116 Comments
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Robert Manz's avatar

This is true. China is the adult in the room. Trump makes USA look like the 250 year old child it is.

It's Come To This's avatar

The irony is that China is no more an adult because of this than it is become the sudden new beacon of liberty. China hasn't changed one iota, nor made the slightest effort to earn respect by new behavior. It's simply watched while Donnie flailed, stabbing himself in the face again and again. Old rule of martial arts -- when your adversary is busy falling on his own face, do not intervene.

What's not yet visible to most of us is the damage already done to Asia's interdependent economy, the disruptions in travel and trade, collapsing incomes, gas, diesel, fertilizer and related industries price hikes, food shortages and accompanying shocks have already cost about $300 billion, according to a recent UN report, and will plunge at least 10 million and more into poverty. All this with much more to come.

Because our Moron-in-Chief has no understanding of how things in this world actually work, we have set into motion processes far beyond our capacity to understand, let alone stop. The worst is probably yet to come.

Nancy's avatar

So true, but it's not just the Moron-in-Chief. The entire Republican Party in Congress won't lift a finger or vote to stop the madness and demise of our world leadership and respect. I increasingly am shifting the blame from DJT to those who support and manipulate him out of fear or for personal gain. We can only hope that the Blue Wave in November will be overwhelming!!

Signe K.'s avatar

I just wrote to my 2 ruby-red Senators and one House un-Representataive about the Trump family grifting, and how the GOP's careful silence is being carefully observed by voters who will take over post-midterms.

Alexandra's avatar

I have begun to do the same. The Moron only gets away with it all because no one, especially those with the power to do so, chooses to stop him. Of course, these enablers have set themselves up to either the violence of the fascist mob on the one hand, or being prosecuted as criminals and/or traitors on the other.

Tim Matchette's avatar

You can count on it!

Bonnie Boyce's avatar

tRump's mind is definitely set in the mire of the Gilded Age.

Marc Panaye's avatar

Totally agreed.

Never forget that China is and stays communist disguised as a liberal free-market player. Never forget the Uyghurs in their "re-education" camps, the taking of Tibet.

Biggest mass killer in history?

The idol of Xi, Mao..... in 4 years of "the great leap" he managed to kill roughly 45M people. Who by the way punished Xi's mom and dad.

Carol Gamm's avatar

Some of the Republicans in Congress must understand this. Their own positions of privilege, however, are more important than the future of our country.

Charles's avatar

Carol, I have observed the same thing. It appears to me that too many Republican Congress members will sell out the country to retain.their seats. So much for the Oath of Office!

Steve 218's avatar

Voters may have other ideas come time to re-elect them. People get tired of the disservice, being ignored and lied to. Eventually even the faithful have had enough. We can hope that this tipping point is being reached.

Pam Birkenfeld's avatar

No, they’re still believing the lies. In Virginia the Republican machine has cranked up the lies about the whole gerrymandering vote their undergoing right now. And the Republican voters are now mad again, not mad at Trump unfortunately. So they’re expecting a surge of votes to defeat the citizens’ attempt to take control of the situation.

Steve 218's avatar

You are talking about one isolated area - Virginia. In another isolated area - Illinois, people who had Trump signs in their yards are being seen at our rallies carrying signs that protest Trump, his policies, and actions. We have a lot of farmers who are angry at having been used and conned.

Pam Birkenfeld's avatar

I know, and that’s heartening. But so many of those folks might be mad at Trump but they refuse to vote Democrat. The best we could hope for from a lot of them is that they just don’t vote.

Steve 218's avatar

Getting mad and staying home would work in our favor.

David Betts's avatar

Keep in mind Richmond, VA was the primary capital of the Confederacy. Also, VA was one of the strictest enforcers of segregation post Civil War.

VA has come a long way but strong sentiment remains largely in rural areas and that translates to extreme Republican support at the polls. In the VA US Congressional District I live in, a Democrat running for that House seat getting anywhere near 30% of the vote is doing well. Never mind that our current Republican House Rep. is a do nothing total idiot.

