"The Trump administration has switched sides. Trump now sees himself as allied with Vladimir Putin against Ukraine and Europe."
Maybe the administration has recently switched sides, thanks to the steady replacement of "guardrails" by Putin-loving authoritarians, but Trump himself switched sides no later than 2016, with "Russia, are you listening?"
"The people who want to pull back America’s leadership in the world under the pretense of being for 'America First' are making us weaker, poorer, and less secure. They are giving away our long-term strategic advantages."
I voted for Harris in '24, despite probably having more disagreements than agreements with her and her party. But imagine if I had nothing but disagreements, and that Trump did everything I wanted in his first term except one (yes, it's a stretch of imagination). I still would have voted for Harris. Why? Because that one thing would be the stealing of classified documents and obstructing their return. That was even more of a deal-breaker than the insurrection and the 34 felony convictions. Unlike the MAGA cult I won't make an assertion without evidence, but we can't ignore possibility that sensitive information was shared with Putin even before the election. Unfortunately, 77 million voters did.
"Why do we police the global shipping lanes and ensure stability in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East? It’s not because we’re nice. It’s because these actions further our interests."
I just read a similar comment on another Bulwark article. Comments weren't enabled so I'll leave one here. Such actions seek "win-win" solutions, something the MAGA cult hates. Everything with them is a "zero sum game." And it has never been clearer that cult leaders want the loser to be the Republic of the US.
So matter of fact…..I’ve been a Bulwark member for a long time and this column is by far the most disturbing I have ever read. Your description of the Trump plan to take over the country and establish permanent rule is truly frightening. I’m not sure as a regular conservative citizen what is the best actions I can take to stop this destruction of our beloved country. I know there is a whole generation of fellow citizens who lack any decency or patriotism to look to defend us from Trump. Many actually like what he’s doing. I saw the IL Governor’s speech the other day and it should be required viewing by every citizen. My only hope is people at the Bulwark and others like Sykes & Kinzinger will lead us in the counterrevolution to save America from these psychos. Sending prayers every day.
One obvious issue with “Trump Forever” is that he’s almost 79 years old and it shows. Vance and his backers are hoping for their boy to prevail. Others have their own dreams of being Trump’s successor.
Question from Reporter: "What if Russia breaks the cease fire?"
President Trump's Response: "What if they ... What if anything. (shouting) What if a bomb drops on your head right now? OK. What if they broke it. I don't know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn't respect him, they didn't respect Obama. They respect me! Let me tell you Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. (still shouting) Did ya ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, that was a phony Hunter Biden Joe Biden Scam Hilary Clinton shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat scam. And he (Putin) had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn't end up in a war. He (Putin) was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom. It was disgusting."
In November, America elected a criminal mob boss. Today, in our boss's opinion, there are just two other mobs to consider; China and Russia. Our boss sees many ways to personal enrichment by allying with Russia. Why is anyone surprised he's acting exactly like the boss we elected?
In every case, the thought process in foreign capitals went like this:
Thesis: Identify what they wanted.
Antithesis: Determine if America would permit this objective.
Synthesis: Figure out how to pursue their objective in such a way as would be amenable to the Yankees. Or, at least, wouldn’t be likely to arouse too much Yankee ire.
[/quote]
This model has not been in accord with reality for a long while. Which means that those who hold this model have not been able to secure American interests well.
Once again Trump is pausing aid to Ukraine. Do we remember this shit show rerun. The former Republican Party did not hold him liable then, and the current Trumplican party will not either.
Trump is transaction in his dealing, but it has never been the United States versus them. It has always been him against the rest. To him strength is grinding the poor and weak under his heel unless they bow to him.
He is destroying our government because laws and rules are only for the weak and losers. He will reduce prices, but only because he is going to push us into a recession. Buckle up for the ride.
Merci beaucoup to all those who voted in a commander-in-chief who had the courage to completely ignore the lessons of history and intentionally destroyed the international stability
which has benefited the United States exponentially for decades. His dystopian vision driven by a small minded transactional short term simplistic view of what it's important with respect to avoiding war - siding with dictators, blaming the victims of invasion, alienating our allies, starting an inflationary trade war all will significantly increase the probability of a world war. The world he will leave to our children and grandchildren will be less safe, less prosperous, and filled with terrorist attacks that the intentionally dismantled CIA and FBI will not be able to prevent. What the hell, let's burn it all down and move to France!!!
aujourd'hui est Mardi Gras, laissez les bons temps rouler!!!
JVL, you nailed it again. But what can we do? It’s painfully obvious that we have a mentally unbalanced leader, & his sidekick is even worse because of his mountain of money. They could ruin this country, & the lives of tens of millions of people. I feel like I’m shooting a pea-shooter at Godzilla. Occasional letters & calls to a spineless congressman are pointless. Maybe 50-75% drop in the stock market will wake up a chunk of wealthy republicans. And the farm economy going down the toilet. Hate to see these things happen, but……
748 comments already. There’s no way JVL, or anyone will probably read this but if they do, please tell JVL for me that his explains WWE to me helped me see how Cena doing a heel turn is like what trump is doing with Ukraine and Russia. Jon Stewart did the same analogy and thanks to JVL it made sense.
Right -- I just got through watching the Jon Stewart piece and it did explain the WWE throughline to someone (me) who has little regard or knowledge of WWE.
"The Trump administration has switched sides. Trump now sees himself as allied with Vladimir Putin against Ukraine and Europe."
Maybe the administration has recently switched sides, thanks to the steady replacement of "guardrails" by Putin-loving authoritarians, but Trump himself switched sides no later than 2016, with "Russia, are you listening?"
