Today’s substack from Paul Krugman was both fun and interesting, and not too wonky to share.
Am I the only one who likes this new Paul Krugman better than the earlier version?
Yesterday in the comments I wondered / suggested that this might be the year that FFOTUS might come to understand the concept of consequences. (I may have been mocked and it was certainly suggested that that would never happen.) I think never is a really long time, and in a world of being an awful human for decades, FFOTUS has never hurt this many people this badly, so visibly, and all at once.
I don’t have the need to always be right, but please please let me be right about this!
First, the fun.
Travel day; in fact, filing from the airport lounge. And I can’t really say that I learned a lot — no conversations with the powerful, or for that matter wise taxi drivers.
I love him for that!
Now, the meal.
Europe is a superpower, if it wants to be. How quickly can Europe stand up?
Still, a quick note from Brussels: Everyone I talked to was horrified and terrified by what’s happening in America — but not cowed. If anything the mood was that Europe has to grow up and stand up.
I doubt many people in the U.S. realize what a geopolitical earthquake just happened in Germany. They didn’t pass legislation; they changed the constitution (or will have, assuming the upper house goes along) to lift the “debt brake” on a trillion euros of defense and infrastructure spending. Combine that with tough talk from France and strong indications that on security matters, at least, Britain will consider itself part of Europe, and suddenly it seems as if a continent that was always a superpower, but refused to act like one, may be waking up.
The truth is that there are three economic superpowers in the world — and by one measure, at least, purchasing power of GDP, the United States is the smallest of the three:
Source: World Bank
Yes, European productivity has lagged for the past couple of decades, and none of the world’s giant technology firms is European. Yet this is still a rich, highly capable society, with immense capacity to defend its values on the world stage.
Until now, however, Europe has lived in a state of learned helplessness, relying on America for its security. That’s now over. It’s not just the tariffs and Trump’s obvious support for Putin. I don’t know if Americans realize how big a shock it has been that European citizens are being arrested and detained by ICE. Suddenly it’s clear that America is not an ally, may not even be a democracy, and Europe must look after itself.
The question, which I can’t answer, is how quickly Europe can stand up. There’s clearly going to be a shift away from U.S. weapons, and Europe clearly has the technological capacity to do that. Will it be able to do so soon enough to turn the tide in Ukraine? I have no idea.
Nor can we rule out the possibility that Europe will return to form and disappoint everyone.
But big stuff is happening, and team Trump, which seems to believe that nobody can stand up to his whims, may get a rude shock from old Europe.
Am I crazy, or does it seem like Paul Krugman agrees that FFOTUS might just come to understand the concept of consequences? Such a stupid, stupid, evil man, who barely gets the concept of object permanence, and who certainly does not understand that you can’t act like Lex Luther and remain the leader of the free world.
Everything Trump touches dies. Indeed. Sadly, he is taking our entire country down with him.
*For now. I believe that we have a fairly short window in which we (and democracy) can take serious damage, but not be destroyed. But we have to work our asses off for every single opportunity. Wisconsin. Florida. New York.
Everywhere. All the time. This has to be our focus if we want to hold things at “damage” rather than “destruction”.
WereBear
The Great Depression ruined the Republican Party for generations and ruined the world they had.
Still trying to recreate it. And pushing everything further away.
Wapiti
Krugman said: team Trump, which seems to believe that nobody can stand up to his whims, may get a rude shock from old Europe.
Team trump might be shorthand for suck-ups like Trump’s Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary who should know better, and like-minded people in the business world.
Trump and his close-minded cohort like Hegseth or Bondi and Patel will learn nothing.
Baud
Trump may save the rest of the world from their own fascist tendencies.
CliosFanboy
FFOTUS? I get the OTUS, but the FF? fake fucker? fuck face?
Butch
@CliosFanboy: First Felon of the US.
Steve LaBonne
As far as defense against Russia goes, and thinking in non-nuclear terms only, I would bet that just Poland and Ukraine together could make fairly short work of the Russians. That caveat is exactly why the French are talking about extending their nuclear umbrella. It’s not only the US that will regret waking Europe from its slumber.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Are you kidding? Not only have I subscribed, I have given gift subscriptions. Did you see his conversation with Jim Chanos? That one is a gem.
WaterGirl
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I did get your offer to share one with me, but I have been too slow in responding. Guessing I am too late?
Mathguy
Am I the only one who likes this new Paul Krugman better than the earlier version?
It is so great that the gloves have come off. I look forward to his posts every day.
Oh, and FTFNYT.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@WaterGirl: my last freebie is gone, alas. The transcript of the Jim Chanos conversation is free, only the video is behind the paywall. You might like to read it.
YY_Sima Qian
On the subject of German/European rearmament, I will repost I shared in the Ukraine thread 2 days ago.
Germany & rest of Europe have no choice but to rearm. However, engaging in military Keynesianism at the expense of social welfare, investment in domestic public goods, & facilitating the green transition, will only make Germany & the rest of Europe more vulnerable to domestic reactionaries.
The economic multiplier of rearmament will likely be low. It is far from the scale of the US leading up to WW II to have that much impact, & while a military & armaments help preserve what one has, they by themselves are not economically productive.
Given how MAGA is rapidly torching the faith & credibility of the US, Germany & the Eurozone ought to have more space to issue Euro denominated debt to fund rearmament, invest in infrastructure & the green transition, & protect social welfare, until such time as when the Eurozone is on firmer economic footing.
burritoboy
In general, this is a good thing and even a positive development for the US. The potentiality of a united Europe was long being mishandled – partially because of the ill-advised design of the Eurozone financial foundation, partially because of other things. If the US returns to the realm of liberal regimes (broadly speaking), it will quickly recognize this and, I think, the renewed alliance will be extremely beneficial to both entities.
Steve LaBonne
@YY_Sima Qian: It’s unquestionably a tragedy that more resources will now have to go to military spending.
Baud
@burritoboy:
That’s always the dream of the burn it all down strategy. It’s a possibility.
