So, tonight we figure out if we're in the darkest timeline or not ...
Universe #1) Full TACO -
Hard to see how Trump left room for himself to chicken out, but shamelessness is his game. He seems incapable of the sort of embarrassment you or I might feel from inconsistency, so as long as he thinks he can spin it, he will TACO. He only doesn't TACO if he himself thinks he has backed himself into a corner, which Trump always has an eye on the exit door.
I don't want to sound blasé. The TACO universe is like one of those carnival rides where the only safety restraint is a lap bar, but the thing clearly goes upside down. It isn't a safe universe.
Universe #2) Iran Accedes Enough to Give Trump the "Win" He Needs -
Will this happen? Iran seems ten toes down, and we know they're willing to let their people die to maintain their regime. They also might have clocked that Trump's own base of support will collapse if he carries out his threat, the American lead world order might collapse, there might be a global pivot to China, and Iran gets along better with China anyway. Iran understands the TACO trade, to boot.
I kind of think if their memes are to be believed they will give nothing to Trump.
Universe #3) War Crimes -
If Trump carries out his threat and we do something genuinely horrifying with either conventional or even nuclear weapons, it is our Suez Canal Crisis. It will be the end of American hegemony, if it hasn't already ended.
Xi Jianping is so excited right now. He's on the edge of his seat, watching as the energy crisis speeds up electrification and the adoption of electrical cars, solar, batteries, all of which China is leading on. The people of Iran obviously suffer greatly, and we are the cause of it; even if we (the Bulwark) didn't vote for Trump, in the eyes of the international community we (as Americans) failed to prevent this.
I think Universe #2 is off the table now. When Trump threatened to "end a civilization" that will sound very different to Persian ears than it does to us. To us, it sounds like bluster and stupidity. To the Persians it sounds like, "We've heard that before, many times, for three thousand years. It's never happened before and it won't happen now."
Yeah, I just had a tour to Jordan with a UK travel company cancelled on me. The company apologized for cancelling the tour (which they did on their government's advisement) but I wrote back to them and said that I felt like it was me, as an American, who should be doing the apologizing. On a recent tour that I was on, there was one Canadian in our group, and I apologized to him for our disgraceful behavior towards Canada, which has not only been a great neighbor to us, but a country that expended blood and treasure supporting us in Afghanistan, honoring their Article 5 NATO committment. Yes, my shame is off the charts too.
I think as individuals we can make amends with our erstwhile allies and friends. Collectively, however, we're fucked for a long time when it comes to those erstwhile allies and friends. They've seen what the United States is capable of, and I'm certain that they're watching this madness and wondering why no one is moving to prevent Trump from carrying out his threats. We will deserve the harsh judgment of history when it comes.
Tim: "wondering why no one is moving to prevent Trump from carrying out his threats" is where I am stuck. I just don't understand how NO ONE around this crazy monster is trying to stop him - or at least channel his madness into some harmless diversion, like golf.
Iran is bleeding The Great Satan right now better than anyone has done in generations. And all it costs them now is some of their civilian population and stuff that can be re-built like bridges and power plants, and China will gladly help them. If they open Hormuz due to threats, it just takes away their one leverage point that they have on the whole world.
oh yeah, 100%. even in the multiverse of timelines, there's no possible timeline where the Strait of Hormuz opens tomorrow. Trump's threatened war crimes notwithstanding, they just need a few soldiers and some drones to keep the Strait closed. They don't need bridges or power plants to do that.
The only hope is backdoor conversations describing what happens when the whole world dumps its US securities at the same time. Hello, literal US insolvency.
Mike, at this point I suspect such a move would only validate Trump. He's already claimed "we" (meaning "he") doesn't need anyone else. He alone can fix this!
As an example from a different area, I took note when the FDA quietly retracted its refusal to review a pharmaceutical manufacturer's mRNA vaccine after all. The company's public statement about the refusal was a bland, we have done extensive safety research and stand by our product. But there was suddenly a spate of editorials and articles in a wide range of publications about the US falling behind China and Europe, scientists including Pulitzer prize winners leaving the US, etc. Pharmaceuticals are one of our large industries and areas of competitive and strategic advantage. These companies are big donors to political campaigns and they have the best PR and legislative affairs departments, and CEOs who have personal relationships where it counts. Also, Medicare is still buying vaccines for seniors in spite of all the bluster (and actual harm being done to NIH), and that's the bottom line for these companies.
To some extent Wall Street is less alarmed than it otherwise would be because investors can move their money to businesses that profit from war and destruction, and to other parts of the world. I don't know enough to know where the red lines are but I think they exist.
Trump is excited, because he gets to use nukes. I've been thinking tactical nukes but, after this morning, I think he may go for the big guns and take out the entirety of Tehran.
Xi Jianping is also excited, because all of this is his roadmap for overthrowing Taiwan (and much of the rest of SE Asia) and the fall of the United States from world leadership.
Putin is excited, because all of the work he's done since 2015 has paid off. He's upset the world order and brought the United States down to it's level, where he knows he can win.
A conventional water treatment plant will stop waterborne disease. Large scale water system tampering involves massive quantities of contaminants. Take the water supply off your worry list.
There is a Universe #4, where the US carries out enough attacks on bridges and power plants to generate the war porn Trump craves, but on nowhere near the scale he is threatening. So, *light* war crimes? This would seem to combine many of the negative elements of #1 and #3, but without the immediate collapse of the existing world order. (Though it might still put things on path to collapse.)
I think it's possible and reasonable to include this as Universe #4. Still disgusting that our nation would do such a thing, but in the mind of the narcissist, this is all a game and so this could be a move in that game.
This us exactly my take. You stared ugly better than I could have. Not to sound bleak, but I can't see how he can TACO here. He us a rabid dog backed into a corner. I hope i'm wrong. Anyway, none of the universes is a good place for Americans.
The problem we're facing now is that the only external signal Trump responds to, the one that makes him chicken out, is a stock market freakout. But now that the markets are pricing in the TACO he's not getting that signal. And without that signal he will carry out the attacks. And Iran will launch counterstrikes.
"Buy the ticket, take the ride." The phrase applies to markets as well.
Maybe all of those S&P 500 CEOs shouldn't have supported Trump, showed up at his inauguration, and brought him golden gifts to the WH. They fed the mouth that's biting them. The old alligator in the bathtub metaphor. If only they had been warned.
