 2009 biography of her (neither a hagiography nor a screed) and boy did she have some Trumpian qualities. She went after university funding to the point where many British scientists fled to the US, the "liberal" media and bipartisanship in general.
Worst of all, she was quite the chum to Rupert Murdoch and helped him as best she could with his right-wing propaganda project. Thanks, Maggie!
But yes, she did admire Churchill greatly. For all his flaws, we could sure use a Churchill in country.
I don’t think this is a fair reading of what Europe is doing right now, and it misapplies the Munich analogy.
Appeasement in 1938 meant secret negotiations, unilateral concessions, exclusion of the affected party, and the surrender of territory in the hope that a revisionist power would be satisfied. None of that is happening here.
What we are seeing instead is the opposite: public unity, coordinated statements, institutional decision-making, and an explicit refusal to trade sovereignty for “stability.” The EU, Denmark, the UK, Norway, Sweden and others have issued joint declarations, reaffirmed Greenland’s non-negotiability, and begun preparing legal and economic countermeasures rather than offering concessions.
That is not wobbling. That is restraint combined with structure.
Europe is not trying to “buy peace.” It is deliberately refusing bilateral deals, routing responses through NATO and EU institutions, and signalling that coercion will trigger consequences rather than rewards. That is precisely the lesson learned from the 1930s.
The danger today is not appeasement by Europe. It is the temptation to misread calm, institutional discipline as weakness, when in fact it is how modern democracies avoid escalation while holding firm.
Munich was secrecy and surrender.
This moment is transparency and collective resolve.
Those are not the same thing.
They may be doing all those things, but they need to KEEP doing all those things. If they listen to their bankers and business leaders, they might lose the spine they’re showing now.
I’m really impressed with how they’ve been managing this latest insanity.
Explain how the Europeans are looking wobbly?
They’re not. That’s my point. They can’t go wobbly. If they give in, Trump will take whatever he wants and he won’t stop. They need to hang tough and I sincerely hope they will.
America has lost control of our government. It’s up to the rest of the world now.
Okay. I also think there are (necessarily) a lot of things going on out of the public eye. Europe talks to Europe (and the UK and Canada). This week in Davos will be 'interesting '.
Re: "“I don’t give a rip about Epstein,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told Politico last week."
And what do the people of her congressional district think about Epstein? Somebody ought to ask. Or, better yet, somebody ought to run against her. Just a thought. Maybe somebody ought to make the point that she doesn't really need to care about Epstein. Nobody does. But we all ought to care about Epstein's victims who are not getting the justice they deserve and have earned because of people like Lauren Boebert.
She may be thinking that her Colorado constituents are now more concerned with getting her friend Tina Peters a “get out of jail free” card. Those 2 groups have some overlap.
jpg - now THAT’s an easy Venn diagram
Or trying to get the MAGA nutjobs to stop sending her pizzas.
Yeah, but it’s a small part. More and more Trump voters are feeling disillusioned.
I wonder if she's right about that...
So Lauren 's done her performative "I care about the Epstein files " bit and she's now done?
She didn't go to Congress to enforce any laws, not even ones she helped to pass.
L B is in one of those districts where she will be there as long as she wants. But I like the thought!
I just wish the Democrats would at least try. How much could that possibly cost, to hold up a mirror? To make her defend what she says?
I know what you mean. She is in one of those extremely conservative district. I know. I live in one that elected Michele Bachman and "screaming" Tom Emmer to congress. And that is in Minnesota where the state's Republican congressman support ICE and feel the shooting of Renee Good (remember her name) was justified.
Trump is butt-hurt that Norway did not exercise corrupt control over the selection of this year's Nobel Peace Prize recipient--or he does not know that it is not the country Norway that awards prizes. Either way, Greenland is now the candy story that it would be too bad if something was to happen to...
This note is the smoking gun to prove abuse of the public trust. Impeach now.
It's both. He is both grotesquely selfish and stunningly stupid.
Yet there are people who have committed their energies and reputations to arguing that the vile and absurd person we can easily see is actually a man of special wisdom, common sense and heroic patriotism, guided by a moral purpose.
Or that he is, at least, better than a Democrat. That would be The Worst, the End of Our American Way of Life and All That We Hold Dear, to elect a Democrat.
This is the result of decades of programming starting with Rush Limbaugh and many churches, which have "hardened their hearts". And so we will be getting more plagues.