Betty Cracker
@YY_Sima Qian: Agree. The U.S. is a cautionary tale in that regard.
YY_Sima Qian
@Steve LaBonne: As I said, rearmament is a necessity given Europe is now caught between a revanchist Russia & a naked imperialistic US. However, making rearmament essentially the only unconstrained part of the budget (& austerity on social spending) just makes Germany much more vulnerable to domestic take over by reactionaries, & bequeathing said reactionaries w/ far more powerful military tools.
That is a choice Germany did not have to make. It could have chosen to spend on both, taken on larger deficits.
A Ghost to Most
I’m more interested in how metro Denver would survive a siege. Europe better wake up before it is too late.
rikyrah
I’m still back at the announcement that Europe has decided to spend all that money on defense weapons…
AND NONE OF THE AMERICAN DEFENSE CONTRACTORS WERE INVITED.
Jeffg166
Just imagine the boom to the economy of Europe when this gets going. They will leave us in the dust thanks to the felon.
robtrim
Trump has sided with Putin, Netanyahu, and Elon Musk. Two war criminals and a clown.
And he still hasn’t dropped the big stinker – trillion dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. When that one hits the fan DOGE will fall like a crow bar. Sentient beings will realize that peace in the middle east and Ukraine are as likely as Trump successfully running a casino in Atlantic City or Vegas.
His “Art of the Deal” mentality is pure bull shit. Every time Trump has had to hold em or fold em he has folded into Chapter 11. There is credible evidence that he was “compromised” back in the 1980s in Moscow. The “Piss Tapes” are out there.
WV Blondie
@Butch: I generally refer to him as Felon47 (so much so that it now comes up in my autofill).
Mr. Bemused Senior
@rikyrah: Perun recently pointed out the sharp rise in the market value of European defense contractors.
kindness
Voting matters even more now. Democrats do well in special elections. Come ’26, we’ll see if the media narrative follows Republican talking points as it has the last several elections. I do expect the media to swing from it’s current Trump is wrecking things to Trump is a respected elder statesmen by then honestly. It’s in the media owners DNA. They don’t seem to be able to help themselves.
Steve LaBonne
@YY_Sima Qian: Part of the agreement with the SDP to remove the “black zero” was to also include civilian infrastructure spending, investment in which has lagged in Germany for years. I think I read that the states will also be given a bit of borrowing capacity.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost to Most: It sounds to me like Europe is waking up. Did you read the post up top?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: So sad that American “defense” contractors were left out the deal! I can hardly contain the tears.
Consequences, bitches!
NotMax
Madness isn’t just for March anymore.
//
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Cough cough SAP cough BAE cough Capgemini cough Dassault cough.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@rikyrah: The entire reason for that is in US systems’ “kill switch” requirements, which are now in the hands of a demented fiend. OF COURSE US companies were excluded: EU needs include not being vetoed in-the-field.
Eunicecycle
@kindness: but of course only Republican men can be respected elder statesmen.
WaterGirl
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): I have been glad to see you here a bit more lately.
JWR
@CliosFanboy:
Yeah, I’ve long since given up trying to remember what all those things stand for. Now, I just accept that they’re all references to Trump and forget about it. BTW, I pronounce FFOTUS “fffffotus”, with a very stretched out F. ;)
YY_Sima Qian
@Steve LaBonne:
While defense spending is uncapped, social spending subject to balanced budget constraints.
Then again, what does one expect from the “center right”?
NotMax
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Also too, cough cough ASML cough cough.
Eunicecycle
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): my husband worked with SAP for a decade before he retired and he hated it with a passion. He’s been retired for almost a decade now so maybe it’s improved.
p.a.
@YY_Sima Qian: Yes, that is what I’m curious about. Euro (re)armament to the degree needed will take from what other sources? And how will the public react?
Hate to take a right talking-point but hasn’t the US defense umbrella allowed the social safety nets in Europe to be a lot more economically feasible than otherwise. Maybe they can finance a buildup without much pain, but maybe not. Whose oxen will get gored if there is pain involved?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
There’s never been anything in Hair Furor’s character or actions that suggest he’ll ever come to understand the concept of consequences. He’s lived purely by this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2exbhMHQU
As you said, everything he touches dies and he’ll take that to his grave.
Steve LaBonne
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Siemens, which is the world leader in factory automation and a fierce competitor of my daughter’s employer.
mvr
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I’ve got a paid subscription myself, and read it virtually every day. I’ve got some other paid subscriptions to substacks I read less regularly as well, just because they do good work and I want to support that. But I find Krugman’s helps me learn stuff I don’t yet know most often.
YY_Sima Qian
@p.a.: As I noted in the post, I think the space is there for Germany & the Eurozone to not have to make that much of a trade off. w/ MAGA is setting torch to the full faith & credit of the US, Eurozone can issue more Euro-denominated debt fund rearmament & investment in public goods & the green transition, w/o cutting social spending. Defense spending is mostly government spending on economically unproductive activities, & thus unsustainable as a source of economic vitality.
mvr
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
@WaterGirl: I think I could probably send you one if you want it. I know I haven’t given such free links away since I don’t know which of my friends would want one. So if he gives these to paid subscribers to pass out, I should still have one.
YY_Sima Qian
This will accelerate the brain drain:
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@WaterGirl: Got a bit overwhelmed for a while and ducked under a rock. Getting back out slowly. A lot angrier these days and a good bit more cynical, but still the smiling happy guy in person.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Eunicecycle: It’s a very German company building software that works in very Geman ways. Either you respect it or you loathe it.
A Ghost to Most
@WaterGirl: Yes. I will breathe for Europe when/if Hungary pulls its’ head out of its’ ass. My best friend in high school has deep roots there, and lived there on/off. I was shocked at the change in him in the last 20 years.
narya
If even he doesn’t understand the concept of consequences or recognize that he’s experiencing them, they can still occur, including to him.
rikyrah
Adam Serwer
@adamserwer.bsky.social
Follow
American civil society is full of abject cowards, that is the issue. The government is a mafia state but it is winning because most American elite institutions are devoid of anything resembling integrity and are folding rather than stand on principles that were little more than marketing.
