JVL and Andrew Egger break down Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s historic declaration—the end of the American-led global order. With markets plunging, retaliatory tariffs announced, and $2 trillion wiped out in a day, America’s shift toward isolationism has triggered an economic and geopolitical crisis unlike anything we’ve witnessed.
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They’re trying to turn US into Russia. Criminals and corrupt dictators are uncomfortable around law abiding democracies. Unfortunately, trump is a corrupt criminal so the Putin model works better for him than the previous US model. Sorry US, it’s not likely to get better under MAGA!!!!
Some of the American people, not all of us....sigh
Carney is formidable. He has emerged as a man for his time and it is possible that we are going to be watching Canada emerge as a world leader. He clearly sees Canada, with its raw materials that are so relevant for our time, as fossil fuels were the raw materials for the last century, providing an opportunity for a major turning point that brings a new world order that sees Canada emerging as the leading democratic state in the Americas.
ah, here it is, i had to look around my desk for it but here's the line i was reminded of, it's hunter s. thompson: "America . . . just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anyone else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." . . . jvl as diogenes . . .
thanks. i do appreciate the sincerity of your hopelessness. keep it pure. i feel it.
In today's parlance GTFOH, Trump and MAGA.
I booped you both on the nose and pressed the heart, not because I liked the topic, but, because you clarified the problems discussed
The rest of the world has known we're just a bunch of redneck grubbers since Trump got elected the first time
Trump goes to watch golf at his own property where he takes profits from foreign investors while the world economy is starting to unravel. He takes pride in the fact that our government is starting to crumble, because it has been something that he has wrought. It may all go really bad, or maybe not so much, but just look at what he can do. Bring him his fiddle!
The unwillingness to accept that voters were and are ok with economic pain as long as it's worse for the "other" is odd to me. This is exactly where we are.
Hunger Games is our name.
It's Jim Crow philosophy
Will this at least lead to less boat parades?
In the coming Mad Max hellscape that will be America under Trump, there will far fewer boats, for lack of water in a global warming-based planet-wide drought, and lack of gas to power boats because Hesgeth, anticipating that Trump would want him to, has bombed both Iraq and Iran, incapacitating their oil fields and spiking gas prices. So, very few boat parades. But there will be zombies! Created by access to defunct laboratories and their various infected animals.
Andrew and JVL, bless you both for your clear eyed analysis, and may God have mercy on us all. Well, at least on those of us who actually want to do the right thing.
Fortunately, it appears that the American people have a really clear understanding that the horrible economic problems are being caused by the tariffs and that Criminal Trump is 100% responsible for them. Let's see if that holds next November at the ballot box.
This trade war and the realignment of the global order is not going to go the way that Trump thinks it will. And he is going to have one mother of a temper tantrum. He will be capable of ANYTHING at that point with no one to stop him. Greenland, it is ours. Canada, it is ours. If you want to fight for it, we will send in our army. Oh and Russia is joining forces with us. Look at what happens when malignant narcissists don't get their way. As negative financial data starts to creep in on Trump, and other countries don't behave like Paul Weiss, he is going to get more and more dangerous.
First, the party that out of power generally does well in the midterms.
There was a blue tsunami in 2018 and Dems held on in 2020. We certainly weren't crushed in 2024 and we gained seats in states. So not sure why the doom and gloom here that hopefully, fingers crossed, maybe if we squint the Dems might pull something out in 2026.
Dems are beginning to get their act together and hopefully it is just the beginning. You know what I would love to see? The GOP leader who isn't Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney stand up and say "enough." Just because we know they are cowards doesn't mean we should stop demanding they do something.
And where are our former presidents? I don't blame BIden. He certainly tried to warn us, even though too many people have amnesia. But where are the rest of them? It's not the norm for a former president to speak out. But we demolished norms years ago. Isn't the nation the led worth the fight?
Do any of our former presidents have enough credibility with enough people to be effective messengers?
Hmm. Maybe Laura Bush and Michelle Obama. I'll bet they are more popular than their husbands.
Today 4/4/2025 America just put the for sale sign on a financial casino that we've been running since Bretton Woods. I hope the next owners are a little more responsible.
Thank you both
I’m done chasing this fool down the street. I take to writing corporations, newspapers and magazines, take to the phones.
14:06
Andrew doesn't buy the "hot stove" theory because he believes suffering won't make people better.
He's missing the larger point. Trump voters are morally and intellectually responsible for their votes. Not taking responsibility is a choice. Trump has been clear about tariffs from Day One. His voters elected him anyway. They're suffering **because they chose suffering last November**. And if we're really dealing with a case of invincible ignorance with these people, then they have no business voting.
Besides, did it ever occur to Andrew that these people simply **deserve** to suffer?
Right. They are willing to endure pain as long as it's worse for the other.
As long as they can still cheer for that gay brown barber that was deported, even without a job, that makes them happy.
That's only true of Trump's MAGA base. To win the election, he needed the votes of a lot of low-information voters who believed his lie about lowering prices on day 1. His base will never desert him, but the low-information voters are about to learn a painful lesson about believing the baseless lies of a politician.
No matter how low information they were, they were willing to overlook his cruelty to various groups. He's been around a while.
I'm tired of giving any of them an out.
This is the sequel. We all know the sequel is always worse.