Yes, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. have spent the last two decades teaching their followers to hate Democrats and to consider them "evil" beyond belief, using false stories, gross exaggeration, and selective reporting on Trump to advance their hateful agenda. They have harmed America in the process.
Charlie Sykes owns up to the part played by the right-wing media machine in relating "How the right lost its mind".
This is my experience within my small community of friends and loved ones. R on the ballot is the only thing that matters because Democrats are demonic terrorists. We don’t share a reality.
Better dead than Red!
If only they could figure out that Trump is the actual Red. Inserting himself into private enterprise, picking winners and losers. He wants a command economy, not free enterprise.
Those people are low-information FOX viewers/voters. Those defending seats in 10 months are not so simple minded. Either they vote to impeach now or they pay the price and see him impeached afterward anyway.
Not all of them. There are well-educated people among the Trump apologists. I think they tell themselves that they have the special insight - or at least the "common sense" -- to see his true virtue.
But it's probably a matter of deciding that he would be useful for their ideological agenda and then digging themselves into a position where defending him at all times is more comfortable than admitting how wrong they've been.
Or at least they're determined that they will never, ever be on the same side as their ideological opponents, even if it's to admit that a demented psychopath should not be the president.
Impeaching Trump will not get rid of him because even if Dems take the senate, it will not be by a 2/3 majority.
He's crossing lines here far beyond being unruly, stupid and cruel. His behavior sees and raises all of the underlying bad behavior leading to impeachment in Britain and the US combined.
The GOP will never vote to impeach him. And I know you know this.
No, I don't know this. GOP electeds are falling in line one by one.
Falling in line how? Supporting his efforts to destroy a successful 80 year alliance?
No, falling in line by realizing that being complicit in destroying said 80 year alliance is far worse for their futures than being primaried by sitting president who has lost his marbles.
Cassidy anesthetized his scruples enough to confirm RFK. Jr. as HHS head, and he’s getting primaried with Trump’s blessing for his troubles. Thank you, may I have another? He should be standing there beside Murkowski and Bacon.
The one thing I love about Trump is he always lets these fools go all the way out on a limb for him and then saws it off.
I'll believe that when I see it.
So that you might see it, start to believe it. The question is not whether they *want to* dump Trump, it is whether we can make them do it anyway, to save their seats. I add that if I'm a MAGA Republican whose seat is up in 10 months, I do not relish having to defend this shit on the campaign trail.
They probably have enough votes in the House to impeach him. The Senate finding Trump guilty is another question. However, if the Cook Political Report drops another 20 or so districts and Senate seats to 'leans Republican or to toss up', more might get in line.
I feel there are many Republicans who see that Trump is ruining the country and ruining their chances of reelection. It will take some guts on their part, but Trump may be pushing the envelope just a little too much. I pray every day that at least a dozen Republicans will stand up. If they do, I'm sure a few more will be willing to follow in their footsteps - as long as they are not the first to step into the breach. Courage is contagious.
There are really only two parties now, the democracy party and the fascist party.
Before the New Year, my feeling was should the Democrats win back the House, they should *not* impeach Trump and allow him to do as much damage as possible. After all, that's what 77 million people elected him to do and I believe they shouldn't be insulated from the consequences of their choice. But the first three weeks of this year has turned me around on this. The man has completely and utter lost whatever tenuous connection to reality he may have had. It'll never happen, but he needs to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment. Otherwise we're probably going to end up with a shooting war with our erstwhile allies.
Tim - no disrespect to our international allies but shooting already started right here at home
I know, J AZ, and you're correct. I was focusing on foreign policy.
Blessings, Tim. Was just extending your well said take to cover our local situation as well
When I consider that 3 out of 10 Americans are cheering this madness on, I realize that getting rid of Trump cannot solve our biggest problem: 3 out of 10 Americans are moral monsters.
They are like activated viruses. They've always been agnostic at best about authoritarianism and cruelty to the 'other'. But they were mostly dormant until Trump fed their inner beasts. Now, social media will provide sustenance so this cruelty will always be stoked. Sad and dangerous times for now and a generation.
My wife and I started watching "IT: Welcome to Derry" last night, and I believe that Derry's citizens and Trump voters are one in the same. There was a scene where three boys were beating the shit out of another boy in front of everyone and no one (save one woman) attempted to help the boy being beaten. Sounds like a morally vacuous people, doesn't it? Trump people, in other words.
Thank you for highlighting social media. It's destroying our society, yet the typical response is basically "it's a plus for me!"
