"By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's".
"If Donald Trump wins the presidency, the US economy will enter a depression it will never recover from"
- Paul Krugman quotes.
Who exactly is the moron again?
36
Another great column, spot on. An administration of the corrupt dumb and dumber, personified by Graham, McConnell, Giuliani,Mulvany etc. etc. All self serving worthless Trump boot lickers
109
"...he has already left a trail of broken men and wrecked reputations in his wake."
No women? Surely there are. C'mon NYT editors, wake up!
33
Come on Pauly, Sean Hannity is a moron and Supply-Siders are charlatans and cranks? Duh. Trenchant analysis. Give us the deeper insight you once expressed so well.
9
Sean Hannity is a construction worker with a less than high school education.
He is a sub-moronic imbecile. But still smarter than trump.
109
So Hannity is a moron for being more accurate and honest than other Republicans? An assessment of stupidity here seems ironic. Dr. Krugman's presumption that work and play are mutually exclusive seems also poorly thought out. While it may be a rare event, the wealthy could, in theory, follow incentives to work hard AND enjoy time-off in an extravagant manner. As I recall, Dr. Krugman enjoyed a creative and productive surge following his European and Scandinavian vacations. I fear Dr. Krugman's is letting his political partisanship undermine his capacity for reasoned thinking.
12
Morons, really. I think they give the word new meaning. Nincompoops are a better word because they are self made. And that includes the Republicans in Congress, Fox News and Hannity et al.
34
"Nobody left besides those with no reputation to lose" A perfect description of Paul Krugman and his obsessed, negative, angry, rants. We're getting really tired of your TDS Paul. Get a life.
9
How did this column's title get past by the Times' civility monitor?
16
Thank you Prof. Krugman, for calling a spade a spade - the morons the morons, a word readers are not allowed to use when commenting on the the WaPo website.
26
What we have is a narcissistic, xenophobic, racist, malignant narcissist, a habitual liar, who's also a sociopath in the White House, who idolizes tin horn dictators, but doesn't have the intelligence to become one himself no matter how hard he tries. If you notice when he reads a teleprompter, he's barely literate. He has no knowledge of American history, the Constitution, economics, how our government works, or foreign policy. He's the most incompetent president in the history of our nation. Yet, he longs for complete control, which is the antithesis of our form of government. He lacks ethics, morals, and evidently doesn't care one bit about the actual citizens of this nation. He considers himself Generalissimo Donaldo, and everyone should be a loyal subject. Fortunately, at least for now, we have a free press that has shown his ties and favors to Russia, his history of mob ties, his bankruptcies and his history of ripping off contractors, and his racist history of breaking the Fair Housing Act and discriminating against black and Hispanic renters, his racist attacks on Native Americans, his attacks on the Central Park Five even after they were cleared by DNA evidence, and his racist comments since running and being elected. He essentially has no good and decent qualities, and no morals. Let's hope our nation can survive two more years of his incompetence.
98
To borrow on old saying: "You don't have to be a moron to work in the Trump Administration....but it certainly helps.
69
It is humorous to watch the extreme left melt down in the bright light of Donald Trump, one of New York's own. All of the accusations are the same ones applied by the right to Obama and by the left to W Bush. Socialists are just rehashing the mind-numbing bumbling half-thoughts of a spoiled child who is not getting his way. Their fear is an animalistic instinctive reaction generated in the brain stem after years of political suppression of objective thought derived from observation and education. Krugman is suffering more so due to his impending irrelevance, wandering the halls of the NYT with his Nobel prize and MIT and Yale degrees screeching at the televisions about the morons out to get us.
6
JFK had the "Best and the Brightest" and they
led us into Vietnam was an assuredness that was blinding.
Again another column in the Times where anyone but the
Democrats are blamed for "Shutdown".
If it takes a Wall to secure the borders why is that inherently
wrong ?
If Federal Workers cannot get by after missing one pay-check
then the Government is treating them like "Economic Slaves"
and they need to be paid better.
Finally the use of "Morons" is insulting.
Why the New York Time and Mr. Krugman would use such
an outdated derogatory term is beyond appalling.
13
Are you sure "morons" is the appropriate word? After some research into terminology, I think "imbeciles" might be more accurate.
Meh, I'm splitting hairs.
30
I'm not sure moron is the word I'd use: If their (or Putin's) goal was to disrupt and shrink government, and weaken Western governments and alliances, mission accomplished. The State Department, EPA, etc. are already in shambles, now a good number of Federal employees will likely have to find work elsewhere to survive.
13
This all comes down to two non-Americans, racist Rupert Murdoch and Bad Vlad. Their views of the USA are detrimental to the progress of this nation. Send one back to Australia and isolate the other.
29
"Donald Trump and His Team of Morons"
Paul, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.
16
True morons are those who don't know they are morons. True incompetents are those who don't know they are incompetent. That describes Trump and many of his cretins, but there are also those, like Andrew Wheeler, acting head of the EPA, who are quite competent and are using their appointments to do exactly what they have always wanted to do: destroy the ability of the American People to control corporate malfeasance. Wheeler is determined to eliminate ALL environmental controls on corporations. The fact is, he is a pure psychopath who cares nothing at all for the American People or their health.
So, the Morons hire the psychopaths and the American People will die in their thousands, all for the sake of making billions for corporations and the psychopaths who run them.
48
Trump and his revolving door of mendacious, incompetent advisors had two years during which both houses of congress were in republican hands. And yet they weren't able to fund his racist, immoral border wall. Doesn't that say everything that needs to be said about Trump and the republican party's ability to govern? Time for the Liar in Chief and his fools gallery of moronic bums to go.
30
Dear Mr. Krugman, I wish you had a bigger bull horn to say your piece. I've been following you for years, even before I started my subscription to the NYT. I'm not an economist and do indeed somethings get lost when you delve deep into that subject, but I always am in agreement with your political views. Your an honest voice in a sea of sycophants and those too concerned with appearing non-partisan to speak the truth without sugar coating it out of all recognition. I look forward to your continuing to speak truth to power.
23
If you sell your soul to work in this administration it makes you far worse than simply being a moron. A moron would only cause harm to people by way of incompetence.
This shut down is designed to steal the footing of a new Democratic House and to stymie their move to impeach Trump. The Federal workers idled, or even worse, working for no pay are being targeted because this administration cares nothing about them (they're all Democrats anyway...right?). These aren't morons...they're evil.
43
The author seems intent on assisting the morons by providing them with ready-made scripts their followers will swallow. Why?
2
Sometimes I think the biggest morons were the columnists who supported the only candidate who could possibly lose to the foul-mouthed barbarian Trumpster. Hopefully, the columnists will do better in 2020 in selecting the Democrat for whom they will shill.
11
The thing about Fox News's audience is their conservative thinking... It shows me how stupid this country is.
12
The word Moron gets used a lot, especially these days. I had a sister in law who used to call Obama a moron. Imagine, the editor of Harvard Law Review a moron. Like many words, its meaning has evolved over time. Now, it is used by many to mean "clueless, unaware."
3
You imagine liberals immune from cults? AOC anyone.
3
Unfortunately, Trump’s team of morons is busy destroying the country and the economy. The framers of our constitution look more foolish every day for not anticipating the possible election of a debt-ridden ego-maniac who would sell his own country to a foreign power and be assisted by the amoral eunuchs of a major politicical party.
25
Obviously PK does not consider Rush Limbaugh a moron.
Never mentioned in this piece.
2
"Lincoln had a team of rivals; Trump has a team of morons."
Oh my! That needs to be on a tee shirt!
15
I called the nincompoops, morons, faux idiots. This is the state of the nation today. How will we weather this confederacy of dunces? I am just so disgusted by everything, not one thing, but virtually everything they say and do. It is all to some special interest profit.
10
Mr. Krugman, with all due respect!
You are willfully ignoring the enviable perks of White House employment.....
Did you see the fast food spread from the other night?
Cha-Ching Baby!
And paid for by our Great Clown-in-Chief himself!
What more could you ask for in a J-O-B?
8
The writer left out an important group of morons and that would be the evangelicals who believe that the idea of prosperity is something that the son of god would recommend for them. They have turned from feeding the poor, huddled masses to grabbing what they can get. They are hanging like ticks off the coattails of the rich Republicans and Faux news crowd. Another is that pitiful Lindsay Graham who is like a yippy chihuahua licking at the master's feet for attention. Moron is not a big enough word for these folks.
33
I believe that categorizing Trump’s team as morons is vey unfair to morons. Perhaps we are witnessing the emergence of new description terms such as trumpsteritive, trumpian, trumposity, trumpesque, and trumoperative.
11
The GOP has long advocated replacing government of the people by the people with government of the money, by the money and for the money. This is not moronic it is simply the way it is.
It was a real conservative that said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
When I visit America I know I am the moron because try as I might I cannot convince myself to believe in things I cannot believe in. I guess that is why I returned to Quebec where 80% of my fellow citizens profess disbelief.
I know how much American moderates and liberals believe in and love the country they thought they were growing up in. I don't know know how to explain how wrong they were and how much they needed to draw lines in the sand as the GOP slowly destroyed the foundation on which their nation was founded.
The GOP is not a political party, it is a cult and all the reasoned debate will not lead to compromise or re-evaluation. Forty years of destruction of the foundation and forty years of exaltation of the worst President America ever had makes those who consider the Trump administration moronic leaves open the question of who is the moron.
18
Of course "Trump has a team of morons." No one in his right mind would work for a "leader" who refuses to be briefed and changes his mind on a whim rather than facts. I'm surprised that he got people to work for his business, let alone his White House.
Those who thought they could reason with Trump are now mostly gone, primarily because they couldn't and he wouldn't listen.
Therefore, only those who think they are smart and who don't care about their reputations are still there.
Hundreds if not thousands of government positions remain unfilled. The government is shutdown and telling employees to sell their assets. Trump threatens to keep the government shut down for a year or more. Even Graham the sycophant estimates late February before the government opens.
This is not leadership. This is not government. It is a man toying with a country he thinks is his play thing.
24
The Conservative Cult steeped in Rush radio, Fox TV, and Coulter fiction - has everything it needs - a Reality President Show.
As long as Trump's team of morons sticks to the script, the illusion of "Doing great, really great things" is sold to the audience who can accept nothing else.
The Fox professional entertainers, like Hannity and Pirro, who double as senior advisors and spokespersons - are supplanting the federal appointees & employees. Why? The bar of making policy statements must PURPOSELY be very, very low. Then, everyone stays on Donald Trump's script. Kevin Hassert and everyone else claiming "big boy pants" are expected to mimic "the talent" for the good of the show.
Mr Krugman sets a searing review upon all of the players of Trump Political Theater. But, as for the CULT MEMBERS, they don't need proof nor logic nor their minstrels to be untainted.
Their single demand - support the cult leader and his message. So, considering them UNREACHABLE is the safest bet.
13
Makes you wonder what William Barr is up to, then?
He's hardly a moron.
Maybe he needs to participate in the "trail of broken and wrecked reputations" of former Trump appointees experienced, thinking he can do all of them one better.
Good luck.
1
"Trump has a team of morons." Paul is all too kind. Begs the question why Mr Barr would accept membership in this team unless he's a moron too.
Adding insult to injury, Mr Hasset interviewed by Paul Solman, rubbing salt and acid on the wounds of unpaid working government employees as better off, indeed on vacation, is that he said it with a compassionate-conservative smile.
Garage sales to sell off their kids Xmas gift? How trumpian, and Grinch like. How about the billionaires give back $5.7 Billion of their tax cut to pay for trump's wall if they think it is such a great investment?
At least Putin, Kim, Duterte, Erdogan, Sisi, MBS and other tyrants can keep their party members in line under penalty of death (firing squad and a WALL). What are Republican's excuse? Indeed, the GOP resembles Kim's cult assembly that robotically clap and cheer for him, like Putin's Duma and klepto-cult base. The Republican cult in congress robotically clap and cheer for trump - under penalty of a presidential tweet.
Time to give trump a vacation for life behind walls and bars, and end FOX, Limbaugh and Coulter's veto power on our nation's future. Then end plutocrats purchasing of foreign (German) made super yachts that are kept overseas to vacation on (in Monaco and the Riviera) and avoid US taxes.
The idea that trump worked for the Russians is preposterous. When has trump ever worked? He's an agent, a representative of the Russian klepto-cult he wants to establish here in America First.
14
I think Trump is the leader of this disgusting team of foolish and stupid people currently in the administration. I think it's becoming more and more likely that It's only because of Russian involvement that Trump was declared to be president. As a layman it seems to me that Trump and his family and people in his cult enthusiastically helped Russia put their candidate in the Oval Office. In the very of chance that Trump didn't know what was happening he darn well should have.
7
Mr. Krugman did not even mention the many times that trump has stepped on his own message, contradicted himself - often within a single mangled sentence - and, thrown otherwise loyal team members under his bus.
Only a moron would be apparently so pleased to show such ineptitude. And only a moron would work for one.
13
"Morons" is not strong enough. Rex Tillerson put a pungent adjective before his use of "moron" to describe the President and we can all agree that it is much more accurate.
15
There is no doubt that Trump is getting a lot out of the chaos he is causing, and it has to be money. I hope Mueller paints broad enough strokes to show not only Putin’s part, which has to be significant, but also the Koch part. I would like to see the bank account, or Swiss off-shore savings account of every Republican in office, be it Congress or a Federal Department. There has to be a reason for the mindless syncophancy. Anyone with a brain knows lying and idiocy can’t be a successful career choice, unless they really are all morons.
My question is, did Putin decide to completely handle Trump right from the beginning of Trump’s candidacy or did it evolve when he more completely realized what a moron Trump was? For example, the blatant racism that increased during Trump’s campaign instead of being tempered to be a more representative candidate; or was it the blatant lying that from the first day of Trump’s Presidency was used to further identify a malleable base. Or, as Trump used each policy to push the United States away from it’s allies, each lie to gin up a base that refuses to give up their Trump worship did Putin realize what a wonderful, chaos-producing treasure he had within his grasp, especially given Trump’s seemingly idolizing of him.
Thanks to Trump, Putin can identify a well-armed, easily malleable base, comprising about 30% of our population, and is use them to his advantage. So far, the most malleable have been U.S. Senators and Congressmen.
13
Here's the new paradigm in our opposite Trump world:
Ignorance = Intelligence
Lies = Truth
Greed = Generosity
Advantaged = Downtrodden
Dominance = Persecution
Hate = Tough Love
Christianity = Idol Worship
4
According to the “mental retardation” classification system used until the early 1970’s:
“...those who have an IQ between 0 and 25 are idiots; IQs between 26 and 50 are considered imbeciles; and those who have an IQ between 51 and 70 are considered morons.”
Mr. Krugman, I must protest your erroneous use of the term “moron” in this op-ed piece.
As a direct care worker employed in group homes for the cognitively impaired in the ‘80’s, I came to know, and know well, many fine men and women with IQ’s in the 51 to 70 range. Most of these “higher-functioning” clients with whom I interacted were positive, generous, helpful, loving individuals.
As a retired man looking back over the various positions I held during my years of gainful employment, I cannot remember ever looking forward to going to work with happier, more appreciative folk than those group home residents.
Paul, you chose the wrong appellation. The president has surrounded himself with scoundrels, with cynics, racists, toadies and liars. His closest allies consistently put their intellectual and verbal abilities to negative, destructive purposes. They are selfish, unforgiving and inhumane.
In general, the president is surrounded by individuals who fail to come close to exhibiting the character and humanity I have seen displayed by individuals whose IQ’s measured in the 51 to 70 range.
25
You state comments are judged for civility. Is Mr. Krugman's characterization of President Trump's team as "morons" in any way, shape or form civil?
4
You forgot to include his sinister - sorry, Minister - of Propaganda, Jeanine Pirro. Every time she "interviews" him he gets quite a "Rush."
8
My 3 year old granddaughter was visiting and we were watching the PBS interview where Hassett made the "better off" vacation remark. She looked up from her coloring book and said "That was really stupid."
Okay, that didn't really happen, but Hassett's remark was so incredibly stupid that I bet you believed my 3 year old granddaughter actually said that.
Of course, Hassett is nothing more than the latest liar Trump has trotted out to reinforce his alternative reality view of the world, one in which children have to be separated from their parents and the federal government must be shut down in order to stop the flow of Mexican rapists and murderers making right hand turns and then driving across the desert until they find a spot where there is no wall, and then they come into our country and kill you.
Trump has not only assembled a cadre of morons, he's made certain that none of them, from Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Kevin Hassett --- who, up until now had managed to keep a relatively low profile but should be given permanent possession of the Trickle Down Economics Award --- has any problem standing in front of cameras and telling the unvarnished truth as Trump sees it, aka bald-faced lies.
10
It's actually McConnell's Shut Down since he's in charge of the Senate Republicans and refusing to work with Democrats to end this stupidity.
Trump is the tip of the iceberg; Republicans ARE the iceberg. Why can't global warming melt them?
14
So per Paul, we have a team of "Morons" to deal with. When a journalist over-impugns a Wharton grad who has developed his own fortune world-wide all the bells on my baloney meter start ringing. Certainly as a non-journalist/ entrepreneur the POTUS must have hired and befriended quite a few bright people, then and now. I don't care which side of the political spectrum upon which one stands, non-overly dramatic, objective writing is a good thing. It seems like Mr Krugman here is looking for the fodder of conflict not objectivity. He seems to have elevated some blood pressures with the mega-comment section he has engendered. "The cat that swallowed the canary" photo the NYT uses here should have given me fair warning before I read this. The author might try reading Paine's Common Sense before writing his next opinion. I will anticipate further hypertensive comments in response to this missive. I won't take the comments personally as angry people frequently go over the top.
4
The "worst and the dumbest".
8
Krugman makes an all too common error in describing Trump's administrators as "morons": most actual morons are basically decent people, for all their intellectual disabilities.
Trumps flunkies are not, for the most part, decent people.
9
The moronic cult of Trump and its followers are really hard to talk to about all of this. They believe opioids flow through the desert to get here instead of through ports of entry. They believe brown people from the south will take over their towns and rape and kill them. They believe rolling back environmental regulations are ok, bring on the dirty water and air. They believe Donald when he says he did not work for the Russians. And Global Warming is a hoax. Mitch listens to these moronic cult members and keeps the government shut down.
Meanwhile the wealthy are rolling in dough. You should see those fancy yachts at the marina. Wow! Maybe a Coast Guard employee could clean their boats! Win win! Mitch, do something right for a change.
13
As boobilicious as these boobs may be, the consummate idiot is the man who is holding the Senate back from passing legislation for the sole purpose of protecting the Boob-in-Chief.
It's time to hold Kentucky responsible for Mitch McConnell's refusal to allow the Senate to do its job.
Once legislation reaches his desk, the president will have to stop the pouting and the tantrums and choose whether to be president of the entire nation or of the Useless-Wall Party of One.
7
Oddly, I find myself torn between two opposing views these days. On the one hand I loathe trump, all that he stands for (such as it is), and all the vermin who scurry around his bone spurs. On the other hand I wonder whether there isn’t a perverse liberation to the stunning spectacle of their corruption, venality, and incompetence.
Is it better to have “leaders” who fake sincerity well and lie when expressing the expected empathy? Or is it better to have the current clown car of an administration fumbling about, spraying itself with the seltzer of stupidity? At least with the latter the whole ghastly charade of “American exceptionalism” has been exposed for the farce it has become.
10
The Trump effect is cutting a wide swath of destruction across America. But honestly, I hope he does declare an emergency and start building his stupid wall. The timing is perfect. Just in time for the 2020 campaign he'll be down there with TV cameras bragging about ten miles of new wall, or whatever. Simultaneously, there will be cameras further down the new Trump wall recording Mexicans easily climbing over what Trump insisted was the only way to stop illegal immigration. Perfect.
4
Can Mr. Krugman please run for president?
5
Time tested wisdom:
Aesop: "A man is known by the company he keeps"
FDR: "'Judge me by the enemies I have made"
True & True.