"Willing to overlook his cruelty"? No, they were unaware of Trump's evil because the mainstream media normalized and sane-washed him.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. You're assuming they got their news from the same source which they didn't. But even heads down, his crapping on whomever was everywhere.
Name a group he hasn't gone against, to include white male vets.
Apathy does not give you a pass.
Your argument is not knowing the law is the rationale for not getting arrested.
Nope!
You misunderstand my argument. You seem to be forgetting your own original argument, to which I was responding. You are (now) talking about blame and responsibility. Your moralism is irrelevant. I am talking about the obvious fact that those low-info Trump voters are not committed to Trumpism in any deep way, and most of them are likely to swing against him. I don't care if they are evil as long as they will vote anti-MAGA at the next opportunity.
No need to swipe at the fact that we disagree.
No matter what they were or were not committed to, they overlooked his lack of character which after more than 10 years is well known.
I don't think they are "evil" just willingly uninformed.
I actually do care that they know what they are voting for.
The lack of critically thinking through casting that vote is why we are where we are right now.
Do not insult again. Or this conversation will be over.
In my desperate reach for any levity in this situation, my favorite part of this video was that Andrew filmed it in front of his bar cart. Because yeah. If this doesn’t make you want to drink, what possibly could?
Gotta love Andrew's optimism. Personally, I am with JVL but you do you, Andrew.
JVL-
You are 100% right that “THE GYPSIES ARE COMING!” vibe is on the way.
Also- if by some miracle Grassley gets his wish and the congress wrests control of this tariff chaos-
Rump will blame them.
Then we are right back to:
“The deep state prevented me from making America Great!”
The comments say it all. One thing makes me a little glad - I say Yay to Canada, France, Denmark and all the foreign countries that have sane people running their countries. I'm glad they're turning away from the U.S.
And, Andrew, you wear whatever hat you like.
The Chinese rare earth element export restrictions are going to be fucking brutal for the tech/defense sectors. Next step is China offloading US treasuries onto global markets and fucking the dollar that way. This is going to get bad fast if the escalation continues.
I think the collection to Andrew's left is really indicative of a very plausible way of dealing with all of...this (gestures broadly).
Unlike COVID, where what we were dealing with was an ignorant and pig-headed response to an outside (largely unpredictable) input, this is an ignorant and pig-headed initiative from what must be the stupidest people in the country. So whether it is or is not actually an effort to break the country to enable fascism, how would you know?
I remember watching the Berlin Wall come down and recognizing that the world order I had grown up in was irretrievably gone (Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now" comes to mind...). I remember feeling that although that event was confusing and disorienting, the world was probably a better place for it (I still think it probably was, although it obviously was much more of a mixed bag than we knew). I remember feeling a little pride that maybe our efforts and national policy had played a part in it.
Now I'm quite sure that our national policy is at the root of this. And all I feel is loss and shame.
For gosh sake I hope someone considers this comment. I see so much similarities in the interview Trump did last night at Mara Logo where he blew off the market crash with the metaphor of it being like an “operation” - the patient is fine AND the comment he made during COVID that the cruise ship docked in California had 6 maybe 8 infected passengers on it. Incompetence and lies telling Mega what they WANT to hear. Then that blew up- to the point of ingesting bleach. Combine these frig ups with George Bush’s MISSION ACCOMPLISHED proclamation and you show what a repetitive bunch of dangerous idiots running the show
As Milykov asked the Tsar's Prime Minister in 1916, "Is this stupidity or is it treason."
I thought I read somewhere yesterday it was 3.1 trillion not 2 O.o
A distinction without a difference? Financially, if we’re invested int he markets, we’re all fucked.
JVL spot on that this puts a highlighter over the phrase “Americans are not dependable any longer.” Everyone should look at Trump’s Truth Social right now. The delusions are stunning.
My concern now is when his tariffs cause a true market crash and recession, how will he start playing with the economy in other ways? Because he won’t admit defeat. Find a way to force interest rates to zero? Start falsifying labor and other government reports?
Yes and yes. He is gunning for Jerome Powell.
Just how much will we look like the old USSR?
When I started researching the rise of Hitler, I predicted that Trump would purposely create economic chaos to further centralize our government. Hitler could do it because the intense sanctions imposed on Germany after WWI had already weakened its economy. With Trump, it is an intentional evil.
If this is on purpose, it's not Trump's purpose - he's not that sophisticated. But it might be Stephen Miller's purpose.
Fair enough.
I also started reading Project 2025.
Everyone should.
There’s a plan for the first 180 days & it’s trending. I think it’s written like a college sophomore. I also think it’s REALLY important that people start paying attention to it. Here’s the link:
https://www.project2025.org/policy/
Yes, Vladimir Putin had us pegged. And I completely agree with Andrew that the pain this all inflicts is only going to make us more susceptible to fascism. The fate of Russia proves that what doesn't kill you makes you weaker -- not in terms of the resilience of individuals, but as a nation.
“The American government is doing this to us.” It feels sadistic.
Rob Shapiro says there WILL be winners with the tariffs - the shareholders of multinational corporations that have production in foreign markets. They won’t be subject to the tariffs. It won’t help American workers of those corporations, of course, just the shareholders. And since Trump wants to use the tariffs to offset keeping his 2016 tax cuts in place, that, too, will be a winner for shareholders by cutting business tax expense. It’s just another way to transfer wealth from the working class to the wealthy.
When the historians write up the summation of our time they'll say.... the icing was so thick, they slid right off the cake.