"The people who want to pull back America’s leadership in the world under the pretense of being for 'America First' are making us weaker, poorer, and less secure. They are giving away our long-term strategic advantages."
I voted for Harris in '24, despite probably having more disagreements than agreements with her and her party. But imagine if I had nothing but disagreements, and that Trump did everything I wanted in his first term except one (yes, it's a stretch of imagination). I still would have voted for Harris. Why? Because that one thing would be the stealing of classified documents and obstructing their return. That was even more of a deal-breaker than the insurrection and the 34 felony convictions. Unlike the MAGA cult I won't make an assertion without evidence, but we can't ignore possibility that sensitive information was shared with Putin even before the election. Unfortunately, 77 million voters did.
"Why do we police the global shipping lanes and ensure stability in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East? It’s not because we’re nice. It’s because these actions further our interests."
I just read a similar comment on another Bulwark article. Comments weren't enabled so I'll leave one here. Such actions seek "win-win" solutions, something the MAGA cult hates. Everything with them is a "zero sum game." And it has never been clearer that cult leaders want the loser to be the Republic of the US.
So matter of fact…..I’ve been a Bulwark member for a long time and this column is by far the most disturbing I have ever read. Your description of the Trump plan to take over the country and establish permanent rule is truly frightening. I’m not sure as a regular conservative citizen what is the best actions I can take to stop this destruction of our beloved country. I know there is a whole generation of fellow citizens who lack any decency or patriotism to look to defend us from Trump. Many actually like what he’s doing. I saw the IL Governor’s speech the other day and it should be required viewing by every citizen. My only hope is people at the Bulwark and others like Sykes & Kinzinger will lead us in the counterrevolution to save America from these psychos. Sending prayers every day.
David Klinkhammer
Burnsville MN
One obvious issue with “Trump Forever” is that he’s almost 79 years old and it shows. Vance and his backers are hoping for their boy to prevail. Others have their own dreams of being Trump’s successor.
From the Friday Press Conference:
Question from Reporter: "What if Russia breaks the cease fire?"
President Trump's Response: "What if they ... What if anything. (shouting) What if a bomb drops on your head right now? OK. What if they broke it. I don't know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn't respect him, they didn't respect Obama. They respect me! Let me tell you Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. (still shouting) Did ya ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, that was a phony Hunter Biden Joe Biden Scam Hilary Clinton shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat scam. And he (Putin) had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn't end up in a war. He (Putin) was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom. It was disgusting."
Such a beautiful friendship. I am verklempt.
In November, America elected a criminal mob boss. Today, in our boss's opinion, there are just two other mobs to consider; China and Russia. Our boss sees many ways to personal enrichment by allying with Russia. Why is anyone surprised he's acting exactly like the boss we elected?
[quote]
In every case, the thought process in foreign capitals went like this:
Thesis: Identify what they wanted.
Antithesis: Determine if America would permit this objective.
Synthesis: Figure out how to pursue their objective in such a way as would be amenable to the Yankees. Or, at least, wouldn’t be likely to arouse too much Yankee ire.
[/quote]
This model has not been in accord with reality for a long while. Which means that those who hold this model have not been able to secure American interests well.
Once again Trump is pausing aid to Ukraine. Do we remember this shit show rerun. The former Republican Party did not hold him liable then, and the current Trumplican party will not either.
Trump is transaction in his dealing, but it has never been the United States versus them. It has always been him against the rest. To him strength is grinding the poor and weak under his heel unless they bow to him.
He is destroying our government because laws and rules are only for the weak and losers. He will reduce prices, but only because he is going to push us into a recession. Buckle up for the ride.
Merci beaucoup to all those who voted in a commander-in-chief who had the courage to completely ignore the lessons of history and intentionally destroyed the international stability
which has benefited the United States exponentially for decades. His dystopian vision driven by a small minded transactional short term simplistic view of what it's important with respect to avoiding war - siding with dictators, blaming the victims of invasion, alienating our allies, starting an inflationary trade war all will significantly increase the probability of a world war. The world he will leave to our children and grandchildren will be less safe, less prosperous, and filled with terrorist attacks that the intentionally dismantled CIA and FBI will not be able to prevent. What the hell, let's burn it all down and move to France!!!
aujourd'hui est Mardi Gras, laissez les bons temps rouler!!!
All those people who were afraid of "Comrade Kamala", now have a "Comrade Don"...
(Are they happy..?)
JVL - Exactly. Spot on.
Trump and his allies see their real enemy as the rest of us. Tangling with the Russians and Chinese are diversions of energy from the rest of us.
I am always amazed that there are really people who think it is a form of greatness.
JVL, you nailed it again. But what can we do? It’s painfully obvious that we have a mentally unbalanced leader, & his sidekick is even worse because of his mountain of money. They could ruin this country, & the lives of tens of millions of people. I feel like I’m shooting a pea-shooter at Godzilla. Occasional letters & calls to a spineless congressman are pointless. Maybe 50-75% drop in the stock market will wake up a chunk of wealthy republicans. And the farm economy going down the toilet. Hate to see these things happen, but……
748 comments already. There’s no way JVL, or anyone will probably read this but if they do, please tell JVL for me that his explains WWE to me helped me see how Cena doing a heel turn is like what trump is doing with Ukraine and Russia. Jon Stewart did the same analogy and thanks to JVL it made sense.
Right -- I just got through watching the Jon Stewart piece and it did explain the WWE throughline to someone (me) who has little regard or knowledge of WWE.
Good article! It's sickening to see them sell us out...