2
Dr. Krugman, being able to blurt out any offensive nonsense is what the bobbleheads mean by "politically correct".......and they want no part. They want to puke up any insult and hide their immense rudeness behind the skirts of not being "politically correct", so yes they do mean to say this patently offensive nonsense within earshot of recording equipment: it's their brand.
Keep it up Mr. Krugman.
Keep calling out the idiotic, the moronic, the foolish...
1 kings 18:27
About noontime Elijah began mocking them. "You'll have to shout louder," he scoffed, "for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!"
1
The thing about this article is it speaks to a minority, and a minority (at least in the electoral college, cough cough) is not what got the president elected.
True that morons are surrounding the President. False is the insinuation of a widespread cult. If a cult is widespread, frankly, it isn't a cult.
Where the 'elitism' accusations of the left comes from, as far as I can see, is from articles like this. Not because they are calling people morons, but the attempt to reconcile stupid thinking is a majority, and yet deny they aren't from an elitist point of view. There are real problems in America, and those problems are from the working class, lower and middle America. Which are not full of 'wealth worshipping anti-worker cultists' That's what this article fails to address, and so it maintains a bubble that is easily decried by the right and detrimental to the left.
I mean, basically, it's a nice article but it doesn't pass the smell test.
3
Krugman's articles are never worth reading. Mindless jibberish and constant slamming of Republicans and Trump.
3
What a shocking and disrespectful headline. And this from the newspaper that told us repeatedly that Hillary Clinton would be our president by a landslide! Apparently that shameful debacle taught nothing.
5
OK Paul,
Tell us how you really feel!
1
Interesting. Not a word about Schumer and Pelosi keeping the federal employees, including those in the military, from receiving their paychecks.
Of course members of Congress continue to be paid even though they keep the government closed.
We spend $750 billion on defense, much of that spent overseas, but Schumer and Pelosi are unwilling to spend less than 1% of that amount of building a wall to keep people from crossing the border from Mexico into the US.
Similarly, no words about the "sanctuary cities" which run mostly by Democrats which keep illegal aliens in our cities.
Krugman criticize Trump but nowhere does he discuss the "rule of law" regarding immigration. At least Trump's "morons" unlike our brilliant Democrats believe in the rule of law regarding illegal aliens.
1
Why isn't Kevin Hassett begging at some freeway exit? Oh, that's right: he doesn't have the skills for that.
2
The comments left here are a great platform for venting by the majority! I'm not sure it's having much affect changing the beliefs of the remaining average Trump supporters ! Like they say at 12 Step Programs and is so true in following plans to reach any lofty goals in Life....IT WORKS... IF...YOU WORK IT !! You won't achieve ..if... you can't Believe !!
When will the NYT land a 1:1 interview with Trump's invisible henchman, the guy pulling all the strings on his behalf, Mitch McConnell? The media ought to be pounding down McConnell's door until we get a substantive interview about why he's enabling this ongoing stream of corruption, lies, deceipt, and ruin.
14
I don't think Barr is a moron, and I don't think he is being forthcoming about his commitment to upholding justice. If Trump says "fire Mueller," he will (and Barr will author the "justification" for it).
Alternatively, and more dangerously, I think he is wily enough to cripple and incapacitate the investigation, surreptitiously, in service to Trump.
His likely confirmation is seriously troubling.
4
Please stop the Hate Speech. This is a time for Americans to come together and Move On .
2
Donald Trump doesn't care about people. Period.
7
Trump hasn't done a darn thing any other republican hasn't tried or been successful at doing. He has only done it without the filters and foils. His greatest gift to the country is showing the world and history just what exactly conservatism is all about and just what approximately 35% of Americans are really. They are petty, rude, ignorant, racist, self-defeatist, jealous, sexist. The "base" of the republican party is no longer the New England elite, it is the trolling and despicable, largely broke. Conservatism grew this base like a well fertilized garden and now they lay in it, before the world, too afraid of their own weeds to cut them. You wanna make America great again? Then, lets be honest with ourselves about whether we really ever were, that is, for everyone, and stop pretending that wallowing with the hogs of industry and ignorance will ever have our aspirations become reality.
10
The only thing that matters now is when and how will these bad Republicans of the Trump era be held accountable for there actions. Will they just slip away as usual or will there be real punishment?
If these openly vile people get away with this, we are done as America. This country cannot survive this level of evil without some form of correction.
Mr Mueller save us, please oh God save us!
2
Our current government reads like a chapter in Gulliver’s Travels.
2
Seeing Trump opens his arms to Sean Hanitty shows what and who he will embrace if it will make him feel good .
Such a needy person , he follows crack pots as long as they flatter him
Those crack pots run out government .
5
Article must have been written before this story broke.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/ivanka-trump-world-bank-president.html
"Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, will play a role in helping to select the next head of the World Bank, the White House said Monday."
In terms of incompetence we are moving past the French Bourbons to the late Spanish Bourbons. Or as Charles Pierce puts it, "our ongoing experiment in the Dunning-Kruger Effect."
13
Interesting take, though I find it ironic that that it involved trashing Trumpfolk for actually telling the truth (in Hannity's case, sort of) instead of standard Repubican pablum. Now of course we can reverse course and attack the pablum, which really needs to be attacked fiercely and frequently.
Shouldn't we be encouraging them to go off message?
1
The Democrats should be negotiating with Sean Hannity, the real president of the United States.
Come on, Paul. Stop holding back. Tell us what you really think! We can handle it. No more sugar coating!
2
So why is Barr even considering joining Trump's toxic little circus? He must know what kind of treatment Trump has in store for him and that his reputation will take a major hit for serving (and likely protecting) a possible traitor and criminal president.
What does he have to gain, that he would be willing to pay this price? I can't think of any answer to this question that isn't scary.
6
The 2016 elections is the only successful Russian five year plan.
6
Walls...Yes! But...what happened to the children?
When Paul Krugman is helping the Republicans with their own talking points, you know the world has gone topsy turvy.
The Trump Administration is setting the criteria for the worst Presidency ever.
6
Well said and obviously factually correct. So it makes me wonder why William Barr would accept the nomination for Attorney General. While he maintains that he doesn't have anything to lose, being at the end of his career, he can lose his reputation, and end up another historic casualty of the Trump Administration. He is taking a job under an obviously corrupt and inept leader, who demands loyalty from his underlings and has little regard for behavioral norms or the law. If Mr. Barr is honest and ethical, he'll soon run afoul of the President. If he isn't, we all will have been conned, yet again.
11
When up to 40% of the American public actually believe Donald
Trump to be a stable genius, we are all in peril.
12
This pretty much sums it up I'm afraid.
1
What does one do when they've painted themselves into a corner? I'm thinking of Britain with the Brexit vote and the American system in electing Donald Trump president. In both cases there is no easy way out. All that's left is to bite the bullet, do the sensible thing for the country and deal with the consequences. For Britain, this means ignoring the vote and dropping the exit plans. For the US this means stop pretending that Trump is a normal human being or could ever become one. We should ignore his silly orders and pronouncements, do what is best for the country and remove him if he gets in the way. Put the media focus onto his enablers like McConnell and other GOP congressional leaders. This has to stop before we go down a path from which we cannot recover.
14
Thank you, my new favorite headline.
7
"Build the Wall", "Lock Her Up", "Witch Hunt", "Fake News" and other Presidential thoughts (Tweets) will be enshrined in our country's history - along side those of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Kennedy ...
How do you teach this to future generations?
4
And so, when to the massive weekend demonstrations begin that shuts the whole system down ?
2
Call your congressmen and write your senators : gerrymandering must be reigned in if not banished. Until the GOP faces moderates and focuses on the need for across the aisle work to get things done, we will continue to have a government of oassive aggressive teenagers.
3
As a newly minted naturalized citizen, I am learning American history, civics, law and farm finance at the speed of on-the-job training. It's better than reading "common knowledge."
3
I know Bill Maher suggested something akin to this several month ago, but the thought bears repeating.
In Al Franken we had a man who was kidding around about being a jerk and very serious about working for the people.
In Donald Trump, and apparently Mitch McConnell and a fair chunk of the Republican Party, that example has been turned inside-out.
27
"Self incrimination is not a crime."
Trumpian logic defense we will likely be hearing in many forms over the next few years.
2
These comments are gold. Pure gold! So proud of all of you not afraid to tell it like it is...President Moron!
20
Trump is the kid in your class that your parents warned you about. The one who would use you, abuse you, and then drop you like a hot cake when things went bad. He is the one who takes the easy way out on everything. The government shut down is easier than attempting to compromise. The GOP supports it because it allows them to have what they've wanted for decades: no government. Note however that they are getting paid. It must be nice to be a senator or congressperson and continue to get paid for doing nothing but bloviating.
31
Worth repeating: the shutdown is a cynical ploy to demonstrate that the country can manage with less government. The Tump/Republican $1.7 trillion wealth giveaway (marketed as tax reform) has shorted the government of needed and essential revenue setting the country up for a budget shortfall. Corporations' tax revenues are the lowest in 75 years. Already we're seeing the effects in a $1 Trillion-a-year rise in the federal debt. The Trump-Republican strategy is to underfund government departments with oversight (EPA, IRS, etc.) cut regulations, programs, services, and eligibility (HUD, SNAP, etc.) and privatize government (VA, etc.) including killing the ACA. They can't openly cut SS and Medicare earned benefits to reduce the shortfall--but they can reduce the number of people and programs served. This is their end-game.
25
@Ann - sadly I think you are correct
3
"...and we haven't hit bottom yet."
True, Paul, because with Trump there is no bottom.
20
I often don't agree with Mr. Krugman's views, which are often too biased for me. But boy did he nail it with this article--title and substance!
15
Regrading the shutdown: It is the president who is asking the congress for something, not the other way around. He is not getting what he wants, so he has shut down the government. There can be no question who is responsible for it.
20
I am, as usual, truly astonished at how people will vote against their own best interests.
When will Middle America get that trump doesn’t care one hoot about them.
From the farmer who acknowledges that he will lose his farm, but foolishly admits he believes in trump’s ridiculous border wall, to the farmers who can’t get people to pick their harvests.
From the coal miner, whose health, if it has not already, shown symptoms of the diseases of coal mining, will find that he can’t afford his healthcare or that he has no healthcare.
Are these people not competent enough to realize what this man represents or do they just not care about themselves?
36
@KLKemp I suspect that most Trumpsters are also Fox devotees. Basically they are willingly brainwashing themselves. I have observed this phenomena during our occasional visits with elderly extended family who live in the south. The TV is on all the time, and always on the Fox channel. And these relatives seem increasingly 'riled up' ...
6
As long as they're shutting things down, howzabout shutting down the presidency?
21
I am closely coming to the conclusion that Trump has, and has always had, an overwhelming psychological need to destroy. One of his first notable acts in NYC real estate was to destroy two culturally valuable art deco sculptures on the exterior walls of Bonwit Teller when many sought to move them for preservation. Since then, he has destroyed businesses, institutions, personal relationships, marriages and now it is our government's turn. Profound ineptness and stupidity alone can no longer explain his actions.
30
Trump's administration has made people learn at least one new word: kakistocracy - a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
Here is one positive note. Maybe, just maybe, Trump is a catharsis. He has pulled the happy-face of the GOP and has allowed everyone who is willing to see just how corrupt and degenerate the Republican Party has become. Elected Republicans will support a pathologically lying, racist demagogue to hold power. It is a lesson we must remember in November 2020. Save the republic, vote Democrat.
1024
@Gary Bernier
In some nordic countries kaka has a different meaning: it often refers to babies' lack of control.
38
@Gary Bernier...I feel the same...we have no choice ..the Republicans for the most part have been Trump enablers who chose to ride the coat tails of his now diminishing popularity !! I don't think I could ever vote for a Republican again.We must vote Democratic! Guaranteed if Hillary had won there would be some negative comments left for an NYT article....but I doubt there would be nearly 2000 comments left ...mostly in the negative !! Oh to go back in time to 2016 and vote again to change our futures! We would never find ourselves in this mess we are in right now !!
80
Is anyone else worried about an actual national emergency taking place while the government is shut down? The leadership on display is anything but reassuring. With no regard for past or future, they seem incapable of dealing with reality, their counterparties, or their responsibilities to the citizens of this country.
Public servants? Trump's plan was always to shape federal policies to suit himself, and prove while doing so that nobody and nothing else matters.
18
While I think Krugman is correct, I believe there is another factor in play. I think Trump is one of those bosses who simply cannot tolerate having people around him who are smarter than they are. I think that is largely why he has had so many business failures. Good bosses like having smart people around them.
28
The American press is finally waking up. Trump is dangerous and is causing damage to the our country that will take generations to repair. This is no time to hold back.
30
Trump can't and won't admit this was a bad call. He is stuck with this decision and Nancy and Chuck are right to let Trump and Mcconnell take responsibility for inaction.
24
What if every Democrat said they are going to withhold tax payments until the government re-opens?
17
Let us all remember the base of this current president is 33% not 40%! Or is that how the current Administration configures mathematics?
15
"Normally working for the president of the United States is a career booster, something that looks good on your résumé."
Which is why Paul Krugman accepted a position working for Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers (led by conservative economist Marty Feldstein) 35 years ago. But please don't embarrass him by mentioning this.
5
@Schumpeter's Disciple- You just contradicted your own point. Regardless of the differences in their political affiliations, Krugman did not disgrace himself by working for a dysfunctional & ignorant administration. Whatever one felt about Reagan, his administration was not noted for chaos or dysfunction. In fact, his administration is still held as the gold standard by those on the right.
20
@Marc
Thank you. Your comment is more complimentary to Reagan than anything Krugman has ever written about him. Please school PK about how talented and functional the Reagan administration was, especially in fixing the economy.
2
Reagan wasn’t a traitor, criminal or wannabe-dictator. Don’t confuse him with Trump.
The greed, grift, and self dealing is naked and unabashed for all to see. They are not hiding it because the base somehow thinks they are sticking it to libs when they are sticking it to the whole western world.
Maybe those superfund sites were neglected and designed to injure the American people so we wouldn't be able to think clearly. It is all so awful. Can't wait for 2020
The one small silver lining is that people who voted for Trump are renouncing him more frequently in my town. This is a first and I hope it lasts until 2020
20
And then he served Clemson an array of fast food during the team's visit to the White House. No bottom.
21
Why to we all want to believe third rate propaganda from these clowns in our Government? We deserve better! We deserve first rate propaganda!
4
A major collaborator in this trump mess is Mitch McConnell who hasn't done anything positive for the nation since the day he declared war on Obama. If anyone is out of touch with middle America, at least what is left of it, its Mitch. Mitch is up for re-election in 2020, may the voters in Kentucky come to their senses and dump this troll.
31
Kakistocracy used to just be a funny word.
15
He is planning to get out of NATO again...yes, there is no bottom! Putin is very happy of his investment...
16
I'm happy to see that Hannity had something to say about raising taxes on the rich, even if his remark was idiotic. To me, it means that the real possibility of it, having finally been mentioned by AOC and a few other politicians, is getting through to the Fat Cats.
If income inequality isn't addressed in a real way, our nation will be further ripped apart in real, not symbolic/wall ways.
9
We have multiple crises happening in the world, boiling down to rising inequality and accelerating environmental collapse.
It seems a significant portion of Republican supporters can't break out of the cult because they fear abortion rights.
The Democrats should address this fear.
5
This isn’t just a party but also a period of indifference if not outright denial of expertise or even competence, and any electorate has proven and will prove that in every respect and at every opportunity, regardless, so please stop treating this as essentially political.
Complacency breeds denial.
2
<>
Here's what those federal agencies should counsel their furloughed employees to do: invoke the Donald Trump doctrine -- pay your bills like a deadbeat, as in don't pay them. That's the Trump way (just ask contractors with approved purchase orders who got stiffed).
That wouldn't be an honorable thing to do, now would it? Probably why Trump does it.
7
With all that is going on, the most important thing is missing.
Introspection. Why has this happened?
Please, do not talk about "deplorables" and "idiots." That is how this happened.
Trump was elected as a direct consequence of a pedantic president who sought to "fundamentally transform" an America that most people thought was pretty good. Obama and those way to his left communicated the message that success is to be punished, bad behavior should be blamed on society, and that people with conservative beliefs have no place in the USA.
Please, stop the rhetoric that Krugman uses. These are not "not normal times." This is democracy at work. Meet in the middle and tolerate people who disagree with you rather than vilifying them. Perhaps a good person would be elected who represents us all (ie a Romney, or a Biden), rather than another polarizer.
100
Yes, we all understand that when injustices don’t affect them directly, most people tend to see efforts to address them as disruptive. The notion expressed with, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That was the attitude towards segregation, environmental pollution, and just about every other wrongful kind of behavior we’ve seen in our history which a few annoying people were able to impress needed to be corrected to most people, after much effort.
304
@Ny
"Meet in the middle and tolerate people who disagree with you rather than vilifying them."
Qualities and actions singularly missing from whom, pray tell?
208
@Ny The time of a compromising government stopped when one side of the compromise started looking for the means to destroy rather than advance a solution. The Trump base has long admitted to not voting for Trump so much as voting for somebody who would be sure to shake up Washington. What better way to shake up our government than to stop all forward progress?
We commit a grave error by assuming that somewhere in the Trump organization, there is a plan to move forward with a goal to benefit the GoP? Trump? Putin? The only plan is to destroy a government that holds compromise as a necessity. A government that needs an opposition party to right wing avarice and ambition.
Once such a government is in tatters, or is simply no longer making progress, the cult of Trump will have burnt itself out. Their goal is destruction, their assumption is only that what ever will follow has to be better than the existing effort that won't give them what they want.
116
Thank you for this Opinion Mr. Krugman.
We are loosing international respect and credibility. Those are precious qualities that cost more than money.
8
His formal and informal advisors are too afraid to tell the emperor that he has no clothes on. I’d love it if they found their souls and all told him he was as naked as the day he was born.
11
and sloshing thru number two.
1
Correct. The white house has truly become a house of ill repute.
10
Ah Sean Hannity! His fingers firmly on the economic pulse! Clearly what America and the Trump base needs is more opportunities to help provide the super wealthy with ways to consume their tax cuts. What could offer more social utility than that? Boat building enterprises and luxury holiday destinations are no doubt springing up like mushrooms after rain all over the mid-west!
12
I have said for the last two years that it will get worse before it gets better.
Now Professor Krugman has only confirmed my fears.
8
This article and its readers' faithful comments is an 'echo chamber' classic. Both the article and the responses to it are largely devoid of new content or content, period... just affect.
If federal workers are inspired by these financial challenges to consider entering the private sector I would recommend, based on the the jobs in my area, not to act on those thoughts. Non-federally employed workers with comparable skills are probably used to far more financial uncertainty.
4
@carl bumba
Very strange. I submitted a critique that respectfully challenged the assumptions and logic of Dr. Krugman's argument in this article. (That was about an hour ago.) Still no sign of it. On the other hand, my pretty generic comment above was submitted only 5 minutes minutes ago - and here it is! With a time stamp of "2hr ago". Such weirdness seems to happen a LOT to me - particularly with Dr. Krugman's columns. (I could write the most scathing critique of Charles Blow's reasoning and it would be up in 5 minutes.)
The fact that Fox news opinion hosts have unfettered access to Trump and the white house and that they even appear publicly to boost Trump and his Senatorial Picks as Hannity and Pirro recently did during the midterms demonstrates that the business Fox news purports to be in eg journalism is a front for bolstering the Trump administration on a daily even hourly basis Limbaugh and Levin and Hannity on radio and hannity Ingraham Coulter and Pirro on TV make Fox a joke when it comes to reporting the facts And an argument could be made that the FEC laws on the limitation on corporate contributions to campaigns was broken when Hannity and Pirro both under contract to Fox used their celebrity and Fox’s imprimature to support Trump’s choices for the Senate Hannity and Pirro are entitled to free speech but when they actively appear to boost any candidate while under contract to a broadcast network it seems to me that they have crossed a line that prohibits contributions from any corporation to any candidate for Federal office
8
Times' correspondent Amy Chozick, writing about the Clinton campaign in 2016, told us that Hillary's staff coined the term "Everydays" to describe the paycheck to paycheck middle class in this country. I don't think her insouciance towards people who work for a paycheck is any more or less deplorable that Trump's staff's mix of disdain and ignorance about those of us out here in flyover country. One candidate tried to hide her sense of superiority, the other faked his identification with the middle American dispossessed. They were both elite New Yorkers who went to the same parties, galas, and openings, hung out in the Hamptons, and retreated to their respective elite sanctuaries. One talked a better line. Which one is debatable.