Well, I didn’t realize that DJT made my decision of what to give up for Lent…..
My Money
Yes they will believe any bullshit excuse and scapegoat he put in front of them. That’s what the last decade has shown us
When the excrement hits the rotating ventilator and the search for scapegoats really gets underway don't be surprised if it turns to the usual suspects. You know... the "Globalists." <wink, wink>
There’s a difference between being a “policeman” and a “leader” - we’ve given up the lead so that others (China, India) would love to step into the void.
And I’m fucking PISSED. About losing so much of the wealth I’ve saved since DJT was a stupidass clown I remember from the 1980s; WTF
Couldn't agree more with JVL's assessment of the US citizenry, but the rot began in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh.
Trump is the anti-Reagan. Reagan did not kiss up to communist dictators or start pointless trade wars. Trump is destroying everything Reagan bequeathed to us.
Reagan, with Limbaugh and AM radio, was key in criminalizing poverty and government as unAmerican. He succeeded in redefining Greed and looking out for oneself and one's own as virtues. He succeeded in associating anything government as bad, defunding education, health, and many other public services that had nourished the middle class. We are now paying that price with largely stupid, mean, tribal citizenry.
I'm not defending Limbaugh. I'm defending Reagan. Stop trying to conflate them.
I lived those years. Reagan was key in criminalizing poverty and government "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" and encouraging the push for local control, with all of its racism and other -isms in exchange for having local communities do their own funding. He was practical and backed down from what he truly wanted to do when unpopular, but that doesn't change his true intentions or the cultural impact he had, with ancillary voices like Limbaugh's furthering his messages.
I also lived through those years. I mostly reject your interpretations of Reagan's intentions.
I agree he wanted to decentralize power and return it to the states, in accordance with the clear intent of the Constitution - but in that respect he mostly failed. And he never got around to encouraging states to raise their own revenue - I suspect that might have been part of his program for years 7 and 8, which fell victim to his encroaching Alzheimer's. In the end, his Republican successors turned to a dogmatic program of tax cuts at all levels, both federal and state - something that is sometimes falsely attributed to Reagan.
Encouraging states to raise their own revenue? He was speaking Jim Crow the whole time. We certainly have different interpretations the guy. He had big money's interests and advertised for them effectively, started out as GE's mouthpiece. He knew what he conveyed when he used certain terms and phrases. I remember the impressions the Gipper's softly spoken unkind words left:
Reagan also trumpeted his racial appeals in blasts against welfare cheats. On the stump, Reagan repeatedly invoked a story of a “Chicago welfare queen” with “eighty names, thirty addresses, [and] twelve Social Security cards [who] is collecting veteran’s benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000.” Often, Reagan placed his mythical welfare queen behind the wheel of a Cadillac, tooling around in flashy splendor. Beyond propagating the stereotypical image of a lazy, larcenous black woman ripping off society’s generosity without remorse, Reagan also implied another stereotype, this one about whites: they were the workers, the tax payers, the persons playing by the rules and struggling to make ends meet while brazen minorities partied with their hard-earned tax dollars. More directly placing the white voter in the story, Reagan frequently elicited supportive outrage by criticizing the food stamp program as helping “some young fellow ahead of you to buy a T-bone steak” while “you were waiting in line to buy hamburger.” [from Salon]
I watched my father go from a thoughtful, liberal Republican to a right-wing parrot of Rush Limbaugh and FOX talking points. The contrast between the man who taught me to think for myself and the man who railed against welfare queens and femi-nazis and “government is the problem” was difficult to reconcile. I agree, Reagan and the rise of rant radio and cable “news”’ was the beginning of our demise.
I am in your same position.
And surrounded by “anti-antis” with my spouse and inlaws.
YESTERDAY was the first day any of them actually listened to me.
Silver linings 🤨
I watched what it did to my peers, who began extolling the virtues of Greed and of looking out for oneself and one's own as the embodiment of Responsibility. Madalyn O'Hare became the devil incarnate due to taking prayers out of schools, which did not happen in the Bible Belt. The myth of Welfare Queens had snooty kids who wouldn't touch cafeteria food complaining they wished they could get government cheese too. Like the Magas of today, they had zero self-awareness and no understanding of what it meant to be low-income. Entitlement they had in spades, much as they railed against the nonexistent entitlement of the poor (with some exceptions—there will always be aggressive people out to game systems in any group). In the southern Bible Belt, the new Reagan-Limbaugh morality dovetailed nicely with undying Jim Crow values.
OMG! Me too re the Greed! I can still remember my gut reaction to the cover of Time Magazine in the 80s (after the movie Wall Street came out). The headline was "Is Greed Good?" ...And the main article did, in fact, claim greed WAS good! I thought at the time that we were in real trouble. And here we are.
For sure the alarms going off while everyone else seemed perfectly at ease with the new 'morality'.
Agree that the Demagogue-In-Chief will thrive in a rough economy. Tribalism will explode. Hope we're wrong.
If Trump makes the dollar weaker, won't that make our goods cheaper and get other countries to do more importing, which Trump simplistically thinks will improve our standing? Wasn't that a key factor in calculating tariffs?
It is true that a weaker dollar would make US exports more attractive to buyers in other countries. But I don't think that was part of Trump's plan. He can't think that many moves ahead.
The export-import imbalance is part of Trump's idiotic obsession. He seems unable to understand there are other aspects to economic health.