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would have reached this level of crazy, I would have thought you were on some hallucinogens. What I find amazing as someone who has been following the financial markets for over 50 years is the level of calm in the markets. The markets discount the future based on the collective presumably rational assumptions of all pure speculators, traders and investors, long and short term. Heading into 2026, the markets were discounting falling inflation, falling interest rates, resolution of tariff uncertainty, rising corporate profits, expanding corporate investment in AI and related areas, such as semiconductors, and generally business friendly and rational policies. We have had virtually a 180 from those assumptions, and despite a few large stocks having large declines (Microsoft down over 20%), the markets have not declined significantly. It’s as if the market somehow is looking through this insanity and expecting things to return to some kind of “normal”. Usually, markets, not pundits, are the best predictors of future reality. But when I look at this insanity and the crazy actions of Trump and the inactions of Congress, I’m wondering for the first time in a long time if the markets cannot price in madness leading to a fundamental change in the world order and the permanent decline of the US in world affairs, akin to the UK after World War II.
With a healthy dose of the freeze fear response on the part of many of us, utter denial on the part of many and, of course, just look at Congress, plenty of the fawning fear response...
Wasn't it a financial situation last summer that coined TACO? I thought I read that somewhere, but overseas here, it is hard to get that kind of nitty-gritty input. If so, then the market is just betting on that code-word. Talk about sanguine.
This is what happens when you cry wolf too many times. The TACO trade was alive and well for most of last year. People lost money, so now they assume they'll skip the sell then buy higher trade, and just hold.
I was concerned about it before, but we have a boiling pot problem where we don't realize the pot is 300 degrees because it's been gyrating up and down for over 10 years.
All I can think of is that they're trying to outrace each other, and they think the first person to leave the market loses. They know Trump's sons' friends are making bank off illegal insider trading and they think they can time their trades to match Trump's sons.
The markets were massively wrong in 2001, 2007, 2022, and are massively off now on both the geopolitical outlook and the AI outlook (the same kind of problem they had with predicting the internet in 2001).
I still find it amazing that people think the market has some kind of inherent wisdom when it is mostly powered by speculation, group-think, and salesmen at the top of pyramid schemes like BTC and AI wash trades. And given its prior track records, the market is not at all any better at getting shit right than the government is. In fact, markets and their wealth would largely not exist were it not for the government creating the environment that markets depend upon and inherit (DARPA innovation, patent offices/courts, gov funding science & universities, the military securing sea lines of trade, etc.).
It’s more of a question as to whether the market is right compared to the alternatives. At least with the market (or markets if you want to include bond, commodities and other markets), people are putting up real money and not just talking smack. It’s the wisdom of the crowd theory to some extent like in Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In 2001, the market obviously could not predict 9/11. The financial crisis from 2008-9 was the first since the 1930s, and in 2022 the market bottomed and then rallied well before inflation started coming down. Markets are never going to be perfect, but they are almost always more accurate than pundits. That said, in this case the market versus reality appears especially wide and given the market rose substantially from 2023-2025, one would objectively think it was due for a correction anyway. Personally, I always stay diversified with my investments and after large market gains, I sell a portion of my stocks and put them in bonds, CDs, and money market funds and the like. I sold a fair amount of stocks at the end of 2025 and parked the proceeds in money market funds. Not investment advice, just my personal perspective.
"In 2001, the market obviously could not predict 9/11."
9/11 did not cause the DotCom bubble crash, the market's speculation-based growth did, and markets would not reach peak '01 valuations until we got to ~2014 on the other end of the GFC.
In 2022 the market crashed and then got saved in Q1 '23 by the black swan event that was AI rolling out. If it weren't for AI rolling out in '23 we would probably already be in a recession because the only sector seeing real growth outside of AI-based tech capex is in medical care.
And yet, somehow it averages 8% growth per year. It's still the best and safest way to grow your money. Even real estate is more volatile in this inflationary, high interest rate environment.
I never said it wasn't a good money growth engine, I just said that the markets don't have this magical inherent wisdom about the world that so many swear that it does and the evidence is in how many times the market fails to even see its own inherent weaknesses (in fact, they're financially incentivized to ignore those weaknesses in the name of maximizing speculative growth).
In a way, I think the moral bill for America's descent into madness has come due. The electorate's failure to prevent Trump from regaining the presidency has led to this moment. The people of Iran have suffered greatly since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, but because he's a historical narcissistic sociopath, Trump doesn't give a shit about that and is threatening to kill of them because Iran's leadership won't bend the knee to Trump.
Don't forget all the gutless members of his own party who failed to honor their oaths to defend the Constitution and instead allowed him free reign with his lawlessness.
I'm especially looking at you, McConnell and Collins.
Poltico reports today that the Pentagon is providing "workarounds"in order to avoid charges of war crimes. Which I read as fine-toothing it - power plant A provides X% of output to military uses, so it can be obliterated, same for power plant B, etc.
You mean the same Pentagon that fired all the senior JAGs at the start of Trump 2.0? What this really means is Hegseth wanted his legal team to come up with a fig leaf to justify an act of evil.
Trump says Iranians want to sacrifice for freedom.
It is dangerous sociopathic nonsense.
From yesterday's press conference.
56.59 Thank you, Mr. President. Uh you've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure to to cut off their power? Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
57:11 They would be willing to they would be will and it's suffering. They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
My hunch is that the recent purge of high brass has to do with who will and who will not deploy against American citizens, and under what circumstances.
Now that I'm thinking about it, this may have been the plan all along. A set up. The real "deep state", the folks who worked to bring Trump to power and guide him to this point, are will us it as a pretext to then use the 25th amendment to oust Trump and usurp the power of the Federal Government.
Yes, but what flavor of coup? A "self-coup" to cancel elections to stay in power? A tech bro coup, to install Vance? A regular coup, to stop him from driving the country into a serious ditch?
That’s why Trump put Hegseth in DoD, who is as bellicose and ignorant as he is, to promptly can anybody with any principles or decency in the military. “Stand back & stand by” was the beginner’s kit, training wheels. That’s what I felt as he said it.
What is it that JVL says? - whoever has the guns is in charge. (Granted, it's a little different here b/c of how many millions of guns there are among the populace.)
