Oh, the stiffy this must all give Putin - the longtime biggest detriment to his dreams, reduced to something very like irrelevancy. Well done, Donnie; when your cup of polonium tea is served, he'll be sure to add a little sugar to it in gratitude.
Thanks Evan, especially for printing Carney's speech for us. I had a dream of anxiety where I had to figure out on very short notice how to get my kid to safety, and the first place on the list was Canada. I will share this post with many.
Donald Trump has broken the American hegemony. Maybe this is a good thing in the long run. Let Canada take the wheel for awhile, they're a much better people than we are.
But, whichever hegemony forms now that the United States is not longer the leader of the free world, must demand that the US join in all of the world organization, including the International Criminal Court, and ratify all international treaties, such as The Convention Against Torture, and do so without any reservations, and bring an end to fascism, racism, bigotry, and misogyny as a state or national policy, before being allowed to trade with any member of the new hegemony, or to be allowed a place at the table with the rest of the civilized world.
Honestly, it will be to our benefit if we're not spending quite so much on defense. Those funds should be invested in our people instead. It's insane that we plow so much of our taxpayer funds into defense spending and act like it's sacrosanct; it's never even shown on the charts when they're discussing the size of the budget. It's like it doesn't even exist, it's somehow separate and outside our budget but providing meals for seniors is going to break us?
We got a head start in the postwar period as pretty much the sole power untouched by the war and able to help the rest of the world get back on their feet through the Marshall Plan and other programs. Then of course we ignored Ike's warnings about the military-industrial complex and let the defense contractors start running things and whipping up reasons to have more conflicts and spend more on military contracts and started squandering our goodwill.
Empires fall, and it's high time ours did. It's just going to be ugly for a while. Wish it didn't have to be such a self-own.
I agree very much with this. A lot of beneficial programs are very inexpensive, but we've allowed the conservatives to control the narrative since the end of WWII.
We've spent too much money on the military rather than on the social safety net, as if the two were incompatible.
We've allowed the conservatives to speak ill of nationalized medicine instead of implementing a national health service; the insurance companies benefitted from this but no one else has.
We've allowed an ever-increasingly conservative judiciary to erode our freedoms, while allowing racism, bigotry and misogyny to run rampant, that to fight against these social ills is perceived as an attack on the foundation of our country.
It is time for us to change. The downfall of Trump and the MAGA movement will be our opportunity to change the principles our country operates on going forth. But we must be willing to cut out the cancer of the MAGA movement and to erect barriers to prevent the rise of the right in the US ever again.
Bravissimo to Mark Carney. Thank god Canadian elections were held after ours last November, so the Canadian voters awoke to the reality of a fascist next door, and turned their backs on the right-winger running against him. Brilliant speech, especially because of its straightforward language, lack of rhetorical flourishes, and honesty.
It's refreshing to hear a speech from a world leader that makes sense and isn't deranged. As sad as it is to say, he's also 100% correct. The world needs to move on without us as we are clearly no longer reliable no matter what happens in the midterms and beyond without major reforms to our system of government (like a national ban on gerrymandering, eliminating the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court, reversing Citizens United and getting money out of politics, etc.).
We progressives must keep pushing for these goals. They are going to help all of us correct for and adapt to climate change, remove gross income disparities, the silencing of many in the political sphere, and so much more. Nations who have been diverse from the jump (looking at you, USA), and who then attempt to purge differences in race, ethnicity, religion, and ideals,and subjugate females and POC and LGBTQ+ people, are merely destroying the country for the benefit of a tiny number of citizens (and a few non citizens) of said country.
Remember when so many men were fascinated by the Roman Empire just a year or three ago? I found that suspicious. Now you see a few with their hands on the levers of power, attempting to build empire for themselves. It is selfish and self-deluded. Tyrants. Bullies, all. But most of all, foolish and shortsighted. In other words, INCREDIBLY STUPID.
If you purge your people of the different, if you keep females and POC down, you are throwing away more than 50% of the intellectual and moral strength of your country. It reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python, who lost his limbs and became immobilized and bleeding to death. The dark humor of "Come back here and take what's comin' to ya! I'll bite your legs off!!" comes to mind for the future of the USA.