True. Trump is irrationally obsessed with bilateral trade balances. It seems his whole formula for tariff rates was based on bilateral trade balances. Trump is essentially a mercantilist - a school of economic thought that was discredited nearly three centuries ago.
Interesting
Mercantilist Policies:
Encouraging Exports: Governments would subsidize industries to produce goods for export, and they would also seek to find new markets for their goods.
Discouraging Imports: Governments would impose tariffs (taxes on imported goods) to make foreign goods more expensive and protect domestic industries.
Establishing Colonies: Colonies were seen as a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured goods, further contributing to the nation's wea
There’s too much of an imbalance with us importing for that to be the case I believe. China will be able to set the agenda-
That’s the real problem.
And we have lost wealth, standing, power and credibility.
"A weakening dollar means that imports become more expensive, but it also means that **exports are more attractive to consumers in other countries** outside the U.S. Conversely a strengthening dollar is bad for exports, but good for imports."
www.investopedia.com/terms/w/weak-dollar.asp#:~:text=A%20weakening%20dollar%20means%20that,exports%2C%20but%20good%20for%20imports.
Also-
China leadership perfectly willing to let their population suffer and starve-
So they have that “economic” advantage over us. Not exactly apples to apples.
That seems to be where we're heading
China “relies” on us to buy their stuff. They don’t import US goods at nearly the same rate.
ahh...nope weaker dollar means we spend more for the stuff we import, like 8 million barrels of oil a day. Hundreds of billions in electronics. Its a self defeating proposition, for the average consumer
You're talking about what *we* import. When talking about other countries importing our products (our exports), a cheaper dollar, all else being equal, could help equalize that export-import imbalance that Trump is stupidly obsessed with to the extent that he doesn't (can't) integrate other key indicators of economic health.
Another good combo, JVL and AE 🩵
Never heard the word “astonishing” so many times. I guess it’s the right word for the moment. :)
Yeah, not going down that dark hole JVL...it might not be right now, but, we will get back and it will go back to normal...
I am just an optimist and also, dark emotional stuff is bad for my health
I remain hopeful
Well, we can dislike what’s happening (understatement of the decade?) but still hit ‘Like’ for liking intelligent discussion. Thank you both for telling it like (sic) it is.
Sadly I’ve forgotten the sub this came from, but it’s a quote from someone working in Brussels about how difficult it was to understand the motivation of the US: “One colleague said “we have theories in international relations for discussing hegemonic decline. But we have never before seen hegemonic suicide.””
This was a couple weeks ago! What they must be thinking now…
Wow
Hegemonic suicide is what Russia did with its invasion of Ukraine. (They took a country where about half of the people spoke Russian as their first language and looked to Moscow as a cultural center, and then made it so that they now physically recoil and retch at the sound of Russian.) Just another way Trump is acting out Putin's fantasies.
I love the JVL faces. 😀 We don't have the quality of people, voters or "leaders", to create what we need in society. Perhaps the crucible will create a few more, but the few we do have need to be serious and sober-minded and maximize their effect.
Yes, European defense dollars are being spent at home and discussion of the problem of presently possessed American materiel requiring updates is being considered. Not getting themselves further entangled in materiel requiring updates dependent on the US is a completely reasonable action. So no more buying US.
Not often I hear an entirely new word. "ouroboros" ......and used smoothly Thanks.
It’s all of our jobs to repeatedly say the reason why we’re in an emergency is because the trump regime put us in an emergency. They chose an emergency for us.
Thank you for these reflections. In full agreement with Jonathan. But we should not forget that Kamala got 73 million votes. These citizens are not represented by Trump.
Just one issue--I no longer think that Trump is the major problem. The whole political system -leaving aside the economic issues that have been a serious issue for decades, social and economic inequalities, for example—was rotten. And it bears, say, 80 or 85 percent, of responsibility. Trump did not invent Executive Orders, emergency declarations, the authority, ceded by Congress, to impose tariffs, the authority to fire Inspectors General. He did not manufacture the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs or the complacency of most politicians about it. I still remember Bush II: “we are helping democratize China through free trade.” Above all, he was not responsible for a judicial system already primed to being played by deep pocket individuals and ready to fall into the game of delays. And the best evidence: the Supreme Court granted immunity to a President who attempted a coup. Plus, it is not only Fox News. The whole mainstream media normalized that person and showed its not even feigned addiction to him. Certainly, it is surprising when elite universities and law firms cave in for the sake of federal monies. Yes, the whole system was rotten. And this person, Donnie Magoo, represented this hypothesis: the system is so corrupt and such a carapace of forms barely hiding a swamp populated by comedic “profile in courage” creatures, that I will be able to win the Presidency with one or two slogans, to kill people without consequences, to orchestrate a coup, and nothing will happen to me. I will even be reelected and make money out all this.
The hypothesis has been confirmed in dramatic fashion.
I was watching CNBC this morning (Friday) before the market opened and at the first hour after the bell rang-
And I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
(Suffice it to say I’m not a regular viewer)!
The level of DELUSION was STAGGERING. It’s like Jim Cramer was pleading with the President directly.
They were actually stunned at the tariffs.
“Please don’t let these great American companies go down! They’ve done nothing wrong! They need to call the president and tell him about all the corrections they’ve made!”
These market watchers and self-important “titans of industry” and “CEOs” need to learn about human behavior, and human psychology, and HISTORY.
