Your article while excellent, is so very, very sad for Americans like myself. I’m a Boomer, post war. I’ve only know US stability. This is at once frightening but also so disheartening. I wish it were different. My heart and brain are breaking.
We should read and re-read the words of Mark Carny and make them our credo, going forward. Save for the economic suffering it might inflict on some of us, I say it might be time to rethink how the US is organized. Perhaps a coalition of regional affiliations of states with shared goals might work better than the cluster-fu*ck we've been suffering with for too long.
Carney entered world history at the moment he was needed. Invoking Havel, speaking to his fellow middle powers, rejecting nostalgia--a brilliant speech, with lines that will be quoted for decades to come.
In only a year? Consider that while the U.S. was fighting fascism during World War II, it was also oppressing people of color at home. Hitler, btw, studied the Jim Crow South while developing Nazi Germany's race laws. Thanks to the white Southern Democrats, Black people were denied many of the benefits of the New Deal. After the war, the GI Bill scanted Black veterans while supporting the growth of a homeowning white middle class.
Not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- after a hard and dangerous struggle -- were Black Americans guaranteed the rights that white Americans could take for granted. Discrimination and racism didn't disappear, however. Backlash to the civil rights advances gave us the Reagan administration, from which we've never really recovered -- and which, it can be argued, set us on the road to Trump I and Trump II.
So no, it's been much longer than a year. More like 250 years, come to think of it.
While Americans are familiar with Trump’s misleading statements, Europeans have not been exposed to them as much. I was surprised by their attentiveness, and by the questions after Trump's speech. Many were relieved to hear “I will not use force to take Greenland,” but, unfortunately - they will be shocked if he does the opposite of what he says. I understood this deceptive speech to be a plea for Europeans to retrieve their troops and allow Trump to swallow up Greenland in the same deceptive way he did Venezuela. Even more importantly, Venezuela and Greenland will not be his stopping point – but he will continue this illegal and self-focused land grab as more and more countries fall to his dishonest promises.
The one thing we have going for us now is a GOP representative said that if the felon invades Greenland it will be the end of his presidency. They will impeach and remove him.
I have said this before, but there is something so grounding about the way you communicate. it helps me see a way through. The facts don't change. You just help me keep my feet on the ground as we plod through this devastation together. Thank you.
Listening to him talk at Davos was such an embarrassment.
First, it was pathetic how he was engaging in such emotional manipulation and gaslighting and pathetically begging for them to give him “ a piece of ice” as he went on and on with his outrageous, self promotion and bragging.
Then he insulted every single European leader.
Definitely unhinged.
It was a like mob boss making threats to give “protection”.
He clearly is transactional and doesn’t understand alliances or diplomacy or anything about a peaceful world order that he is gutting out.
He kept saying he’s not going to take Iceland ( instead of Greenland) by force.
Well, to me, this means that that’s exactly what he’s going to do.
It is clear that the European allies eyes are opened and they are living in reality about him and our position in the world.
First, he tries to instill fear that Russia and China are a threat. Then he puts on his social media how China and Russia are not the“bogeymen” and the bad guys that NATO IS talking out both sides of his mouth.
These are abuser tactics. The best thing to do is not play the abuser’s game and capitulate to threats, but to step out of it.
This is how he has navigated life all of his life and gotten away with it.
There is a toxic and pervasive energy that has inserted itself into America's mainstream. Like an incurable cancer it invades every quarter of our society, irredeemably debilitating. That corrosive disease is Donald Trump. How sad it is that he is taking an entire nation down with him as he seeks to feed his insatiable greedy appetite. His inadequacy as a non-leader is postured upon the world stage for all to witness. Having taken the seat at the most prominent dais in the free world, he has disgraced it and he has dishonored it. We had expected better and more. Donald has failed the people intentionally and miserably. A man born of hate and paybacks, he will never be content. But he will make certain the people, and the nations will suffer, much to his glee and joy.
TY, Steven for these words today. I was sooooo embarrassed - yes, listened/watched the whole national disgrace with so many untruths. Hopefully, those who heard this disgrace will know a majority of Americans are not like him.. The person who greeted him after was cordial even after hearing his rant - maybe the difference in donny and the Europeans. I really appreciate you including words of Mark Carney and will search for his entire talk. "God Bless America - land of the Free."