March 21, 2025 at 6:35 AM
https://bsky.app/profile/adamserwer.bsky.social/post/3lkv4n7m3dc2n
Melancholy Jaques
@WereBear:
But the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 cost them nothing. It’s one of those things that amazes me in a horrifying sense.
VFX Lurker
Any version of Lex Luthor would be a massive upgrade from the wrecking ball we have now.
That’s what gets me about the ambulatory sack of oatmeal in charge — he’s evil and stupid.
gene108
This quote from the LOTR by Gildor the elf, when he and his company encounter Sam, Frodo, Pippin, and Merry as they are starting to leave the Shire has always resonated with me: “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”
I think a lot of Americans have a very “fenced in” view of the world and the USA’s importance in it. They are not aware how much the rest of the world has advanced over the last 30 years, as globalization of trade has lifted billions out of extreme poverty and allowed other countries to catch up to the U.S. China being the most notable example.
The number of truly “shit hole” countries where they seem hopelessly behind developed countries in terms of technology and living standards is very small. Things like owning a television, cell phone, having internet access, etc. are common place across the globe.
I don’t think Republicans are going to handle it well, when the rest of the world moves on without us. They are obsessed with America being perceived as “strong” and “respected” internationally, yet everything Republicans have done this century has eroded our international standing. Thanks to the power of the right-wing propaganda machine large parts of the country will never understand this until they can no longer fence reality out.
West of the Rockies
“Everything Trump touches dies.”
Please, orange dude, go play with your wee winky.
TBone
Heathrow Airport shut down for electric substation fire.
https://apnews.com/live/london-heathrow-airport-closed-flights-fire-updates
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Israeli contractors are left out of the spending package as well. That does not neccesarily mean individual European countries will stop buying Israeli weapons systems, but the additional funding will be spent on EU-produced weapons.
frosty
Apparently not in Russia. Also to include washing machines, toilets, and indoor plumbing if the looting from Ukraine is any indication.
YY_Sima Qian
Mayor of Miami posting a CGI video of a drone show on X, fellating Trump. I don’t think I have seen North Korean being this tacky:
cain
Nope the window has closed. It will take generations to get back. See, the problem is that nobody can trust the American voter. Nobody including us can understand why the fuck you’d vote for this man and his odorous policies.
The American voter has to FAFO and learn shit all over again like they did during the Great Depression. I’m just deeply sorry for the GenZs, Gen Alphas, and upcoming generations for the shit sandwich we’ve given them. The adults have failed them.
mrmoshpotato
@WV Blondie:
It’s nice when autofill gets with the program.
Yup – shitstain is still suggested after orange.
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: The cowardice has been just astonishing. It’s the main reason why Trump has gone much faster than, say, Orbán was able to do at first. The rot in our society turned out to be much further advanced than even the pessimists among us imagined.
TheOtherHank
The thing I’ve never understood about Trump is his infatuation with Putin. Dude runs a country with an economy the size of Italy’s. Trump is the president (again) of the most powerful nation that has ever been. If he had any brains at all he’d be trying to bend Putin to his will instead of the other way around.
To quote another president, “Who’s the fucking superpower here?”
cain
@rikyrah: Peter Thiel must be crying.
VFX Lurker
@YY_Sima Qian: During the Second Red Scare, the USA deported Qian Xuesen, the co-founder of JPL. Our loss, China’s gain.
Wonder how much more we’ll lose this time.
cain
@YY_Sima Qian: The great AI boom will die before it even starts since they won’t be able to attract any smart people. They’ll have to figure out how they can use the out of work farmers in Missouri and Oklahoma and turn them into AI researchers. ;)
TBone
WuTang is for the shredders (from yesterday – photo at link):
https://bsky.app/profile/wutangforchildren.bsky.social/post/3lktbc7lpxs2p
cain
@Melancholy Jaques:
Oh no, it was amazing for hedge funds and equity firms.
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: If you’re right, maybe he won’t ever understand the concept, but I do believe that the consequences of this destruction are headed his way. Whether he will make the connection to his own actions or not, is unknown.
But I do believe he will experience serous consequences for the first time in his life.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@VFX Lurker: The stupid is how he got to power. He doesn’t even notice that he’s being manipulated.
Hungry Joe
@robtrim: The thing about the Piss Tapes — if they exist, which I doubt — is that, were they to come out, MAGA is so far gone that the tapes wouldn’t make any difference. To them, Trump exists in a parallel universe, connected this one to but unaffected by the political laws that govern it.
WaterGirl
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Yeah, you’re in good company, many of us have been there!
tobie
As a dual national I have to say it breaks my heart that the EU cannot get its act together on foreign policy. The $40 billion aid package to Ukraine was stopped because of Spanish and Italian protests. I don’t see the EU standing up to Putin. I wish it were otherwise.
WaterGirl
@gene108:
10 short words that speak absolute truth. The truth may set you free but it makes me so terribly sad.
YY_Sima Qian
@cain: MAGA does not realize that the PRC produces > 40% of global undergraduates in AI. A lot of the best then leave for graduate studies in the U.S. & most stay. The joke is that the Sino-US “AI race” is between the Chinese in the PRC & the Chinese in the U.S.
Harrison Wesley
A friend of mine just texted me about the latest target population. DOJ has disappeared its advisories to businesses on complying with the ADA. Apparently people with disabilities are a terrible burden on American business.
WaterGirl
@cain: My statement began with “I believe.”
Your statement is this: “Nope the window has closed.”
You state that as an absolute. It’s really your belief.
@cain:
We can only hope!
ThresherK
OT: WaterGirl, we were discussing WaffleGame a bit ago (maybe a month?).
I wondered if it was possible to solve any puzzle in nine guesses, even if the site says “Each puzzle can be solved in ten to (the allowed) fifteen guesses”.
Well, I’ve done extensive playing & research, and found that it’s always designed to require at least ten guesses. I did a lot of typing and a little math, and fewer is just not possible. The number of direct swaps (where one move turns both letters “green”) is simply never available in the puzzle.