If you haven't heard of Croesus, the parallels are pretty wild. Croesus was a ruler of Lydia who asked the oracle at Delphi if he should go to war against the Persians. The oracle answered that if he did he would destroy a great civilization. So long story short Croesus thinks he's assured victory, goes to war, but it's the Persians that destroy his civilization of Lydia, this fulfilling the oracle's prophecy (as they never said which civilization would be destroyed).
You know, democracy requires people willing to vote for the common good instead of just for themselves. I don't know, that's all I got today. Thanks John Roberts.
We seem to have reached the point I expected would come eventually: Trump orders the military to commit explicit war crimes, and senior officers are forced to choose between obeying Trump or the laws of war.
Re: "Trump really is losing support at a remarkable rate..."
I know what the polls say, but out on the hustings, talking to Trump voters, they still seem ... not happy, I would say, but there's a lot of "They're all awful. I don't like the guy personally. He's a bad person, but if Kamala had won, it'd be worse. And they're all corrupt anyway, so whatchagonnado? At least he got control of the border."
Of course! Magats were outraged when their pastors preached about the Sermon on the Mount and they huffed out screaming about finding a new church because their church was preaching "damn librul woke bullshit!".
If he had wanted to, Jesus could have preached a sermon based on Leviticus, but he didn’t, he preached the Sermon on the Mount. The problem isn’t what Jesus said or how he lived his life, it is with those who want him to be someone he isn’t.
They say the border would be wide open, they'd lose their jobs for screwing up someone's pronouns and they'll spend their days in DEI training learning about how THEY'RE the problem. Gas will be $5/gallon and they won't be able to buy a car with a gas engine and their kids are going be hauled into the principal's office if they say something negative about some trans kid.
The border was already pretty much closed. Harris would never have started a war like this with Iran, and their shitty, snot nosed kid probably needs to learn some manners. What irreparable harm exactly did they suffer under Biden? A soft landing from a global crisis when they would rather have been thrown out the window.
So they voted for a future which insures that gas will cost much more than $5/gallon, the price of groceries will also skyrocket, they won't be able to afford to buy ANY car (EV or ICE), and they'll lose their jobs and also their housing, healthcare, and retirement benefits. Oh, and they and their kids will be drafted to fight in foreign wars of choice.
The challenge for the Democrats is to lay out the bread crumbs for them. The gas prices are higher because of something Donald Trump did, not something Joe Biden did. The Chinese don't buy American soybeans because of tariffs Donald Trump imposed and a trade war Donald Trump started, not because of anything Joe Biden did. Grocery prices are high because agricultural input costs rose because of things Donald Trump did, like putting tariffs on Canada and getting into a war in Iran which choked off the supply of fertilizer precursors and raised fuel costs.
Today, the MAGA right is not making that connection. They're saying -- because Fox News and their algorithms tell them -- that the world was a mess because of Biden and Trump needs to clean it up which will take some time and require some sacrifice, but it's worth it because the border will remain closed and no one's going to have to listen to liberal clap-trap anymore.
Yes, they were conned. Yes, it's hard to admit to being conned. It's really hard to blame the con-man rather than someone else, but that's what's got to happen.
I hope we figure out a way to help them see the truth! We're cooked if we don't. (And we maybe cooked even if we do, given all the damage the Mango Mussolini has already inflicted on the nation.)
But not the economy, and everyone in the world hates us -- for good reason! Are the loyal MAGA people in favor of losing their healthcare, hospitals, and jobs? They already can't afford hamburger, homes, or heat. Next week gas will cost $5.
I believe there is no level of personal financial pain or ruin sufficient to change a MAGA voter's mind. Yes, they will lose their healthcare, their farms, their businesses, relationships with their families and friends, all of it. They'll happily lose all of it in service to Trump. No regrets.
A buddy of mine, back in 2015 couldn't believe anyone would vote for Trump. Listening to him, I thought he was really discounting the power and value of "Owning the Libs."
About 30% of American voters would vote for Putin over any Democrat, because that's what Bannon, Hannity, and Alex Jones told them to do -- although Alex Jones is having some doubts.
My Gawd, you’re right! I know many who’d say that exact thing. Some say he’s an asshole, but they like his policies. NOW I’d call ‘em on that stupid statement! Which ones? The lower gas…oh, guess not. Inflation under control…whoops! No needless wars….darn. No longer the laughingstock? What? He hates the same people I hate? Bingo!!!
Besides the sheer horror of what Trump is promising to do tonight, I’d also point out that by vowing to destroy a 5,000-year old civilization Trump is demonstrating that his war is not about regime change but is instead a war against the nation of Iran.
Yes, I'm sure Trump has Crusader Pete whispering in his ear about Holy War. This whole Easter weekend has been wallowing in Dominionist Easter messaging. Hegseth even made it a point to send a memo informing the Pentagon there would be no services for Catholics in the Pentagon during Easter weekend. Apparently Catholics aren't deemed worthy of Crusader notice or real Christians as Hegseth defines Christianity. The Pope is too woke.
The ‘no Catholics’ did not surprise me as I have been waiting for that shoe to drop from the evangelical Christian nationalists. American nationalism has long had a history of anti-catholicism.
Hegseth is not a Christian. There is nothing about him that reflects the teachings or the message of Christ. He is what Andrew Sullivan mockingly calls a Christianist: someone who uses a thin veneer of Christianity in order to achieve earthly, political power.
That depends on which version of the Catholic rightwing. The prolifers will not accept second class Christian status at all. The Theil/Bannon/Vance/Leonard Leo crowd will shrug it off and soldier on. To paraphrase Tim Coffey. These guys use a thin veneer of Sacramental Catholicism in order to achieve Earthly political power.
Trump has threatened to wipe out a civilization tonight. He said he doesn't care if it is illegal, let alone immoral. Republicans stand by like deer blinded by headlights, and surprise, surprise, do and say nothing about threatened genocide.
If this extremely sick man cannot be removed from office because he doesn't care that he is breaking legal and moral laws, then the US is a failed state.
whenever the official rhetoric is anti-Europe it is a sign that soft decadent civilization is being sidelined in favor of tribal barbarian vigor. What did Tacitus say about the Romans in Britain? They created a desert and called it peace. Non of these MAGA types were really anti war and they didn’t care about the price of eggs. They want the experience of living in a dystopian fantasy.
Yes, now Trump is threatening genocide. Just threatening genocide by a country that has the power to do it is considered terrorism and a war crime. Trump also wants to make Iran unlivable so that HE can take the oil. He wants to be just like Putin and the Crown Prince and control all the oil in the world.