Between 2010 and 2012, Facebook added their "like" button, and Twitter added their "share" button. By then, they also had very sophisticated algorithms for addicting us. Then Cambridge analytical, using Facebook data on millions of voters, helped get Trump elected in 2016.
How has our society become so drawn to entertainment, outrage, and convenience - and so self centered - that tens of millions of us refused to see where this would lead??
I wonder what the statistics tell us about how many Americans are sociopaths? Is it as high as 3 out of 10? Sure feels like it.
About 10 out of 10 in the White House. 😡
It looks like the hand-me-down Nobel didn't satisfy the beast.
I believe that every last penny of wealth in the world could end up in Donald Trump's bank account, and he'll never be satisfied.
Right! His niece, Mary Trump, says this all the time. Sociopathic narcissists are never satiated and the sociopath part means they feel no guilt, regret, or empathy for their actions.
But Trump scales in the psychopath range which means he also has a large sadistic and paranoid component. This is why he's out to get his enemies, enjoys watching the ICE brutality porn, and eggs on the cruelty. I can now add delusional to his profile because on some level he knows his dementia is showing but is incapable of acknowledging it. However, that delusional component is driving a lot of what he is currently engaged in and how he thinks about it. Perfect example is the letter to the Norwegian ambassador.
He's a walking, talking black hole of need and desire. Nothing -- wealth, sex, power -- has ever filled him up. It's time, far past time, that someone or something tells him no and to piss off.
He wouldn’t be satisfied then, anymore than Musk will be satisfied with $3 trillion.
It's always more. And more. And more.
I keep wondering when America’s oligarchs will decide that Trump is becoming a threat to him and try to remove him via the Senate. The oligarchs seem to have forgotten that he now controls the armed forces.
You bring up something interesting. An underappreciated reason why these people have "fuck you" money is because they've had the rule of law to protect them, and they've enjoyed the shield that NATO has provided them. You'd think that these people would consider what would happen to their bottom line if a successful alliance was blown up...
...or maybe they have and they figured out they could get even richer. And if that's that case, don't get me started on how to deal with that.
The way to deal with that latter possibility involves ropes and lampposts.
The one consolation I try to take every day is knowing that Trump will never be happy.
Plus impeachment would be a rallying point for Republicans. We all saw what happened after Jan 6th and when he was indicted for his numerous crimes.
That letter is delusional. An egomaniacal and mentally deteriorating 79-year-old has his finger on about 1700 active thermonuclear weapons, in addition to all the conventional forces of the US Military. That alone should be enough to replace him.
When this is all over, Michael, whether by Trump's passing, the destruction of the United States, or something in between, books will be written about why the great and good American people allowed this man to ascend to the presidency. And those books will not be kind to us. Nor should they be.
I don't know. I remember watching the movie version of, "On the Beach" some years ago, and then more recently, reading the Neville Shute book on which the movie was based. There ultimately wasn't anyone left to write or read such books to realize they had us to thank for their demise.
On the more hopeful side, however, Ian McEwan's "What We Can Know" suggests something like 60% of the world's population has been taken out by climate disasters, tribal wars and nuclear oopsies, but the people remaining were indeed pretty well pissed at what we left them with.
I'm starting to believe a lot of us don't care about what we've leaving for future generations. I'm not sure why that is. Someone like Tom Nichols would suggest narcissism is a factor. At the end of the day, I think the difference between a wise person and an idiot is the former understands every action has intended and unintended consequences, and I believe what we're seeing right now is ten years of unintended consequences finally rearing its ugly head.
Sadly, that tracks.
Europe understands because two world wars were fought largely on their soil. Since the Civil War, we've been shielded by geography, and our most recent wars have been fought by a volunteer army. Trump is trying his best to teach us all a lesson (inadvertently) and he may yet succeed.
I would add William Gibson's Jackpot trilogy. The Peripheral on Amazon Prime is based on the one of the three books. Sadly, Covid prevented filming of the next book, but one can of course, read the books.
A shooting war that could go nuclear, as both the UK and France are NATO members and have nuclear weapons.
If that possibility doesn't frighten the average person out of their wits, than the situation is indeed hopeless!
The problem is the average person is, I believe, an amoral halfwit.
I think that even the people who aren't amoral halfwits or delusional drinkers of the FOX News Kool-Aid have this gut-level feeling that nothing REALLY bad can ever happen to America. It's been so long since we've had a war on our own land that we've literally forgotten what true hardship and privation look like. So they just don't see the existential danger of overturning the post WW ll global order in favor of returning to the pre WW ll global order.