But at least I’m getting this done in ten guesses most each time now.
YY_Sima Qian
@VFX Lurker: Has been happening since Trump 45 & Christopher Wray launched the “China Initiativr” targeting Chinese academics for persecution. Continued through the Biden term, even though Biden had eventually shut the initiative down, as many ethnically Chinese academics still felt unwelcome & increasing unsafe. It is been accelerating further since Trump’s reelection.
Raoul Paste
@Baud: “ Trump may save the rest of the world from their own fascist tendencies“
That is a really good comment. Like it or not, we are living through history
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.
Plus, it was an excuse to show the classic Daffy Duck clip.
Geminid
The Netherlands hopes to channel some of the US’s brain drain their way, according to this item from Clash Report;
Eunicecycle
@Harrison Wesley: ugh the other day on Faux “News” someone asked about disabled children’s education and how destroying the DOE was going to hurt them. Gutfield replied something to the effect of ,”we don’t want to do that anyway.” That hurt my heart so badly; I have 2 grandchildren with IEPs and these people think they are worthless. One has dyslexia and one a stutter; both girls who are wonderful people.
WaterGirl
@ThresherK: Interesting followup. They did state it as an absolute, but I’m glad to see you confirm that.
I a not even close to 5 stars each time, but I do get 5 frequently. Less than 4 and I kind of feel like I’ve lost.
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Ha! There’s always that!
rikyrah
@gene108:
When TikTok was going away, and folks decided to download RedBook/RedNote instead,
It was a shock to the system of a lot of the non-melanated on Tik Tok as to how the average Chinese person lives. They were shook.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Well, that made me smile this morning :)
Hungry Joe
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Since when do you need an excuse to show a Daffy Duck clip?
Baud
@rikyrah:
Tiktok didn’t show that?
tobie
@Geminid: I saw this reports and suspect the effort to recruit US scientists is very widespread. The French university in Aix-en-Provence has offered generous start-up packages to US academics. I imagine other countries are doing this too in a less public fashion.
Harrison Wesley
@Eunicecycle: I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. I remember the swinish oaf mocking a disabled reporter way back when.
Baud
I wish other countries wanted American lawyers.
Salty Sam
NO! “Krugman Unbound” is excellent!
That one had me guffawing earlier this morning. I had to explain the whole Thomas Friedman schtick to my spouse- she appreciated it.
Krugman’s Substack is a first stop for me these days. He writes with precision, hard data, and wit, which makes some of the more horrible shit going down a bit more palatable.
Nettoyeur
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Airbus is eating Boeing’s lunch in new orders. And their defense biz will grow….
Arianespace was at 50% share of satellite launch mkt but has been losing to SpaceX in recent years. That could chg as EU vuts off US.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Not that many Chinese living in the PRC on TikTok, they are all on the domestic version Douyin that is fenced off from the international TikTok. TikTok is banned in the PRC, & one needs a Chinese mobile number to register on Douyin, although that has changed since the flood of refugees to RedNote.
RedNote, OTOH, was & remains a platform mainly for the Mainland Chinese community, w/ many from the Chinese diaspora, as well. It has internationalized quite a bit w/ the influx of TikTok refugees (though most looking for monetization have since returned to TikTok after the unbanning), but it remains a Chinese social media platform.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
Thanks.
YY_Sima Qian
@tobie: The US has been the beneficiary of brain drain from the ROW (including the West) for decades. You can imagine the global excitement at the prospect of the flow reversing.
Captain C
@Hungry Joe: Piss tapes, no. But if P stands for pedophile (and given his known proclivities it very well might), then video of him raping and beating a 13-year old might just peel off some (but not all) of his support.
ArchTeryx
@cain: I’m not. They played a pretty large part in getting us here.
u
I confess that this bullshit of ICE harassing and detaining European travelers and green card holders is something that I did not anticipate. It’s been obvious for decades that Trump is a racist, so I expected to see ICE cracking down only on those non-“white” untermenchen — but apparently even the “wrong” kind of white people are the enemy now. The thuggish behavior of ICE, however, illustrates an important point. A high percentage (maybe a majority) of ICE agents have always been sadistic fascists. Now that this Nazi behavior has gotten the green-light from the top, the ICE thugs are happily following orders.
Ksmiami
@NotMax: thyssenkrupp ahem, Daimler
JWR
@rikyrah:
“Democracy Dies In Darkness” comes immediately to mind.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Hungry Joe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDS3B65W6wA
Kelly
The assholes that govern us have closed Canadian access to Haskell Free Library and Opera House which was intentionally built straddling the US-Canada border in Vermont and Quebec to celebrate what good neighbors we are. Canadians have casually walked across the border to use the building since 1904.
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2149295/fermeture-acces-canadien-bibliotheque-haskell-stanstead
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Free_Library_and_Opera_House
Professor Bigfoot
@Wapiti: I’m reminded of how the German industrialists thought they could control the Austrian.
Being technically proficient ignorami, they’ve’ no idea of the history they repeat.
chemiclord
@WaterGirl: I’d argue, at least with the Project25 underlings, this is by design. They WANT domestic defense a little hobbled. They WANT a defense industry beholden entirely to them rather than one that could potentially arm external or internal foes.
u
@Captain C: Sadly, I think that it would make no difference. Trump supporters (i.e., almost half the adults in the United States) are not only stupid, they are EVIL. By November of 2024, even the stupidest Americans knew what Trump is — and they voted for him because the LIKE his evil. They could watch a live show of Trump raping, killing and eating teenage girls, and they would still support him.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Nettoyeur:
For anyone wanting to look at recent history of orders, etc:
https://www.cirium.com/thoughtcloud/shaking-out-the-airbus-and-boeing-2024-delivery-numbers/
Ksmiami
@YY_Sima Qian:
@cain: the gen zs should have voted and realized the dangers of runaway propaganda.
rikyrah
@Steve LaBonne:
White Supremacy, Dear.