Congress is still in recess, part of the government is still shut down. ICE still roams the streets and picks up the wives of soldiers.
There is no law and order/. There is no stability. We are being plagued by a raging pedophile who seems to feel that anyone who opposes him should be killed. He has no concept that other people's lives matter.
As you said, he is doing everything he can to subvert elections, democracy, a free press, and the truth. We can't wait another eight months to get rid of him. There may not be much worth saving by then. Congress should get rid of him now, and charge everyone in his cabinet with first or second-degree murder.
Please stop calling this illegal, fail of a military operation the “Iran War” or “the conflict in Iran.” Call it what historians will one day call it: “Trump’s War,” or “World War Trump” (WWT). And if you must refer to it as “The Gulf War,” at least spell it right: “The Golf War.”
Allan - the tragedy is that he’ll love the sound of “World War Trump.” Branding is his thing. Better than a golden cow statue in an imaginary Miami ’library’ - ahhh what a legacy!
I know one civilization that’s dying - the lofty, hopeful dream once referred to as the American one. We were always at least a little better than our achievements because we always had the potential, the promise of positive next steps. Perhaps just beyond reach today, but with persistence & faith in our future…
This is why so much of the world gave ‘us’ a pass for Trump. “Americans can be counted on to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.” THAT’S what dies when he leads our nation into war crimes against the innocent population in Iran. Iranians didn’t didn’t choose their leadership through fair & open elections. WE did. May sound Old Testament but how else will the world see us ? Unwilling or unable to restrain a demented leader. Either way, the dream passes away
"Suffering builds strength, something you will never understand."
____
A real human comment this morning (source: Facebook, of course) about the potential impending death of an entire civilization, not ours. This is what is walking amongst us, every day, in plain sight, out of a cage and off of a leash, supposedly with rational thinking and decision-making ability. At least dogs and our other pets do not wish death and destruction on each other en masse. So, somebody, please remind me which the actual higher life form is.
So glad I do not have his head on my body. Sad and worse that real human beings do have such heads and are able to use them in influencing public policy decisions.
In some people suffering builds strength. In others it builds resentment and rage yielding unpredictable but probably negative consequences for people around them.
So, tonight we figure out if we're in the darkest timeline or not ...
Universe #1) Full TACO -
Hard to see how Trump left room for himself to chicken out, but shamelessness is his game. He seems incapable of the sort of embarrassment you or I might feel from inconsistency, so as long as he thinks he can spin it, he will TACO. He only doesn't TACO if he himself thinks he has backed himself into a corner, which Trump always has an eye on the exit door.
I don't want to sound blasé. The TACO universe is like one of those carnival rides where the only safety restraint is a lap bar, but the thing clearly goes upside down. It isn't a safe universe.
Universe #2) Iran Accedes Enough to Give Trump the "Win" He Needs -
Will this happen? Iran seems ten toes down, and we know they're willing to let their people die to maintain their regime. They also might have clocked that Trump's own base of support will collapse if he carries out his threat, the American lead world order might collapse, there might be a global pivot to China, and Iran gets along better with China anyway. Iran understands the TACO trade, to boot.
I kind of think if their memes are to be believed they will give nothing to Trump.
Universe #3) War Crimes -
If Trump carries out his threat and we do something genuinely horrifying with either conventional or even nuclear weapons, it is our Suez Canal Crisis. It will be the end of American hegemony, if it hasn't already ended.
Xi Jianping is so excited right now. He's on the edge of his seat, watching as the energy crisis speeds up electrification and the adoption of electrical cars, solar, batteries, all of which China is leading on. The people of Iran obviously suffer greatly, and we are the cause of it; even if we (the Bulwark) didn't vote for Trump, in the eyes of the international community we (as Americans) failed to prevent this.
I think Universe #2 is off the table now. When Trump threatened to "end a civilization" that will sound very different to Persian ears than it does to us. To us, it sounds like bluster and stupidity. To the Persians it sounds like, "We've heard that before, many times, for three thousand years. It's never happened before and it won't happen now."
Agreed. Trump has nothing to lose (in his own mind).
Your last sentence is sadly 100% correct.
It's mortifying.
The amount of shame I feel as an American right now is off the charts.
Yeah, I just had a tour to Jordan with a UK travel company cancelled on me. The company apologized for cancelling the tour (which they did on their government's advisement) but I wrote back to them and said that I felt like it was me, as an American, who should be doing the apologizing. On a recent tour that I was on, there was one Canadian in our group, and I apologized to him for our disgraceful behavior towards Canada, which has not only been a great neighbor to us, but a country that expended blood and treasure supporting us in Afghanistan, honoring their Article 5 NATO committment. Yes, my shame is off the charts too.
I think as individuals we can make amends with our erstwhile allies and friends. Collectively, however, we're fucked for a long time when it comes to those erstwhile allies and friends. They've seen what the United States is capable of, and I'm certain that they're watching this madness and wondering why no one is moving to prevent Trump from carrying out his threats. We will deserve the harsh judgment of history when it comes.
Tim: "wondering why no one is moving to prevent Trump from carrying out his threats" is where I am stuck. I just don't understand how NO ONE around this crazy monster is trying to stop him - or at least channel his madness into some harmless diversion, like golf.
Yeah, I'm back to "we're all going to Hell together."
I work for a mostly European company. Let me tell you how great I feel about myself right now 😞.
Iran is bleeding The Great Satan right now better than anyone has done in generations. And all it costs them now is some of their civilian population and stuff that can be re-built like bridges and power plants, and China will gladly help them. If they open Hormuz due to threats, it just takes away their one leverage point that they have on the whole world.
oh yeah, 100%. even in the multiverse of timelines, there's no possible timeline where the Strait of Hormuz opens tomorrow. Trump's threatened war crimes notwithstanding, they just need a few soldiers and some drones to keep the Strait closed. They don't need bridges or power plants to do that.
asymetirc warfare
The only hope is backdoor conversations describing what happens when the whole world dumps its US securities at the same time. Hello, literal US insolvency.
Do you really think Trump cares or understands?
It's the only thing he cares about.
Yes, but it's like you say below. By the time reality hits, it will be too late.
Financial markets are the only stimulus he seems to listen to.
never does
Mike, at this point I suspect such a move would only validate Trump. He's already claimed "we" (meaning "he") doesn't need anyone else. He alone can fix this!