3
@Judith Simpson
Hillary Clinton certainly did not spend most of her life in New York. You say it’s her staff that coined this term. I mean, really, you are comparing the two??
7
I debate. The Democrats policies would benefit the working class, republicans policies destroy the working class. Period.
11
Hillary Clinton’s from Illinois. Her dad ran a smallish furniture company; her mom ran the house. She did not inherit a cool $412 million. Feel free to comoare with trump.
4
I agree that no decent, rational, thinking human being can possibly work for this mass of negative ions.
Trump is indeed anti-matter - he is the embodiment of Murphy's Law.
If our democratic republic survives two more years of this infection, we will be in need of some very strong anti-biotics and rehab to get back to a shadow of who we think that we are.
5
I have learned that democracy, despite the “fail-safe checks and balances” we were taught to worship, is delicate. In just two short years, the balance has been lost and we may lose this fragile construct.
Many of the mechanisms of government have been sustained by career federal employees. Agencies have been stripped of talented, dedicated people, until they’ve become shells of their former abilities.
America is the patient on her death bed: last to know that this may be her final round.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.
13
Don’t sugar coat it Dr. Krugman, tell us how you really feel.
The GOP hive mind does not stray from collective systematic destruction anyone below the 1% and Trump has even amplified this more. Civilization seems to be a dream now.
6
People go to work for a President for the prestige but mostly for the private sector opportunities that open up after just a few years of service.
After two years of watching this idiot of a President, no one with an ounce of integrity or intelligence wants to come within 1,000 miles of 1600 Pennsylvania.
Of course that doesn’t do us commoners any good. When a guy with the experience and integrity of Jim Mattis says “Enough of this crap.” then we are all in trouble.
When Trump counts on people like Hannity and Giuliani for advice, then we’re all in trouble.
I hope we can ride out the next two years with no national emergencies. This administration doesn’t have the people or the brights to deal with that.
21
@HeyJoe I was so depressed when foolish idealogue John Bolton came back into the government.
For those of you reading this, please acquaint yourselves about Peter Navarro, the 'unorthodox economist' advising Trump on trade policy...your hair will stand on end.
2
We are now living in the nightmare of a reality TV presidency. Reality shows were never real. Thus the first disconnect from the real world and seduction by the propaganda from the shows' producers. Each episode is a ratings competition and requires ever more outlandish scenarios to satisfy the prurient interest of the viewers. Millions of Americans are now unable to differentiate between reality and make believe. I don't know what it will take to get Americans out of the celebrity cult fantasy and back to the hard work of governance, but the first step needs to be ending this presidency as soon as possible.
19
There is no bottom.
419
@Boston
I dunno Boston, with 239 pounds to spread around it would seem there’s a very large bottom in the guy.
20
Perhaps...perhaps offer president donald trump two billion dollars to resign and agree to never again run for public office or accept any government position anywhere ever again.
6
How about offering him and his misbegotten brood some leniency in sentencing to crimes of which they will certainly be convicted to just go away and never to be heard from again.
3
@Jerry M The problem is that he lies as you and I breathe. He will take the moolah then start his new campaign as soon as the check clears.
3
So we let him blackmail the country just to get rid of him? And what about his supporters? Do we give them all money just to go away and promise not to vote for moral dumpster divers? This problem is too big for those kind of solutions.
6
"There are, no doubt, conservatives smart and self-controlled enough to lie plausibly, or at least preserve some deniability,"
And we're watching one of them (and he has previous experience advising GHWB to pardon ALL the Iran Contra conspirators) this morning, "swearing" to say anything that will ensure his confirmation (as a believer in "the president is a king" perspective) as AG.
14
This statement, is most striking:
"To be a modern conservative is to spend your life inside what amounts to a cult, barely exposed to outside ideas or even ways of speaking. Inside that cult, contempt for ordinary working Americans is widespread."
15
But the base wanted someone in DC who would "shake things up"! Surely they have achieved that.
3
They all rolled the dice with our country. And it came up snake eyes.
3
The same level of 'expertise' is on display in relation to foreign policy. Witness SoS Pompeo's speech last week in Cairo: deliberate misrepresentation of Obama's previous pronouncements there, along with a firm commitment to the region (while Trump withdraws troops from Syria...)
9
Struggle meals are now part of the Trump vocabulary; the meals Coast Guard spouses make to feed their families.
8
I sincerely hope there are folks noting and writing down every tRump appointee made so that they can be fired on the spot in January 2021 and their work remedied and their mistakes corrected.
The stink of this administration and McConnell's actions will take many years to fix.
17
Nice Headline. When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.
2
@Duane Mathias This explains why Donald Trump, your so-called president, engages in slander daily. Name-calling and petty tantrums is no way to run a country. Watching Trump's performance it's easy to understand how he ran every one of his businesses straight into bankruptcy.
15
In this case, it’s also a tool of the winner.
4
@Gary Pahl Only a loser could consider Donald Trump a winner.
4
Perceived elitism was a strong factor in what got Trump elected to be president. The kind of insulting words in the title of this opinion ... by a person who is supposedly bright ... is not going to help undo Trump. If anything, out resentment, the opposite.
1
Do you shoot yourself in the foot because you resent people that can run? At some
Point you have to act in your best interest.
1
@wak. Don't worry, his 'followers' only tune into Fox. Those who use the internet probably get their news from Breitbart or the Daily Caller...
2
If airport workers went on strike to support all those who are victims of the shutdown the shutdown would end in a day
5
@MRO, If they strike, Trump's the kind of guy who would fire them all.
1
The "worst and the dumbest" may be accurate if you consider the way these men and women are looting our national treasures and our Treasury to be personally unproductive; I don't.
Too many times it has been pointed out that no money from the tax cut giveaway has been returned by either Democrat or Republican. Is it being donated to food banks?
The worst and dumbest from our esteemed leader on down didn't just fall from the tree, they, as all long lines of government grifters, have been residing in office since the late seventeen-hundreds.
Although our shell may appear to the world as impregnable, our society within isn't a healthy social organism. Working men and women are being abused by a group who could have walked out of any Charles Dickens story.
I hope for our sake the women and men who just entered our Congress as well as those already ensconced take a look and then process what needs to happen ...... and it isn't a wall.
3
Bravo.
Paul nails them - rightfully - to the Cross of Shame. None of my crazy rightwing friends are going to read this - but they should. They might actually learn something for a change.
7
I’m sorry to say, after the events of the last two years, I don’t have any right wing friends.
5
Good article, thank you.
4
My concern is that there seems to be little, if anything, that Trump and his minions can or will do that would inspire any opposition in the Republican senate.
Are there any Republicans in public office who see anything at all about this awful situation that raises even the tiniest concern?
Not only is Trump served by idiots, his behavior raises reasonable suspicions of corruption and fealty to a foreign government.
You'd think someone in the GOP would care about that.
8
I truly have no words left... The American projection of global power once appeared as an uncontested reality of global stability, despite its overreach and historical role in destabilizing democratically elected governments, such as Allende's Socialist party in Chile. It is astonishing how fast the unraveling has occurred, the huge opportunities given to adversaries, and the feckless stupidity of this President. We are really only left with an understanding of this President as a Russian "Useful Idiot", or an active agent of Russian and self interests. Whatever historical reckoning is needed to qualify the American use of global power, the opening given to authoritarian regimes is troubling and a portent to future conflict.
9
Top team Trump tips for furloughed Feds:
You can sell blood at the plasma clinic. But they're only open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Saturday and Sunday, they're closed.
Raise rabbits. You can sell them for pets or meat.
All I can say is, "Amen!"
4
Watching a NFL game as the camera pans the spectators dressed up in costumes, face paint, and screaming like crazed banshees, humorously reminds me what a person would think if they recognized their doctor, lawyer, priest, etc. as one of the banshees. I suppose having dad and mom can somehow be understood and lived with but, would one feel comfortable trusting the judgement and capabilities to address complex issues with an appropriate amount of expertise after such a recognition?
I feel the same way seeing faces in Trump crowds at his "presidential" snarling hate carnivals. If you saw your doctor there would you trust him? Your accountant or your religious leader? I would not and did not. And considering trump's ability to tease out the most corrupt and racist staff members with his minimal level of intellectual development does not bode well for any level of job responsibility or performance. Can anyone take any republican politician as a serious professional without questioning their judgement, morals, intellect and fictional dedication to our country? The same for any of Trump's bootlickers. For example, does anyone really what a Trump cabinet member like Ben Carson doing any brain surgery, ever? The only thing I can imagine worse is being married to one his ex-wives.
8
Thank you for this excellent article Mr. Krugman.
3
Kevin Hassett. That's right, THE Kevin Hassett.
You didn't even mention the best bit, professor.
Gentle readers, cast your minds back to 1999 when the dot.com bubble hadn't deflated yet. Hassett and another bozo whose name doesn't matter wrote a little number called "Dow 36,000" which argued that, no, the stock market was not overpriced because we savvy Americans had just finally figured out that stocks are actually very safe and therefore should command very high prices.
Investors knew no such thing but were rather just trying to keep up with their wives' sisters' husbands so as to placate their own wives--and also buy that new boat.
"Honey, Eunice said that Eustace said that pets.com has made him 500% in the last 3 weeks."
We know how that ended.
Hassett is a full-on dunderhead, first outed as a dunderhead almost 20 years ago. I wouldn't even put him in charge of the laundry.
8
You say you want a revolution, you better get on right away, thanks John
Regarding the comment, "And we haven't hit bottom." To quote Borges on the then crisis in Argentina, "There is no bottom."
3
The blinkered views of GOP whites are well known and extensively documented by brilliant men of sound mind, like Krugman, who are able to think clearly. Do these Trump creatures understand how inept and awful they are, or are they proud of their stupidity because it means they conform to group think and therefore "belong"? Is conformism to a norm, even if the norm is deplorable, the sine qua non for staying on the gag-worthy Trump team? Why do GOP worship stupidity? Really diffcult questions to wrap one's head around, even for a Nobel winner like Krugman.
6
So what are our alternate solutions? We have an wannabe mafia Don as president, who now realizes he likes being in charge, but doesn’t treat his subordinates well enough to get anything done; we have a tea party/evangelical Senate who want absolute power, quickly salting judges everywhere so they can get the rulings they want, when they want; we have a military on the fence, but they like all the money thrown their way; we have former allies realizing we are no longer a deterrent to the manipulative Cheshire Cat in Moscow; we are in a trade war with both friends and foe, who now realize they can trade without us; we have a new Congress too busy fighting over who is “too left” to raise a viable candidate to win the next election; we have a National Security Advisor looking for ways to attack Iran as quickly as possible to “save” us and the administration; we have a base blindly supporting a man who is openly picking their pockets while taking healthcare and education away while protecting polluting industries and destroying national parks...thank you conservative America, can we all endure another two years of This? Vote with your mind, not your gut.
11
@Jsbliv
Bourbon.
(No, seriously, grass-roots political involvement/education/voting is the only solution available to most of us, but bourbon is the first thing that comes to mind.)
3
Touche!
You can get by in this world being dishonest and smart. Or being honest and slow on the uptake. When you're both ignorant and dishonest, you end up with, in the words of Strother Martin from "Cool Hand Luke,' "What we've got here."
2
I always get a good laugh out of a Krugman piece.
1
Bravo Mr. Krugman!
2
They are clueless ex-jocks who have never grown up morally or intellectually.
1
The hate and bloodlust for the current POTUS is visceral and palpable. It is truly shame worthy and only perpetuates the divisiveness of our country. Mr. Krugman should be ashamed.
2
Hate and bloodlust, mighty strong words. I guess you don’t like it when someone criticizes your dear leader. I guess, you are ok overlooking all the ridiculous and mean spirited propaganda heaped on our former president.
4
Name calling is so classy.
3
Thank you. Thankfully we still have brilliant people in this country who are thought leaders willing to express their views. What is very worrisome is that no one who supports Trump is reading thought provoking pieces like this. I’m sorry but it doesn’t help when the headline calls them morons. At the margin you still catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar.
3
Fox News is the leukemia of our democracy and the man of wax occupying our White House —the host it feeds on.
5
Mr. Krugman we are all morons. Collectively and unpatriotically we have neglected the education of this country as a whole. A poorly educated electorate will vote for a poorly educated government. This is where we now stand, laughing stock of the entire world. It is time to realize and resolve our weaknesses, to make both family and government accountable for our domestic and global responsibilities. Education is the only way out of this morass. We can only solve our problems if we hold education to our highest of values. This, I am sorry to say, will take a long time to realize.
7
@Tommybee
Except that education seems to be a low priority in many communities. It is always the first thing to go in a budget crunch.
Now you are seeing school days reduced, striking teachers, poor performance by students and teachers.
How do you elevate education in a society that, in spite of its claims, does otherwise?
There are many highly skilled jobs that are not being filled for lack of qualified workers. Some of these are being filled by foreign workers, but is this really a good long term solution for the country when so many unemployed Americans do not qualify but need to work?
2
I don't have a lot to say to this one, except: WILBUR ROSS.
Former CEO of Cyprus Bank.
You know, the one that's the key conduit to Russian and Eastern European money laundering in the West????
What's he up to these days? He's primarily responsible for "enabling" the Trump And His Circle Yacht Deals with the Kremlin, and much of the inner business circle in Russia.
Can we guess his work has pretty much not changed since he's become, what, "Secretary of Commerce"? Secretary of Secret Money Laundering, more likely.
We need to extend the shutdown, to all Americans working everywhere in this economy, until the whole passel of criminals who've committed this coup against our government (with the Russians simply applauding: "see? Now you know what it feels like to have constant, outside meddling, like you've been doing to us for forty years!") are under the guillotine.
How many guillotines do we presently have in the USA? Can France lend us a few, or are they too busy warming them up for the local frauds?
No matter; there aren't a lot of heads to chop off, and if we have to draw out the spectacle in sweet revenge..... so be it. :)
2
I noticed there was some feigned outrage over Steve King's bigoted comments, but the GOP is still in support of Trump's filth-driven and blatantly racist pretext for his wall and this idiotic shut-down.
If that isn'ta moronic move on the part of Trump's supporters in the House and Senate, then nothing is.
6
Morons? I wonder. I think they all know exactly what they are saying, and what they are saying is immensely agreeable to the base. The 40% approval rating that won't budge; the 63 million voters eager to vote for him again; the shutdown that has yet to spawn a single significant street demonstration or other effective opposition. We are in the hands of an angry nation, led by an angry child. Lord help us.
And where is Mueller, for crying out loud, as we enter our third agonizing year?
511
@Dale Copps Even here in the blood-red state of SC, we have seen an amazing number of Republicans say they are sorry they voted for Trump. They know they were duped. Others try to keep the faith, but are wavering.
As for demonstrations, please remember that some federal employees are not allowed to strike, let alone rally. Others are constrained by the Hatch Act. I suspect still others are searching for more stable jobs or other ways to take care of their families.
95
@Dale Copps
Don't forget that Mueller is a by-the-book Republican.
17
If ever the real motives of today's Republican party have been laid bare for all to see, that time is now. Today's GOP is as ideologically distant from the party of Eisenhower as the Andromeda galaxy is from Earth.
My dad, a life-long Republican, justified his position by telling me "always vote your wallet," presumably meaning lower government spending and lower taxes. But this current crop in the House, Senate, and White House have taken that thinking to an extreme level. And political remoras like evangelicals and Wall Street are along for the ride.
No one should EVER think this current iteration of the GOP is looking out for the interests of middle class America. And that the "swamp" in Washington has been drained by one drop. Never have we had such an incompetent executive branch filled with sycophants. Most of these people couldn't get a regular job.
Ah, well. The writing is on the wall and the tides will turn in 2020...
8
Although I agree with this op-ed, and in normal times it would be very important to have an op-ed like this, these aren't normal times, as TSA agents haven't been paid for almost a month.
A MUCH more urgent question, and that will determine what happens during the next months, is WHAT this is all about - especially knowing that Trump is a master in setting the media's agenda, and as a consequence in creating a distorted perception of what Democrats are doing and why, often even in the eyes of Democrats' own voter base.
Trump says that the shutdown is about a wall. He refuses to continue to implement already existing law as long as the Democrats don't flip-flop on their campaign agenda and sign billions for a wall into law. He supposes that Democrats care more about implementing existing law than the GOP, and that as a consequence this will make them cave. At the same time, it gives his own base the impression that he's fighting for the wall.
But THAT is TRUMP's framing of the situation.
For Democrats, a shutdown is totally unacceptable. Existing law must ALWAYS be implemented, also when Congress disagrees about a new law project or even can't get anything new done because voter elected a divided Congress.
That's why for them, it's no longer about the wall at all. They now refuse to negotiate about it, AND have vowed to no longer compromise on a wall in the future either, BECAUSE that's the only way to make sure that the GOP never does this again. That's what it's about.
3
So we will need the media to MASSIVELY spread Democrats' position here, if not even liberals will continue to imagine that a compromise on the part of the Democrats is an acceptable way out of this crisis ... !
The media don't have to agree with the Democrats, of course.
But they do have to make sure that their position is as clearly present as that of the GOP, so that this time, contrary to 2016, we CAN have a real, public debate about WHAT should matter most here, rather than just letting the one who yells loudest and throws most insults entirely dominate the public debate agenda.
So please NYT and Krugman, yes you can ... !!
1
@Ana Luisa
McConnell could have prevented all of this with a 2/34ds majority veto-proof bill getting past him.
We need protestors at McConnell's door again. If people in wheelchairs were able to have a sit-down strike in front of his door, then the furloughed workers need to camp there.
Right now.
2
Norman J. Ornstein, a political scientist, came out with a book last year and talked about how he believes The GOP has gone rogue due becoming "ideologically extreme", "Scornful of Compromise" as well as "unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science." He went further saying in a video the two parties are supposed to see each other as, "People we disagree with but can work with," and they are not doing that. The Republicans fought tooth and nail against Obama over Marick Garland, didn't look at his budget proposal yet rejected it and Mcconnel himself said it should be a goal to deny him a second term rather than work with the sitting president.
Now Trump is president. He's been going through cabinet members like tissues, only seeming to keep those who agree with him. McConnel refuses to actively show Checks and Balances and is choosing Loyalty to the party. Trump tried to bury a Climate Change report showing the consequences of the next decade if none is done, as well as pushing the story of violent immigrants and a wall, despite statistics showing there is NO correlation between the rise of immigrants and violence in the US.
Science is being dismissed.
Facts are being buried, if not twisted.
The GOP is refusing to act as a balance on the scale that is the power of Government.
This paints a "Us Vs Them" narrative as if The GOP knows the truth and everyone else is either a liar or an enemy. This is very, very dangerous.
9
Dr. Krugman. On one point I beg to differ. Serving in the Trump administration does not taint but helps in some worlds. It opens doors to Jobs that only the initiated could hope to have. Almost like being a "made man" you get in a club where few dare to go and it pays very well. Certainly more than a humble civil servant could ever hope for.
I am hoping that we can all agree on a wonderful nickname for this man, very much like the ones he loves to put on his enemies. My vote is for "Don the Con," as it fits him perfectly. He conned his way into the presidency of the country, and he continues to con his base and others into believing something good is going to come from him. Hasn't happened yet, at least not for those of us who have to work for a living.
9
I say the Dems should cave and agree to build the wall. They should put me, or someone like me, in charge of the project. Then I will slow-roll the program into oblivion.