Ksmiami
@u: yep. They are trash people. Time to fight them with everything we have.
rikyrah
@Harrison Wesley:
Outrageous
Captain C
@u: While I agree it would make no difference to most of his supporters (at least some of whom would wish they could emulate him, assuming they haven’t already), it might peel off just enough to make a difference, given how evenly divided this country is.
I shudder to think of how the FTFNYT would try and make such tapes look reasonable, though. “Bill Clinton Schtupped* a Willing, Eager Intern. TCFG
Raped and beatHad Rough Sex With Several Children. Both Sides Have a Sex Problem.” would be my guess.*Yeah, they didn’t actually bang, but does anyone really think the FTFNYT cares about such details?
les
I’m afraid I don’t. He only cares about consequences to himself; and he’s busy collecting bribes in the multi-millions while the muskrat trashes the country. He’ll keep putting his stupid signature on whatever Heritage and FedSoc put in front of him, grabbing money, golfing, grabbing money, until he gets tired of it; and then walk away. He’ll have friends in Russia, Saudi, wherever, and will never give a shit about what he’s ruined.
rikyrah
@Eunicecycle:
They are disgusting human beings.
rikyrah
@u:
UH HUH
UH HUH
Matt McIrvin
@u: Well… there’s a history–consider what went on during the Cold War with the McCarran-Walter Act. These same types used it to harass any non-citizens who had vaguely left-wing, even liberal sympathies as crypto-Commies, kept them out of the US by any means necessary. Many of those people were white… but pro-civil-rights.
We like to talk about Eisenhower as the Last Good Republican but a lot of the ICE/CBP shit going on right now has precedents from then. Operation W******k was another one. The name was a goddamn slur.
karen gail
@Captain C: No it wouldn’t; since a 14 year old (at the time) had that happen to her, there were witnesses and she was threatened and when she refiled as “Jane Doe” it was made to go away and the witnesses “disappeared.” What is worse is the only one who faced any penalties is Ghislaine Maxwell; some like Prince Andrew have been pulled from public sight but others? nothing; once again rich white men skate free.
Matt McIrvin
@Eunicecycle: A lot of religious conservatives think disabled children are God’s punishment of parents for their sins. You can see it implicitly in stuff they say even when they’re not saying it out loud.
A lot of conservatives are disabled themselves, though, because they got disabled by getting old. It happens to just about everyone sooner or later! And I’ve been wondering when that shit hits the fan. Suppose stores start taking out handicapped parking spaces?
JoyceH
Something I’m wondering about because I’m unsure of the structure and laws of the EU. It’s disappointing that the EU could not agree on a package of Ukraine aid, but is it permissible and possible for individual members like France or Poland to say, “You guys do what you want, but I’m going to give Ukraine these planes/weapons/whatever”?
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
I am not so sure that what we are seeing is cowardice. I suspect some were closeted Trump supporters the whole time. Bezos & Soon-Shiong for sure. Paul Weiss & others, maybe more likely than not.
sentient ai from the future
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): uh, ASML? the company that makes and services literally all of the biggest machinery that semiconductor foundries rely on for fabrication?
karen gail
I had one history professor say that the ruler, leader, elected official in charge of country is often the true face of the people even if they don’t want to admit it. Even in a monarchy there are people who could remove the ruler from throne; one in recent history is King Edward of England. The public story is that he wanted to be with Wallis Simpson and that get gave up throne for love; the back story is that he supported Hitler and was willing to share state secrets with the Nazi party.
sentient ai from the future
@Melancholy Jaques: there is also the possibility of terminally-privileged centrist-brainworms
rikyrah
@Baud:
Nope.
Not on the scale that RedNote did.
Eunicecycle
@Matt McIrvin: I am wondering how much of the stuff like handicapped parking will not be mandatory anymore but stores will still do it anyway, for customer relations. Maybe there won’t be as many, but they’ll still have them.
rikyrah
Yep.
And have the nerve to be upset with those of us who don’t want anything to do with them.
tobie
@YY_Sima Qian: Scientists go where the funding is. Pay for their labs and their doctoral students and they’ll go elsewhere, provided sufficient infrastructure is available. I read the other day that every $1 spent in NIH grants generates $2.50 in revenue. The US is gleefully decapitating itself. I never thought I’d see it do something this stupid but I was wrong.
Matt McIrvin
@Eunicecycle: A lot of conservatives think visible accommodations like wheelchair ramps and Braille signs are some kind of slap in the face–just seeing them raises hackles. So I expect to see some right-wing business owners theatrically ripping them out. But that won’t happen without pushback–I mean, some of these accommodations have other purposes: I use curb cuts and wheelchair ramps for moving shopping carts and wheeled suitcases around all the time!
Geminid
@rikyrah: Yeah, pretty much everyone is mad at the Israelis, with only a few exceptions. And Israelis are pretty mad at each other, especially after the cabinet meeting last night. From Niv Calderon:
Israel’s Attorney General, Galit Baharev Miara, has already ruled that the Cabinet cannot legally fire the Shin Bet director, so now Netanyahu is trying to fire her too.
Bar sent the Cabinet a four page letter about the PM’s move to dismiss him, and he not mince words. The letter was made public and Anshel Pfeifer, correspondent for The Economist, described it:
Journalist Keren Nebuch(sp?) wrote:
Tech entrepeneur and former Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay said of last night’s cabinet meeting:
Shalimar
@Eunicecycle: If Greg Gutfeld had disabled children, he would be first in line to have the government pay for their education instead of paying himself. It’s only wasteful spending when it goes to help other people.
Matt McIrvin
@Shalimar: Would he? Or would he abandon those children, or want them locked away in a closed ward somewhere, as his secret shame?
cain
@YY_Sima Qian:
More like tech CEOs. MAGA themselves do not care about all that. They are in their own world. They want jobs that require no degrees like their ancestors did. AI is a threat to them although for now it is just a curiosity.