I wish I knew.
I think you are right.
As an example from a different area, I took note when the FDA quietly retracted its refusal to review a pharmaceutical manufacturer's mRNA vaccine after all. The company's public statement about the refusal was a bland, we have done extensive safety research and stand by our product. But there was suddenly a spate of editorials and articles in a wide range of publications about the US falling behind China and Europe, scientists including Pulitzer prize winners leaving the US, etc. Pharmaceuticals are one of our large industries and areas of competitive and strategic advantage. These companies are big donors to political campaigns and they have the best PR and legislative affairs departments, and CEOs who have personal relationships where it counts. Also, Medicare is still buying vaccines for seniors in spite of all the bluster (and actual harm being done to NIH), and that's the bottom line for these companies.
To some extent Wall Street is less alarmed than it otherwise would be because investors can move their money to businesses that profit from war and destruction, and to other parts of the world. I don't know enough to know where the red lines are but I think they exist.
Trump is excited, because he gets to use nukes. I've been thinking tactical nukes but, after this morning, I think he may go for the big guns and take out the entirety of Tehran.
Xi Jianping is also excited, because all of this is his roadmap for overthrowing Taiwan (and much of the rest of SE Asia) and the fall of the United States from world leadership.
Putin is excited, because all of the work he's done since 2015 has paid off. He's upset the world order and brought the United States down to it's level, where he knows he can win.
What do you thing Iran will do if that happens?
Send out a load of drones and attack, attack, attack. (They're studied up on Roy Cohn too, ya know.)
I worry about their long term plans…poison our water, release diseases and maybe dirty bombs in unexpected places. Am I paranoid?
No, you're not.
Small scale attacks here are possible. Sure. There's plenty of unstable people who will co-opt the narrative and cause problems.
A dirty bomb? Possible. Certainly short term panic and would allow for martial law and a lock down on normal operations.
false flag?
A conventional water treatment plant will stop waterborne disease. Large scale water system tampering involves massive quantities of contaminants. Take the water supply off your worry list.
I'd think hacking a system remotely and shutting it down would be more likely.
There is a Universe #4, where the US carries out enough attacks on bridges and power plants to generate the war porn Trump craves, but on nowhere near the scale he is threatening. So, *light* war crimes? This would seem to combine many of the negative elements of #1 and #3, but without the immediate collapse of the existing world order. (Though it might still put things on path to collapse.)
It's sick that I'd even want to hope for this.
Some light war crimes? George Bluth approves this message
I think it's possible and reasonable to include this as Universe #4. Still disgusting that our nation would do such a thing, but in the mind of the narcissist, this is all a game and so this could be a move in that game.
This us exactly my take. You stared ugly better than I could have. Not to sound bleak, but I can't see how he can TACO here. He us a rabid dog backed into a corner. I hope i'm wrong. Anyway, none of the universes is a good place for Americans.
The problem we're facing now is that the only external signal Trump responds to, the one that makes him chicken out, is a stock market freakout. But now that the markets are pricing in the TACO he's not getting that signal. And without that signal he will carry out the attacks. And Iran will launch counterstrikes.
*Then* the markets will, too late, freak out.
"Buy the ticket, take the ride." The phrase applies to markets as well.
Maybe all of those S&P 500 CEOs shouldn't have supported Trump, showed up at his inauguration, and brought him golden gifts to the WH. They fed the mouth that's biting them. The old alligator in the bathtub metaphor. If only they had been warned.
They've made money off this so far. It's we little people that suffer.
The CEOs are immune. Are you going to stop ordering from Amazon? Throw away your phone? computer? Stop putting gas in your car?
You will when the power goes out because we can't pay the $9 for heating oil.
We could turn off the money tap today and they'd be just fine.
Even if everyone stopped buying on Amazon, Bezos is so rich he’d be fine.
I stopped putting gas in my car. It's fabulous!
They don’t make money when the market is calm. The real money is made (and lost) when the market is stormy.
Those CEOs put the alligator in OUR bathtubs. They'll be fine.
The boiling frog
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would have reached this level of crazy, I would have thought you were on some hallucinogens. What I find amazing as someone who has been following the financial markets for over 50 years is the level of calm in the markets. The markets discount the future based on the collective presumably rational assumptions of all pure speculators, traders and investors, long and short term. Heading into 2026, the markets were discounting falling inflation, falling interest rates, resolution of tariff uncertainty, rising corporate profits, expanding corporate investment in AI and related areas, such as semiconductors, and generally business friendly and rational policies. We have had virtually a 180 from those assumptions, and despite a few large stocks having large declines (Microsoft down over 20%), the markets have not declined significantly. It’s as if the market somehow is looking through this insanity and expecting things to return to some kind of “normal”. Usually, markets, not pundits, are the best predictors of future reality. But when I look at this insanity and the crazy actions of Trump and the inactions of Congress, I’m wondering for the first time in a long time if the markets cannot price in madness leading to a fundamental change in the world order and the permanent decline of the US in world affairs, akin to the UK after World War II.
I continue to be dumbfounded by the complacency.
With a healthy dose of the freeze fear response on the part of many of us, utter denial on the part of many and, of course, just look at Congress, plenty of the fawning fear response...
Perhaps, like the Trump family, other rich people know how to profit from war, chaos, and destruction.
Yea, the rich always find a way to get richer.
There's a lot of unwarranted optimism in US markets.
Wasn't it a financial situation last summer that coined TACO? I thought I read that somewhere, but overseas here, it is hard to get that kind of nitty-gritty input. If so, then the market is just betting on that code-word. Talk about sanguine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Always_Chickens_Out#:~:text=Trump%20Always%20Chickens%20Out%20(TACO),a%20pejorative%20description%20of%20the&text=In%20an%20interview%20with%20Nicolle,30%2C%20economist%20Justin%20Wolfers%20coined
Thank you very much! 🥂🍾
This is what happens when you cry wolf too many times. The TACO trade was alive and well for most of last year. People lost money, so now they assume they'll skip the sell then buy higher trade, and just hold.
I was concerned about it before, but we have a boiling pot problem where we don't realize the pot is 300 degrees because it's been gyrating up and down for over 10 years.
All I can think of is that they're trying to outrace each other, and they think the first person to leave the market loses. They know Trump's sons' friends are making bank off illegal insider trading and they think they can time their trades to match Trump's sons.