100% agree. It's not only how we save our reputation in the world, it's how we save ourselves. We can't keep going on like this even when Trump is gone because what has allowed him is still going to exist. We need a total reset of our clearly broken institutions and need to start anew to get rid of the entrenched power that makes it impossible to solve any of the actual problems facing our country like you mentioned, including climate change and the insane wealth inequality.
It's not a unique idea that many of our social problems stem from the wealth inequality, the billionaires have such a large slice of the pie and they set about keeping the rest of us fighting amongst ourselves for the crumbs so we don't turn our collective attention to them. There will always be racists, sexists, and bigots in general for sure, but a society where the majority of the people don't feel so desperate and exploited might be a kinder one too.
Ta, Evan. This is very sad. I was born right in the middle of the baby boom. I didn't own any homes until I married my beloved; now I'm co-owner of the pied-à-nuage. We rent our east village tenement apartment. Bessent is (a) delusional, or (b) only knows vulture capitalists.
It needed to be said and I'm glad Prime Minister Carney had the guts to say it.
I wish I qualified to move to Canada but a) I don't have a job there and b) my French is miserable. I took six years of it in grade and high school and a year in college and all I can say is "Je ne comprends pas." That's "I don't understand." I've been told I say it beautifully, for what that's worth . . . .
America will be remembered as the first civilization to commit suicide. Even Rome survived the madness of Caligula and the depredations of Nero.
And it’s not about the price of eggs any more than 2016 was about “economic anxiety.” Economically, things over the past decade haven’t been nearly as bad as they were during the Weimar Republic.
America did this to itself because a demented con man and his insane backs were able to tap into deep-seated resentment and panic over the fact that white men would no longer automatically be in charge of things.
Evan is right. Mark Carney is right. We need to understand that we can't go back. The oligarchs are in charge and they're not going to relinquish power. They will probably exercise their power more judiciously, quietly and subtly if liberals regain control, but they'll still push their agendas. We are at the beginning of the resource battles that will only get worse as the resources become scarcer.
I was taught as a child that America was the world's good guy. But as I came of age, America was pissing away, in Vietnam, all the goodwill it had built up in World War II and the early Cold War. This process continued, in fits and starts, all my life, until it culminated in Carney's speech at Davos.
That speech was the eulogy for America as the world's good guy.
"We feel like the divide in American politics these days — especially in the Democratic Party and on the Left, largely about Democrats who don’t understand/can’t accept/emotionally process that we’re never going back to the way things were, vs. those grownups who do."
OK, we're not going back, but...the Left? The American Left? The Democratic Party is the only vehicle we have, the Left is shitheads who wallow in unearned moral superiority. The only debate is what's going on in the Democratic Party. If you want to say will it be the progressive wing of the Democratic Party or the old guard, fine, but the Left is fanfic.
Your two party system is one of the sources of the current shit show. Everything, everything, has devolved into an all or nothing, zero sum, goat rodeo.
America's Hitler or one of his minions said something recently to the effect of "Just because you were the first to stick your flag there doesn't mean you own it", meaning Denmark doesn't "own" Greenland for FLAG reasons.
OK, then I guess that means the American flag flying on the moon means nothing and if the Chinese make it there, they have just as much claim to it as the USA does.
I betcha America's Hitler would not agree with that.
What asswipe said was “just because you land a boat somewhere 500 years ago doesn’t mean you own the country” he said that about Denmark owning Greenland while sitting in the Oval Office. Too bad it wasn’t on Columbus Day am I right?
Trump Backs Off Greenland Tariff Threat, Claiming 'Future Deal' But Providing No Specifics
President Donald Trump said he won't impose a promised tariff increases on European countries starting in February if a new deal with Greenland can be "consummated." "Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday. "This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st." Trump did not provide specifics as to what the "solution, if consummated," will be. {HuffPost}
Oh, the stiffy this must all give Putin - the longtime biggest detriment to his dreams, reduced to something very like irrelevancy. Well done, Donnie; when your cup of polonium tea is served, he'll be sure to add a little sugar to it in gratitude.
Thanks Evan, especially for printing Carney's speech for us. I had a dream of anxiety where I had to figure out on very short notice how to get my kid to safety, and the first place on the list was Canada. I will share this post with many.
“We must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
Brilliant.
