Our Darkest Hour Will Be Tweeted

Trump, this morning 4/7/26 (via Joe.My.God.):

Paul Krugman again states the plain truth: if a civilization dies tonight it will be ours - all that America has ever stood for.

I won't ask where the Republican voices are - they sold their souls to the Devil a long time back when they swore allegiance to Trump.  But where are the protests?  Where are the voices of sanity and outraged conscience?  If there is any is outcry, in the streets or in the TV studios, the news feeds I see way down here in Texas sure aren't reporting any.  The train is about to fall off the bridge, and no one seems upset in the U.S. of A., where life is humming along as usual.

For God's sake, will no one tell this maniac to his face to just stop it?  Will no one stay his evil hand from this monstrous crime?  No one at all?

God have mercy on us all, the whole human race.

Update, 7 p.m.:

Trump "Agrees" to Two-Week Ceasefire

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Living in Hell (Formerly Known as America)

Saturday morning, 4/4/26 (via Joe.My.God.):

Sunday morning, 4/5/26 (via Joe.My.God.):

Just the extreme profanity of that last message alone would have meant instant political death for any previous president.  But the horrific threat is unconscionable and unpardonable.

Paul Krugman:

Your Head Trucker asks:  Why are there not millions in the streets right now, all over this country, demanding an end to these evil threats?  Destroying a whole country?  Killing millions of people?  If that isn't the Devil talking, what is it?

And you know, what goes around, comes around.  Don't think this country or its leaders are invulnerable.  And there would be a chain reaction of events, probably, that just might devastate the whole world.  Is there anyone in Washington with enough guts to stand up and say NO to that maniac?

Time's a-wasting.  We're standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss.

BTW:  There's a lot of talk online about invoking the 25th Amendment.  But that would only make J.D. Vance president.  How do you feel about that?

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Today's Meditation

Paul Krugman:

Matthew 7:15-23:

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

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The 80-Year-Old Crybaby Is Wrecking the World

Three commentaries on the latest Oval Office tantrum by observers who need no introduction here:

Adam Kinzinger:

Paul Krugman:

The George Orwell essay that Krugman quotes from can be found here.

Mary Trump:

And finally, a Pennsylvania voter puts the blame squarely on herself:

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Paul Krugman: Take a Stand

Embed from Getty Images

Economist Paul Krugman wrote this short, pithy piece on his New York Times page yesterday:

A lot of people in politics and the media are scrambling to normalize what just happened to us, saying that it will all be OK and we can work with Trump. No, it won’t, and no, we can’t. The next occupant of the White House will be a pathological liar with a loose grip on reality; he is already surrounding himself with racists, anti-Semites, and conspiracy theorists; his administration will be the most corrupt in America history.

How did this happen? There were multiple causes, but you just can’t ignore the reality that key institutions and their leaders utterly failed. Every news organization that decided, for the sake of ratings, to ignore policy and barely cover Trump scandals while obsessing over Clinton emails, every reporter who, for whatever reason — often sheer pettiness — played up Wikileaks nonsense and talked about how various Clinton stuff “raised questions” and “cast shadows” is complicit in this disaster. And then there’s the FBI: it’s quite reasonable to argue that James Comey, whether it was careerism, cowardice, or something worse, tipped the scales and may have doomed the world.

No, I’m not giving up hope. Maybe, just maybe, the sheer awfulness of what’s happening will sink in. Maybe the backlash will be big enough to constrain Trump from destroying democracy in the next few months, and/or sweep his gang from power in the next few years. But if that’s going to happen, enough people will have to be true patriots, which means taking a stand.

And anyone who doesn’t — who plays along and plays it safe — is betraying America, and mankind.

The President Surrenders

That's the title of Paul Krugman's column today in the NYT.  The clincher:

Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.

It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.

In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.

Change You May or May Not Believe In

Paul Krugman in the New York Times:

If Democrats give in to the blackmailers now, they’ll just face more demands in the future. As long as Republicans believe that Mr. Obama will do anything to avoid short-term pain, they’ll have every incentive to keep taking hostages. If the president will endanger America’s fiscal future to avoid a tax increase, what will he give to avoid a government shutdown?

So Mr. Obama should draw a line in the sand, right here, right now. If Republicans hold out, and taxes go up, he should tell the nation the truth, and denounce the blackmail attempt for what it is. Yes, letting taxes go up would be politically risky. But giving in would be risky, too — especially for a president whom voters are starting to write off as a man too timid to take a stand. Now is the time for him to prove them wrong.

Frank Rich in the New York Times:

The cliché criticisms of Obama are (from the left) that he is a naïve centrist, not the audacious liberal that Democrats thought they were getting, and (from the right) that he is a socialist out to impose government on every corner of American life. But the real problem is that he’s so indistinct no one across the entire political spectrum knows who he is. A chief executive who repeatedly presents himself as a conciliator, forever searching for the “good side” of all adversaries and convening summits, in the end comes across as weightless, if not AWOL. A Rorschach test may make for a fine presidential candidate — when everyone projects their hopes on the guy. But it doesn’t work in the Oval Office: These days everyone is projecting their fears on Obama instead.

Andrew Sullivan disagrees:

"Non-argumentative reasonableness" so far has prevented a second great depression, rescued Detroit, bailed out the banks, pitlessly isolated Tehran's regime, exposed Netanyahu, decimated al Qaeda's mid-level leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan, withdrawn troops from Iraq on schedule, gotten two Justices on the Supreme Court, cut a point or two off the unemployment rate with the stimulus, seen real wages for those employed grow, presided over a stock market boom and record corporate profits, and maneuvered a GOP still intoxicated with failed ideology to become more and more wedded to white, old evangelicals led by Sarah Palin. And did I mention universal health insurance - the holy grail for Democrats for decades?

What do you say, guys?
 

What I Say:  The reason I supported Hillary all through the primaries was that she was the most experienced candidate:  she had been at the center of power, she knew the ropes, she knew the other side face to face.  Government doesn't operate on high-minded principles; it's a give-and-take web of personal relationships - sometimes hardball, sometimes cutthroat - like every other major entity in life.
 
Every few years at election time, people get their hopes up that some outsider with no connections and no influence and no relationships among the power brokers and wheeler-dealers will come into the Oval Office and "clean up the mess in Washington" - but it just doesn't work that way, and that's reality.
 
Meanwhile, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.