The markets were massively wrong in 2001, 2007, 2022, and are massively off now on both the geopolitical outlook and the AI outlook (the same kind of problem they had with predicting the internet in 2001).
I still find it amazing that people think the market has some kind of inherent wisdom when it is mostly powered by speculation, group-think, and salesmen at the top of pyramid schemes like BTC and AI wash trades. And given its prior track records, the market is not at all any better at getting shit right than the government is. In fact, markets and their wealth would largely not exist were it not for the government creating the environment that markets depend upon and inherit (DARPA innovation, patent offices/courts, gov funding science & universities, the military securing sea lines of trade, etc.).
It’s more of a question as to whether the market is right compared to the alternatives. At least with the market (or markets if you want to include bond, commodities and other markets), people are putting up real money and not just talking smack. It’s the wisdom of the crowd theory to some extent like in Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In 2001, the market obviously could not predict 9/11. The financial crisis from 2008-9 was the first since the 1930s, and in 2022 the market bottomed and then rallied well before inflation started coming down. Markets are never going to be perfect, but they are almost always more accurate than pundits. That said, in this case the market versus reality appears especially wide and given the market rose substantially from 2023-2025, one would objectively think it was due for a correction anyway. Personally, I always stay diversified with my investments and after large market gains, I sell a portion of my stocks and put them in bonds, CDs, and money market funds and the like. I sold a fair amount of stocks at the end of 2025 and parked the proceeds in money market funds. Not investment advice, just my personal perspective.
"In 2001, the market obviously could not predict 9/11."
9/11 did not cause the DotCom bubble crash, the market's speculation-based growth did, and markets would not reach peak '01 valuations until we got to ~2014 on the other end of the GFC.
In 2022 the market crashed and then got saved in Q1 '23 by the black swan event that was AI rolling out. If it weren't for AI rolling out in '23 we would probably already be in a recession because the only sector seeing real growth outside of AI-based tech capex is in medical care.
And yet, somehow it averages 8% growth per year. It's still the best and safest way to grow your money. Even real estate is more volatile in this inflationary, high interest rate environment.
I never said it wasn't a good money growth engine, I just said that the markets don't have this magical inherent wisdom about the world that so many swear that it does and the evidence is in how many times the market fails to even see its own inherent weaknesses (in fact, they're financially incentivized to ignore those weaknesses in the name of maximizing speculative growth).
That is a very plausible scenario.
The markets are relying on the fact that it’s TACO Tuesday. 😬
The market will drop off the radar if Trump nukes Iran.
But militarily, the economy is doing great.
In a way, I think the moral bill for America's descent into madness has come due. The electorate's failure to prevent Trump from regaining the presidency has led to this moment. The people of Iran have suffered greatly since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, but because he's a historical narcissistic sociopath, Trump doesn't give a shit about that and is threatening to kill of them because Iran's leadership won't bend the knee to Trump.
Whatever ultimately happens, this is all on us.
Don't forget all the gutless members of his own party who failed to honor their oaths to defend the Constitution and instead allowed him free reign with his lawlessness.
I'm especially looking at you, McConnell and Collins.
And the right wing members of SCOTUS who authored the immunity decision.
Poltico reports today that the Pentagon is providing "workarounds"in order to avoid charges of war crimes. Which I read as fine-toothing it - power plant A provides X% of output to military uses, so it can be obliterated, same for power plant B, etc.
You mean the same Pentagon that fired all the senior JAGs at the start of Trump 2.0? What this really means is Hegseth wanted his legal team to come up with a fig leaf to justify an act of evil.
Just so
But eggs were expensive! What were we supposed to do? *Not* elect a fascist?
Trump says Iranians want to sacrifice for freedom.
It is dangerous sociopathic nonsense.
From yesterday's press conference.
56.59 Thank you, Mr. President. Uh you've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure to to cut off their power? Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
57:11 They would be willing to they would be will and it's suffering. They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/live/xFO-SY9ykdA?si=XJZrzIrdtmNYGPqB&t=3402
Dictators do not need to be popular. They stay in power by controlling the military. I hope we collectively learn this before it is too late.
My hunch is that the recent purge of high brass has to do with who will and who will not deploy against American citizens, and under what circumstances.
My fear is that they are preparing a military coup.
Nukes. Coup. It's everything.
Now that I'm thinking about it, this may have been the plan all along. A set up. The real "deep state", the folks who worked to bring Trump to power and guide him to this point, are will us it as a pretext to then use the 25th amendment to oust Trump and usurp the power of the Federal Government.
I don't see why there would be any benefit to them from replacing Trump with Vance.
Vance is more predictable, more "one of them". Trump is too WWE-addled.
Vance is Thiel's guy!
Yes, but what flavor of coup? A "self-coup" to cancel elections to stay in power? A tech bro coup, to install Vance? A regular coup, to stop him from driving the country into a serious ditch?
The first, I think.
Me too. I think that's been the plan all along, since there has been scant attention paid to voters' attitudes toward what all he's been doing.
That’s why Trump put Hegseth in DoD, who is as bellicose and ignorant as he is, to promptly can anybody with any principles or decency in the military. “Stand back & stand by” was the beginner’s kit, training wheels. That’s what I felt as he said it.
What is it that JVL says? - whoever has the guns is in charge. (Granted, it's a little different here b/c of how many millions of guns there are among the populace.)
over 400 million guns from 330 million people
It helped me that both Hitler and Mussolini happened to be very popular--unlike Trump.
Popularity allows them to get control of the military and the civilian government. After that the popularity question is moot.
And the lack of popularity might have the opposite effect...
Trump still has his loyal followers. 30-35% of the population.
That 30-35% is intractable. As Hillary correctly stated, “the deplorables”. And they are. Racist and stupid. He’s gone about as low as he can go.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,”
Either Trump has gone all in on the madman theory, or it is our civilization that will also die tonight.
If you haven't heard of Croesus, the parallels are pretty wild. Croesus was a ruler of Lydia who asked the oracle at Delphi if he should go to war against the Persians. The oracle answered that if he did he would destroy a great civilization. So long story short Croesus thinks he's assured victory, goes to war, but it's the Persians that destroy his civilization of Lydia, this fulfilling the oracle's prophecy (as they never said which civilization would be destroyed).
Thanks for this. There really is nothing new under the sun.
More likely our civilization. The Persians have been around for a long time, my guess is that they'll be fine in the long term.