Wow. Just wow.
Bring back the humanities courses- quit focusing on STEM so much.
Voters are putting their hand on the stove as if it's the box from Dune
Andrew, I am deeply offended by your Hillsdale College hat. It’s not just their political stances that offend me, but also their religion courses. As a Prof Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I taught undergrad and grad courses in biblical studies, sampling just one of their courses (on Genesis) inspired in me deep spite for their curriculum. They are an Evangelical institution, with all that implies. Their lies about US history are of a piece with their ideological approach to the Bible, which is simple distortion of the text based on a defunct and harmful religion.
PLEASE - lose the cap NOW!
I'm a Hillsdale grad and the education I got there made me who I am today. I'm also a conservative Lutheran--not an evangelical in my telling but probably in yours. If that's a stumbling block to you getting anything out of my political analysis, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna throw what I know.
Thank you for your response, Andrew. I am an alumnus of Bethel University (St. Paul). I wouldn’t be who I am today without that start. And in fact, two years ago I was honored to be alumnus of the year for Bethel Theological Seminary. I have many life-long friends from Bethel and chaired the committee for my class’s fiftieth reunion. Despite that, I do not wear Bethel gear because it associates me with stances I repudiate. My feelings for Bethel run deep, but I would not want a cap or hoodie with Bethel’s insignia to keep people from hearing my support for LGBTQ+ folk, advocacy for Gaza’s refugees, or concerns about anthropogenic climate change. In particular, I would not want to be associated in any degree with Christian Nationalism. The issue is a consistent message.
I know very well that not Evangelicals are bad (my parents were, and they were great people). In this moment, however, one of the main anti-constitutional forces is Christian Nationalism, which inhabits much of conservative Evangelicalism. Hillsdale is a major voice for this.
PS: Plus all evangelicals are not bad people
You don't get to tell people what they can wear or project what you think they think or are...Andrew is a good guy and didn't deserve this.
Lose your religious bigotry. A professor at a left wing cesspool like UW Madison hardly reflects the Christianity of most Americans. It’s that elitist, condescending attitude that got Trump elected. The MAGA people would burn their own house down as long as yours went with it.
My objections are not religious but historical. Studying ancient texts and culture - of any kind - requires leaving behind religious beliefs to attempt to recover the meanings in their socio- cultural setting. Calling that “religious bias” is like accusing a medical researcher of bias because they don’t accept RFK’s unscientific programs. The danger here is the use of traditions that have an ancient historical framework to address issues from within our socio-political context. I cannot accept White Christian Nationalism just to get along any more than I could favor tariffs as if economic theory and evidence didn’t matter.
You called Christianity, or at least the Evangelical kind, “a defunct and harmful religion”. You and I both know you would sooner cut out your own tongue than have the courage to say that about Islam in the faculty lounge. You would lose your job before you could make it out the building
Of course I wouldn’t, nor would I state my condemnation of Evangelicals in an academic setting. I will say, however, that you have no idea of the nature of faculty discussions, including the frankness of scholars in conversation. My speech here is politically oriented, having to do with the deleterious effects of conservative Evangelicalism on society (they aren’t favorable to individual liberties, for example). And that’s something validated by abundant sociological research.
Would you say that Islam is favorable to individual liberties?
Islam is no more a monolith than Christianity.
lol. As an intellectual historian name me a predominantly Islamic nation with a strong history of individual liberties? Does your Islamic studies program at UWM perform an exegetical study of the Koran breaking down its origins and historical accuracy like scholars have felt free to do with the Bible for the last 200 years? The students would riot!
Can you imagine being a conservative student taking a class taught by this guy? It’s why parents send their kids to Hillsdale
My classes were filled with students from Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds. Classes always filled to their cap, with students petitioning me at the first class session to let them in over the cap. But it’s nice to hear from an anti-intellectual.
JVL's sign off resonated deeply tonight. Good luck, America.
I'm a state employee and my Governor warned us today to expect huge cuts in federal monies coming to the state, and future layoffs are possible. Here is my question to the group -- to what degree do you think Trump's political charisma is "lightning in the bottle" that cannot be replicated by another Republican leader? Trump is quite old. When he dies, do you think MAGA and Republicans could coalesce around another Republican in the same way? It does not seem J.D. Vance has much charisma. I pray that this feverish grip America is now in will die with Trump when he dies....best of luck to everyone as we go through these very difficult times.
Trump will have an iron grip on the Republican Party until he dies. No republican candidate will get elected for dog catcher without kissing his ring. And Trump has a dreadful record in elections where he isn’t on the actual ballot. A lot of his most die hard supporters only come out for him. They despise classical liberals (neocons, rinos, cucks, squish) as much as they hate the left. And, to give them credit, they have a hound dog ability to sniff out those old fashioned conservatives who are just playing at MAGA. So I think the Republicans are in trouble between the time Trump leaves office and his death. What happens to GOP when Trump finally dies? That is the big question.
Thanks for the reply and sharing your thoughts. It sounds like we're in for the long, long haul with Trump. The Republicans just will not dare speak out against these abominable tariffs. Praying Trump's approval numbers dive below 30%.
Four senators did have courage to vote against them
100% agree with the first part of your comments; all of it is spot on. And I too have wondered what happens when the cult leader is finally dead.