Reminds me of our old friend Ben Franklin:
"We must hang to together, or we will hang separately."
You know it's just gotta be burning Trump up that Carney got a standing ovation, but no one applauded him.
Donald Trump has broken the American hegemony. Maybe this is a good thing in the long run. Let Canada take the wheel for awhile, they're a much better people than we are.
But, whichever hegemony forms now that the United States is not longer the leader of the free world, must demand that the US join in all of the world organization, including the International Criminal Court, and ratify all international treaties, such as The Convention Against Torture, and do so without any reservations, and bring an end to fascism, racism, bigotry, and misogyny as a state or national policy, before being allowed to trade with any member of the new hegemony, or to be allowed a place at the table with the rest of the civilized world.
Honestly, it will be to our benefit if we're not spending quite so much on defense. Those funds should be invested in our people instead. It's insane that we plow so much of our taxpayer funds into defense spending and act like it's sacrosanct; it's never even shown on the charts when they're discussing the size of the budget. It's like it doesn't even exist, it's somehow separate and outside our budget but providing meals for seniors is going to break us?
We got a head start in the postwar period as pretty much the sole power untouched by the war and able to help the rest of the world get back on their feet through the Marshall Plan and other programs. Then of course we ignored Ike's warnings about the military-industrial complex and let the defense contractors start running things and whipping up reasons to have more conflicts and spend more on military contracts and started squandering our goodwill.
Empires fall, and it's high time ours did. It's just going to be ugly for a while. Wish it didn't have to be such a self-own.
I agree very much with this. A lot of beneficial programs are very inexpensive, but we've allowed the conservatives to control the narrative since the end of WWII.
We've spent too much money on the military rather than on the social safety net, as if the two were incompatible.
We've allowed the conservatives to speak ill of nationalized medicine instead of implementing a national health service; the insurance companies benefitted from this but no one else has.
We've allowed an ever-increasingly conservative judiciary to erode our freedoms, while allowing racism, bigotry and misogyny to run rampant, that to fight against these social ills is perceived as an attack on the foundation of our country.
It is time for us to change. The downfall of Trump and the MAGA movement will be our opportunity to change the principles our country operates on going forth. But we must be willing to cut out the cancer of the MAGA movement and to erect barriers to prevent the rise of the right in the US ever again.
Bravissimo to Mark Carney. Thank god Canadian elections were held after ours last November, so the Canadian voters awoke to the reality of a fascist next door, and turned their backs on the right-winger running against him. Brilliant speech, especially because of its straightforward language, lack of rhetorical flourishes, and honesty.
It's refreshing to hear a speech from a world leader that makes sense and isn't deranged. As sad as it is to say, he's also 100% correct. The world needs to move on without us as we are clearly no longer reliable no matter what happens in the midterms and beyond without major reforms to our system of government (like a national ban on gerrymandering, eliminating the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court, reversing Citizens United and getting money out of politics, etc.).
We progressives must keep pushing for these goals. They are going to help all of us correct for and adapt to climate change, remove gross income disparities, the silencing of many in the political sphere, and so much more. Nations who have been diverse from the jump (looking at you, USA), and who then attempt to purge differences in race, ethnicity, religion, and ideals,and subjugate females and POC and LGBTQ+ people, are merely destroying the country for the benefit of a tiny number of citizens (and a few non citizens) of said country.
Remember when so many men were fascinated by the Roman Empire just a year or three ago? I found that suspicious. Now you see a few with their hands on the levers of power, attempting to build empire for themselves. It is selfish and self-deluded. Tyrants. Bullies, all. But most of all, foolish and shortsighted. In other words, INCREDIBLY STUPID.
If you purge your people of the different, if you keep females and POC down, you are throwing away more than 50% of the intellectual and moral strength of your country. It reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python, who lost his limbs and became immobilized and bleeding to death. The dark humor of "Come back here and take what's comin' to ya! I'll bite your legs off!!" comes to mind for the future of the USA.
100% agree. It's not only how we save our reputation in the world, it's how we save ourselves. We can't keep going on like this even when Trump is gone because what has allowed him is still going to exist. We need a total reset of our clearly broken institutions and need to start anew to get rid of the entrenched power that makes it impossible to solve any of the actual problems facing our country like you mentioned, including climate change and the insane wealth inequality.
