How Much Economic Pain Will the Typical American Experience?
On average, Americans’ portfolios lost about five percent in the last month.
The specter of deeper losses and hyper-inflation looms over us all.
Another Report on the International Reaction to Trump
I just met an interesting fellow who introduced himself as “Marc Pierre,” with a readily discernable French accent. When I asked if he was in fact French, his face lit up, as if to say, “How could you have possibly known that?” Apparently, he hadn’t expected too much from us provincials.
He’s an international accountant hailing originally from the south of France, but one who’s also lived in the UAE and Mauritius, only to wind up in our small town here in Central California, where, to be honest, perhaps one in fifty of us could find Mauritius on a globe.
When the conversation turned to politics, he told me what I’ve heard almost exclusively from well educated and well traveled professionals: they are astonished at what has become of the United States, and terrified with what it means for the world as a whole.
His main issue is that Trump clearly has no clue as to what he is doing, but about half of Americans don’t think that represents a problem. They’re fine on the consequences of their president’s making uninformed decisions on things like NATO, tariffs, and the like that are wreaking economic mayhem on themselves and on nations around the globe.
“He has no idea what he’s talking about. Doesn’t that scare you?”
Ah, yes. Indeed it does. Thanks for pointing that out.
Tagged with: International Reaction to Trump
David Brooks “Nauseated” on America’s Moral Implosion
Here’s what commentator David Brooks said after the White House’s mistreatment of the Ukrainian president on Friday:I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we’re a flawed country, but we’re fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated the Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people living in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they’re usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance.
They’re not because we’re ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen.
Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that’s safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office.
And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I’m in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.
—
Since my boyhood 60 years ago, I’ve heard people argue back and forth whether or not the United States truly is a force for good in the world, or if it looks out for its own interests, and good things sometimes accidentally derive from that. In any case, let’s agree that there is (or was) something intrinsically good about our nation and the way it had traditionally functioned in the world.
At this point, of course, it’s impossible to argue against David Brooks’ position, that any American beneficence has gone the way of chrome hubcaps and bell-bottoms, replaced by the president’s sociopathic need to become just one more dictator on this sad planet.
The World’s Reaction to the Present-Day United States
To the author of the meme here, I would respond:
Regardless of the U.S. presidential administration and the general character of the president himself, very few people laugh at the United States, given that it’s the world leader, both economically and militarily.
Certainly no one is laughing now, considering that Trump has teamed up with the planet’s wealthiest man to dismantle the federal government, while aligning himself with one of the world’s most notorious dictator/butchers.
The most common response from the world’s people is a blend of horror and astonishment that our nation could have imploded morally so quickly and completely. Few people saw this coming.
We Outnumber the Oligarchs
At left are the words of former U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich.
Yes, the oligarchs (and the kings and pharaohs before them) have the money and power, but we have the people. It’s been that way since the dawn of human civilization, many thousands of years ago.
Taking America
At left we see what really is happening here, but it’s not going down quite the way Khrushchev imagined 70 years ago.
Without a wanna-be dictator in the mix, The United States’ relation with Russia would have continued to bump along, business as usual–the occasional tense moments, but nothing calamitous.
Our state of Texas has a higher GDP than the totality of Russia; the country is economically weak, and its people are poor and disengaged. Without the appearance of Trump on the scene, with his deep admiration of Putin and his desperate craving for absolute power, none of this would be taking place.
Tagged with: Taking America
College Anyone?
It’s hard to disagree with the words at left, given that it’s the kid’s decision.
College isn’t for everyone in the United States, and that applies, to our shame, to families that can’t afford tuition and the other considerable expenses. Most of the rest of the developed world offers its citizens free tuition, and provides stipends to encourage everyone to achieve their full potential.
College graduates are more likely to:
Take pleasure in art, reading, playing a musical instrument, traveling, and dozens of other pursuits that derive from higher education, and
Live longer, healthier, and more affluent lives.
By contrast, they are far less likely to vote for sociopathic criminals to lead what once was our democracy. If every American had a college education, Donald Trump would just be another walking joke who bankrupted six casinos. He certainly wouldn’t be crawling around this planet, ruining virtually every aspect of life on Earth.
Tagged with: trump sociopathic criminal
The United States Now Backs Dictatorship over Democracy
As Bernie Sanders puts it, “We cannot allow that to stand.”
Yet it’s unclear what we can do about it, when the majority of congress and about half of U.S. voters support everything Trump says and does, regardless of how morally wrong and distinctly un-American.
With Trump, You’re Not Seeing What You’re Seeing
The nonsense shown at left serves as a reminder of an extremely important fact about life here in America, albeit a sad and disgusting one. There is absolutely nothing that Trump can do or say that his supporters are unable to spin as a positive.
Now, while the United States is stabbing the rest of the free world in the back, Trump is playing three-dimensional chess. Sure.
Many Americans Are as Stressed as the Author of the Meme Below
While I care deeply about my country I understand that a) a plurality of voters elected Trump, a man they knew to be a pathological liar, and b) my vote doesn’t count any more than that of some hateful moron. This is what these people wanted, and it’s what they got.
Here’s another way to look at it. There are 206 sovereign nations on this planet, of which the United States is only one. Now of course, some people believe that the U.S. is clearly the best one, and that God blesses us over all others, but, speaking of morons, that is the thinking of the true idiot.
America is obviously going into a swoon. Will it recover? We all hope so.
But there are no guarantees. As historians have consistently pointed out, once a democracy is lost via a military attack, or, far more commonly, as in this case, via moral decay from within, it very seldom recovers.
I’m far more emotionally involved with the fate of humankind and the other life forms on this planet than I am of a country that elected Donald Trump not once, but twice. The man is systematically removing everything that ever may have existed that is noble or honorable about this nation, while his countrymen stand and applaud.
Tagged with: a plurality of voters elected Trump, democracy lost via moral decay from within, God blesses America singularly, my vote doesn't count any more than that of some hateful moron, once a democracy is lost it very seldom recovers, some people believe that the U.S. is clearly the best country on the planet, Trump a pathological liar