But as for "...between the time Trump leaves office and his death:" there's not going to be any such time. He will only leave office WHEN he is dead - or at least 100% incapacitated by something like a stroke. The sooner people stop counting on 2028 being the end of his reign of terror, the sooner we can figure out what to do about it. I know it's hard to fathom that this is where we are; but I agree 100% w/ JVL that being in denial does us no favors.
This is where people start to get over the top. In January of 2029, Trump will leave office and he won’t serve as President again.
That's funny. Trump just walks, eh?
Absolutely, JVL. This is who we are....
And the tariffs are impacting up here in Canada as of today....lay-offs and manufacturing pauses. My son works for a company that installs heat pumps and does other electrical work.....they announced lay-offs today
Excellent work as always JVL and Andrew - and to your point at the end of this peice, Andrew, your dream will only happen if the democratic party makes major changes in thier own house - I did a piece on that here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHY5FypMuK8
Great follow-up to JVL's emergency Triad. And he is so right, sorry to say. A couple of thoughts:
(1) As Andrew implied, our ability to sustain our enormous national debt has hinged entirely on the rest of the world's willingness to lend us money by buying our debt. They have done that SOLELY due to trust in the American economy and the American dollar. If that disappears--and if, Heaven forbid, they decide to cash in by selling off our Treasury bonds and bills--well, that Doomsday scenario that Conservatives have predicted for a century may finally, ironically, come to pass.
(2) On the mildly optimistic side, I would point out to JVL that this particular social and economic collapse will have bright red signature lines written all over it in Sharpie. Even the dimmest bulbs will be able to discern the principal authors of their pain prescription. That gives me a lot of hope that Andrew's best-case scenario may actually come to pass. We had better hope that it does indeed work out that way.
And Carney is no idiot. He has an MPhil and a DPhil in economics from Oxford....
I read an article called “How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy from Within” right after Donald Trump was elected and unfortunately I have watched in horror as what I read seems to be coming to pass.
Here is a couple of quotes from the article:
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-narcissistic-leaders-destroy-within
“But even worse, narcissists change the companies or countries they lead, much like bad money drives out good, and those changes can outlast their own tenure, O’Reilly says. Divergent voices are silenced, flattery and servility are rewarded, and cynicism and apathy corrode any sense of shared purpose in a culture where everyone’s out for themselves. In the extreme, they can destroy the institution itself.”
“O’Reilly thinks we may especially tend to choose narcissistic leaders in times of turmoil. “In the last few decades, big companies like automakers and banks have been threatened by technological disruption. So you could imagine that in anxious times people are looking for a hero, a confident person who says, ‘I have a solution.’” They may be the only ones who are confident in such times.”
This video has scared me more than any other video that I've watched from The Bulwark in the past 3 years. I have never seen Andrew that mad. We're doomed.
I really enjoyed this. Mark Carney’s comments brought tears to my eyes. Good job guys.
Trump broke it; we now have to buy it.
There’s no constitutional authority for the President to set tariffs. It’s one of many congressional powers that congress (democrats and republicans) handed over to the executive branch over time. In 1977 congress authorized the President to unilaterally set tariffs for emergencies and situations involving national security. No prior president has abused this power to such an extent, but Congress needs to take this AND ALL OTHER powers reserved to congress back. It’s not healthy to have such gigantic swings in governance based on executive decrees. Of course then congress would then have to actually govern instead of grandstand and then fundraise off of the grandstanding.
Yes. Congress could easily overrule Trump on the tariffs by taking back control over them. There is no reason they need to let him do this.
You are right. It’s not that hard. It’s not like amending the Constitution. In fact, the senate just voted (with four republicans) to do just that. If it got to the floor it could pass the house, but it will never get to a vote.
Congress could fix this!!!
In recent years I have seen a fair amount of holier-than-thou finger wagging among the pro-democracy movement. While I understand the emotions that generated it, if the goal is positive social change I don't think it is helpful to wallow in condescension. I sense that Sarah gets that, but JVL seems more interested in playing the moral prosecutor.
The value of stepping back from being judgmental is that it can be easier to figure out a plausible path forward. For example, the data analysis I've seen suggests that the 2024 election significantly hinged on how knowledgable the voter was about current events, with the higher-information voters breaking for Harris and the lower-information voters tending to go with Trump.
That points to a structural problem which needs fixing. Another one is the corrosive impacts of social media, particularly when manipulated by master propagandists in Russia and their allies in the U.S. I don't know if these problems can be fixed, but we'd sure as heck have a better chance of doing so if we didn't otherize the very people we may need to support our reform efforts.
I cant believe Im alive to see this. I would never have believed it if 20 years ago, hell, even 10, someone had told me this would happen. It is so sad.
The Liberal party in Canada made a pretty big jump to the center picking Mark Carney. We had an unpopular consumer carbon tax (despite citizens often getting back more in quarterly rebates than were charged) which he immediately axed. The Democrats will need to credibly move to the center and disavow much of their progressive platform. Even then I'm not sure the Fox News, Tiktok, Joe Rogan news consumers will buy it.
I hope you’re right, but I doubt it. Crazy on the right begets crazy on the left. We are in a populist moment in politics everywhere it seems. Don’t be surprised if the democrats turn to AOC or something like that and also don’t be surprised if a lot of former trumpies turn on a dime to a populist left wing message. They hate each other on culture wars, but they’re not that far apart on economics and foreign policy.