Steve 218's avatar

You make sense. As a kid from D.C., I spent time in the area around Burke, VA (it was relatively rural in the 1950s). There was no mistaking a difference in the attitudes, especially to integration.

Hiro's avatar

"In sum, Trump has never understood that U.S. power and prestige rely on our long-standing alliances, technological prowess, attractiveness as a destination for the best and the brightest, and moral stature. " Trump has never been interested in making America great. His focus has been and still is enrich himself and his family members using the power of presidency. I am afraid The Contrarians has been assuming wrong. We are naive.

Unfortunately, we do not have any means to remove him as long as the Congress is with him.

Hal's avatar
Apr 20Edited

"Some of the Republicans in Congress must understand this."

Many Democrats, those in the media and staff clearly knew about Biden's mental decline but turned a blind eye. Their own positions of privilege and blind party loyalty were more important than the future of the country.

Carol Lama's avatar

So true, Jen. When all this insanity began with the Felon's inauguration, we could picture our country's falling from greatness to become a future pariah who would need to beg the rest of the world for anything that we might need. We foresaw the US with hands cupped hoping for "offerings" like a beggar in the street. Sadly, because of the Felon's mental deficiency, abject inhumanity, total ignorance, and overwhelming narcissism, this image of our country is coming true. Complicit are all the Republicans who have permitted this to happen on their watch. MAGA should read "Made America Grovel & Ashamed" because that is what we will have to do and what we have become. Remember that Khrushchev said the Soviets would take over without a war? Well, it's not the Soviets who will be able to take over without a war, but the Chinese, smiling inscrutably all the way, and all thanks to those Senators and Representatives who would not stand up for our country when our country most needed them to.

Debra's avatar

It’s like he planned it.

Sandra A. Jones's avatar

Don't forget our own Supreme Court's Maga 6 enablers giving him immunity against prosecution for his "official" acts. They are as much to blame with this immunity and their shadow docket decisions favoring him and Maga as the Maga, do nothing, Congress, which may be even more disgraceful. At least you would expect Scotus to protect democracy. They are as blind, corrupt and stupid as he is.

Charles's avatar

It raises some serious questions, doesn't it?

Susan Iwanisziw's avatar

Abandonment of principle, Bashing the needy, and false “Christianity”— the ABC primer of a demented piece of festering corruption.

Chris Dortch's avatar

This is a well-written and scary sentence, but I hope we can shave a decade or two off our recovery time by making some much-needed adjustments in our political system:

"We will pay the price for decades for an ignorant, mentally unwell U.S. president’s sabotage of America’s distinctive assets, stupidly abetted by cowardly Republicans."

Steve 218's avatar

Were the abetting Republicans stupid or willful? Willfully stupid and cowardly works.

Alan Greenstein's avatar

Plain and simple! EVERYTHING Trump does benefits every other nation on earth, especially our enemies, to the detriment of the good ole USA. Yet Republicans remain silent. SAD!

Lee Johnson's avatar

34 state felony convictions, multiple Federal grand jury indictments— real accountability still needed.

Richard France, Ph.D.'s avatar

Donald Trump is a Russian "asset" and, according to "The Guardian (1/29/21), he has been for decades. Abandoning Ukraine, hollowing out our military, alienating our allies, lifting the sanctions on Russian oil and gas that fund Putin's illegal war -- the evidence is overwhelming. When will the American public FINALLY confront this seminal realization ?

Steve 218's avatar

Face it, many people in this country care little about everything from 'abandoning Ukraine to Putin's illegal war'. What's more likely to get to them is what affects them personally here at home, at their own kitchen tables. Higher prices without relief on many fronts, job insecurity and the rest of Trump's broken promises are more likely to get their attention - maybe.

Gloria Marconi's avatar

The Dear Leader is so out of his depth in dealing with China (and Russia and Iran), it would be laughable were it not so horrifying. Compared to the US, a mere 250 year-old experiment, China and Iran are ancient civilizations that are very patient and Russia has always been in the iron grip of a despot. On top of that, their leaders are not crazy, just ruthless.