JD Vance is Trump's political life insurance policy. What point is there in impeaching Trump if what we get is JD -- or Mike Johnson!
Yeah, there's that. That entire side of the aisle is going to get us killed. But given Johnson is one of those Evangelical-types, maybe inducing the end of the world is the desired goal?
Funny you should mention that. I was just thinking yesterday, what if we ARE in the end times, and the Book of Revelations predicted Trump (rather than Napoleon, as some would have it)? Or perhaps Revelations was an allegory about the fall of the Roman Empire, and all Empires end in strife, famine, pestilence, and death.
Interesting reading, th Wikipedia chapter on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
They all need to be held accountable and knocked off their high horses at once.
We certainly need to impeach any impeachable cabinet members that are whispering in his ear, telling him he is the greatest President of all time and that America supports him in becoming the bully of the free world. When they go on TV enabling his most insane policies they just fuel his insane narcissism. They all have to go. Unfortunately, I don't think Miller is impeachable.
What a normal, sane person might feel if trapped in a lunatic asylum, that is what the President is making us experience.
An asylum filled with heavily armed, nuclear equipped lunatics!!
or ground hog day
I'm old enough to remember when Trump wanted more Norwegians to immigrate to the United States. Now, Norway is this close to joining the countries on the Muslim ban list.
(sigh.) Love this, Bill. My heart hurts for the time we are in now. I hope my son can one day know an America once again striving for its true ideals, led by persons of honor.
If Trump doesn’t invade Greenland, does that make it 9 wars he’s stopped?
PLUS
If only the Nobel Committee would consider all of the 190 or so countries Trump has not invaded and do the right thing! (sarcasm)
But he's apparently now told the folks in Norway that since they didn't give him the Peace Prize he no longer cares about peace. Transactional all the way. Perhaps he's now going for a War Prize from Putin or Xi.
It's scary how much of this Trump is doing in a pathetic attempt to earn the respect of Putin and Xi. Pathetic --sometimes I feel almost feel sorry for Trump because deep down he never will feel equal to those he admires and envies the most.
Putin and Xi are hard men who have fought every step of the way to the top, against tremendous odds and great danger, using great intelligence and skill. Trump does have a considerable energy, showmanship, charisma, and feral cunning, but he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and mainly just lucked into the presidency through the weakness of others. And a little help from China and Russia on the social media front, allegedly.
I was just looking at Xi's early years in Wikipedia -- harrowing!!! Same with Putin's family.
All this pain and blood spilled over the ego of one man.
Thank God we didnt elect the last guy again remember he did something even worse.
He was old.
Yup, we dodged a bullet by getting rid of Genocide Joe!
We dodged a bullet by jumping on top of a hand grenade. Go us!
Yesterday we started our worship service at First Parish Congregational Church in Yarmouth, Maine with "We Shall Overcome". We discussed the reality of ICE coming to Portland, Maine and how it's impacting families and how frightened we all are. We celebrated the gift of MLK,jr.'s life and his accomplishments. It was good to be with like minded folks on a cold, snowy morning in Maine.
🎼😇
I seem to be on the verge of tears often these days. Most recently watching the inauguration of Virginia's new governor on Saturday. Bill's beautiful words about Reverend King fed my soul this morning. Thank you.
I was wiping away tears the entire time. Inspiration like this is balm for the soul. 🙏
Same here, Patricia. A simple reminder of kindness and patriotism is enough to have me weeping. I hope one day we weep tears of joy.
There is no end to what shocks and surprises us regarding actions of DJT. This morning while skimming the news, I saw a CNN headline that says that Trump's snub of the Nobel prize led to his actions on Greenland. Naturally I thought this was an opinion/analysis piece. But I checked NBC and CBS. Same story. I am simply flabbergasted! This is beyond amazement. There are opinions that we have a president with the mindset of a toddler or seven year old spoiled brat. But that is truly an insult to toddlers and seven year old spoiled brats.
What really befuddles me is the mentality of certain highly educated people who have zealously defended him. Their acceptance if his idiocy is more puzzling than the poverty of their moral judgment.
Carol I totally agree.
But muh stock market!
They should take a closer look at that market - international stocks are outpacing US stocks (which is the opposite of what we usually see in the market).
Glad to know that you can still be flabbergasted.