AI + Robots is going to devastate manufacturer at some point.
rikyrah
Rachel True (@RachelTrue) posted at 7:38 PM on Thu, Mar 20, 2025:
America is being restructured to harm the most
All so the mediocre unmotivated, not very bright, but think they deserve it all, spoiled children of the rich can game the system w/ the least amount of effort
All on the back of your minimum wage labor
Ain’t that a bitch![]()
(https://x.com/RachelTrue/status/1902882544988852451?t=d12cgPwz-HguegXO4gZbMw&s=03)
rikyrah
Brendan Duke (@Brendan_Duke) posted at 4:59 PM on Thu, Mar 20, 2025:
They start dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and then DoorDash becomes a payday lender a month later.
(https://x.com/Brendan_Duke/status/1902842533715345870?t=Rqn0zlYExCkA3zRC1YVs7g&s=03)
rikyrah
Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) posted at 6:19 AM on Fri, Mar 21, 2025:
The whole point of deporting someone with a soccer tattoo that’s relabeled a “gang” tattoo is for Trump to assert the power to simply say someone is a gang member or terrorist *without* presenting evidence of it.
On the pod, we go deep into all this:
https://t.co/jQml2cDZqJ
(https://x.com/GregTSargent/status/1903043796918587520?t=j1KU6tzxEEH1o6-FfvqmEw&s=03)
rikyrah
John Hudson (@John_Hudson) posted at 3:09 PM on Thu, Mar 20, 2025:
Bukele agreed to accept hundreds of suspected gang members living in the United States. In return, he wanted the U.S. to send him less than a dozen MS13 gang members in U.S. custody. Why was he so intent on getting the MS13 guys? Via WaPo: https://t.co/6WQxolMH43
(https://x.com/John_Hudson/status/1902814895751467095?t=VKFddmrLyuzy-rjxBBBpsw&s=03)
rikyrah
Carlos Turnbull (@cturnbull1968) posted at 8:39 AM on Thu, Mar 20, 2025:
Pete Hegseth removed Colin Powell’s name from a list of notable Americans, buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Hegseth also removed the names of every person of color and every woman on the same list. Only white men were left in place. https://t.co/FZlv8gdUS9
(https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/1902716740213080167?s=02)
rikyrah
Henry M. Rosenberg (@DoctorHenryCT) posted at 11:01 AM on Thu, Mar 20, 2025:
Trump is the most negative person to ever be President. He doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t build or build up anything. He just destroys everything done by others for spite. And he will go down as the worst President since Trump45. He is a cancer on the U.S.
(https://x.com/DoctorHenryCT/status/1902752329943675084?t=dDUk8LK4qwB42EiEnhsV-g&s=03)
rikyrah
The Associated Press (@AP) posted at 4:20 PM on Sat, Mar 15, 2025:
A river ‘died’ overnight in Zambia after an acidic waste spill at a Chinese-owned mine https://t.co/mjJZjmal9s
(https://x.com/AP/status/1901020609057886374?t=hkuaX2EOXWjc4a2h_eC_mw&s=03)
Nikos (@NikosReggae) posted at 4:22 PM on Sat, Mar 15, 2025:
A Chinese owned mine’s negligence just killed Zambia’s Kafue River overnight, dumping 50 million liters of acidic waste. Millions now face water shortages. Corporate greed strikes again.
(https://x.com/NikosReggae/status/1901021083303547184?t=a9jTj0Upi0L7NLODd0N1PA&s=03)
Sheldon Miller (@SheldonMiller) posted at 4:26 PM on Sat, Mar 15, 2025:
😡😡😡 This is the largest & longest river in Zambia and a huge part of its eco-system. This is a huge environmental catastrophe.
(https://x.com/SheldonMiller/status/1901022202277097549?t=AG4rLvyuIH-45oTRRwWvlw&s=03)
Salty Sam
That was my experience with them in Reign of Error I, when I questioned several of them on a surprise raid in our harbor. Disgusting fascistic behavior.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Different country, but, I felt this in my bones.
Salty Sam
I just sent this item to my “normie” buddy. He was swooning over Powell after Iraq I, and I swear he was sporting an erection when Powell ran for president.
He is… shaken. “How? Why would they do that!?!” He has vowed to dig deeper, which is good, because school’s out for this old man. I’m done trying to reach these people.
SteveinPHX
@rikyrah: Hegseth is a stupid pig. An embarrassment to the human race. Be glad when he’s gone.
Old School
@rikyrah:
I’m fairly confident Trump47 will be ranked worse than Trump45.
u
@rikyrah: I have a cousin who (along with her family) are big-time Trumpers. I will not cut my cousin off, but a few casual acquaintances who are Trumpers can really go fuck themselves. In 2016 they had the excuse of being idiots, but that excuse doesn’t work anymore. They know who and what they are supporting.
Citizen Alan
@Captain C: Roy Moore nearly won in Alabama. The MAGAs wouldn’t care about Fat Bastard raping a child even on video. “The bitch was asking for it. Fourteen is old enough to say no.”
u
@Old School: Wait until Don Junior is elected president in 2028!
u
@Citizen Alan: And look at the way she was dressed!
u
@Salty Sam: Colin Powell too? Not that I have any respect for Powell after he spearheaded the lies that led to the Iraq War — but this shows that they don’t draw any lines anywhere. This project — i.e., anybody who is not a straight white man becoming an unperson — is obviously very deliberate. It is telling the Trump base — hate-filled ignorant white men — that their leader is at war with ALL non-white people, ALL women and ALL gays and transgender people. This is a side-show to the real agenda — enriching billionaires at the expense of everyone else — it is a way to convince Trump voters to keep voting against their interests.
Salty Sam
@u: It is a way to erase the accomplishments of women and POC so that history will show that only white xtian men have ever done anything notable.
Citizen Alan
@cain: AI is going to devastate every field. I am literally waiting for the day Elmo finds out how much federal law clerks make and tries to fire us en masse, convinced that the judges can all write their own opinions using ChatGPT.
cain
@rikyrah:
The people who voted for him should be equally painted in black.