I’ll work for months on preparing and issuing the Request for Bids. I’ll give responders months to respond. I’ll take months to review the bids, and then do so poor a job choosing the winners that the rest will launch protests which my cousin will review. He’ll discover irremediable structural flaws in the bidding process. The Request, bids, decisions will all be thrown out and we’ll have to start over.
Rinse and repeat.
The really sweet thing is that this process will be indistinguishable from the level of incompetence Trump has installed in every other appointment he has made.
It will also be very inexpensive. Dale, my cousin, and I will work for a minimum wage base salary. But, this is the Trump administration, so we will also receive a bonus of $2 million per year (each) for as long as it takes for the final contract to be let.
Hey, it’d be cheap at twice the price.
15
@Hephaestis
If they cave, from now on the GOP will constantly attach new and highly partisan bills that they can't get through Congress because they don't have the votes, to appropriation bills.
That means that for the next two years, there will constantly be threats of and real government shutdowns.
And that's extremely dangerous for the country , so totally unacceptable.
And the only way to prevent this from happening is to show that:
1. as soon as the GOP shuts down the government, there will be NO more negotiations at all, as long as the government remains closed and TSA agents etc. are furloughed.
2. as soon as the GOP attaches a non bipartisan new law project to a bipartisan appropriation bill (in this case: the wall), that new project will BY DEFINITION become TOXIC, in other words will never ever be compromised on in the future, even not once the government opens again.
THAT is why it is crucial that Pelosi continues to both say "no" to negotiations during a shutdown, AND from now on and for the first time "no" to ANY future compromise on the wall.
It is no longer about a wall today. It is about making sure that the Executive continues to implement existing law, even when Congress disagrees on a new law and as a consequence both parties will have to make compromises, whereas the GOP now believes that if they don't have the votes in Congress, it's best to just stop implementing existing law ...
4
Autocrats and their minions know instinctively which men to attract and inspire to their cause. Thanks to freedom of the press, which autocrats despise, good men continue to put into words what needs to be said about this dangerous presidency.
13
@Mary B Good. We do not have a presidency. We have a dictatorship in process.
4
The trouble with these sorts of broadsides for me is that Trump is still supported by 40%+/- of the American electorate. Is it at all helpful to claim -- even indirectly -- that so many of our fellow citizens are wrong-headed? I expect a Nobel Laureate to be more precise in his/her criticism and to point out compellingly many times how so many Americans are being misled, if they are.
5
@Brandon Cole
So why can 40% be so supportive or be wrongheaded .... ask the German people who lived under Hitler.
1
If all of the TSA workers, who are not being paid, announce that they will not come to work on Friday- would that force Trump's hand? Or he doesn't care?
5
Professor Krugman writes, "There have been many policy disasters over the course of U.S. history. It’s hard, however, to think of a calamity as gratuitous, an error as unforced, as the current federal shutdown." What about the Clinton shutdown in 1996, which lasted 21 days? I was working as a contractor for the USDOE then, but I got paid when it was all over. What I don't remember however is the New York Times making such a big deal about it as it is making about his one. The Feds went without a paycheck, but they eventually got their money; they lived through it. What makes this shutdown so unique that it deserves so much attention? Is it because of Donald J. Trump? Well if it is, then more power to him! I support the President. I support Trump. America First! MAGA! Thank you.
4
@Mon. Calvin Candie, the 1996 shutdown was forced by the Republican-controlled Congress when Clinton vetoed the budget sent to him. The GOP wanted to make deep cuts to programs like Medicare and refused to raise the debt ceiling (something they had zero qualms about doing in the 2017 tax legislation).
From Wikipedia: "The United States federal government shutdowns of 1995 and 1995–96 were the result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health in the 1996 federal budget."
Clinton wasn't asking for a wall. He was asking for increased spending on programs that were and remain popular with a majority of Americans and would not acquiesce to cutting funding for those programs. It was a political stunt by the GOP back then and is again today.
10
Um, if you look back , that shutdown belongs to good ole Newt Gingrich, the architect of the neocon tea party disasters.
11
@hdtvpete,
Interviewed on NPR yesterday morning, Newt Gingrich as asked if the 1996 shutdown worked, to which he replied: "Yes. It led to an agreement with Clinton that led to welfare reform, the largest capital gains tax cut in history and four straight balanced budgets for the only time in your lifetime. And we wouldn't have gotten to them without the level of intensity. I mean, I think that we couldn't have moved the system that far without having raised the heat."
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/685062279/newt-gingrich-lessons-learned-from-past-government-shutdowns
Trump has turned up the heat, and it will get hotter every day until the liberal opposition will no longer be able to tolerate it.
Professor Krugman,
You are obviously an intelligent, articulate man. However, I find it inappropriate to refer to people as morons and I have to now question whether the NYT is properly vetting your submissions. Yes, those on what you would consider the “other side” use inappropriate language, but as my dear late mother taught me two wrongs don’t make a right. Maybe we all, you included, should try to raise the bar, not lower it.
8
@Thomas Smith: But I don't think Dr. Krugman is using the term "moron" as an insult, which of course might (considering this is an opinion piece) be inappropriate. I think he's simply stating an observed fact.
2
Are you kidding me? Morons is too mild. Being from NYC, I can think of a couple of other words that could definitely be a better fit to describe the kind of people associating with Trump but then my comment would not be approved. Use your imagination.
3
If they are morons - and they are - evil morons - what does that say about his 40% of the US population base that loves him all the more, and many of whom claim he's the BEST president in US history
10
Opioid users all of trump supporters
1
I think Morons may be offended by this.
18
It makes me very happy and hopeful to see rational respectable people starting to take the gloves off and fight - This administration is a fight worth fighting.
14
Trump took power because millions of Democrats were purged from the voter rolls thanks to Kris Kobach and Interstate Crosscheck. What's really moronic is that no one in the media, congress, or the justice department, nor the American people are aware, or care. Not even a notable Nobel Prize winning economist and columnist who shall remain nameless.
https://www.gregpalast.com/election-stolen-heres/
This is not a matter of opinion, but a well documented and easily verifiable fact. You remember those: facts?
6
@lf, Trump took power because only 54% of the eligible electorate voted in 2016, and because Trump captured about 80,000 votes more across three crucial states (Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) to garner their electoral votes.
We've already seen a pushback to 2016. Last year's midterms had a historically large turnout and popular vote for Democratic candidates. The GOP lost several seats and governorships they were expected to win, including Kansas where Kobach was running. Looks like GOP voter suppression worked really well there, didn't it?
The key is to get more registered voters to the polls in 2020, and based on what we saw in 2018 and the way things are going in Washington, that shouldn't be too much of a task.
4
@hdtvpete You are deluded. Trump "captured" those votes because the voters were purged AKA "caged" (a federal crime) thanks to Crosscheck.
For example, in 2016:
Trump victory margin in Michigan: 13,107
Michigan Crosscheck purge list:
449,922
Trump victory margin in Arizona: 85,257
Arizona Crosscheck purge list: 270,824
Trump victory margin in North Carolina: 177,008
North Carolina Crosscheck purge list: 589,393
https://www.gregpalast.com/election-stolen-heres
At least 2.4 millions provisional ballots were handed out to purged voters according to the federal Election Assistance Commission, most of those "placebo ballots" were effectively thrown in the trash, with no media coverage.
"In 2017, Crosscheck analyzed 98 million voter registration records from 28 states and returned 7.2 million "potential duplicate registrant" records to member states."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Voter_Registration_Crosscheck_Program
2
Isacc Asimov said it best: "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
Of which these are the latest example.
29
A short while ago, emergency measures were needed to stem the flood of rapists, murderers, and terrorists. Now that the emergency has been called off, the flood must have stopped, doubtless just from Trump's presence near the border. Perhaps his patrolling the border would be much more effective than a wall. His supporters could hand out water bottles, snacks, and cheers for keeping America safe.
6
Tip of the Iceberg:
I think we can easily extend this team description to the entire GOP and especially the electorate "who made this all possible".
The photo heading Dr. Krugman's column is stunning.
We see America's #1 emitter of propaganda, Sean Hannity, closing in on an intense greeting with the president.
We sadly understand how much influence Hannity actually has on the president and all those "Trumpians" in the audience of this recent rally who hang on every word of the popular nighttime Fox host.
Our heartland and federal workers are having their backs broken as the result of Trump tariffs and apparently never-ending shut-down.
And still their loyalty persists !
Of the extremely loyal Republican Electorate, only a very tiny amount of them are financially benefiting - while the entire middle class is suffering.
Our longtime problem is of this electorate having such a deeply unfounded and cult-like belief in the GOP Propaganda Kool-Aid which they have been loyally drinking for generations -
A spell so strong . . . What can we do to break it !
11
You write that "Lincoln had a team of rivals." Why do you refer to them as "rivals"?
Historians, esp. D. K. Goodwin, christened Lincoln's cabinet as 'team of rivals' b/c a number of them came from different sides on the issues. Just Google the phrase for the details. Anyway, it's not Krugman's phrase. For the historians, it's a compliment to Lincoln, that he got a compliment to Lincoln, that he drew on contrasting perspectives and got everyone to work together. So the contrast between that group and Trump's 'team' highlights the weakness of the later.
7
Well said Paul. Sean Hannity says moronic things every day mostly because he's trying to sell something that is literally a lie. We always knew that trump would do anything and sacrifice anybody to be announced the winner. We thought it might take the form of a nuclear blast in Korea or Iran. But Mr Mendacious has his gun trained on Americans especially in states like California. Federal workers are probably all Obama Democrats anyway. It's an interesting feeling being despised by your own president.
Mr. Mueller a nation turn it's lonely eye to you.
13
I think the lack of civics training, curiosty and understanding for this generation of Americans was and is a device used by men lacking integrity who had been preparing for more than a generation for a coup of Our nation's democracy. McConnell, Ryan, Graham, Pence, Nunes,Meadows, Goudy, King and others, were and are far from stupid, or moronic, they were prepared for this opportunity, and sold their souls for power to transform the landscape of American Democracy into their own GOP image, - the gerrymandering, voter suppression to secure GOP power, the sound of crickets with every numbscull plan proposed by Trump, the laws Trump up ended that were in place to protect citizens, Our country, Our resources, on and on... The GOP's parasitcal symbiotic relationship with Trump has been mutually beneficial. But now that the winds have changed, we are watching those remaining Trump enablers put on their flea-riddled coat of feigned outrage, feigned compassion, and feigned empathy and try to blend in and hope we have a short memory.
11
When Mick Mulvany is your Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller is your domestic policy advisor and speechwriter, Bolton a "rational" foreign policy voice, and Giuliani and Kudlow lurking around what can we expect. These are the worst possible voices for the running the government. This is Mulvany who as OMB director called his activity in one of the short prior shutdowns in closing down the government as "kinda cool".
15
Once again we are reminded that we have a tragically unprepared and dangerously unprincipled ‘fake’ president who is an unabashed leech and an unrepentant liar. What a spectacle at just how fast the so-called “successful businessman” in the oval office is proving terribly unfit for the job, and how spineless and feckless a group of cowards McConnell and the rest of the GOP are in refusing to come to terms with this reality. It’s a shameful national embarrassment now on full display for all the world to see.
15
I hate to disagree, but Trump is an island. He's the Island of Doctor Moreau. Anyone who lands on Trump is instantly turned into a beast.
7
Sean Hannity is an excellent example. He only made it through his sophomore year in college - but it took attending 3 colleges to get that far. This is better than Rush Limbaugh, who flunked out of an eastern Missouri cow college in his freshman year because, as his mother has publicly stated, "He was flunking all of his courses." Trump is an extreme case. As a fellow Penn Graduate, I majored in Political Science, but took a minor in Economics. I was one year ahead of Trump, so my senior year overlapped with his junior year. I never heard his name mentioned, but fellow classmates have described him as unliked, bullied, & a barely passing student (he claimed to have graduated #1 in his class, but I've seen the agenda for his year's graduation & he is not mentioned for any academic awards. His admissions officer was a good friend of his older brother.
The rumor that went around campus among his fellow classmates (unproven, but consistent with Trump family behavior) was that Trump's father had to donate $25 million to Penn (in 1970 dollars) to get him into Wharton undergrad & keep him there until graduation. Though I am reluctant to make psychological diagnoses, Trump seems a classic case of the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome (when your cognitive disability is so bad you are literally too stupid to recognize you are stupid). DKS sufferers tend to compensate by believing they are the smartest in every subject. Add on a malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder & Sociopathy.
20
Mitch McConnell has been treated kindly by Donald Trump. On November, 29, 2016, Trump nominated McConnells wife, Elaine Chao, to serve as Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration.
5
Few people here seem to take on the direct issue of how amazingly moronic, incompetent and out-of-control Trump's people are. It is the living example of kakistocracy; hard to think of one worse in American history.
Harding's cabinet and administration was smarter than these people. GWB's subordinates look like geniuses in comparison. No presidency has had more dumbfoundingly humiliating moments or players than Trump's: Spicey hiding himself in the bushes! The Mooch lasted what, 11 days?
Why? What makes Trump's people uniformly so bad?
Remember the "American Carnage" inauguration speech? Remember his "on my first day" promises? After the speech he had his first signing photo-op -- looked at the first bill, had to ask what it's for, and has no idea where to sign (at the bottom). He openly states he thought it was for health care.
Trump's people are self-selected because only they can tolerate the combination of idiocy and narcissism that is Trump. We've had some dumb-bunnies as president -- but the narcissism is off-the-charts unique.
It's fairly straightforward to understand why people like Giuliani, Christie, Flynn, Manafort, Cohen gravitated to Trump: all losers, badly damaged goods, all looking to hit the big grift.
But what about all the rest that Trump chews through so steadily?
9
"Kakistocracy" is a word I was unfamiliar with before the Trump administration.
3
Absolutely right.
But as others have observed, it doesn't matter. As long as there is no push back from the spineless and corrupt Senate Republicans, nothing will change.
I hope that the playbook is being written now to ensure that every vestige of this corrupt administration is removed from office on day 1. Every cabinet secretary. Every deputy. Every official who gained Senate approval. Every Schedule C appointee. Every contractor, to the extent possible.
Step 2, same day if possible - Democratic president signs as many Executive Orders as necessary to undo the damage created by this monstrous and evil administration. Doesn't matter which department. Doesn't matter how many EOs.
Step 3 - during the transition - Vet and name every single cabinet nominee, ready for hearings asap after the new Senate is seated. Caveat: No crazy people. No borderline Democrats. No DINOs. Notwithstanding the traitor in the White House, this is a great country with great people - experts, professionals, people for whom government service is an honor, a calling. These are the people who should be sought out.
BTW, how does Treasury Secretary Paul Krugman sound?
9
As my late father would have said " No point in being ignorant unless you show it"
4
Lumpy, aka Hannity, doesn't care. He has billions. It's quite laughable when the likes of Hannity (Trump, Rush) claim to care about the lower paid and use the tern 'elite' to mock the otherside. Boy have people been hoodwinked.
7
"A year ago I pointed out that the Trump administration was turning into government by the worst and the dumbest. Since then, however, things have gotten even worse and even dumber. And we haven’t hit bottom yet."
I'm with ya all the way BUT there are 40 million dumb and dumber awful people out there who adore him and fox propaganda is they're primary source of inspiration and info.
Oh -and the priests love him too -good christians all!
You ever see the garbage left high up on some shore after an unusually high tide rolls in?
There will always be
5
I suppose someone could explain to Hannity that 'fattery' is not flattery....
The so-called president doesn't like to be second in any category, including obesity.
2
Isn't it time to focus all fire on Mitch? He is acting out as T's mini me, the designate dictator of The Hill. He alone is preventing the Senate vote(s) on these budget bills to reopen Gov (giving T cover, since a simple majority would pass them, meaning only 4 GOP Senators need to jump ship (which would leave T all alone vetoing a couple dozen bills. Bad "Optics" going forward.)
Like the rallying cry should be- Set Senators Free! Let them do what they were elected for already!
6
I can’t believe what I’m reading. I can’t read the news any more because it sickens me. I can’t follow Trump’s appointees because they change so quickly. I’m afraid for my grandchildren and the country we are leaving them. What good are jobs and the rising stock market when the air and water are polluted, our land fracked and drilled, and our lives threatened by the proliferation of weapons, legal and illegal. Can’t wait for 2020 when we regain some sanity.
9
Well, we do know all of this already. What's needed immediately is the means to check flimflam man in chief. It scares me to think of what he might use as a "diversion" when the noose gets closer, even.
3
PLEASE stop referring to people as “families”. There is no equivalence there, a person is not a family.
trump insists time and again there’s no collusion. Now it is turning out that there wasn’t only collusion but a full-blown blatant conspiracy consorting with an antagonistic adversary foreign power ... essentially a betrayal of the country, a treasonous act!. It's all over for trump, no question.
7
"What’s amazing is that they’re (Trump administration) so out of it that they don’t know either how to pretend to care about the middle class, or what nonsense to spout in order to sustain that pretense." There is another explanation. They really don't care, because their base supporters, those who rely most heavily on government subsidies, are so out of it that they don't fully comprehend the shell game being played out before their very eyes.
Trump: "I support the hard working middle class in this country."
Base: "Yea, that's right!"
Trump: "And I am going to give every hard working, unimaginably wealthy American a great big tax cut so we can justify cutting the benefits you middle class losers rely on to subsist. Now repeat after me: Make America Great Again! Build the Wall! Lock her up! No collusion! Fake news! Enemy of the People! Tax cuts for the rich!"
Base: "Yea, that's right! Tax cuts for the rich! Fake news!..."
1
Anyone who respects the Office of President of the United States would not have Donald Trump be President of the United States.
I know because Vladimir Putin would and doesn't.
2
Some rich people seem to think only what they want counts. One local guy was whining about paying more property tax to pay for more police. He said he didn't need police because he had a secure compound and his own security guards. This is the mindset of these people. That is because they are sociopaths.
6
Well Paul, I'd say you nailed this one right on the head!
3
“The process of change is made up of subtraction and addition. Taking something off and then puttin something on.”
― Creflo Dollar
OK, so it's the worst and the dumbest. The question still remains what shall we do about it. We have a large group of Republicans in power who still think he is their ticket to re-election. They need to be convinced this is not the case, and continuing to support this failing leader will lead to their own demise. That's the discussion that the Democrats, the news media, and we the voters need to be having with the Republicans.
4
There is a "bottom"? Strangely, I hope for one.
1
PK is right and many of the comments agreeing with him re right. But there are big donors, as well as voters, for whom "smaller government", lower taxes and less regulatory oversight are overriding priorities. And there are white working class and conservative "values" voters for whom racial and cultural self-image override economic self-interest. So, given the Electoral College, Citizens United, Gerrymandering, and the fact that the general election is essentially binary, Trump's reliance on morons and the minimally competent could well have only have a limited effect politically. Meaning that if donors and the base don't care (and the Democrats misplay their cards), he, and Republicans who support him, could well get re-elected anyway.
2
Why don't we put the blame for our present situation where it truly belongs and call it the "McConnell Shutdown". Everyone, particularly those that work closest with him, know that Trump is mentally ill. It is McConnell that refuses to temper his behavior!
7
"A year ago I pointed out that the Trump administration was turning into government by the worst and the dumbest."
Let's not shy away from using the official term: what we have is a kakistocracy, or government by the least qualified, most unsuitable, worst possible people, and it has actually been that way since inauguration day.
With the Democratic takeover of the House, the outlook has at least the potential to improve.
1
I wonder how low, dumb, and mean you have to be NOT to be cognizant of how low, dumb, and mean Trump and his minions are. Since 2016, it's been a continual shock that the 35-ish percent never seems to catch on. Or they do, but their resentment of the liberal side of the population is so extreme that they just don't care. That's a lot of resentment consuming a sizeable portion of the population. It's so easy to drag people down. It's much harder to lift people up, to lift yourself up. Obama tried to lift the country, and it was obviously too much for many of them. I hope the social pendulum swings back at least in proportion to where it is now. At the very least, we need courtesy and kindness as national traits. And if I had another wish, I'd like to see the best and the brightest governing the country.
