Last of two parts
THE fifth are his domestic attacks beyond the political sphere. His attack on the top law companies is petty revenge of the highest order and as unthinkable an act as you can imagine. That some of the top law firms have caved in, and not combined to fight a war I think there’s little doubt they could actually win, means the advocacy legal system, the bedrock of American society, has been demolished. They have taken away any attempt to hold Trump to account. No lawyer will dare to represent a client who wants to hale Trump to court. Like the poor federal workers summarily dismissed from their jobs. They won’t be able to find top lawyers to make their case. He’s even threatened to impeach a judge he’s publicly vilifying for doing his job. The chief justice had to come out with a rare public statement decrying this. This is the destruction of the legal system in the extreme. The general public will become increasingly disillusioned. But whether enough to kick him out as we did to two of our presidents is improbable. The best to hope for is that there is a transfer of control of the Senate and House in 2026 from Republican to Democrat rule in 2026.
Then there’s his attack on the media with several frivolous cases forcing media companies to cave in and pay him money. His closure of the voice of America is a harebrained action that, if it holds, greatly weakens America’s calming influence on the world. The courts have put it on hold.
We move onto the sixth: his disdain for other’s sovereignty starting with support of Putin as he tries to engulf Ukraine. But moving beyond that to his attacks on the national sovereignty of others. He wants the Panama Canal to be his. He wants to annex Greenland and to hell with Denmark, which has oversight over the country. And then, this is truly unbelievable, he wants to make Canada America’s 51st state. Will the Philippines be the 52nd? Even to have the arrogance to refer to its sovereign, independent prime minister as “governor.” Canada’s brand-new prime minister, Mark Carney, won because he stood up to Trump. It was the major reason he was elected. It worked. In a meeting between the two, Trump worked to be friendly.
Canadians no longer buy Americano coffee; they buy Canadian coffee. American products have been taken off supermarket shelves. Canadians don’t visit America anymore.
Europe now sees the US as an unreliable partner after Defense Secretary Hegseth used Signal to report on the war in Yemen. And with subsequent similar leaks, the US is a partner one can no longer share secrets with. Businesses see a Trump regime whose policies are so uncertain that it’s best to hold off on investment decisions. “Trust Trump, he knows what he’s doing,” says a Trump sycophant. He does? Some 60 percent of Americans don’t agree, the highest number of dissatisfied for any president.
Let me move on to the seventh — artificial intelligence. I’m not really sure if this revolution will be a benefit to mankind or accelerate its demise as functioning societies. What scares me most is China. I think America and Europe will act, or at least try to act responsibly and ethically as they accept IT’s role in society. But whether regulation can keep up with the technological revolution is a serious question. And will China even try is a huge worry. I have little confidence China will. It will plow ahead with incredible technological advances heedless of the impact on humans to live in this new world. We are heading to an era where humanoid robots will be able to replace humans in almost everything. They will be able to think like humans. Not only will robots handle manual labor, but intellectuals, too. As Alan Kohler says, “Production of all goods and most services will be 24/7, all day, every day, with higher productivity than any human can achieve, allowing massive increases in output and reductions in cost. Two extremes may eventuate. Society could collapse, as those who own these means of production make off with the loot and cause inequality to skyrocket, or it will flourish because firm, benevolent political leadership makes sure that doesn’t happen, and the benefits and difficulties are equally shared. It seems pretty clear that the billionaires now running America are leaning toward the first of those outcomes. Can the rest of the world make sure they don’t succeed?” Let me come back to Trump, because what he just did, tariffs on the world — is simply horrifying. Trump has just brought the world to its knees, or should I say, flat on its back. This man is an ignoramus (definition: an extremely ignorant person) which wouldn’t matter if he were just playing a cheating game of golf on one of his golf courses but matters greatly when he controls the levers of (what once was) the world’s most powerful country. This man hasn’t got a clue about what he’s doing. What he is doing is collapsing the world’s eight-decade construction of a stable world order that brought it into a wealth never before known.
I don’t think anyone can dispute that the Economist knows what it’s talking about when it comes to economic matters. Let me pull out a few quotes of what they said in an excellent article on Trump’s tariffs.
“If you failed to spot America being ‘looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far,’ then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the president of the United States.” “That the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy, and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.” “His ‘Liberation Day’ marks America’s total abandonment of the world trading order and embrace of protectionism.” “The question for countries reeling from the president’s mindless vandalism is how to limit the damage.” “Almost everything Mr. Trump said this week … was utterly deluded.” “On economies, Mr. Trump’s assertions are flat-out nonsense.” “Mr. Trump’s grasp of the technicalities was pathetic.” The Economist raises a sensible response, which is not to raise counter-tariffs but to shift their exports to everywhere else. And I would add, stop buying American products and stop traveling to America: bankrupt its tourism industry. Admittedly, it will hurt ordinary Americans, which is regrettable, but it may also force them to stand up to Trump.
The world is shifting away from democracy. From 50 percent in 1990, some 70 percent of countries are now under autocrats, and too often, brutal autocrats. A recent example is Turkey, where its decadeslong president, Rece Erdogan, jailed a highly popular opposition leader on trumped-up (how I hate using that word) charges emboldened by Trump’s ascent to the top job. In just the last few years, Turkey, Hungary, Venezuela and India have seen electoral systems substantially decline as once-democratically elected leaders tighten their hold on their leadership. Trump is determined to join the fray. Something that will encourage others to follow.
You and I, and everyone else on this godforsaken planet are going to suffer — because 77 million dumb Americans voted for this idiot (an utterly foolish or senseless person).
The US is ruled by a madman.