After those disgusting Easter comments, I'm hearing crickets from religious folks. I'm not sure who it is that they actually worship.
Pope Leo has been spitting fire!
https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2040746520366948429?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
True. The Pope has been vocal the whole time. It's the large amount of us religious leaders who are quiet that concern me.
MAGA is furious with the pope.
Power.
I know sincerely religious people who stopped voting GOP because of the Trump takeover and who say he offends their Christian values.
I don't know how anyone serious about their faith can have a high regard for that fraud.
Come on now, Mike; you know they're faithful adherents to "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"!
The Easter Egg Roll is when we honor the President. I hope Franklin Graham changes his services accordingly.
This year the Easter Egg Roll is when POTUS perseverates on Joe Biden and the Autopen to children. Happy Easter, ya filthy animals!
I saw a clip where DJTwas telling very young kids about Biden'S autopen. It just never stops with him.
Yeah, very appropriate talk while standing next to someone in an Easter Bunny costume.
They worship Mammon.
You know, democracy requires people willing to vote for the common good instead of just for themselves. I don't know, that's all I got today. Thanks John Roberts.
We seem to have reached the point I expected would come eventually: Trump orders the military to commit explicit war crimes, and senior officers are forced to choose between obeying Trump or the laws of war.
The guys who would say, "Nope." are now gone. So, war crimes there will be.
Yep
Pretty sure our senior officers mostly received pink slips this week.
I wonder who currently has Trump's ear. Hegseth? Rubio?
My money’s on Hegseth. The sheer bloodthirst is all him.
Yeah, I'm sure Pete's been walking around with a woody for the past 5 weeks.
Stephen Miller. Gotta be the most hated person anywhere, and he’s dictating policy to the Chief Idiot.
AKA Wormtongue.
Champaign Pete
Re: "Trump really is losing support at a remarkable rate..."
I know what the polls say, but out on the hustings, talking to Trump voters, they still seem ... not happy, I would say, but there's a lot of "They're all awful. I don't like the guy personally. He's a bad person, but if Kamala had won, it'd be worse. And they're all corrupt anyway, so whatchagonnado? At least he got control of the border."
My brother lives in NW Indiana. Still a lot of Trump signs around. They wouldn’t vote for a Dem if it were Jesus Christ hisownself.
Well Jesus Christ wouldn’t be running as a Republican, so no they wouldn’t be voting for him. And there is no way they would like his party platform.
Of course! Magats were outraged when their pastors preached about the Sermon on the Mount and they huffed out screaming about finding a new church because their church was preaching "damn librul woke bullshit!".
I've heard for my whole life that Jesus is a Republican. Jesus much prefers a few passages from Leviticus to the Sermon on the Mount. /s
If he had wanted to, Jesus could have preached a sermon based on Leviticus, but he didn’t, he preached the Sermon on the Mount. The problem isn’t what Jesus said or how he lived his life, it is with those who want him to be someone he isn’t.
Contrary to many US Christians, Jesus didn't particularly concern himself with abortion, either.
Don't forget that large segments of US Christianity defended chattel slavery.
Do they ever explain how it would be worse? Ot is it just the horror of a mixed race woman being president.
They say the border would be wide open, they'd lose their jobs for screwing up someone's pronouns and they'll spend their days in DEI training learning about how THEY'RE the problem. Gas will be $5/gallon and they won't be able to buy a car with a gas engine and their kids are going be hauled into the principal's office if they say something negative about some trans kid.
The border was already pretty much closed. Harris would never have started a war like this with Iran, and their shitty, snot nosed kid probably needs to learn some manners. What irreparable harm exactly did they suffer under Biden? A soft landing from a global crisis when they would rather have been thrown out the window.
So they voted for a future which insures that gas will cost much more than $5/gallon, the price of groceries will also skyrocket, they won't be able to afford to buy ANY car (EV or ICE), and they'll lose their jobs and also their housing, healthcare, and retirement benefits. Oh, and they and their kids will be drafted to fight in foreign wars of choice.
First-rate thinking, that is!
Yes, they did. They did exactly that.
The challenge for the Democrats is to lay out the bread crumbs for them. The gas prices are higher because of something Donald Trump did, not something Joe Biden did. The Chinese don't buy American soybeans because of tariffs Donald Trump imposed and a trade war Donald Trump started, not because of anything Joe Biden did. Grocery prices are high because agricultural input costs rose because of things Donald Trump did, like putting tariffs on Canada and getting into a war in Iran which choked off the supply of fertilizer precursors and raised fuel costs.
Today, the MAGA right is not making that connection. They're saying -- because Fox News and their algorithms tell them -- that the world was a mess because of Biden and Trump needs to clean it up which will take some time and require some sacrifice, but it's worth it because the border will remain closed and no one's going to have to listen to liberal clap-trap anymore.
Yes, they were conned. Yes, it's hard to admit to being conned. It's really hard to blame the con-man rather than someone else, but that's what's got to happen.
I hope we figure out a way to help them see the truth! We're cooked if we don't. (And we maybe cooked even if we do, given all the damage the Mango Mussolini has already inflicted on the nation.)
I've also heard "I thought my Social Security wasn't going to be taxed but the Democrats are truly evil."
But not the economy, and everyone in the world hates us -- for good reason! Are the loyal MAGA people in favor of losing their healthcare, hospitals, and jobs? They already can't afford hamburger, homes, or heat. Next week gas will cost $5.
I believe there is no level of personal financial pain or ruin sufficient to change a MAGA voter's mind. Yes, they will lose their healthcare, their farms, their businesses, relationships with their families and friends, all of it. They'll happily lose all of it in service to Trump. No regrets.
Indeed. For them, the 40ish percent, it is "fuck the liberals, I will take a lot of pain to ensure they are shit upon mightily"
And then they go buy that limited edition Trump engraved Glock 19 for their daily carry.
A buddy of mine, back in 2015 couldn't believe anyone would vote for Trump. Listening to him, I thought he was really discounting the power and value of "Owning the Libs."
Trump voters value that above all else.
Owning the Libs is the "winning" that trump promised them while he was picking their pockets.
that does cheer them up, to despise, to judge
to me, after actually listening and attempting to interpret. the trumpy voters, are not conservative, not republican, some are not even maga, they are
illeberal period. hate/fear, thanks murdoch, tea party, ronnie r. and of course, Goldwater fear, under it all is fear
About 30% of American voters would vote for Putin over any Democrat, because that's what Bannon, Hannity, and Alex Jones told them to do -- although Alex Jones is having some doubts.