The Dear Leader is not smart or sane enough to have destroyed our country on his own; he has had lots of help: Musk, the Supreme Court, Russel Vought, a spineless Congress and his corrupt family just to name a few. Just think, 250 years of history wiped out in a little more than a year. This was not an accident. Putin, Xi and the Ayatollah are dancing with joy.

Normally if a person is mentally ill or suffering from dementia, you would feel sorry for them. But with the Dear Leader, he personally is such a disgusting waste of flesh everyone hates him but is too afraid to admit it. This will not end well for any of us.

Steve 218's avatar

You left mention of Stephen Miller out - surely an error of oversight.

Barbara Johnson's avatar

Trump is just the result of the real problem here. To say it out loud, it’s the ignorance of the U.S. electorate. That 70+ million eligible American voters could pull the lever for an individual like Trump speaks volumes about the educational task ahead before we can pretend to take back our democracy. Mass ignorance has been our undoing. Just getting people to “VOTE” won’t cut it.

Elvi's avatar

And the MAGA goal is to expand that ignorance, by destroying public education, defunding universities, controlling the media. And keeping the masses so exhausted, so sick, they don't have the energy or strength to pay attention, let alone fight or resist.

Steve 218's avatar

You could not have said it better. Brava!

donna woodward's avatar

It may be less ignorance than bigotry and self-absorption.

kasperhauser's avatar

Yeah, but at least turmp kept the pro-rapture pro-genocide vote intact. Winning!

Nancy's avatar

It appears that they will always exist, the pro-genocide, pro-rapture group, including the misogynistic, bigoted among them. They always existed. They just haven't before run our entire country!

Lisa Jean Walker's avatar

I would add to the end “… stupidly abetted by cowardly Republicans, the Supreme Court (who hasn’t read the article about the origins of the “shadow docket” yet?) and some of America’s most powerful corporate interest and richest citizens, plus America’s farmers, evangelical Christians, and Vladimir Putin (except he’s not stupid).” The responsibility goes wide and deep. May the bitterness of this experience, just now in the early stages for our country, sour the cry of Make America Great Again for all posterity. But I wouldn’t count on that.

Angie's avatar

Trump is a rapist. All of his behavior is that of a rapist.

JL West's avatar

An excellent point! Rape is characterized by dominance, "I want what I want, and will get it because YOU don't count," along with the thrill of violence. Especially the thrill of violence; the overpowering; the satisfaction in the disrespect, the crushing and cruelty of denying others any will and agency at all.

Trump is indulging in the ultimate malignant narcissism - I and MY will are all there is. Only it's not working out so well for him on the world stage as it has elsewhere.

Nancy's avatar

And a serial abuser and bully! I guess it's all the same thing. Classic behaviors!

Stacey S.'s avatar

To all of the COWARDS in the Oval & to the rest of the GOP: DJT won’t be your king forever, get up off of your knees. He is destroying this country. You & your family will pay for the feckless POS sham & grift for decades. Grow a pair!!

Stacy1946's avatar

Trump's insanity and stupidity might not be fatal if he were not so blind to what would be in his own self-interest. He actually thought that unilaterally imposing tariffs, starting a war of aggression, etc. would IMPROVE his standing at home an abroad. He is the epitome of selfishness, but it is selfishness without a trace of cunning.

Steve 218's avatar

Some have said that all of Trump's actions are all distractions away from ICE's criminal activity, the overall incompetence of his administration, and of course, the coverup of the Epstein files. In a world of reason, these should all backfire on him. It's equally clear that in many places, reason has departed.

donna woodward's avatar

I guess the smartest man in the world..isn't. He's been outsmarted by Iran. By Israel. Definitely by China. He's been played by Putin. When will the generals, when will Congress, realize he needs to be stopped before his fury further erupts, until he initiates nuclear war?

Robert Lastick's avatar

Spot on, Donna.

And, we as a country have FAILED miserably to remove them from office.

He is still here and our country continues to crumble.

Thanks, Jen. We need to get them all out and where they belong, and we SHOULD have done it years ago.

But we didn't. Welcome to Fascism.