Citizen Alan
@cain: I think I hate the people who voted for Fat Bastard more than the man himself. He suffers from a plethora of mental illnesses and would be pitiable if millions of Americans hadn’t made him President out of sheer unadulterated spite.
cain
@Citizen Alan:
I don’t think so. You need emotional intelligence. AI doesn’t have it. You still need to understand the underlying technology.
It’s like this, with python you didn’t have to worry about dealing with memory management. But you still need to understand it for different fields – you cant’ get away with understanding the underlying technology.
Everything I’ve seen so far does not have real utility without human intervention.
WTFGhost
I do – especially with the vanishing without word, without due process and proper procedure.
What makes me feel hideous, is, this is precisely the sort of thing that gets fascists to double down. “Europe is *weak* and that’s why they think we’re evil! Not because of arbitrary arrests and cruel detention facilities!”
Right now, America is literally the enemy of all that is good and decent. I mean, if you were writing this in a movie, reviewers would scream that people would notice a difference between their pwecious twumpie beaw from 2016, and the evil pod-person of 2024. And we, who lived through it, say “you’d be surprised.”
@rikyrah: I think Sargent has it wrong – Trump doesn’t care if he gets to decide who’s a gang member – that takes work. He just wants to deport everyone with a tattoo and claim they were gang members. You see it in every comment offered. “If Democrats want to fight for gang members, rapists ,and murderers, let them! We’re ready for that fight!”
@cain: We may have already hit the “Star Trek” point where they realized they could produce enough for everyone, but people needed to work.
@Matt McIrvin: These days, people look like monsters for doing that, so they don’t do it any longer, to avoid the look.
(too lengthy pause) AND FOR THE CHILDREN OF COURSE!!!
@tobie: No offense, but Covid-19 showed that Repubs would choose comforting stupidity over useful, actionable, information. They let thousands upon thousands die. As for NIH, well, it’s only for four years. And Trump hasn’t actually invaded Canada or Greenland yet. And it’s UNFAIR that the DoJ was WEAPONIZED against a common criminal who’s really popular, right?!
randy khan
My real question for Krugman is whether he bought an overpriced burger and a triple bourbon like a certain (still currently) New York Times columnist?
Jackie
@Citizen Alan:
I’m with you. Those voters decided an indicted 34 times felon and rapist represented them better than a Black female. I’m still in disbelief that the majority of Americans made this choice.
WTFGhost
@Captain C: Friend, you don’t truly understand human evil. Lots of people are excited by evil when they see a little bit, like a group of white people putting some beatdown on a gay, or Black, or better, gay, trans, and Black, person.
Then someone hits the victim with a steel bar across the head. The crowd gasps, and…
Some think “ooooh, cool!” and lean in.
Most think “HOLY CRAP this got way too real way too fast, I want out out out!!!”
It’s like, most people hear “war in Iraq” and they cheer. They see bodies crushed under halftracks, or in collapsed houses, or set on fire, or screaming in agony so loud you can’t tell they’re calling to Allah, so even Evangelicals feel a bit bad for them (sorry, not sorry, Evangelicals – you supported Torture-loving Trump!)… that’s when people start to understand evil.
Evil isn’t real, to most people, until they see something horrible. And even then, you can decide to learn to love the horribleness, but most people recoil. Republicans will be Very Serious People, and pretend that Only Grown Ups Understand The Need For Mass Murder, which, hey, hire Dexter Morgan, I think he’s between jobs at the moment.
Democrats trying to meet the moment have a hard time, because the US has had compassion stomped out of it, like wine out of grapes. (Does that mean we only have the grapes of wrath?)
@Nettoyeur: Yes, I don’t think Trump realizes just how rich in both money and talent the EU is, nor how easy it might be to poach some top talent.
@Eunicecycle: what’s more infuriating for me, is, dear lord, they diagnosed Gus Walz, which meant he had a real chance to make it. That means they might not have decided I was fine, just bored, and realized I was in pain, and tired, and, dear lord, I wish I could march my co-workers past folks and say “Wait – that was Ghost when he was exhausted in and pain? WTF, he’d have blown the windows out if they’d figured out how to help him!”
Now, part of this is envy – I envy the children who get the chance I didn’t get. But part of it is a real understanding, that you can look at me, and see a gimp, a mature adult, or a frickin’ genius, and it all depends on when and how you see me. I don’t want to lose another child – anyone’s child! – to pointless suffering and misery, especially when it might be easy to turn that into great power, and great joy.
WTFGhost
@randy khan: Right. Paul Randal is the Scottish genius of SQL Server lore; Paul Krugman is the econ genius. I was about to correct you to “Scotch” but I realized I had my Pauls reversed.
Good thing I got ’em straight – I was about to schedule one with a recording session with Garfunkel….
Marc
@VFX Lurker:
We still had Jack Parsons, the white man is the only one who matters.
rikyrah
BREAKING: Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek says he is consulting with the Justice Department about shutting down the agency.
Dudek told the Washington Post: “Unless I get clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/21/social-security-benefits-trump-doge/
They Call Me Noni
@Citizen Alan:
I think I hate Mitch McConnell more, if that’s possible. Had he just voted “aye” the second impeachment we would not be here right now because other R’s would have fallen in line right behind him. Of course there is a whole laundry list of other reasons I’d like to spit in his eye.
RevRick
@Baud: Yes, even Giorgia Meloni of Italy has said Putin needs to be opposed!
If I were a European military strategist, I would concentrate on first building a gazillion military drones, which Ukraine has demonstrated are quite effective, then on air defense systems, and HIMARs equivalents. Their aim should be to sink the Russian navy, cripple their air force, and leave their army naked.
Geminid
@RevRick: Prime Minister Meloni has always been a Ukraine hawk. She’s also a hawk on immigration, but the two positions are consistent in that much of the 2022-23 wave of migrants through and from North Africa was instigated by Russia.
rikyrah
WHERE is the Wisconsin Attorney General bringing charges for paying for votes?
Dude from the Hinterlands… (@FlyoverRevolt) posted at 9:55 AM on Fri, Mar 21, 2025:
“Here we go again, folks! Elon Musk, the billionaire puppet master, is at it with his fat wallet, trying to buy democracy like it’s a clearance sale at Tesla!