5
Frankly, I do not like the approach of this column today.
I am not so sure they are not good at what they do, it is that what they do is despicable. What they are good at is doing Trump's bidding, being obsequious, being immoral, lying, being traitorous, being authentic in these terms. Their specific technical skills are less consequential.
Right. This is how Marie Antoinette lost her head. It’s doesn’t matter that her saying “let them eat cake” was probably apocryphal. The point is that disregard for what used to be called “the great unwashed masses” (now the 99%) is what leads to Revolution. Trump lost the midterms, and it’s going downhill from there for him and his party.
2
Just a cursory review of our American presidents reveals a mixed group of dangerous rogues.
Nixon was a criminal despite his denials and resigned for good reason.
Clinton should have been convicted in the senate and removed.
Lyndon Johnson may have been a murderer and complicit in Kennedy’s death.
Kennedy almost got us all killed in a nuclear holocaust with Russia and the Cuban missile crisis.
Fortunately Trump may not be taken seriously enough to actually start a war since he has been totally exposed as ineffectual.
1
A couple of comments pertaining solely to the photograph of "president" trump greeting sean hannity:
1. Can anyone spot a single African American, Asian American, Hispanic etc. in the crowd? The photo is admittedly not HD, however, it's pretty clear who and what the audience is comprised of. And it is not a representation of the US Population.
2. Can you imagine the republican outrage if Barrack Obama had an NYT reporter on stage at a rally and charged towards them to embrace them as our so-called president is doing in this photo?
trump and fox news.....who needs Russia Today when we've got this combo? Putin probably has "Under My Thumb" playing in his head and republicans will do nothing to stand up against a "president" who is clearly an agent of a hostile foreign nation.
7
I think the remaining GOP/Fox cadre under Trump is following an even more insidious path towards authoritarian rule. The far right wing now uses the terms 'swamp' and 'deep state' to characterize (and thereby attack and weaken) the very fundamentals of constitutional democracy, and in particular, rule of law and law enforcement organs of the state itself. This is absolutely perfect public rhetoric --- if you are Vladimir Putin seeking to weaken the fundamentals of our republic, and to sow distrust among the people in our rulers, based only on contemptuous lies, and under the cover of hatred of Democrats.
To see that Hannity actually admits that rich people spend their newfound tax money OUTSIDE the US - i.e. vacations where? The mediterranean, Patagonia (the one in South America, not the American clothing company), and yachts that are not American made.
3
I firmly believe that Trump and the GOP would like to destroy the Federal Government and what easier way than to cut the work force which will have to find new jobs after a long shut down to support themselves.
We need a constitutional amendment to prevent this type of destructive behavior.
Congress needs to take back many of the powers it has given to the president.
3
@LES
I don't think their goal is to destroy the government, their goal is to create a national emergency, which at least will fire up their own, not fact-checking base so much that they may massively vote in 2020, whereas they hope that it will disgust the other citizens so much that they won't even bother to vote, or blame Democrats.
Time and again, when they had to make a choice during the last two decades, the GOP has moved into the direction of putting party (= their own jobs) before country.
This is only the latest step in that same direction.
And yes, amending the Constitution and making it illegal for Congress to attach any new law project to an appropriation bill (in other words to "weaponize" the constitutional obligation to fund the implementation of already existing law), as all other Western countries have done, would go a long way to prevent them from continuing on this path.
In the meanwhile, it's CRUCIAL that Pelosi not only refuses to negotiate during a shutdown, but also makes sure - as she already has - that the GOP knows that ANY new, highly partisan law project that they decide to attach to an appropriation bill will from now on not only make negotiations during a shutdown impossible, but will AUTOMATICALLY turn that new law project into a TOXIC item, that will NEVER EVER be included in ANY future compromise reached after the government is open again anymore.
That's how to teach/force them to never ever shut down the government again.
3
Conservatives were once supportive of government that functioned well to maintain a well organized society with law and order being their top priorities. Forty years of propaganda that pictured government as the great impediment to growth and freedom has changed all that. The free market hypothesis of social order based upon rational agents producing social order and economic prosperity by means of their rational transacting over goods and services has left the conservatives asserting that private wealth leads to public wealth and selfish interests produce the highest public interests.
Trump has lots of private wealth and he’s so selfish that he seems cartoonish. He does not listen to advisors who don’t express what he thinks will serve his own interests. He focuses upon maintaining support amongst his base who are well represented by right wing media. He’s the perfect representatives for the conservatism that dominates politics today.
3
I hope we as a nation examine our constitution and the power it provides to a single individual to play with the lives of many for personal gains. So far in our history most presidents and the ruling party abode with certain protocols. But, with this president and this republican party, we have all experienced the dangers of autocracy. We need to change the electoral college and put in place amendments to limit the power our constitution affords the rogue branches of government.
4
Team of Morons indeed, but let's not forget McConnell. He deserves a spot close to the top of the list.
10
I shudder to think of what would happen if we had a real emergency for this passel of rogues to try to deal with.
We really don't have time to wait until the next election. He has two more years to cause some lasting damage and we can't afford it.
Regarding lasting damage, it will likely take around 100,000 years for the CO2 we've already emitted to cycle through Earth's systems. And under Trump we just started to increase emissions again in the US rather than decrease them.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614105843/asteroid-impact-that-wiped-out-the-dinosaurs-also-caused-abrupt-global-warming
3
@Erik Frederiksen - We do indeed have a real emergency. Our emergency is the livelihood of all federal employees who are either furloughed or are working but not getting paid, the fact that our food and water and air are not examined, our national security is in danger, people are on the verge of losing their houses, their healthcare, and on and on it goes. I am outraged by the lack of outrage by all. We need to act and not just sit idle and hope for miracle.
4
It's great to hear someone in the media speaking truth to power, in plain language. Keep up the good work, Dr. Krugman!
Politicians should focus on how they will help rural swing voters, with higher taxes on the rich to fund college educations, trade school, pre-K and healthcare. Lowering the Medicare age to 55 will also help, as well as generous transition programs for those in vanishing industries, such as coal (e.g., early retirement and paid-for education).
2
Donald Trump and His Team of Morons.
We are now officially in the Age of Alfred E. Neuman.
But without the laughs.
https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/11/06/alfred-e-neuman-for-president-let-him-finish-the-job
5
I resent your casting aspersions on morons that way.
11
Morons? That is your headline? Is this serious opinion or catnip for Trump haters? I expect better of the NYT. Shame on you.
4
@WalterZ Just out of curiosity, do you happen to live in Rep. Steve King's district?
3
@WalterZ
1/15/19 and haven’t hit bottom yet.....if we don’t know by now how will we ever know??
1
MAGA: Morons Are Governing America
19
@Don Sutton, excellent. This might be going on a t shirt.
3
So anyone who has a point of view that differs from your is a moron or idiot? Is that how your party of inclusion works? Only include those who think like you?
You are the problem.
4
@fered
You have a problem. It's not that we want everyone to agree. We would like everyone to think. Surely you can't believe that Trump and his ilk think at all.
Trump followers are lemmings, willing to go over the cliff without a thought.
Unfortunately, those MORONS haven't a thought worth contemplating. They are robots programed by FOX not to think for themselves. Please tell me EXACTLY what original ideas have emanated from this bunch of liars, deadbeats and just plain thieves???? What, if anything, has been proposed by these nitwits that would benefit humankind??
2
When the very sizable number of business air travelers experience long lines and severe inconvenience, then the shutdown will end. There will be enormous business pressure to end this nonsense. There will be a compromise, trump will falsely claim victory, and his base will buy it.
What is very alarming is how farmers are getting clobbered while still believing that trump will ultimately help them. When it does not happen, they will turn on him.
I sympathize with these federal workers. But, the longer this goes on, the more trump's base will quietly and reluctantly abandon him. I want trump to run in 2020 so he and the Republicans can lose BIG. The more angry farmers, business folks, and citizens, the more likely it is democracy and a functioning government will be fully restored.
8
Nancy and Chuck need to approve the wall to save the government. This is merely a takeover. The funding needs to go for some time - long enough to impeach Trump.
Democrats have been waiting for Mueller but Mueller is taking too long. He needs to go with what he has now. Time is running out not to lose the country forever.
We are expecting solutions from an enlightened intellect of mr Krugman's calibre. Driving the nail deeper into the Trump Cross brings knowing smiles to the readers already convinced that the sitting president should not be allowed to stay the current course unchallenged much longer.
However, picking the invective mode is hardly constructive and a disappointment at this stage of the current ill fated course on so many fronts:environmental,immigration,health care,the image of the USA abroad, and of course the actual state of health of the economy and the long term disaster being fomented by poorly prepared officials.
We need the better Paul Krugman back aboard ,and his insights to show viable alternate paths. Thank you from a long time reader.
3
I wonder how much longer it will take for his base to realize that he is way below the basest they could have elected.
3
@Irene
When it hits their pocketbook.
They are stupid people. They believe what they are told, by moneygrubbing preachers and racists and bigots like themselves.
They believe it whem Trump tells them their jobs are coming back. They don't want to believe anyone who says otherwise.
When they realize their jobs aren't coming back and there are no more paychecks and welfare won't pay their mortgage so they'll lose their home, that's when they'll start to wonder.
Too bad but they were duped and they'll have learned a very hard lesson.
I wish I felt so=y for them but the hurt all of us when they helped elect a greedy MORON for a president.
Turn off reality tv and get a job.
1
The Republican-controlled Senate equally is responsible for the tantrum--- I mean shutdown--- because it already passed a bill that would fund the government without the wall. Why this isn't the only talking point worth, uh, talking about is a mystery.
Would someone please ask Mitch Mc why he flip-flopped?
Second, veterans form a far larger percentage of federal workers than they do of private sector workers--- why aren't Democrats asking if Republicans are anti-veteran?
3
Money rules the US...whether from domestic or foreign sources.
Trump has no incentive to sigh anything. The repubs in the Senate are either in league with Trump or too scared to do what they need to do: override any veto of the spending bills.
The fact is that Trump, and this ultra right wing cronies, would not mind at all having those 800 thousand workers just quit. They won't replace them and will instead claim they made the government smaller and saved money. The fact the Homeland Security is one of the departments affected does not seem to concern them in the least - putting the lie to their claim they care about border security.
This is just about Trump getting what he wants not matter the damage he causes. He is in charge of the Spoiled Brat Party now, and his cronies in the Senate are to chicken to stand up to him.
4
And so, fellow citizens, what happens when a real economic crisis happens. This “Confederacy of Dunces” will fall apart and scuttle for a hole to hide in. There will be no leadership and we will find out exactly where the bottom is. We will howl like the mindless animals we will have become.
1
"A year ago I pointed out that the Trump administration was turning into government by the worst and the dumbest. Since then, however, things have gotten even worse and even dumber. And we haven’t hit bottom yet."
And the fact that we haven't hit bottom yet, is the truly scary part.
Think about the shenanigans that are going on, which we know about, and then the others we rarely hear about, one such being Bolton hard at it trying to engage us in an all-out conflict with Iran, the withdrawal from Syria being another building disaster, seemingly designed to hand Syria over to the Russians, and then look at the House of Saud, and its bone saw wielding crown Prince, and Dear God, one can't help but presume the madman in the White House, and his even crazier Republican partners, are all engaged in tearing apart any semblance of decency America ever stood for.
What is occurring within our government, orchestrated by Trump and his gang, and amazingly ignored by the Democrats, is impossible, but it is occurring.
We are deep in some very dark place, with no one willing to throw us a lifeline ...
4
As always, well-said Mr. Krugman. Nevertheless, while it is true that the Trump Administration has not exactly drawn the "Best and Brightest," there are some pretty smart cookies on his team. Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross and Larry Kudlow come to mind. Those guys are no dummies. Evil perhaps, but not dumb. What this current shutdown has made abundantly clear is the bubble all these people live in, inhabited by their rich cronies. In their insular little world,and everyone else is just "the help" and to be disregarded. Never has it been made more plain.
2
“Even if your real reason for favoring low taxes is that they let your wealthy friends engage in even more high living, you’re not supposed to say that out loud.”
This is the entire point of having privately-held beliefs. When “conservative” becomes synonymous with exorbitant waste, then that’s just mindless liberalism.
If political parties were birds’ nests, Donald Trump would be the cuckoo.
Once again a reader can find the cynical, caustic nature of current opinion journalism in a simple article title.
Read further and you will find important observations that deserve our attention, yet are so eclipsed by a writers well familiar anger that a reader sees only puerile defamation. The means to change something involves education, ideas and solutions. It is more than depressing to see our most accomplished academics unable to rise above the fray so consistently in a time where the clarity of intelligent opposition could rule the day.
1
Has Emmet Flood lost his sterling reputation yet? He may be the exception to the rule.
We are nowhere near the bottom with the GOP.
Even after Trump is gone, the next batch of GOP leaders will be even worse...much worse. The Trump and GOP base is one and the same, and that base is going to want an even Trumpier Trump. In fact, they want someone more Trumpier than Trump right now. Seriously, the GOP base is not that far from a full throated endorsement of Iowa Congressman and white supremacist Steve King for President with Louie Gohmert as his running mate.
It is going to get much, much worse...we are only in the first inning.
3
Mr. Trump is most certainly the only president to hit rock bottom and keep digging but to call in the steam shovels. They have high jacked the future of the country with their obscene new tax law and demonstrated that the stupidification of the lower middle class is fully in blossom. How much longer until even the Republicans want him out and gone?
Whenever tax cuts for the rich (or "too big to fail" payouts) are explained as a way to encourage business owners to improve their businesses and hire more employees and raise salaries, I laugh so hard that the tears trickle down my face...knowing that the Republicans who forced those rules through are laughing, too, in a different way: "What dummies! They bought it again!" Reagan, the great economist.
1
The Trump administration (which includes Fox News) is a manifestation of the Dunning-Kruger effect in all its infamy. Trump is our own Ignatius P. Reilly only the Confederacy of Dunces are in league with him.
3
How any sane being would vote for a republican after the behavior of this illegitimate president, and spineless Congressmen is beyond my comprehension. Mitch McConnell, who has thwarted the Constitution and Senate rules by withholding Merrick Garland from his process, and now refuses votes to come to the floor that would facilitate reopening the government, needs to be censored for cruelty and not performing duties of his position.
"What’s amazing is that they’re so out of it that they don’t know either how to pretend to care about the middle class, or what nonsense to spout in order to sustain that pretense." That's because when Trump was elected the veil had been lifted from all pretenses the Republicans had been spewing for so many years. No more cloaked racist, misogynistic, nor xenophobic references. It all became blatant. Gutting the ACA and once again leaving people unable to afford healthcare insurance was okay. There was a return to VooDoo economics on steroids, with tax cuts for the wealthy which the Republicans planned to pay for with cuts to social safety nets to offset the deficit caused by them. Kevin Hassett's open condescension of government workers with his unbelievably crude remarks about how this government shutdown is really just a vacation for them was astonishingly crude and cruel. While Donald Trump owns the shutdown, Mitch McConnell is the one prolonging it. All he has to do is bring the same bill that was passed before Christmas back up for a vote. However, there is one ray of sunshine.
Steve King felt emboldened to spew his racist remarks to the NY Times, and had the midterm elections not gone badly for Republicans, they would not have turned a hair. Fear of not getting re-elected spurred some Republicans to speak out against him. There is at least some hope right now that the tide is at last turning.
You’re not going to win the support of moderate and independent voters so long as you continue this obsessive handwringing and haranguing over Donald Trump. In fact, there are some moderate Democrats who will vote the other side out of sheer frustration with the Democratic Party. I know this, because I’m one of them.
And yes, moderate/independent voters want an end to the brazen exploitation of American taxpayers by foreign migrants who’ve unilaterally decided that our sovereign borders and immigration laws don’t apply to them. We’ll be voting accordingly.
1
@Shenoa
You dont sound like a moderate to me.
2
The scary thing is in light of this, America has become addicted to the Jerry Spinger circus. If you want to get more than 50% of the population to vote, make the real world a form of entertainment. How supprised will we be if he is reelected.
They don't care what they say because they don't care. As summed up by the message spelled out on the back of Madame T's coat when she walked up the steps to her waiting flying chariot: 'I really don't care, do U?' Says it all.
3
One clear benefit is that the US Government hating Mic Mulvaney finally got his turn in the hopper. Let's hope he gets ground up slowly enough to punish him for all the damage he has done this nation.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-mick-mulvaney-donald-trump-you-f-ed-it-up-20190113-story.html
This is what adopting beliefs instead of questioning ideas and drawing conclusions based on rational answers leads to people.
The Washington Post this morning ran an article basically saying that the Wall is just an excuse for the partial shutdown, and that Trump and GOP leadership all but staged this to show that we don't really need these people at all.
We don't need clean air, clean water, food testing, financial regulation, fair housing regulations, tax auditors, etc. They would just as well shutter a lot of these agencies altogether.
The truth is, these guys are too lazy (apparently) to actually work through the budget to make responsible cuts. Better to just throw the furlough switch, and get a sadistic pleasure out of the lights being out.
771
@keith
The idea that Trump is doing the Kremlin’s bidding makes more and more sense, viewing the destruction of the country he wreaks.
136
@keith
I don't think it's a matter of laziness, it's the combination of shear incompetence and corruption.
All that they want is fire up their base through spectacular tv reality shows, because as the last decade has shown, in the end that's all that the GOP base wants. The GOP can do no matter what in DC, as long as they can lie and put up a show, the base goes for it.
In the meanwhile, Obama managed to install his campaign to cut waste, as president, which led to a whopping $17 billion of saved taxpayer money.
Ted Cruz's 16-day shutdown (= his own presidential campaign stunt) has cost the economy $24 billion.
How much money will the GOP be wasting this time?
And then we're not even talking about the wall yet, which according to all national experts is not the most efficient way to protect the southern border, and costs at least $26 billion (more, if in steel rather than concrete), and the GOP already wants part of that money without even coming up with a "business plan" that explains what will cost how much - in other words, the wall is THE perfect definition of big government bureaucracy and waste ...
99
@keith
I just finished watching Speilbergs movie The Post.
Everyone interested in honesty, integrity and Freedom of Speech, should watch this.
THIS is America at it's best.
43
Former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts speaks clearly on MSNBC to the counter-intelligence investigation and the responsibility of the FBI beginning 201 to launch the probe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5viwIDrh1hg
Viewing the long history of the right-wing fringe that includes the John Birch Society, white supremacists (predominantly in the Deep South), xenophobes, Screech Radio talk show hosts like the venomous Rush Limbaugh, the growing list of religious fanatics which includes most of the Evangelicals (81% voted for Trump), it is amazing that liberals and progressives have survived and even elect people who stand up for the sickest, poorest, minorities and the protections of individual rights and freedoms.
The Founders' once-envisioned impartial Supreme Court can't be ignored today when you consider the contorted opinions by several of its current members who subscribe to the dogmatic Right's extremist views and their rotted, racist ideology. They have been indoctrinated by their Ivy League law schools' blind servitude to corporate power and the decaying capitalism that resulted in planting the seeds for totalitarianism and laid the path for the abomination in the Oval Office today.
Donald Trump got there only through decades of the mole-visioned Apartheid Republican Party whose credo germinated its resurgent eugenics-based belief in the superiority of the white race.
The most prescient expression of the decadence ruling our country today can be read in Civil War Vice President Alexander Stephens' 1861 Corner Stone Speech. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/…/do…/cornerstone-speech/
For ultra-rich people who aren't going to spend their money helping their fellow humans, I don't have any objection to them spending it on boats etc. Its not a good look in a populist era, but if you are concerned about inequality and dynastic wealth, then its far better that they spend it and enjoy themselves rather than put it all into stocks.
A teacher once quipped sardonically upon learning I had an intense dislike for a particular highly famed artist of an earlier time that the obvious best strategy would be to become director of that artist's primary foundation (or have someone placed there who would follow my lead). He said it like such cynicism was the way of the world, astonishing me upon hearing this concept for the first time.