The ability of this guy to astound is amazing. Even tho you know what he is capable of. And I keep saying; why in the world can 37-40% still support him! In normal times You could see like 25%
I know! I've decided to take the approach of being flabbergasted, gobsmacked, dumbfounded, etc., when he does something decent and selfless. It's easier on my psyche.
The question is when has he ever done anything decent and selfless? Pretty is to answer that!
I volunteered at a local National Park site for 10 years. We would often host a day of cleaning up the park as park of MLK Day a Day of Service. There is not one this year. Of course it is also the dead of Winter in NJ but I looked on line and don't see any nearby volunteer opportunities. This seems to be part of an effort to go backward.
We have a vibrant state park system here in CA, for which Newsom made a point of honoring free MLK Day admission. Yay federalism! Tho it does feel strange to so happily intone states’ rights…
NY has a superlative state park system. Most all the parks are either state or county with fewer National parks-- there are some natural areas (like Fire Island National Seashore, the Appalachian Trail) and historic sites (Saratoga Battlefield)/monuments (Statue of Liberty) that are maintained by the National Park Service but it doesn't have any areas officially designated as a "National Park." We get the state park pass every year and try to hit as many lakes/beachfronts we can along Lake Ontario, Lake George, Thousand Islands, and the Finger Lakes in the summer.
I get the CA state pass every year too. So much still to explore, now with a heightened sense of purpose knowing the Orange Menace can’t get his tiny paws on any of it. I 💙 my state!
Time to test for the cognitive again.
Reading Andrew's opening paragraph was much more satisfying than my usual practice of muttering FFS to myself. Gotta love the malevolence in service of absurdity.
When I read about Trump prior to his first term, one thing that stood out was that he needed to be wrested to the ground, so to speak, in order to actually comply with contracts, etc. As we have seen, appeasement does not work. Europe is going to have to get tough and wrestle him to the ground, with all the requisite damage that will occur to all sides. Otherwise, they will just lose more and more as Trump wants more and more.
I wish Europe would just give him the collective middle finger: turn their backs, and refuse to deal with him on anything. The EU could say, "You want to screw up our alliance, you silly sausage? Your loss. Well, then we'll conduct our business (economic, military, etc.) without you." (They are sort of doing some of this now...) Continue to circle up their defenses around Greenland. The Orange One wants his shows of alpha strength to be in-and-out fast military actions, made for good social media fodder—big and sparkly; sneaky operations and things that go "boom!" But he also seems to want low cost in terms of public opinion (aka no boots on the ground, very few American casualties). I'm no expert in war, but my guess is that if the EU gangs up and stands together and doesn't make common cause with this deranged fascist, he will retreat. Because he doesn't want to risk losing. It's the way with bullies. If they pick on you and you go after them, they retreat. They are big scaredy-cats. Dangerous, but, as Ruth Ben-Ghiat often says, they are primarily motivated by fear.
I don’t think the Europeans are afraid, but it is hard to suddenly reorient 80 years of policy and relationships. You can argue the Europeans haven’t carried their load, but we wanted to be in control. We provided the security guarantees, we provided the troops that still remain in Europe because that gave us control and leverage. Trying to unwind that on the whims of a demented old man are never easy. The European response to Greenland has been clear eyed and united, and isn’t the evidence of a scared Europe.
We are too big to fail.
Part of what Europe will need to do is to figure out how to protect Ukraine. In the event of Europe standing their ground, I can see Trump abandoning Ukraine and fully side with Putin.
I think they are trying to get as much as they can out of us in terms of support for Ukraine while preparing for the worst.
I can see Trump deciding that if the Euro’s won’t buy American arms anymore to support Ukraine or themselves, then they’re “making him” sell those same weapons to Putin, maybe even at a discount.
I wonder to what extent they haven't already turned their backs on us but are simply maintaining a smooth facade. I can't believe the other members of the Five Eyes are didn't stop sharing anything damaging to their networks years ago in very subtle ways.
I wouldn't doubt they've already started feeding misinformation to the US to see where the US is leaking that info to Russia.
It should have been titled: The Art of Not Keeping a Deal.
I've come to appreciate that Trump has very little, if any, advanced negotiation skills. He is limited to bullying.
And, unfortunately, a large number of Americans don’t understand the difference between a bully and a leader.
Or between fear and respect.
I think a large number of Americans want to be bullied.
I think they should start dumping the US debt they hold. Cash in some of those bonds. Turn the economic screws until it hurts.