According to Axios, his shady PAC is dangling $100 bribes in front of Wisconsin voters to sign some petition against so-called “activist judges.” Activist judges? You mean the ones who dare to stand up to Musk and Trump’s power grab? This ain’t about justice—it’s about control! Musk’s already got his claws in the White House, and now he’s slithering into Wisconsin to rig the courts, too. He’s not just some tech bro anymore; he’s a one-man oligarchy, stomping on the little guy while waving cash like a carrot on a stick. We’re not his pawns, people! This is our state, our courts, our fight! Tell Musk to take his dirty money and shove it—Wisconsin’s not for sale! Rise up, resist, and kick this plutocrat back to his space yacht!”
(https://x.com/FlyoverRevolt/status/1903098128019927239?t=x7WCgkODILn8shhclUGgtw&s=03)
Jay
@JoyceH:
France and Germany just announced new aid packages for Ukraine, weapons and money.
Like Red States/Blue States, Italy and Spain amongst others, are subsidized by the richer EU Nations, so while they have shipped weapons to Ukraine, and even some of their own money to Ukraine, they always object to EU money from EU Funds going to Ukraine and not them.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: If they do that, we will have an outright constitutional crisis on our hands, not just a simmering one.
Gretchen
@rikyrah: Musk is also donating the maximum to any Republican representative who will sign on to his scheme to impeach judges who don’t vote Trump’s way. https://truthout.org/articles/elon-musk-donates-to-gop-lawmakers-after-they-back-his-calls-to-impeach-judges/
Timill
@WaterGirl: No we won’t; we’ll have an armed revolt on our hands the first time SS isn’t paid.
Jay
@RevRick:
The EU already has co-development and co-production agreements with Ukraine on drones, air defence, long range missiles, armoured vehicles, aircraft modifications.
As an example Ukraine developed and got into production a Ukrainian version of the SAMPT air defense system, that is as effective, long ranged and fires modified So-Be-It/ruZZian air to air defense missiles that litter Europe by the ton, in under a year and two months from go. It costs 25% of a SAMPT system.
Rhinemetal and the Polish UKZ are already in production on it.
Gretchen
@WTFGhost: We’ve made such immense progress with helping kids with challenges. I fought for years to get the slightest help for my son, and it finally came through in 11th grade, when I threatened the school with lawyers and pointed out that he was theirs until he turned 21 if they couldn’t figure out how to help him graduate. He’s 40 now, and doing pretty well but still has challenges and I wonder where he’d be if he’d gotten the help he obviously needed in 4th or 5th grade.
I have two grandsons with special needs, and the resources they throw at kids who need them are mind-boggling to me, compared with the bad old days. And they’re immensely effective! To think these people want to throw all that out and go back to having people struggle their whole lives because we were stingy with resources for 4 year olds…it’s just sickening!
YY_Sima Qian
Unsurprisingly, Columbia University has surrendered to MAGA (gift link to NYT article below):
Having a wealthy endowment should have shielded Columbia from MAGA pressure, but that also meant it is vulnerable to pressure from capital owning donors, & their proxies in administration & among the faculties.
It really does feel like every self-flattering notion mainstream liberal Americans have held about the U.S. are proving to be mirages, the flimsiest façade unable to withstand the slightest pressure.
This too, will accelerate the brain drain.
Unfortunately, the U.S. will have to be rebuilt from the foundation up, out of the ashes.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: To be fair, it’s also true that when your son was in school, the research on how to help challenged kids was still being developed. The federal law requiring all public schools to educate all children with disabilities was only passed in 1975 and IIRC, there were a few years there before it went into full effect — which was fair, schools needed to ramp up.
I like to say that most of the effective interventions for special needs children were developed by women with Masters degrees — speech-language pathologists, OTs and PTs, and Special Ed teachers. They made it up as they went along. Which they were still doing in the 1980s.
There’s still help to be found for for 40 year olds, there are lots of adult support groups out there, IRL and I’m guessing online.
Ohio Mom
@YY_Sima Qian: As someone who just turned 70, I’m not optimistic about living long enough to see the U.S. rebuilt. That’s a tall order when you consider the chaos of climate change should be kicking in around the same time.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: Absolutely! I’ve had interactions with OT, PT, Speech therapists, behavioral therapists with my son and grandson. All women, all dedicated, all deeply caring and all very good at their jobs. I’m so grateful for all of them, and so grateful that youngest grandson is in a blue state.
They Call Me Noni
@Jackie:
Not a majority of Americans, but a slim majority who bother to vote. Which makes it a sadder statistic.
They Call Me Noni
@Timill:
Yup. And how many of us do you think will decide to not pay our federal taxes when our SS is withheld? I’ve already raised this possibility with the Mr.
WaterGirl
@They Call Me Noni: Both more sad, and less sad.
Yay, they didn’t explicitly want the racist, sociopath felon as president.
Boo, they couldn’t be bothered to pay any attention no matter how much was at stake.
Nettoyeur
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Don’t forget Airbus who has eaten Boeing’s lunch and is now about to do Lockheed in military expansion.
YY_Sima Qian
@Ohio Mom: As someone nearing 50, I fully expect to see it. But the road there is going to be long & dark.
Nettoyeur
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Don’t forget Airbus who has eaten Boeing’s lunch and is now about to do a Lockheed in military expansion.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: be it so:
burritoboy
Having thought about this for a moment, a united Europe truly coming to fruition probably always needed a significant external danger to motivate it. The previous attempts were unable to come to fruition because of the ill-advised economic dogmas undermining the foundations of the Eurozone. While military Keynesianism isn’t the ideally greatest policy, it is probably necessary for a true threat to emerge to force the re-evaluation of the ill-advised economic dogmas. And that’s happening now. It is worthwhile to consider that (in general) this has also been what the last three Democratic administrations (Clinton, Obama, Biden) have gradually moved to wanting for Europe as well (at least in a broad sense.)
Miss Marple
@Butch: haha! I wouldn’t have figured that out