It's a disgusting shame that we are in this position now. This "offensive boor" (He is SO OFFENSIVE!) has just insulted and punished our longest lasting allies and poof the U.S. is no longer the leader of the free world. I alternate between fits of anger and tears...
The billion dollar "Peace Group" (whatever he calls it) puts us in bed with Putin, Belarus, Qatar etc. None of the democratic countries need apply.
Oh, but they are hand picked by the boor himself. If you dare to refuse the offer —
I'll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes. And he'll join. But he doesn't have to join," Trump said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron. —
He says it without seeing a bit of irony in using intimidation to form a “peace board”.
From the way Trump spoke it sounded like he was conflicted regarding Greenland.
He really WANTS to barge in there & seize it - and militarily he could - but the political price would be too great … I suspect he has been warned of that.
Excerpt: BRUSSELS — EU leaders have toughened their position and want the European Commission to ready its most powerful trade weapon against the U.S. if Donald Trump doesn't walk back his Greenland threats.
Germany has joined France in saying it will ask the Commission to explore unleashing the 🔻 Anti-Coercion Instrument at the emergency EU leaders' summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, according to five diplomats with knowledge of the situation.
He also said: “Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland’s already cost us a lot of money.” He was referring to Denmark. In addition to the Greenland debacle, Danish pension funds continue to sell US treasuries, after determining they were over-invested in US assets due to US instability.
The sale of $100 Million, a small relatively small amount on the day of the dip, points to a vulnerability - our national debt held by other countries. China began restructuring its economy and investments after T1. Part of that plan appears to be slowly divesting itself of US treasuries. It reportedly continues to slowly sell each month and is investing in other assets - especially gold. Danish pension funds began moving their investments last year.
This means that while DJT focuses on the Fed and interest rates he is causing potentially worse problems. If other nations decide the US is not a stable reliable investment while we have a growing national debt to finance, that means fewer willing buyers / investors for US treasuries. This in turn drives up dividends which increases the cost of financing the debt. ‘Round and ‘round we’d go in an upward spiral that could be our economic downfall.
I don’t like to ‘wish ill’ on the U.S., but how else does one bring down Trump without weakening ‘his’ economy … while he tries to destroy the economies & independence of former allies?
From the get-go Americans with a brain have said the UK and Europe need to band together & pushback. By a wide and growing margin Americans do not support his imperialist authoritarian “policies.” However, from before he was inaugurated leaders ran to him (including Trudeau who went to Mar a Lago leaving MX in the lurch). They showed their fear & fed his desires with gifts, praise & flattery.
DJT pulls back only when he meets firm consequential resistance. The economy is his largest vulnerability. The military is his threat & show pony.
Europe & the UK showed they were willing to absorb the pain from pushing back because the alternative is even more painful. His pay to play “peace board” is a joke. Our former allies have coalesced and at least for now he stands alone.
Therefore in his blather in Davos after being forced to say the words “I will not use force” he attempted to humiliate them. In a long absurd ramble he used Macron as his foil, claiming that after coercing Macron, one by one he did the same (3 minutes each) with every leader by threatening tariffs. Each agreed to unilaterally increase drug prices in their country to bring down drug costs in the US. The speech was a charade to change the subject & look like a winner. There is no reasoning with such a person.
Agreed, it’s terrible, Americans have our sympathies. Canadians may suffer economically to various degrees from this ‘rupture’ but I think the civilized world is glad that Carney made the speech that he did. He’s holed up for a couple of days with his cabinet in a military base near Quebec city to develop strategies …
“It was fortified in the 19th century in an effort to secure the city against a potential American attack, and in 1943 was the site of the Quebec Conference when 🍁Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, 🇬🇧British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and 🇺🇸U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met secretly to plot a strategy for the Second World War.”
Back in an era when there were no self-interested sell-outs & quislings.
I remember when Carney laid out a rather comprehensive coast to coast plan. I believe people here were glad to see a path forward presented for Canada. One that could be replicated by others with a willing legislature. The wildcard remaining for the US is whether SCOTUS will agree with the US International Trade Court & Appeals Court & strike down the ‘emergency’ tariffs, pushing him to whatever Plan B he has threatened. Or would he take the “out” and blame the Courts?