1
When the Republicans controlled Congress for two years, clearly there was not enough support for funding "the wall." Now, they are perfectly willing to appear to let Democrats take the fall (which I hope the Dems are smart enough not to do) and line up behind their "leader."
2
Hannity's comments on taxing the rich reflects a common conservative fantasy: that when the rich have extra money, they either create new jobs in the US, buy US products, or or invest in US stocks or bonds. Neither is true any longer: gone are the days when a rich American be more likely to buy a Cadillac, vacation in the Thousand Islands invest in a factory in their home town, or only invest in the US markets.
In the modern economy, when the rich get tax breaks, that money will be just as likely be used to vacation abroad, contract with a Chinese factory for goods, buy a foreign car, chase global investments, or be parked in Panama.
5
Let's face it, conservatism isn't conservative anymore. Nor is the Republican Party the Party of Lincoln any longer. Both the label and the party have been hijacked.
What we seem to have is a cultish worship of money and a belief in the divine right of wealth.
When we gave up on monarchy in 1776 those who would abase themselves at the thrones of kings in search of royal favor, privilege, power and wealth sought a substitute in men of great personal wealth. Men who thought themselves kings in their own right. In place of Habsburg we soon had Astor, Morgan, Carnegie and Gould .
If we had our revolution today instead of 1776 much of our "conservative" leadership would be standing by the royal family and not the Declaration of Independence.
This isn't about making America great; it is about keeping the wealthy…wealthy.
9
It is time to highlight the role Mitch McConnell plays in the dismantling of our government. He’s prevented scrutiny of Russian intervention in our elections from the first, early warning, pre-Trump. And he may be just as responsible now for the shutdown as DT. He’s not a Russian asset, but he’s equally at war with our government.
14
Meh. Show me where any of this is hurting the republicans. They’re in power, that’s all that matters. The collateral damage of unpaid federal workers and midwestern farmers is a net benefit to them. Shutting down federal agencies achieves a time-honored Republican objective through a new and innovative way. Farmers are mostly white and republican, they are demonstrating what patriots they are, the nation truly appreciates their sacrifice and their economic devastation will certainly be honored for generations to come. The working class are suffering and their suffering will only intensify as the country is brought to heel under the republicans’ vision for it. The working class got exactly what they thought they wanted and now celebrate their total victory over the elites.
Being the braniac he is, Krugman clings to the out-moded idea that intelligence counts for anything. It does not, there is only unthinking loyalty to The One.
It is not a good idea to use the term "moron" period. Rather than strengthening the point of this piece, it muddies the message. The headline of this piece showed poor editorial discretion.
2
@William In these desperate times, it is important to be precise and honest where possible. We have been overtaken by real certifiable morons. This night of the living brain dead must come to a close. We must call it out and fight against it.
1
What is even more tragic ,is what it says about the 39% of the country that supports these morons and con artists. Continue to speak truth to Trump and his sycophants Mr. Krugman.
10
Krugman is right about the morons working for Trump. In his campaign he was going to clean the swamp in Washington. The swamp gets deeper and deeper. McConnell is the worst going along with him. Pence isn't any better. I don't understand his base. Trump constantly lies and his corrupt friends don't even try and show any compassion for the people who are not the top 5%.
The best thing that will happen is when we get rid of Trump and all his spineless morons. Than we can make America Great Again.
6
This feels like Paul channeling Hillary as she insults the “deplorables”.
How’d that work out for you, Paul ?
@G
What do you mean, "work out"?
He's an intellectual.
Since when would an intellectual analysis showing the low intellectual quality of certain politicians all of a sudden be wrong, just because those politicians managed to win some elections?
The truth isn't something that is decided through elections, it's something you get closer too by examining evidence and building proof, remember?
3
@G
*yawn*
Oh, yes - once again, let's trot out the tired, disproven "Deplorables insult" that was, in reality, a small part of a larger statement that was taken completely out context. If this is still all you guys have got, you ain't got much.
By the way - Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a near 3 million vote margin, and the Democrats control the House. Welcome to reality.
3
@G Well, Hillary was right. She also won three million more votes than Trump, who won on a technicality. So, there's that. You will soon see how it works out for you and your fellow deplorably indiscriminate.
MAGA! Mueller Ain't Going Away
2
A moron leading a team of morons.
H.L. Mencken (am avowed elitist) predicted Donald J. Trump:
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
8
@Dadof2
I suppose Mencken is a conservative?
Because only conservative thinkers fear that democracy will lead to a corrupt and immoral government.
For liberals, the exact opposite is true: a country is only as strong as its people, NOT as it's government.
That's why you have to find a way to lift the masses out of poverty and ignorance, IF you want a strong country.
And the best way to do so is to give them direct access to the government themselves, so that out of the constant debates and constant informing of those debates with the real problems of real, ordinary citizens, step by step better solutions can be discovered and then written into law and implemented.
The idea here is that you can never obtain a strong country if you build it "top-down", it HAS to be build from the bottom up.
Of course, democracies are messy, and just like in dictatorships, corruption can enter even the highest levels of the government - as is the case today.
A democratic Constitution, however, combined with freedom of expression, a free press, and freedom of gathering cannot but result in sooner or later massively voting out the corrupt politicians and replacing them with real, decent people again - whereas in a dictatorship, corruption can stay at the top much longer, and truly destroy the entire country.
That's why a democracy is better than a dictatorship, even a dictatorship of the "aristos", "the best" in Ancient Greek ...
@Ana Luisa - Your lofty goal of an enlightened democracy can never see the light of day if rampant, uncontrolled propaganda poisons the minds and cripples the thought processes of the electorate. That is where we stand today; with a large percent of America incapable of maintaining a consistent train of thought, and incapable of recognizing both science and incontrovertible fact.
1
@Dadof2 We're here! NOW what?
We’re all gonna die.
4
Yet, tens of millions of Americans applaud this depravity. Seems to me that this says more about them than Trump's Team of Morons .. this is the plague of our time.
8
“Trump has a team of morons.” Paul Krugman is too kind. They are liars and cheats, some dim witted and some masterful manipulators. Whatever they are, in less than 2 years they have destroyed what took over 250 years to build.
5
Yes, morons indeed. And may I add, sycophants as well.
And let's not forget the deafening silence from so-called moderate Republicans.
6
A truly remarkable opinion piece. Thanks Dr. Krugman
The photo alone is worth million bucks! There is Hannity, with his puffed out chest and look of determination.
And the tie - oh the tie - red and extra long just as the 'Dear Leader' prescribed.
What a bunch of morons and sycophants!
5
It’s nice to see a journalist in the New York Times refer to Donald Trump and his cohort as morons… But that’s only half of the problem. It’s one thing to be ignorant, but it’s another thing entirely to be a person steeped in arrogance combined with gross ignorance. This is the lethal combination that in one way or another destroys most corrupt leaders. And of course the problem is that arrogance makes one more and more stupid with every passing day, because when one is arrogant, one is blind, and it becomes impossible to see or recognize what one does not know. Donald Trump would not understand the words in this paragraph because there is nothing in his circuitry that will allow him to comprehend this. He and his flunkies are both terminally blind and terminally stupid .
And it brings to mind what Mahatma Gandhi
said when he referred to all tyrants always eventually falling , even if they appear to be invincible at the time.
I hope after all this time ,that he is still right .
3
Who but a moron would work with a moron? The man who cannot understand why New York "High Society" will have nothing to do with him. The man who just Catered the Clemson Football team hundreds of McDonalds, Wendy's and Pizza Hut offerings (served on silver platters):
“Because of the shutdown, as you know, we have the great Clemson team with us, so we went out and ordered American fast food paid for by me."
What does one do, short of posing as an Edvard Munch model?
3
Oh! How un-democrat. Are you a psychiatrist? Morons?
Kidding. It's far past time for all of those who have their wits, eyes and the benefit of what was once a first-class public education, to call offal offal.
The choice of Hannity and Trump visuals? Priceless.
Shame on those "morons" who would see a country, guided (if not followed) by principles of us over I, undermined by the ignorance, avarice and obliviousness of too many millions of 'Americans' who would abide the loss of what so many of my forbearers, friends, heroes (the actual ones) and statesmen spent their lives protecting, defending and believing in.
1
Yes indeed these are the morons that are running the country and have wide support by those who are equally moronic.
I have read that there are rumblings that Trump will pull the U.S. out of NATO, to the horror of even some of the morons around him.
Putin, however, is salivating!
Here’s the thing about morons: will they even see the warning signs before POTUS finally self-immolates? Do you think Sarah and Kellyanne can actually stop lying and go home? Will Stephen Miller slink back under the rock he came from? Will Mulvaney remind us he was only “acting” and therefore not responsible? Will Pompeo or McConnell or any one of the dozens of White House lawyers pull the emergency cord? Or will they all just ride this pony right off the cliff bringing our country with them?
The most telling thing Trump ever said was “I love the uneducated!” The man is a moron magnet!
3
How long, my g-d how long?
1
Prof. Krugman - Regarding your column headlined "Donald Trump and His Team of Morons," how do you really feel about President Trump?
Now that you have read about Trump's team of morons, get into your imagination time machine and head to October 2020. Trump is looking weak (we hope) and NYS is waiting to indict him. Remember our good friend and one of the morons, Mr. Giuliani--the man who attempted to stay on as NYC's mayor in the post 9-11 "crisis". He is still around giving advice to Trump. Mr. Barr anther moron is AG. Micth McConnell of little integrity is still holding the Senate captive. Trump is scared and he the morons best advice: declare an emergency maybe because Kim, Jung-Un has successfully outsmarted alll the morons and just tested a thermonuclear capable ICBM that can reach NYC. But, the emergency could really be almost anything if there is way to make it sound scary. Since it is a national emergency a change of leaders would be far too risky and Trump cancels the election. Democrats immediately impeach him. It goes to the Senate and not a single republican votes to convict. Don't think it can happen? Supreme Court would not allow it. But maybe Ginsburg has been replaced by another moron. Military might step in. That scares me even more. The point is that a government filled with morons is a very bad thing.
4
My only complaint is this: if I called someone herein a "moron", my post would have failed to pass the moderators.
2
Forebodingly and perhaps more diagnostic of the country’s delusional view, 41% of the electorate and 85% of Republicans approve of Trump, and by implication his “team of morons”.
1
Yet the Times keeps on with the Brady Bunch tone.
"Lincoln had a team of rivals; Trump has a team of morons."
Trump's team is filled with not just morons but obsequious morons; they all have to kiss the king's ring or else earn his wrath.
It's like we're back in medieval period.
1
If I were to call the president's men "morons" my post probably wouldn't be printed. It's time to take the list of names that accurately describe the President and his accomplices and put them in print.
Here are some:
Corrupt, Incompetent, Stupid, Insensitive, Asskissers, Corporate Puppets, Dumb beyond belief, Liars, Mean, Heartless, Cold.
Now when you think about it "moron" is really too tame but it's a start.
4
Oh, I share all opinions of Mr Krugman. I absolutely don`t love Merkel, because she has committed some dire faults like that awful immigration decision in 2015, but when I compare her to that moron at the head of the world`s most important democracy and economy, I`ll no longer wail
1
What is more important being smart or getting what you want? Trump's team of Moron's, and they are, are wrecking democracy and slowly but surely creating a fascist dictatorship. No one, not even republicans are impeding their progress. I wonder if there will be a 2020 election. Trump’s hardcore base wants him to cancel the 2020 elections. Morons yes, but also achievers. Scared about America's future. Withdrawal from NATO will totally isolate America and then what? Their desire is a totally isolated white America controlling he world. They want to cleanse America of immigrants that are different than they are. Currently, the future is scary.
1
Meanwhile back at the ranch the EPA is being gutted, the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, huge chunks of public lands are being sold off, world free trade is being seriously assailed, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judicial appointees, and all while the FBI is being disemboweled.
4
Nothing to add to this wonderful piece, but I should point out that, in all likelihood, when the Trump nightmare is finally over, a lot of us will have learned valuable lessons about the necessity of maintaining coequal and independent parts of government.
3
Beautifully forthright.
I have to wonder: This Presidency seems such a hollow construction, void of politicians and policies of worth, acting like a 1920s factory boss, strong-arming rather than leading a community – so how is it still functioning in the face of a genuine emergency that it is clearly responsible for?
Democracy and patriotism surely require action against those who attack the people?
4
Bravo.
6
jeez, paul, rick perry: unintelligent? ben carson: incompetent? stephen miller, sarah sanders, kellyanne conway: hacks? mulvaney, mnuchin, pompeo, bolton, nielsen: pointless? totally agree with you.
7
Mr Krugman always appreciate and value your honest spoken viewpoints - they have helped many stay sane during this horrible nightmare of American history with Trump.
Would appreciate if you could speak of how: William Barr who is being vetted via congress to become the next Attorney General - is Mr Barr included in Trump's Team of Morons? Am deeply concerned about Barr's Congressional approval for AG.
Also -would you speak about the seriously flying rumors about Trump wanting to pull out of NATO - absolutely scary for the world except for Putin.
Thank you -
1
"Team of Morons" is so extreme and inaccurate it sounds like something Trump would say. These people are not morons. Saying so in the headline is just sloppy work.
Let's work hard at not being like Trump rather than allowing his pathology to shape the discourse.
This would be hilarious farce if was not so much a dire ,frightening situation. Thank you, Doc for using plain language: MORONS.
During the 2016 election, whatever the morons said on the radio that day or night, trump would regurgitate it either at a debate or the next day. It was so predictable, and consistent, that it was surprising nobody mentioned it . It was, at the time, hilarious. The bloviating blowhards would repetitively spew their absurd and vitriolic lies night after night,day after day, and they were all on the same page; it was as though they got together on conference calls. Not any original thoughts or ideas,just redundant blather. Then trump would repeat ,almost verbatim. It never occurred to me the moron would be president. This is like a grotesque version "The Producers", without the laughs.
4
Hey Paul - why don’t you write about the Dems going to Puerto Rico to see Hamilton during the shutdown?
1
yeah, how awful. they visited another part of the u.s.
1
It's funny: I write lots of these letters but when I refer to the Orange Monstrosity and his cronies as "morons" they are rejected. Apparently only a prize-winning economist is qualified to use the term. In any case, it's not fair to genuine morons, as they cannot help their intellectual deficiencies, and what we have in our Executive branch is willful ignorance, deliberate cruelty and genuine evil. Of course, every human being harbors such negative potential within themselves, so it's really not surprising that so many have turned to their own Dark Side to embrace this administration
3
Attention copy editors and Mr. Krugman: a century ago psychiatry used words like "moron," "idiot," and "imbecile" as clinical terms which were used to incarcerate, disparage, invalidate, and even torture people with intellectual disabilities legally. Today those words are extremely offensive. They are not to be used, not even in jest.
If someone beats you at someone, instead of calling names you should figure out how they have done it.
Trump isn’t a moron. He is a showman, who distracts while behind those distractions what he is doing is darker than Dick Cheney’s wildest dreams.
1
The vast number of policy decisions arrived at by Trump and his team of morons tends to undercut or malign the status of the US. This alone suggests that Trump acts like a Russian agent since he is furthering Russia's interests on the international stage to the detriment of our own.
6
You forgot.. and team of deplorables..
I had enough his ignorant, under the denial voters..
Yes, they’re morons. But let’s take it one step further. Let’s acknowledge the old adage that the most important thing in contemporary American politics is sincerity—if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
As much as it makes me ill to even mention Trump’s name, one has to regurgitate the truth that Trump and his morons have exceptional control of the truism that political agendas are created (“faked,” they say) by those who work in mass communication (a much better, old-time phrase than “the media”). At present Fox is ahead with respect to control, with right-wing conglomerates threatening to overrun the rest of “the media,” with far too few exceptions, even if it includes The Times and WSJ, to mention two contrasting organizations.
The outing of Trump associates as morons is valuable, but what is needed is uncovering the workings of Fox and allied media organizations, where the morons are fluorishing. For example, why hasn’t Fox’s FCC license been revoked? It has no news organization, even if it claims it does, but, rather, serves, instead, as a State propaganda ministry.
Perhaps the American public isn’t “ready” for such journalism? Perhaps we’re seen as morons as well?
2
No surprise here: Trump is a hack, a phony and a fraud. He sold America on his keen ability to attract “only the best people, folks” to help guide America for the next four years. Instead he has amassed an embarrassing panoply of dim-witted sophomoric idiots hellbent on enriching themselves and driving America into the proverbial gutter. In a thousand years they will look back on this period as a disastrous blemish on world history, brought to you by the myopic stupidity of Trump and his blood-curdling team of imbeciles.
3
It's Donald Trump, the autocrat, stupid! And those who cling to him clearly are either intellectually-challenged or, like Trump, psychologically impaired. The latest example is interim Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, who Trump publicly humiliated in front of the Congressional team trying to end the shutdown over his (gasp!) willingness to compromise on the $5.7 billion ransom he's demanding for his wall in order to free the 800,000 federal employees he's holding hostage by shuttering part of the government. Why anyone would put up with this is hard to fathom (and I'm a psychologist)? Perhaps they come from abusive families and are prone to repeating their co-dependent trauma (aka the repetition compulsion). Whatever the reason they are doing a disservice to themselves and the nation. Donald Trump suffers from an anti-personality disorder called narcissism (formerly megalomania) and lacks empathy, needs constant praise and adulation, and will inevitably castigate, denigrate, dehumanize, and cast aside anyone who doesn't constantly toady to him like Mike Pence. He's sick and they're sick. It's a cuckoo's nest that warrants serious political, if not mental health, intervention before they do further damage to themselves and the nation they are supposed to serve, but moronically seem to confuse with Trump. The destructive psychodrama must end, but the Republican morons in the Senate seem to be as befuddled as those in The White House.
1
The headline reads like something Trump would say. Sad to see the Times sinking to his level.
Best line of the week, and the most accurate,"Lincoln had a team of rivals; Trump has a team of morons." Thank you, Mr. Krugman.
4
There is nothing in the Constitution that requires that the President of the United States not be a moron. Genius is not a word that comes to mind when the names Gerald R. Ford, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush are mentioned.
Conservative Republican Party economic orthodoxy is corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch welfare hidden behind evangelical white supremacist nationalist calls to the worst demons of our nature. Caste aka color aka ethnicity aka national origin trumps class aka economics aka education for the white European American majority. Among the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump was 58% of the white voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women.
See "Dog-Whistle Politics; How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class" Ian Haney Lopez
1
Mr. Krugman, please stop insulting morons by equating them to Trump and his cult followers.
3
Speaking of morons, has anyone ever actually seen Trump read a document that he hasn't seen beforehand? Given some videos that I've seen, I think he's illiterate. Most recently, while in NOLA, he flubbed a name on the teleprompter, saying Clinton, when he really meant Chilton.
But I guess even morons can be stable geniuses.
2
“however, things have gotten even worse and even dumber. And we haven’t hit bottom yet.”
• 90 - 109 - Normal or average intelligence
• 80 - 89 - Dullness
• 70 - 79 - Borderline deficiency
• Under 70 - Definite feeble-mindedness
• A moron has and IQ of 51 to 70, imbecile has an IQ of 21 to 50, and an idiot of 0 to 20.
Yes Paul, we have ample room for further downward movement.
1
All of this shutdown temper tantrum for a steel wall that will cost billions. A monument to the Prince of Morons.
Just have to wonder how much scrap steel goes for in Mexico? A welding torch cuts steel easily. Cut up the wall and take to the steel recycling office, collect cash. Or cut the wall to build the framework of houses or buildings.
Seems to me that Mexico won't pay for the wall, but maybe Mexico will get paid for taking it down.
2
Only mentioning two morons doesn’t pay justice to all the others! Come on Krugman! Anyone you can think of in his cabinet? Advisors? Family? Really??
Paul,
The Three Stooges was Trump’s growing up go to entertainment along with Abbott and Costello.
In Abbott and Costello there was a character called Oswald “Stinky” Davis. Stinky was a loud mouthed, bratty child in an oversized Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, shorts, and a flat top hat.