What are the "normie" republicans in the senate saying about Trump today? Why is the media all over them - Trump is an idiot. The American people who voted for him are fucking illiterate redneck idiots. I want to know where are the union guys who voted for trump now - and the Vets and the farmers - why are they not being forced to go on TV and cry their sorrows and be forced to admit they were wrong or they love being out of work with a loss of benefits. These people are so fucking stupid they shouldn't be allowed to ....not sue how I want to finish that statement. I am so angry. I hate Trump and I hate his sycophants even more. IMO on the people blaming "gypsies" - yeah that could happen but if the fucking media would do their jobs the way MAGA does their job and tell the people over and over and over THIS IS TRUMPS FAULT!! if the media would respond 3 times for every time Trump blames others maybe you would reach some. The media has failed to fight trump.
The standard responses to complaints that an action didn’t work are that those who opposed it kept it from working, that those who executed it didn’t do it properly, or that it wasn’t taken far enough.
The process of burying Trump and taking back America starts Saturday, our day of national protest. We ALL need to be out there, letting those MAGA mofos know that we are pissed and are ready to return our country to the level of greatness that we, as true americans, expect! Let's go!!
Thanks for confirming that I am not losing my mind, and this is all real.
Now America gets the Vic Mackey in The Shield, face the to stove treatment.
Amidst all the seriousness of the discussion, I must stop and say, "Yes, David MacNeil! Yes!" One of my all-time favorite shows...and that arc of Vic Mackey...it couldn't describe this moment any better, could it? Thank you, friend.
Andrew, you rock. You're right that the "story" part of this fuckover is complete. Time to stave off anarchy. We gotta get louder and stronger, stat.
My greatest sadness is knowing the genie can not go back in the bottle and fundamental change is occurring. The selfishness is such a driving force.
More than half of us are going to loose our fucking jobs.
And our retirement accounts
I moved my shit out of stocks the fist time Sweet Potato Hitler announced tariffs. Not that have have much in there at all but I didn't loose anything today either.
Remember those covid supply chain disruptions? When factories shut down, then suppliers of those factories shut down, then the raw materials producers ramp back, it'll take time to ramp that back up leading to shortages and more inflation.
Sad, so sad.
Two trillion dollars of effort gone for nothing and forever.
Kamala’s laugh, tho
"What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss?"
Great piece! It is now clear to me, Trump is destroying everything he can so that he has a pretext for taking martial control. Our only choice is to submit, or to become more powerful than he through our collective will.
HAPPILY MY HYPERBOLIC PREDICTIONS ABOUT POTENTIAL DANGER AT THE PORTLAND, OREGON DOWNTOWN HANDS OFF! RALLY/MARCH PROVED INCORRECT! HUGE TURNOUT, WARM COMMUNAL VIBE OF "ANGRY, PEACEFUL PEOPLE," AND NO VISIBLE POLICE PRESENCE. MEA CULPA! :)))☮️
(written 4/3) I have thought this since Trump won the first election. I do not mean to be hyperbolic, but I have this feeling that plunging us into world market chaos two days before the first national protest: Hands Off, on Saturday 4/5, is not coincidental. I live in Portland, OR and will be attending the downtown rally. I believe that Trump’s plan is to trigger seemingly intentional acts of violence by the protesters, that will “justify” sending in the National Guard, or whatever policing forces, in selected cities, (Portland certainly one of them) that will allow Trump and Co. to enact Martial Law. I hope, of course, that I am embarrassingly wrong, and that the many, many millions who attend the peaceful protest rallies and marches suffer, at worst: blisters, sunburn, and perhaps mildly strained vocal cords. ☮️.
What I describe below may amount to a distinction without a difference, but I don’t believe traditional martial law is in the cards. Occupying the population centers of America in an effective way would require millions troops. Our experience in Iraq (I’m a Vet) and our inability to pacify the Baghdad region, let alone the country, with 100k+ troops demonstrates the impossibility of the task.
However, an incredibly sophisticated police state is still likely and is already taking shape. Bear with me, and consider the following:
1) The legal infrastructure left over from the Patriot Act is largely still in place, codified in new legislation and policies adopted even at the local law enforcement level. If the administration designates you a “threat” (ie. Tesla vandals) you have no Constitutional protection. The message of CECOT in El Salvador is that an outsourced, international gulag is being put in place to hold such “threats”.
2) T will likely invoke the Insurrection Act at some point, enabling federal troops to be used as domestic law enforcement in order to deter protest, crush civil unrest, and to militarize the border, including international ports of entry (airports, seaports). As we continue our isolationism and our empire contracts (barring a war with Iran or invasion of our neighbors) the troops will come home.
3) A Day 1 EO, 14159 “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” establishes Homeland Security Task Forces (composed of federal, state, and local law enforcement) in every state. LE will be ubiquitous and likely plain clothed.
4) KP runs the FBI, and when the purges are complete and T has consolidated his power enough, we could see opposition party members removed. I believe they are aware of this and it would explain their deafening silence and largely performative (in)action. Interestingly, the closing opera music at the RNC last year was from the final scene of The Sum of All Fears. Watch the scene on YouTube then watch the closing of the RNC. It speaks volumes and was not a coincidence.
5) We may see the deputization of private military contractors and militia groups. This has already happened with EM’s private security detail (Triple Canopy) and Erik Prince (founder of Blackwater that merged with Triple Canopy), has pitched the idea of using PMCs to assist with deportation operations. These companies are private armies, complete with combat units, intelligence branches and fleets of aircraft. And of course the Proud Boys and their ilk are still standing back, and standing by, having been legitimized and emboldened by Presidential pardons.