(May Poilievre continue to suffer the same fate as Lutnick: The more he talks the more he is disliked & distrusted.)
The time to press forward is always when your adversary is on his heels. DJT is not an ally & he seeks no alliances, only supplicants. He has no respect for agreements or laws. He prefers leaders who pay in cash & rule their country with an iron fist. Delcy Rodríguez remains.
He is ‘underwater’ with each US demographic group no matter the age, education or gender. The economy remains the most important issue here for voters by far.
According to The Economist’s weekly tracking updated today:
— Americans do not seem happy. At the beginning of Mr Trump’s second term his net approval rating was 2. It has now fallen to -19 ... A week into Mr Trump’s term 37% of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction while 50% thought it was on the wrong track. Those numbers are now 31% and 61% respectively. —
Hopefully the parade of praise bolstered by offerings of medals, trophies, golden crowns, money / crypto, a sky palace and promises has ended.
Your article while excellent, is so very, very sad for Americans like myself. I’m a Boomer, post war. I’ve only know US stability. This is at once frightening but also so disheartening. I wish it were different. My heart and brain are breaking.
I understand.
We should read and re-read the words of Mark Carny and make them our credo, going forward. Save for the economic suffering it might inflict on some of us, I say it might be time to rethink how the US is organized. Perhaps a coalition of regional affiliations of states with shared goals might work better than the cluster-fu*ck we've been suffering with for too long.
Such coalitions are evolving and need to keep happening. More on this good topic soon. Thanks, Leigh.
Carney entered world history at the moment he was needed. Invoking Havel, speaking to his fellow middle powers, rejecting nostalgia--a brilliant speech, with lines that will be quoted for decades to come.
Agreed.
Fastest turn around in American history is true. The US went from a country that fought fascism, to a country that IS fascist, in only one year.
Also you have to give Trump credit. He is the greatest ASSet Russia ever had. They’ll probably give him a medal.
In only a year? Consider that while the U.S. was fighting fascism during World War II, it was also oppressing people of color at home. Hitler, btw, studied the Jim Crow South while developing Nazi Germany's race laws. Thanks to the white Southern Democrats, Black people were denied many of the benefits of the New Deal. After the war, the GI Bill scanted Black veterans while supporting the growth of a homeowning white middle class.
Not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- after a hard and dangerous struggle -- were Black Americans guaranteed the rights that white Americans could take for granted. Discrimination and racism didn't disappear, however. Backlash to the civil rights advances gave us the Reagan administration, from which we've never really recovered -- and which, it can be argued, set us on the road to Trump I and Trump II.
So no, it's been much longer than a year. More like 250 years, come to think of it.
Must be time to reinstitute the Lenin Peace Prize, which stopped after the fall of the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin_Peace_Prize
While Americans are familiar with Trump’s misleading statements, Europeans have not been exposed to them as much. I was surprised by their attentiveness, and by the questions after Trump's speech. Many were relieved to hear “I will not use force to take Greenland,” but, unfortunately - they will be shocked if he does the opposite of what he says. I understood this deceptive speech to be a plea for Europeans to retrieve their troops and allow Trump to swallow up Greenland in the same deceptive way he did Venezuela. Even more importantly, Venezuela and Greenland will not be his stopping point – but he will continue this illegal and self-focused land grab as more and more countries fall to his dishonest promises.
The one thing we have going for us now is a GOP representative said that if the felon invades Greenland it will be the end of his presidency. They will impeach and remove him.
I have said this before, but there is something so grounding about the way you communicate. it helps me see a way through. The facts don't change. You just help me keep my feet on the ground as we plod through this devastation together. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. I appreciate you saying so.
DITTO!!
Listening to him talk at Davos was such an embarrassment.
First, it was pathetic how he was engaging in such emotional manipulation and gaslighting and pathetically begging for them to give him “ a piece of ice” as he went on and on with his outrageous, self promotion and bragging.
Then he insulted every single European leader.
Definitely unhinged.
It was a like mob boss making threats to give “protection”.
He clearly is transactional and doesn’t understand alliances or diplomacy or anything about a peaceful world order that he is gutting out.
He kept saying he’s not going to take Iceland ( instead of Greenland) by force.
Well, to me, this means that that’s exactly what he’s going to do.
It is clear that the European allies eyes are opened and they are living in reality about him and our position in the world.