We know now that Trump is our “Stinky” Davis. “I’ll give you such a pinch”
1
The Trump administration has updated the old snide comment attributed to Marie Antoinette 'Let them eat cake' to 'Let them eat cake from the food bank for their unpaid vacations'. Marie's comment supposedly cost her her head. In the case of Trump, it will cost them the public's recognition that they're morons just like Tillerson said...only Tillerson used a colorful epithet to underline his comment.
The worst is not the morons of Christmases gone by. The worst is the inevitability of moronic behavior going forward. We forget that a nuclear holocaust is just a pushbutton away.
1
It would appear that the Republican Party is almost entirely makeup of morons. Chief would have to be Mitch McConnell; This man has totally given up his pledge to support the Constitution in his "defense" of Trump. He alone could stop this shut down, but has refused the bills that come from the House that represent a vast majority of the American people. I think it's time to bring the "dossier" to the fore again.
"Team of morons" is dead-on in describing his 'crew' and by no means "sounds too harsh." It's simply hard to believe they are so transparent and don't even pretend to be anything other than just that. Anyone with any sense and self-pride, as you suggest, is long gone.
1
Yes, Donald Trump is a moron, but let us keep our eyes on the other bouncing ball; his court nominees. His current nominee for Bret Kavanaugh's old seat- Naomi Rao (who's never been a judge) previously wrote:
"...welfare was 'for the indigent and lazy' and women too drunk to consent to sex make a 'choice' to get that way...[and] affirmative action was the 'anointed dragon of liberal excess'"
Here's hoping Senate Democrats will be diligent and do everything in their power to- yes, Obstruct lifetime appointments of unqualified nominees.
If my memory serves me correctly Paul was one of the first opinion writers at the NYT to openly use the the L (liar) word when writing about Trump. Now he has broken out the M word (moron) to describe Trumps sycophants in his administration. Thank you Paul for calling it what it is and not using polite euphemisms. Trump is who he is and deserves to be called out for who and what he and his supporters are.
3
I’ve come to a different conclusion. I don’t’ believe Trump and the Republicans are morons or even dumb (though they certainly don’t value intellect). Instead, I believe, with good reason, that they are creating chaos, sabotaging the government and causing wide spread harm to America because at heart they truly hate this country and wish to harm it. That’s why there is no outcry from the Republicans when Trump and his henchmen conspire with the Russians; or when he guts the Affordable Care Act and exposes millions to uninsured medical catastrophe; or when he threatens to withhold federal funds meant to ameliorate natural disasters. I don’t know what Republicans value anymore or who they care for. But the evidence is pretty clear as to what they hate and who they are always willing to harm.
But Trump isn't an island if he has Putin. What if Putin planted the idea and/or is stoking Trump's stubborn stance? Why, after all that has come out in the last few days and now seeing the past 2+ years through the prism of that information, are we still trying to see Trump's domestic actions in traditional political scenarios and explain his motivations in purely domestic context? This shutdown is driving an ever growing US government dysfunction. Consciously or unconsciously, I can see no reason for Trump's actions in prolonging this disaster other than that they serve his Svengali, Putin.
Is it possible to impeach both Trump and Pence at the same time? Sort of an economy package so, to speak.
2
I am echoing a lot of folks sentiments here. American citizens are not benefitting from this shutdown. The only person/peoples who will benefit are entities that stand to gain if America is not operating at 100%. Mr. Trump, answers please.
2
Mr. Krugman claims that Donald Trump lied when he told Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that he would not blame them for the government shutdown. That is not accurate.
I know this may seem like splitting hairs, but one is not lying about actions that have yet to be taken. What Trump has done is to *break a promise* – a public promise.
Why should people care? Because Trump apologists repeatedly assert, seeking to defend his actions, that he has been *keeping his promises*; they try to use that claim to "justify" his intransigence over a border wall. Trump broke his public promise to Congress, giving the lie to one of his supposedly strongest political defenses.
Trump does not keep his promises. Don't give him and Trumpsters a pass on that claim.
4
Some comments here suggest that we have to distinguish between Republicans and conservatives.
In theory, I agree.
Republicans are people belonging to or voting for the GOP, and for no matter what they've been saying/doing the last two years and during campaigns.
Conservatism, however, is a philosophy. And like any political philosophy, it is based on:
1. a specific anthropology (= a theory about what it means to be human)
2. as Plato called it, a "terrible love" for the truth.
Needless to remember that today's Republicans seem to have developed a terrible hate for the truth and terrible love for lying and cheating. So that's an important way in which Republicans aren't conservatives anymore.
But secondly and maybe even more importantly however, when it comes to anthropology, it's not that certain that Republicans are no longer sticking to conservative anthropology.
Let's go back in time for a moment. Conservative philosophy was created by the "haves", during the Ancient Regime (= dictatorship of the wealthiest), in order to fight back against new philosophies that wanted to support the "have nots" in their fight to get access to more opportunity and a better life.
Conservative philosophers argued that who you are has mainly to do with the family you're born in. If you were born in a "good" family, then their lifestyle (manners, education, values, ...) guarantees that you'll be a good and successful and wealthy person too.
(1/2)
(2/2)
They used that conception of a human being to deny access to schools and well-paying jobs to the 99%, as they were convinced that the poor and ignorant masses didn't have the "character" needed to succeed at school or in "elite" jobs.
They also believed that the poor were closer to "animals" than the wealthiest, and as such dangerous, so they had to be kept "in place" by force.
Liberal philosophers had a very different conception of what it means to be a human being. Yes, education builds "character", but that's precisely why it's a crime to deny 99% of the population a good education, and to limit people's opportunities in life to the opportunities that their own family can give them, because that systematically discriminates at birth.
And then the notion of the "American Dream" was created, which launched a new (although less coherent) version of conservatism: from now on, every human being is supposed to be an "atom"/individual first, and America is the land where no matter in which kind of family you're born, IF you work hard you'll belong to the wealthiest and most successful, which means that if you remain poor or are struggling in the lower middle class, it's because you didn't work hard enough, NOT because a lack of opportunities.
And the "reward" for working hard is that you'll have money to give to your kids, whereas if you don't, your kids will be poor too.
And THAT conservative anthropology is still at the heart of what the GOP does and says today.
"the Trump administration was turning into government by the worst and the dumbest. Since then, however, things have gotten even worse and even dumber. And we haven’t hit bottom yet."
Well said, Paul. This is the exact truth. I suppose it's only fitting to have Cabinet members which reflect the abilities of the President. Or, in this case, the lack thereof.
But one further thing I'd point out... it's time that we stop characterizing Republicans as "conservatives". You skirt around this, but don't say it outright. They are nothing of the sort, and we need to stop letting them get away with claiming a political perspective they neither espouse nor deserve. This isn't a matter of just sticking an inappropriate label on a political party. Calling themselves "conservatives" is intended to portray specific values to the public, which they don't adhere to. Republicans care nothing about small government, letting people live their lives as they wish, or being fiscally responsive to the needs of the citizenry. In all these cases, they are the exact opposite of true conservatism. So, let's stop using the terms "Republican" and "conservative" interchangeably. They are not.
This isn't a case of nitpicking. It's a case of deceit for inappropriate and unethical partisan gain, and we should stop it.
9
Plaintiff’s exhibit A - Stephen Miller.
7
What about the Republicans? They cow-tow to him? WHY.
They see who he is and still invest there own dignity in him.
May 2020 come quickly.
1
We will hit bottom when trump,succeeds in fulfilling Putin's ambition of turning the USA into another corrupt government run by oligarchs. Their credo is 'greed is good', and there is never 'enough'.
3
Paul Krugman is spot on in his assessment of the mess we are in: the only people who would want to work for someone like President Trump are true-believers, not anyone looking to serve out of a sense of civic duty.
How all of this ends remains to be seen. Will President Trump get elected in 2020? I certainly hope not--his presidency has been a disaster--but I certainly cannot rule it out, especially if the Democrats nominate another flawed candidate in 2020.
Between President Trump's fear of being seen as a "loser" and the Democrats being adamantly opposed to a wall, and the Republican controlled being viewing the Democrats as illegitimate and automatically opposing anything the Democrats propose, the shutdown amounts to a high-stakes game of chicken. We are in uncharted territory and how this ends remains to be seen.
I hope, for the good of the country, the shutdown is resolved soon--the disruptions caused by the shutdown aren't sustainable--and the border security versus wall debate dealt with separately.
4
Thank you, for all of your columns! You tell it as it is. And you give hope and sometimes, laughter, which is so needed!
4
More analysis by innuendo from Paul Krugman.
It is rich indeed for Krugman to accuse FOX of being an advocate for Donald Trump, while writing yet another partisan political opinion column for a paper that openly endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Not too many well informed people take either "news" source very seriously.
Paul never met a tax increase or government spending program that he didn't admire and has been serving as a Democratic operative for decades. His pining for a government paid ecomics post is palpable.
Like many on the left, Krugman sees opposing political or economic views as proof of mendacity, mediocrity, or criminality.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking, yet invisible to his both himself and his acolytes.
6
Any government expenditure for our bloated military industrial complex is fine. You just don’t want anything spent on people. Any tax cut or subsidy that benefits the rich is even better.
4
Krugman's preferences are transparent, as he has acknowledged himself many times. The difference is that he argues from facts and reasoned analysis. You can dispute his interpretation and conclusions, but that's different from ad hominem attacks. And the facts clearly support his thesis that the Trump administration is grossly and increasingly incompetent.
1
I assume we include Trump voters in the moronic group. As long as they continue to love him and vote, and we have the slavery-based Electoral College, it won't matter, unless a miracle happens and Congressional Republicans get a conscience. Let's all hold our breath right now waiting for that.
3
The time is now for the systematic elimination of the Republican Party, federal, state and local. You can do it, so get off the couch, register and vote.
3
I have fought all my life against individuals like you and your thinking. And you can expect me and tens of millions of citizens to do so as well. Enjoy the view.
1
Hannity unintentionally hit the nail on the head in describing today's Republican upper crust.
It has always been "I've got mine, now go get yours" except they never mention *how* they got theirs. With the monied class it's always about connections and it's always about the accumulation of money. And yes, for yachts and expensive vacations.
A Trump voter working in a coal pit over in West Virginia, just a few minutes from the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, has about as much chance of living a carefree "Republican" life as a snowball in hell. No yacht. No expensive vacation. Ever.
I don't know if either will ever learn.
2
Donald Trump clearly can't help himself. He is behaving exactly as he has always behaved...self-centered and divorced from reality. I blame the Republican Party, particularly the leadership of Mitch McConnell, which has sunk to Trump's level and beyond (e.g. stealing a SC seat). Trump didn't come out of nowhere. He is not that far an aberration within the party as he seems.
2
Mr. Krugman, you are wrong on all counts.
I am appalled by this column that contains unprecedented unadulterated personal venom aimed at Mr. Trump. How can NY Times, a respectable and reputable newspaper (even though I do not favor its political leanings) publish a column such as this?
Trump is the elected president of the US. One shall not forget it. The column contains attitudes as demeaning as the public questioning of citizenship when Barack Obama was elected.
This is not healthy. Alfred Nobel is turning restlessly in his grave.
5
Have you listemed to right-wing radio's venomous attacks on Robert Mueller and James Comey? I refer to Sean Hannity, Mark LeVin, and Rush Limbaugh. Have you heard their attacks on the integrity of the the Justice Department and various U.S. intelligence agencies? I fail to understand how you can place Krugman"s opinions in the same category as those of the right-wing propagandists.
2
@Appu Nair
Alfred Nobel is looking down from heaven, beaming his blessings upon a man who is a scholar of genuine accomplishment and an informed journalist who analyzes and explains economic issues for our benefit — everything Trump Donald and his gang are not.
1
@Appu Nair, Dr. Krugman is an op-ed contributor. The NYT also published Bret Stephens, a very conservative person. Also the bland Ross Douthat.
Yep, trump got himself elected. Not in doubt. So?
I'm sure that if Putin had stayed out, and HRC had won the presidency, I'm just SURE that you folks would be 'appalled' at her treatment, too. Right? She would get so much respect from FOX, you folks and republicans in Congress, huh?
Obama was proved a citizen early on. It was a LIE to say otherwise, and to keep repeating it over and over, but trump did, just to sow conflict. Your false equivalency does not serve.
But I'll bite: What demeaning questions are being asked of this current president; ones that are easily refuted by FACTS? I'll look for your reply, with excerpts from Dr K's column.
"Belligerent ignorance" is what you called it last year and my friends are probably tired of me repeating it. I do, however, attribute it correctly even though I wish I had thought of it first.
2
The analysis Mr Krugman makes is spot on, except it isn’t complete enough. Important trade relationships being summarily dumped, alienation of a host of long-standing allies, staccato military changes and the USA being downgraded as the refugee safe haven of the world are items that make a deep impression on the world. Make America great again? Not!! The ugly American has been resurrected.
2
American Torture. Pure and simply put, enduring this White House assault on our senses, our landscape, our environment, our social gains over decades, all of it is a disgusting parade of narcissism, greed, and malevolent intent. I see nothing on the Republican side that merits respect. I watch Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Nunes, Pence, and the rest of these pathetic excuses for men, and I feel like I'm being slapped hard across the face every single day. Wimpy little slithering shadow men, all stuck in the quagmire with donald the boneless. I wish there were a god somewhere, ready to inflict justice upon them all. I'm afraid it's up to us, and it's taking its toll, and taking way too long to rid ourselves of this plague.
5
Mr Krugman, I cannot but agree with you more. I prefer to use the word "clowns" to describe Mr Trump's little friends but your choice of epithet is very apt. How will it all end? That's a very good question.
2
Right on target. So why, in God's name, are we allowing this to go on?
2
Your GOP legislators (in my case, Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton) are equally guilty as the Prez. in harming Americans. The GOP continues to excuse the Putin White House as it kidnaps, imprisons, gives away intel., attacks our allies, and holds the bloody hands of other tyrants.
Even though it is the Koch Machine (Dark Money) and the NRA that have GOP lawmakers' private phone numbers, it is important for us to contact White House enablers to remind them that most Americans do not want what the Republican party of today stands for.
Call or e-mail them today and say "2020 is just around the corner, and I vote."
1
Tut, tut. Republicans have altogether given up on convincing the majority that their policies are preferable.
That's why they cheat: voter suppression, gerrymandering, dirty tricks, immigrant-bashing, white supremacy.... It's all of a piece to win legislative majorities without winning the popular vote.
So there is no incentive for the right to mollify the public with the usual pabulum about middle-class values and moral character.
As long as the white vote can be stretched to win, they'll run on fear and hate.
3
I think you are missing the point about the shutdown. It isn't an error of judgment or policy -- it's the goal. This is precisely what the Russians intended when they put this marionette in power -- to disrupt our democratic government and create chaos and dysfunction.
Sean Hannity and Fox State News. This is the team running the country.
3
Many commenters are blaming McConnell for the shutdown. I think McConnell feels if he capitulates, Trump will be finished. Mitch is a coward and we all are suffering.
1
I watched a program about the last eleven months of Hitler's reign on TV last night. Much of what it covered was familiar to me as an avid history fan and having served for 39 months in Germany in the mid 70s; but, discussed from a different perspective. It was very frightening to be reminded again, of the absolute devastation and havoc one man and his crew of lackeys can cause. Worse yet it could happen here.
3
Don't hold back,Paul.
And yet it is the white working class that gave Trump the presidency... Go figure.
As usual, far left liberals call disparaging names, vent emotions, question motives, unleash accusations of racism, bigotry and misogyny, deny facts, shout slogans -- everything but reasoned analysis and discussion.
1
@Dr. Reality, you made my day. I laughed hard, remembering how you treated President Obama.
Ahem. Americans get to question the motives of our government representatives. We accuse racists and bigots based on their own actions. Misogyny accusations? Oh no!! Shouting slogans (Like 'lock her up'?)
Go ahead, ask me, a liberal, what my reasoned analysis is, and I will discuss it with you. I DO have access to facts, acts, lies and truth, as do you. I know that MSNBC does not inform me completely. Neither does FOX, but I still manage to be a liberal who reasons and discusses.
Pretty funny, how you call out 'far left liberals', accusing them of vague stuff, while you use vague generalizations. Come, let us discuss, patriot!
The actual 'ideological' argument for the modern GOP seems to trace back to the early 1980s novelty book 'Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'.
Except they didn't realize that it was meant as humor.
And 'trumpistas' or 'trumpsters' is too good a label for his hardcore followers. Regular people who worship autocratic power, and the wealthy, completely blind to the fact that those objects of their worship are exploiting them and laugh at them behind their backs, deserve a more accurate name: Bootlickers.
Trump is the best thing that has happened to the democrats and the USA since forever. Trump will singlehandedly, without a war, bring a dem house , senate and presidency. His unpopularity is causing repub congress members to bailout, if Hilary or Bernie were potus those blockers of Obama, Dems & progress would not be leaving. Trump has singlehandedly broken the congress republican logjam. He has done a pied piper and stolen republican voters, away from fox, the repub leadership and their billionaire puppet masters. The longer he is in power the better it gets. No, I know, it’s bad, especially with the judiciary, but he’s gone in less than two years ( I sincerely hope, but I thought Hilary would win and I’m certain Bernie would have). Sometimes you have to be really sick and throw up and open your bowels to feel better and rid yourself of the illness. To get rid of the congressional repub blockers is worth it. Why impeach trump he does more damage to repubs when he is in office, and pence is far, far more dangerous. Bush Cheney, still the worst presidency by far, having eclipsed Nixon. Trump, a Democrat’s best friend.
A new yacht cutting through the waves with the sea spray highlighting the golden bodies glistening in the sun is very addictive. Yes, our Republican friends are suffering from an addiction they cannot shake. Like all addictions, they will need outside help. Maybe a treatment center where they are assigned to sort recycling or something. And like most addicted, they need to become robbers and thieves and lie through their teeth.
How long do we have to put-up with their flagrant criminality and incompetence?
It has become clearly evident that what passes for "policy" in this administration is anything that is the opposite of what Obama proposed. The RepubliCONs have allowed Kaptain Kaos to take the flak for this but have been the beneficiaries of his approach. They re very happy to let him be shot down, all the while getting the "wins" in the judicial system and the tax reprieve for their donors.
1
Too bad the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus are no longer working together. They could make one helluva movie about Trump and his administration.
We shall not hit rock bottom, as Dr. Krugman puts it, until this woeful administration is put out to pasture for good. Barring some unforeseen interim catastrophe, this will not happen until 2021. So buckle up; we have two more years left of this roller coaster from hell.
1
Why don't you write about economics, something you have a passing, although wrong, knowledge of?
1
@Ray, why don't you write a comment that addresses the topic? Oh, that's right. Liberals cannot ever have anything to say. Paul Krugman should just type numbers and nothing else.
Why shouldn't a public servant (trump) be accountable to America's values and laws? THAT's the topic. You're welcome.
1
What's it going to take? Our *President won't let anyone know about what he and Putin talk about. He wants to pull us out of NATO. He's removing our troops from Syria without any discussion or debate, against our Generals' advice, and in favor of Putin's wishes, he's dividing America from its allies and kowtowing to our adversaries, etc etc. What is it going to take for Republicans to start standing up for this country and checking the traitor in the oval office? How much damage will he be allowed to inflict on America? VOTE...THEM...OUT!!
Paul Krugman is right on the money here. Its like being on vacation!! Terribly insensitive.
Trump is a pathological narcissist and Trumpism is truly a kakistocracy, a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens. “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
2
Why is this shutdown not a coup? trump and mcconnell have seized control of the government and will not relinquish it. Giving them the wall is just another step in ceding control. Perhaps it's not as moronic as we think...
971
@Mary Anne Holmes
It's not just Trump and McConnell. This is Putin's coup, whether he directly ordered it or not.
94
@Mary Anne Holmes
That's an interesting thought.
It's a president's constitutional duty to implement already existing law.