"Alex Jones is having some doubts."
I know, right? This, at least, does not bode well for Trump.
Don't worry, gas prices will be blamed on Liberals somehow.
Exactly right. "You libtards never complained when gas was $5/gallon under Biden, didya?"
Except gas prices were never $5 under Biden. During the pandemic gas was $1.95
There are plenty of social media memes to the contrary. What sways more minds, a snappy meme or a fact?
for that fact, they remember Trump as president in 2020. For any other chart, Biden was president that year.
I've seen that multiple times on social media.
That's the fault of Chuck Schumer, don'tcha know?
Nah - it's Obama's and Biden's fault, obviously.
My Gawd, you’re right! I know many who’d say that exact thing. Some say he’s an asshole, but they like his policies. NOW I’d call ‘em on that stupid statement! Which ones? The lower gas…oh, guess not. Inflation under control…whoops! No needless wars….darn. No longer the laughingstock? What? He hates the same people I hate? Bingo!!!
Besides the sheer horror of what Trump is promising to do tonight, I’d also point out that by vowing to destroy a 5,000-year old civilization Trump is demonstrating that his war is not about regime change but is instead a war against the nation of Iran.
Or to zoom out further, a war against Islam.
Yes, I'm sure Trump has Crusader Pete whispering in his ear about Holy War. This whole Easter weekend has been wallowing in Dominionist Easter messaging. Hegseth even made it a point to send a memo informing the Pentagon there would be no services for Catholics in the Pentagon during Easter weekend. Apparently Catholics aren't deemed worthy of Crusader notice or real Christians as Hegseth defines Christianity. The Pope is too woke.
The ‘no Catholics’ did not surprise me as I have been waiting for that shoe to drop from the evangelical Christian nationalists. American nationalism has long had a history of anti-catholicism.
Hegseth is not a Christian. There is nothing about him that reflects the teachings or the message of Christ. He is what Andrew Sullivan mockingly calls a Christianist: someone who uses a thin veneer of Christianity in order to achieve earthly, political power.
Hopefully that proscription will cool some of the pro-Trump ardor of the Catholic right wing.
That depends on which version of the Catholic rightwing. The prolifers will not accept second class Christian status at all. The Theil/Bannon/Vance/Leonard Leo crowd will shrug it off and soldier on. To paraphrase Tim Coffey. These guys use a thin veneer of Sacramental Catholicism in order to achieve Earthly political power.
I don't think so.
Trump has threatened to wipe out a civilization tonight. He said he doesn't care if it is illegal, let alone immoral. Republicans stand by like deer blinded by headlights, and surprise, surprise, do and say nothing about threatened genocide.
If this extremely sick man cannot be removed from office because he doesn't care that he is breaking legal and moral laws, then the US is a failed state.
The US chose to be failed state in November 2024. All we're seeing now is the full consequences of that choice.
He's threatened to wipe out a civilization. It'll probably be ours.
Sure we even have one? US culture has often embraced its barbarian streak.
Barbarians? We civilized barbarians through Manifest Destiny! ;)
whenever the official rhetoric is anti-Europe it is a sign that soft decadent civilization is being sidelined in favor of tribal barbarian vigor. What did Tacitus say about the Romans in Britain? They created a desert and called it peace. Non of these MAGA types were really anti war and they didn’t care about the price of eggs. They want the experience of living in a dystopian fantasy.
Trump is used to bullying countries like Canada and in Europe. He can’t believe Iran isn’t acting like them.
There’s no functional difference between Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization and Hitler’s pledge to exterminate “European Jewry”.
Yes, now Trump is threatening genocide. Just threatening genocide by a country that has the power to do it is considered terrorism and a war crime. Trump also wants to make Iran unlivable so that HE can take the oil. He wants to be just like Putin and the Crown Prince and control all the oil in the world.
Congress is still in recess, part of the government is still shut down. ICE still roams the streets and picks up the wives of soldiers.
There is no law and order/. There is no stability. We are being plagued by a raging pedophile who seems to feel that anyone who opposes him should be killed. He has no concept that other people's lives matter.
As you said, he is doing everything he can to subvert elections, democracy, a free press, and the truth. We can't wait another eight months to get rid of him. There may not be much worth saving by then. Congress should get rid of him now, and charge everyone in his cabinet with first or second-degree murder.
Please stop calling this illegal, fail of a military operation the “Iran War” or “the conflict in Iran.” Call it what historians will one day call it: “Trump’s War,” or “World War Trump” (WWT). And if you must refer to it as “The Gulf War,” at least spell it right: “The Golf War.”
Allan - the tragedy is that he’ll love the sound of “World War Trump.” Branding is his thing. Better than a golden cow statue in an imaginary Miami ’library’ - ahhh what a legacy!
WWE, World War Epstien?
sort of cutesy, but not really
I know one civilization that’s dying - the lofty, hopeful dream once referred to as the American one. We were always at least a little better than our achievements because we always had the potential, the promise of positive next steps. Perhaps just beyond reach today, but with persistence & faith in our future…
This is why so much of the world gave ‘us’ a pass for Trump. “Americans can be counted on to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.” THAT’S what dies when he leads our nation into war crimes against the innocent population in Iran. Iranians didn’t didn’t choose their leadership through fair & open elections. WE did. May sound Old Testament but how else will the world see us ? Unwilling or unable to restrain a demented leader. Either way, the dream passes away
The rest of the world will judge us accordingly. And appropriately.
"Suffering builds strength, something you will never understand."
____
A real human comment this morning (source: Facebook, of course) about the potential impending death of an entire civilization, not ours. This is what is walking amongst us, every day, in plain sight, out of a cage and off of a leash, supposedly with rational thinking and decision-making ability. At least dogs and our other pets do not wish death and destruction on each other en masse. So, somebody, please remind me which the actual higher life form is.
So glad I do not have his head on my body. Sad and worse that real human beings do have such heads and are able to use them in influencing public policy decisions.
In some people suffering builds strength. In others it builds resentment and rage yielding unpredictable but probably negative consequences for people around them.
Some people consider rage-fueled capacity to harm people around you to be strength.
others say ignorance is strength
max - well sure there's THAT 😣