First, he tries to instill fear that Russia and China are a threat. Then he puts on his social media how China and Russia are not the“bogeymen” and the bad guys that NATO IS talking out both sides of his mouth.
These are abuser tactics. The best thing to do is not play the abuser’s game and capitulate to threats, but to step out of it.
This is how he has navigated life all of his life and gotten away with it.
There is a toxic and pervasive energy that has inserted itself into America's mainstream. Like an incurable cancer it invades every quarter of our society, irredeemably debilitating. That corrosive disease is Donald Trump. How sad it is that he is taking an entire nation down with him as he seeks to feed his insatiable greedy appetite. His inadequacy as a non-leader is postured upon the world stage for all to witness. Having taken the seat at the most prominent dais in the free world, he has disgraced it and he has dishonored it. We had expected better and more. Donald has failed the people intentionally and miserably. A man born of hate and paybacks, he will never be content. But he will make certain the people, and the nations will suffer, much to his glee and joy.
I suspect there really isn’t much real ‘joy’ in that hollowed out husk of a human!
And he’s panicking … a dangerous time for all a la ‘cornered rat’ scenario.
— a trap of his own making.
Outstanding Reality Blast
Thank you
💙🇺🇸💙
Now and still
It’s up to all of us
TY, Steven for these words today. I was sooooo embarrassed - yes, listened/watched the whole national disgrace with so many untruths. Hopefully, those who heard this disgrace will know a majority of Americans are not like him.. The person who greeted him after was cordial even after hearing his rant - maybe the difference in donny and the Europeans. I really appreciate you including words of Mark Carney and will search for his entire talk. "God Bless America - land of the Free."
Bessnet on Sunday show was repeating Trump’s craziness talking about our country being the “hottest “in the world being the sycophant that he is.
Who talks like that about a country?
It is the way Trump talks about women.
It’s the only language he knows and the only vocabulary he has.
His ‘I just grab-’em’ and ‘they let’cha do it!’ philosophy, yes.
Mark Carney is a great leader. I wish we had a leader of his stature intelligence.
Canada needs to do what it needs to do right along with all the other allies.
I wish they would come in and save us.
It's a disgusting shame that we are in this position now. This "offensive boor" (He is SO OFFENSIVE!) has just insulted and punished our longest lasting allies and poof the U.S. is no longer the leader of the free world. I alternate between fits of anger and tears...
The billion dollar "Peace Group" (whatever he calls it) puts us in bed with Putin, Belarus, Qatar etc. None of the democratic countries need apply.
Oh, but they are hand picked by the boor himself. If you dare to refuse the offer —
I'll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes. And he'll join. But he doesn't have to join," Trump said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron. —
He says it without seeing a bit of irony in using intimidation to form a “peace board”.
(Carney was also invited.)
https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20260120-france-s-refusal-to-join-trump-s-board-of-peace-sparks-new-wine-tariff-threat
From the way Trump spoke it sounded like he was conflicted regarding Greenland.
He really WANTS to barge in there & seize it - and militarily he could - but the political price would be too great … I suspect he has been warned of that.
As HCR discussed yesterday, the Europeans have their ‘BAZOOKA’ trade retaliation to fall back on : 🔻Anti-Coercion Instrument. The EU-America relationship is NOT as weighted in favor of America as Trump wd have us believe. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-bazooka-trade-us-greenland-france-threat-nato/
Excerpt: BRUSSELS — EU leaders have toughened their position and want the European Commission to ready its most powerful trade weapon against the U.S. if Donald Trump doesn't walk back his Greenland threats.
Germany has joined France in saying it will ask the Commission to explore unleashing the 🔻 Anti-Coercion Instrument at the emergency EU leaders' summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, according to five diplomats with knowledge of the situation.
He also said: “Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland’s already cost us a lot of money.” He was referring to Denmark. In addition to the Greenland debacle, Danish pension funds continue to sell US treasuries, after determining they were over-invested in US assets due to US instability.
The sale of $100 Million, a small relatively small amount on the day of the dip, points to a vulnerability - our national debt held by other countries. China began restructuring its economy and investments after T1. Part of that plan appears to be slowly divesting itself of US treasuries. It reportedly continues to slowly sell each month and is investing in other assets - especially gold. Danish pension funds began moving their investments last year.