6) Total digital surveillance of the population is already happening, much of it outsourced in the form of surveillance capitalism, private data brokers, and private intelligence software like Pegasus, but programs like PRISM and whatever new systems the NSA are using are still active. AI will be used to identify and map out dissenters and undesirables (think AI powered DNA analysis/eugenics). As America continues to isolate itself from the world, these tools will increasingly be turned inward.
These are the ingredients for a totalitarian police state that fascists of the past could only dream of, and it is already taking shape by degrees. If we are plunged into a serious economic crisis, or any event that leads to mass civil unrest, it will likely come to maturity. We are in the early stages of the collapse of the greatest empire in history, expect the unprecedented.
It’s like we’re being “Locked in” to the country.
That is what Trump and his fellow autocrats want. If every country is isolated, then consumers will not have alternatives. That makes it easier for each autocrat to control his own populace.
Kim Jong Rump
Eileen, I think you are quite likely right. Whether or not MAGA has every move mapped out, the intention is there: destroy the normal American institutions so that they can institute new, authoritarian ones.
I doubt he’s even aware of the protests. Some of his people may be. But they view protesting Dems as something to laugh at. “Cry harder.” At least for now.
No. Trump really believes in this crackpot economics. It may be the only idea he really does believe in. He has been talking this crap since the 80s. Just back then it was Japan eating our lunch and stealing from us
Trump's understanding of the economy is as sophisticated as that of the Underpants Gnomes:
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1200/1*oaJlY6rLTVKnCCwrjCItMA.jpeg
It was delusional then and it is delusional now. I mean as in put in him a straight jacket and and give him a padded room and a lot of therapy. He is as mad as good old King George. And this country elected him!
He is the reflection, historically and contemporarily, of the dark side/ the shadow side of America.
He is the reflection, historically and contemporarily, of the dark side of America.
I think I've never seen Andrew E. so angry. Hang in there guys. The work you're doing is essential.
What the fuck are we all going to do when everything collapses?
Drink
Too expensive.
Ha ha. There’s a huge tariff on French and Spanish wine now. I’m going to have to return to drinking Milwaukee Best like in college. America is back, baby! MAGA cured me of my effete, wine drinking, Euro loving, globalist decadence. Going back to getting hammered like a real American.
Hear ya. I like scotch. There are a few good American versions. But would not be surprised to see them raise their price.
Good riddance. I never trusted those Canadians. Two hundred years of peace and prosperity just to lull us into a false sense of security so we will leave our northern border unprotected.
You can't be serious. NATO means when one Country is at war, that all step up. Do you know the US is the only NATO country that benefitted from that? Canada sent troops to help in attacks in the Middle East. We are not only abandoning our allies, we are attacking them with these horrific inflated tariffs.
Didn’t know my sarcasm was that subtle
/s
I'm a lot older than you guys, and I haven't seen anything like this either.
I am genuinely sad about all this chaos. My 401k and my wife’s 403c took a big shit already.
I can’t even look
I’m distracted from what you’re saying by your Hillsdale College baseball cap.
Are you aware this college sends thousands of mailers that with propaganda in support of Trump policies?
Thks but he might want to rethink promoting that college since it means something else now. Equivalent to wearing a Maga hat.
I read the hat to be completely ironic. Thank you, Andrew and JVL, for your efforts to keep us informed and give us some context. You echo my own fears. I see this as the “necessary” prelude for Thiel’s techno-feudal state plans to come into being. The world will never be the same.
Hillsdale used to produce normal conservative Republicans. Andrew attended before Trump took over every conservative institution
Andrew is more credible because he has come out of that institution and not been brainwashed.
Well also cmon dude, a Hillsdale cap? WTF. It’s the Hillsdale crowd that let Trump through the door
I'm "the Hillsdale crowd" too. Land of contrasts
If you're struggling to understand why Donald Trump is torching the global economy, it is because he is deliberately trying to hurt weaker nations so that they may be more easily conquered. They aim to change the map. At the moment, they are succeeding.
We are the hostages in this attempt!
I prefer to read… I do not like wasting my time watching videos or spending a long time listening to things. I really wish there were transcripts of everything available…
If you use apple you can access the bulwark takes feed and read transcripts there :) apple transcripts have been pretty good after the recent update!
I much prefer the audio versions due to my dyslexia, but it’s great to have lots of means to intake info :)
Every Bulwark podcast now has an AI-generated transcript. Below the audio-video player, below the title and the byline, on the right side of the column is a button labeled "Transcript". Transcripts are searchable. But the AI sometimes misinterprets words and misspells names, so it's not perfect - and it doesn't tell you who is saying what.
Some folks comment on our videos that they wish they were print products, some people comment on our print product that they wish they were videos--that's why we do both!
Keep up the great and insightful work.
Deeply appreciate!
I for one love the videos/pods, even more so than the print stuff.
Same here
I appreciate what you are saying. What I do is put on my headphones at the gym and listen to the podcasts. I find my anger and dismay increases the intensity of my workouts. 😎
I recently discovered that Substack has a play button up at the top right in the app! It’ll read the article for you, which means I can do substack AND the dishes at the same time! (Some subs only allow it for paid subscribers. Scrooges.)
I discovered it today as well!