It's not a unique idea that many of our social problems stem from the wealth inequality, the billionaires have such a large slice of the pie and they set about keeping the rest of us fighting amongst ourselves for the crumbs so we don't turn our collective attention to them. There will always be racists, sexists, and bigots in general for sure, but a society where the majority of the people don't feel so desperate and exploited might be a kinder one too.
Ta, Evan. This is very sad. I was born right in the middle of the baby boom. I didn't own any homes until I married my beloved; now I'm co-owner of the pied-à-nuage. We rent our east village tenement apartment. Bessent is (a) delusional, or (b) only knows vulture capitalists.
It needed to be said and I'm glad Prime Minister Carney had the guts to say it.
I wish I qualified to move to Canada but a) I don't have a job there and b) my French is miserable. I took six years of it in grade and high school and a year in college and all I can say is "Je ne comprends pas." That's "I don't understand." I've been told I say it beautifully, for what that's worth . . . .
I was in a meeting. I heard that Hair Furor TACO'd on invading Greenland. Retreat and call it a victory. Of course, until the next crisis.
America will be remembered as the first civilization to commit suicide. Even Rome survived the madness of Caligula and the depredations of Nero.
And it’s not about the price of eggs any more than 2016 was about “economic anxiety.” Economically, things over the past decade haven’t been nearly as bad as they were during the Weimar Republic.
America did this to itself because a demented con man and his insane backs were able to tap into deep-seated resentment and panic over the fact that white men would no longer automatically be in charge of things.
Evan is right. Mark Carney is right. We need to understand that we can't go back. The oligarchs are in charge and they're not going to relinquish power. They will probably exercise their power more judiciously, quietly and subtly if liberals regain control, but they'll still push their agendas. We are at the beginning of the resource battles that will only get worse as the resources become scarcer.
This is profoundly depressing.
I was taught as a child that America was the world's good guy. But as I came of age, America was pissing away, in Vietnam, all the goodwill it had built up in World War II and the early Cold War. This process continued, in fits and starts, all my life, until it culminated in Carney's speech at Davos.
That speech was the eulogy for America as the world's good guy.
VERY sad.
"We feel like the divide in American politics these days — especially in the Democratic Party and on the Left, largely about Democrats who don’t understand/can’t accept/emotionally process that we’re never going back to the way things were, vs. those grownups who do."
OK, we're not going back, but...the Left? The American Left? The Democratic Party is the only vehicle we have, the Left is shitheads who wallow in unearned moral superiority. The only debate is what's going on in the Democratic Party. If you want to say will it be the progressive wing of the Democratic Party or the old guard, fine, but the Left is fanfic.
Your two party system is one of the sources of the current shit show. Everything, everything, has devolved into an all or nothing, zero sum, goat rodeo.
Yes, but show me who on the Left knows shit about fuck
There are many, if you choose to look for them. Zohran Mamdani for one.
Yes, the Mayor who is a Democrat.
Far left of the current gaggle of corporate centrists.
America's Hitler or one of his minions said something recently to the effect of "Just because you were the first to stick your flag there doesn't mean you own it", meaning Denmark doesn't "own" Greenland for FLAG reasons.
OK, then I guess that means the American flag flying on the moon means nothing and if the Chinese make it there, they have just as much claim to it as the USA does.
I betcha America's Hitler would not agree with that.
What asswipe said was “just because you land a boat somewhere 500 years ago doesn’t mean you own the country” he said that about Denmark owning Greenland while sitting in the Oval Office. Too bad it wasn’t on Columbus Day am I right?
To which China is going to say, “Just because you landed a space ship somewhere 60 years ago doesn’t mean you own the moon”.
I'm instantly reminded of Eddy Izzard - Do you Have a Flag?
https://youtu.be/uEx5G-GOS1k
TACO:
Trump Backs Off Greenland Tariff Threat, Claiming 'Future Deal' But Providing No Specifics
President Donald Trump said he won't impose a promised tariff increases on European countries starting in February if a new deal with Greenland can be "consummated." "Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday. "This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st." Trump did not provide specifics as to what the "solution, if consummated," will be. {HuffPost}
He is so fucking stupid.