This means that while DJT focuses on the Fed and interest rates he is causing potentially worse problems. If other nations decide the US is not a stable reliable investment while we have a growing national debt to finance, that means fewer willing buyers / investors for US treasuries. This in turn drives up dividends which increases the cost of financing the debt. ‘Round and ‘round we’d go in an upward spiral that could be our economic downfall.
— But it’s clear that it will be problematic for the US if many foreign investors start selling Treasuries,” he said, adding that since the US had a huge deficit in its public budget, such a sell-off could potentially be expensive for the US. — https://www.ipe.com/news/danish-pension-funds-lose-their-appetite-for-us-assets/10134714.article
I don’t like to ‘wish ill’ on the U.S., but how else does one bring down Trump without weakening ‘his’ economy … while he tries to destroy the economies & independence of former allies?
From the get-go Americans with a brain have said the UK and Europe need to band together & pushback. By a wide and growing margin Americans do not support his imperialist authoritarian “policies.” However, from before he was inaugurated leaders ran to him (including Trudeau who went to Mar a Lago leaving MX in the lurch). They showed their fear & fed his desires with gifts, praise & flattery.
DJT pulls back only when he meets firm consequential resistance. The economy is his largest vulnerability. The military is his threat & show pony.
Europe & the UK showed they were willing to absorb the pain from pushing back because the alternative is even more painful. His pay to play “peace board” is a joke. Our former allies have coalesced and at least for now he stands alone.
Therefore in his blather in Davos after being forced to say the words “I will not use force” he attempted to humiliate them. In a long absurd ramble he used Macron as his foil, claiming that after coercing Macron, one by one he did the same (3 minutes each) with every leader by threatening tariffs. Each agreed to unilaterally increase drug prices in their country to bring down drug costs in the US. The speech was a charade to change the subject & look like a winner. There is no reasoning with such a person.
For Americans there is no escaping pain from this administration. Economic or otherwise. https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d
Agreed, it’s terrible, Americans have our sympathies. Canadians may suffer economically to various degrees from this ‘rupture’ but I think the civilized world is glad that Carney made the speech that he did. He’s holed up for a couple of days with his cabinet in a military base near Quebec city to develop strategies …
“It was fortified in the 19th century in an effort to secure the city against a potential American attack, and in 1943 was the site of the Quebec Conference when 🍁Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, 🇬🇧British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and 🇺🇸U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met secretly to plot a strategy for the Second World War.”
Back in an era when there were no self-interested sell-outs & quislings.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-bites-back-at-trump-s-canada-lives-because-of-u-s-remarks-at-cabinet-meeting-9.7056224
I remember when Carney laid out a rather comprehensive coast to coast plan. I believe people here were glad to see a path forward presented for Canada. One that could be replicated by others with a willing legislature. The wildcard remaining for the US is whether SCOTUS will agree with the US International Trade Court & Appeals Court & strike down the ‘emergency’ tariffs, pushing him to whatever Plan B he has threatened. Or would he take the “out” and blame the Courts?
(May Poilievre continue to suffer the same fate as Lutnick: The more he talks the more he is disliked & distrusted.)
The time to press forward is always when your adversary is on his heels. DJT is not an ally & he seeks no alliances, only supplicants. He has no respect for agreements or laws. He prefers leaders who pay in cash & rule their country with an iron fist. Delcy Rodríguez remains.
He is ‘underwater’ with each US demographic group no matter the age, education or gender. The economy remains the most important issue here for voters by far.
According to The Economist’s weekly tracking updated today:
— Americans do not seem happy. At the beginning of Mr Trump’s second term his net approval rating was 2. It has now fallen to -19 ... A week into Mr Trump’s term 37% of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction while 50% thought it was on the wrong track. Those numbers are now 31% and 61% respectively. —
Hopefully the parade of praise bolstered by offerings of medals, trophies, golden crowns, money / crypto, a sky palace and promises has ended.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
Sentiment is moving in the right direction then.
Thanks for that link.
Can we have Canada annex us with Mark Carney as PM, President? We need him now! Get rid of the criminal out of his mind fuhrer wannabe!
This makes me long for a statesman like Mr. Carney. We have fallen far. It won't happen, but the 25th Amendment should be a slam dunk.