What the GOP is doing today is making it impossible for the president to do so, by refusing to pass an appropriation bill (= bill that by definition has always only funded the implementation of already existing law, for the next year, NOT new law projects).
After the midterm elections, the GOP no longer had the votes to sign the wall into law.
Instead of acknowledging that fact and explaining to their voters that America has now chosen a different path, they decided to no longer implement existing law, something that in all Western countries except for the US is simply illegal.
You cannot possibly have a well-functioning government if the implementation of basic services such as air traffic control or border control depend on whether everybody in Congress can agree on a new law or not, because in a democracy, this kind of disagreements happen more often than not.
That means, however, that the GOP is now destroying the government itself, which is not the same thing as a coup.
A coup means that you fully support a functioning Executive branch of government, but you deny ordinary citizens access to the Legislative branch of government.
Today, the GOP denies ordinary citizens access to the Legislative branch of government, all while destroying the Executive branch. And that is quite unique, in this planet's political history, as far as I know ...
97
@Ana Luisa Thank you. I hadn't looked at it that way, but you're absolutely correct. And, it is a strategy that has, over time, become the norm. That is, using negotiations that are supposed to be for funding existing services to fund new projects or services has become de facto procedure, though all but illegal de jure.
It's the lazy way of governance. In fact, American government has been getting lazier and lazier. Congress keeps ceding power to the executive branch, and even the courts, because legislation just got too hard. McConnell could easily get a bill through that could break a Trump veto, then move on to comprehensive immigration reform (during which Wall discussion should really be happening, funding to be addressed next appropriations time), but the latter would be hard and political nitroglycerin.
I believe most Republicans would be happy to go that way; fight smart battles and not one based on fiction, lies, and not even a campaign promise but a memory device (not a campaign promise, because the real promise includes Mexico paying for the Wall). The GOP is getting in the way of the ordinary Republican's best instincts, just to avoid doing real work to get re-elected.
Laziness. And cowardice. But there have been past examples of political entities destroying themselves and their nations. History is littered with fallen empires and civilizations that were suicides. Rome, just off the top of my head. No, not unique at all. Merely human.
49
Hannity, et al, are speaking directly to Trump through the media, and Trump's voters don't understand anything about economics anyway, so what does it matter? That's where we are.
1
No need for fake populism when you promulgate real cruel and racist policies.
3
A’s hire A’s.
B’s hire C’s.
Trump being a Y, hired Z’s.
Two months into the Trump presidency, meetings in the White House are held in the dark because no one can figure out the light switch.
After two years, nothing has changed.
——————
“I hire the best people.”
—Donald J. Trump, Putin’s Whipping Boy, the 45th President of the United States
6
So it's not only dumb Trump, it must be dump Trump !
2
“Trump’s presidency, however, is so chaotic, corrupt and potentially compromised by his foreign entanglements that anyone associated with him gets tainted — which is why after only two years he has already left a trail of broken men and wrecked reputations in his wake.”
Which raises the question: why has William Barr shown such eagerness to become Trump’s next AG? By all accounts he isn’t a moron, and given the “trail of broken men and wrecked reputations” of Trump’s first two years in office any thinking person has to wonder what he’s up to.
I hope to God the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee can find out.
4
It's not political to agree with this assessment: Trump has chosen morons to influence him, and it is interesting to watch the ramifications of some of their statements from a distance. I had thought, being in Canada, I was removed from this sort of government idiocy. Unfortunately, that was a naive idea: the Premier in Ontario wants to be just like Trump, but he is even less educated and more believing in the notion of kingship, rather than democracy. He doesn't understand he cannot just appoint his friend, nice though he may be but also completely unqualified, to head the police for the province. An actual debate is going on about the appointment. There used to be this idea that stupid is as stupid does, and I think my country has exceeded it (no, disrespect to your's) in that view: stupidity let lose, knows no bounds.
3
You really went too far this time Paul. Many of my friends are morons and they are fine people. Lumping them in with trumpettes will give them a bad rep.
7
Considering Trump doesn't value - or comprehend - unsolicited
information, it's no wonder he's left surrounded by sycophants
and morons. His revolving door of appointees are content to smile
during Cabinet meetings and flatter the President but provide little
other value. They're nothing more than a bobblehead Cabinet.
And now we have the specter of Trump being a useful idiot for Putin, or worse. These are dangerous times.
5
Trump talks like a spoiled 12-year-old valley girl. "He's like a total loser. Sad."
Anyone who would agree to work for a weirdo with a bad combover and orange makeup can't be too bright.
W talked about evil doers. Now we have evil losers.
This is all sickening.
5
"Donald Trump and His Team of Morons" doesn't only apply to those who work for him, but also the voters who support him. Throughout US history there have always been charlatans like Trump, but the difference is that the voters didn't make them President.
4
Now, now, Paul, talk like that only encourages the same kind of accusation, "If that's what you are, what am I?"
Grow up! Show how grown-ups should talk and write. Drop the ad hominems and focus solely on the issues Miss Manners column.
The President and The Speaker have both been moronic. And so have you.
2
@Lake Woebegoner Gee, Minnesotans get rambunctious on posts. Not going to argue about Peolsi, but, this president has a cast of morons around him. At this point, that's all he can get. It's also all he wants.
1
And so what? So, Mr. Trump’s toadies don’t demonstrate the slightest inkling of caring about those affected by the shut down or other misguided policies and tantrums... the fact that positions are hardening, the fact that West Virginia-based civil servants would rather go wit pay checks the President cave on his wall shows that there is simply no price to pay for having “moronic” positions. At lest Fox News and the President’s morons are showing their true colors and beliefs and not hiding behind any kind of disingenuousness. Why should they, the people are the morons, Fox et al merely their entertainers.
Someone, please, anyone, take Hannity’s microphone away! Believing what mr. lowlight has to say reflects more on your brainpower than his ridiculous and muddled thought processes...
Spot on!!!
3
You are right, Paul. It is a “cult”, nothing more and nothing less. Koolaide, anyone?
2
I've been calling it a cult for some time now.....gulping the Kool-Aid.
1
kak·i·sto·cra·cy
/kakəˈstäkrəsē/
government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
4
@Kaliorexi Seems to be a worldwide problem at this point in time doesn't it? Look at what passes for leadership just about everywhere. Very reminiscent of the periods just before WWI and WWII.
1
Damning with faint praise!
Morons indeed. Bottom of the barrel and then some when I look at the make-up of the Trump administration.
When we read of the praise heaped upon the grifter during the cabinet meetings I am reminded of a movie, a comedy brought to us by Mel Brooks in which all were reminded to "hail Caesar".
However, like the fictitious scene of Rome, we do have our share of court jesters in the court of Trump, and it shows.
But, the minority of people welcome the upending of our government, our administration and are very susceptible to the gaslighting, and that includes those foolish enough to work for the charlatan from Queens.
But, for those who serve Trump and will find the need to gain employment in days after Trump unceremoniously fires them, there is always Fox "News". At times I believe that outlet is always looking for morons.
"Comments are moderated for civility". The words of opinion columnists, however, are not. It isn't civil to call the President's team "morons". (Even if that assessment happens to be correct...)
2
Trump and his despicable enablers are morons who are attempting to advance a far-right, authoritarian agenda that has been the works for many years.
2
Nice rhetoric from an educated person.
1
I for one am buying stock in the company that makes Mallox. 2019 is going to be a horrific ride and I'm not looking away.
A corrupt moron in power anywhere, would naturally choose to surround himself with the same—no tattle tales.
We're in deep dodo folks and Mitch Mcconnel is hiding in his "closet" quaking
4
It seems that everyone who has served in the Trump administration has a penchant for public ridicule. It started with Spicer, Priebus, and Tillerson. and has included everyone to date except Stephen Miller. The latest was the new Chief of Staff, Mnuchin. How desperate these "Morons" must be.
Back in 2015-16 when the presidential campaign was in full swing, a lot of Americans believed that the phrase “President Trump” was an oxymoron – two completely contradictory words when put together seemed an impossibility. Although we were proved wrong by the anomaly of the Electoral College, now two years into his term, we can hardly rest assured that President Trump isn’t an oxymoron but simply a moron – and yes, one who leads “a team of morons.”
1
President Trump's team of morons have accomplished a lot since he took office. The economy is robust, job creation has never been better, people are spending again and they feel optimistic about their lives. We have not had a terrorist attack or any catastrophe since he was elected. He is the first president to take illegal immigration seriously and trying to fix this problem.
Those who have been affected by the shutdown will get their back pay. They are not working for nothing but it is a temporary setback that will be ended once the shutdown is over. This is why it is important for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to work together with President Trump and compromise on a solution. He is willing are they? The Democrats are in Puerto Rico soaking up the sun while the president is in Washington working. They need to all get back to the Washington table and come up with a positive solution on this much needed border wall.
1
In a way, I am, in relation to you, like many voters are in relation to Trump:
Dr. Krugman: "You say it the way it is."
In the Trump misgovernment, 'Morons galore."
2
Mr Krugman ought to be careful about calling other people "morons." The NY Times is not exactly the paragon of informed and un-biased opinion it purports to be. I consider myself conservative: I am a white. educated, literate, American woman. I wouldn't vote for any lib dem at gunpoint (and I don't own a gun). So fit that into your political 'landscape', Paul.
2
Back in 2015-16 when the presidential campaign was in full swing, a lot of Americans believed that the phrase “President Trump” was an oxymoron – two completely contradictory words when put together seemed an impossibility. Although we were proved wrong by the anomaly of the Electoral College, now two years into his term, we can hardly rest assured that President Trump isn’t an oxymoron but simply a moron – and yes, one who leads “a team of morons.”
2
Every word true, but I am still astonished (and discouraged) by the enthusiasm of Trump's supporters. A quick read of conservative site comments reveals tremendous affection for what many say is the "best president in my lifetime."
I will never, ever understand.
7
What's left of Trump's administration will feature the only consistent thing in it: the constant revolving door of people who realize they don't want to work for him anymore.
4
"Morons" indeed. But makes no difference to point that out, because they are in power and they do not care.
Mr. Krugman, just call them what they are: dangerous.
When they are gone we can wallow in calling them "morons".
785
@Matthew
may I suggest the old saw "A Clear and Present Danger to the United States of America"?
50
@Matthew. I think they are traitors and they do endanger our country.
52
@magicisnotreal
I used this line because at one time in the recent past it was an official term used to indicate that the persons so designated were to be arrested or extrajudicially killed by US forces in foreign places.
It was a shocking change for the worse in our system. I think this was in the reagan years, could be GHWB though.
11
Well, there is potentially William Barr, qualified by having served in the role before, under an adult president. On his "job application" he criticized the Mueller investigation, leading Trump to snap him up. If he wants to preserve *his* reputation he had better do nothing more.
3
Most pro-Trump Republicans have shown themselves to be Trumpers First, Republicans First and American citizens last.
11
Its time to, "Never Forget", about what the Republicans are doing to this country.......
Never forget
Stop voting Republican
17
Apres Moi, le bankruptcy.
2
This sounds like the movie "Dumb and umber". But it's not a movie. It's our reality. At what point does at least Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins denounce Trump and McConnell? I am picking on these two women as they used to have some backbone. Actually Murkowski has shown more backbone lately than the rest of the Senate Republicans. Susan Collins still disappoints. The men aren't worth mentioning.
The House Democrats need to declare a National Emergency.
That Emergency is Trump, McConnell and the Republican Senate.
None of them are doing anything to protect our rights or the Security of this Country. And I am not talking about a Wall.
When TSA workers are not there to protect our Airports, when the FAA workers are not there to keep planes from crashing into one another. When all essential employees are two exhausted too show up for work I would say this is the real National Emergency.
Or maybe we should just give in and let Putin continue to run our Country. Given its condition right now, I would say that is where we are heading, with the blessings of Trump et al.
I am hoping that Mueller will finish his investigation the end of this week, so we can put all of the culprits away for a good long time.
I think most of the Republicans in Congress should not be voted out but impeached for putting our country in such peril. They are directly responsible for the wretch of the Cabinet, which in turn have ruined their respective Agencies. Morons, all of them.
6
I agree with the article. But, what’s up with FOX news? What is their insane agenda?
5
The title should be changed. It’s a good article that will only set a trash fire with the faithful, who one hopes, and please don’t laugh, read it(?)
2
Donald Trump is the modern version of Groucho's Rufus T. Firefly. "Whatever it is, I'm against it."
7
What a joke. Krugman is actually describing Hillary Clinton and what her administration would be like. Talk about out of touch and cult like behavior. Disagree with any progressive and you're shouted out of a restaurant a racist or misogynist. Pot calling the ....
4
What you are describing is the end result of the dichotomy created by the actions of the current administration and the congressional leadership. This behavior, failure to compromise, and name calling by the administration are abhorrent to many Americans. By the way, Hillary Clinton lost the election. There is no Administration of hers to describe.
1
@wecantaffordit
you can't afford be a patriotic American citizen either!
Most anti-American president ever is in our White House
Hillary wouldn't have operated our government in favor of the Kremlin mindset...bringing our nation to it's knees,and attempting to turn all western democratic countries into unrecognizable shells of their former selves
1
This nightmare of corruption, moronic idiocy and treasonous malfeasance is occurring because 63% of white men, and 53% of white women gleefully voted for Donald Trump to be president. Of course their votes weren’t based on anything but hate, racism, misogyny and white supremacy, for Donald Trump has nothing else. Any surprise on the outcome?
7
@Marc Castle I work with someone who voted for this man because she thought it would be "fun".......she gets her news from Page 6 and watches E, and one of her favorite shows is Duck Dynasty......need I say more?
1
Along with worst an dumbest, you forgot to mention most corrupt and corruptible.
8
Ancient text is a prescient as ever:
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
Proverbs 10:9
But there is a prescription as well to all who have been seduced by evil:
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James (brother of Jesus) 4:8
I pray for our nation, for our people, for our relatives and friends... turn from the evil in these (mostly men's) hearts.
3
I suspect - having written a couple of outraged "comments" - that the Times (presumably junior) staffers would have "swiped left" on any comment that resembled this article - SO VERY FORTHRIGHT!
Mind you, I *agree* with Mr. Krugman in his characterization of both the team and its "leader" - in fact, "morons" is in some ways overly generous, since it implies they couldn't be expected to appraise their job offers intelligently.
But I *do* come back to "TURN DOWN THE HEAT!" ... People like me (and most Times readers) look at the closing scenes in BlacKKKlansman with our jaws dropped - WHO?! drives a car into a crowd?
But any male - or anyone who knows a male - can imagine what happens when one guy says to another, "Your mother wears combat boots."
Isn't Mr. Krugman doing something perilously close to that?
When does one "pull one's punches?" especially if one knows that millions will see those words out of context.
Hillary's choice of words - what she called the 45+% of the population who have a different worldview - may (all by itself) have cost her the election, just as Romney's disparagement led to millions of votes for his opponent by way of "Where do you come off judging me?"
But mostly, I agree with several commenters on Mr. Bruni's recent column. Somebody "above" Mr. Krugman and the other columnists has got to impose rationing! "All Trump, all the time" is - sadly - part of why he's POTUS!
5
Is “ hitting bottom”
Concentration camps and military Marshall Law?
Walls built around the poor ?
Guards placed around the rich ?
Putin walking victorious with trump down Pennsylvania Avenue in their military might parade before attacking ........fill in the blank!?
4
Paul,
You had the golden opportunity to use the word "dumberer" and didn't.
Terrible unforced error.
2
Thank you, Mr. Krugman! I can think of no better word than "morons" to describe the president and his administration, but let's include McConnell in that group.
4
krugman has been wrong about 100% when it comes to trump economics and fascism. yet he still enjoys writing about him.
the q is why people bother to read him?
2
Trump is a symptom, the rightwing cult is the sickness.
2
NYT put a very Trumpian headline on this story. Somebody needs to take the high-road these days. Once upon a time you could depend on the NYT to do just that. But, alas, those days have apparently passed.
2
Trump picks those folks so he can be the smartest one in the room. Next choice will be a bobble head.
4
If the following are dumb: destroying ISIS, securing our border, lowest joblessness rate in history, lowest black and hispanic unemployement ever, stock market up 35% since election, historic criminal justice reform, biggest tax cuts in history, revamping of the VA health system, unbelievable judicial appointments and cessation of nuclear activity in the Asian peninsula in only 2 years...then I hope we get dumber.
3
Thanks for reminding us that bad leaders attract bad people, Mr. Krugman. Do you know who has great qualifications? Ordinary government employees; the GSers that do the nation’s business day in and day out. Look at the extensive qualifications that are required for any position at the upper end of the GS hiring scale. Not one of these Trump political appointees could pass the test. Worse, the Republican Senate has given a pass to the lack of quals and conflicts of interest these Trump appointees bring to the party.
These morons are the people Trump has chosen to direct and lead our most dedicated public servants. The employees many Americans heap scorn on without thinking, many of whom now work without pay or job security. And the Americans that voted for Trump, many of whom depend on some amount of government benefits to live, are complicit.
1
Maybe Fox News is "liked" by a few million Putin employees every time something that will wreck the US is mentioned. Fox News is a business, they will offer up more.
When Trump says that the idea of him working for Russia is "a big fat hoax", I wish reporters would ask, "You mean like Global Warming"?
5
You have told us what morons we have for our national rulers, and you have told us how our system of economics is a sham and harms the masses so that Thoreau's, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," is now the best definition of the American Way--so, what do we do about it? I know--you don't know. But it is obvious to anyone who does not profit from the status quo: we must change our systems of government and economics. We should start by issuing an annual Social Security Lifetime Supplement (SSLS) of $36K to each citizen from birth to death, and fund healthcare and the like for all. We should do away with taxes because taking from the poor and giving to the rich is no way to run a country. In government we should replace elections with random selection for congress, choosing 10,000 to process one and only one bill, and make the office of the president a group of 2,000 citizens who serve staggered four-year terms, we should make the states nothing more than large counties with one set of national laws--not fifty-one. We should permanently empty the Senate and fill it with concrete so that horror can never again rise to power, we should close all schools of economics and memorialize that fake "science" as the spawn of astrology. We should treat America as a family and use our money supply for the direct, immediate, and long-term, good of the people. Hestal's first law of economics: The best way to put money into the pockets of the poor is to give it to them.
As always you are spot-on in your assessment. But I’d like to see the NYT and others not dive into Trump’s gutter with the name calling (“morons”). We all know Trumps MO pretty well at this point: bully, insult, name-call, lie, deny, and cheat to get the upper hand. Do you really want to fight that fire with those same tactics? I’d like to think not. We all know that no self-respecting person with any level of competence would join a team with a boss like that. But let’s take the high road and the overwhelming body of real facts (not alternative facts), and either impeach him or, in less than two years, vote him out of office.
1
To borrow a phrase from Steve Martin's The Jerk, they haven't hit bottom yet -- they have a ways to go.
The one thing that I will give Trump is that he is actually responsive to his supporters. Trump was willing to just sign a funding bill with no wall (after all, when the shutdown started, neither Pelosi nor Schumer were involved, rather Ryan and McConnell), but his supporters said they wouldn't stand for it. Yes, those people (Coulter and Limbaugh) are the worst sort of morons, out to sell out the public for their own sense of power; but they did speak, and Trump did listen. You can understand why his base is still so happy. He responds to them in ways that no Republican ever has.
1
Yes, he does respond....with tweets and lies !!
1
A step further, please, Prof K. You write: "... a conservative is supposed to ... insist that low taxes on the rich give them an incentive to work really really hard, not make it easier for them to take lavish vacations."
Now point out that many among the ultra-rich are NOT the ones who work or worked hard, gaining wealth and perhaps creating jobs. They are current or ex-spouses (Ms. Bezos) and their kids, few of whom follow into the family business. These trust fund hangers on, including, as we learn from the NYTimes, Trump himself, do buy the yachts and expensive vacations, baseball teams (WBush), etc. and even run for office (Rockefellers). Absent a meaningful wealth tax such as 1%/year, and an estate tax with teeth, we have no way to recover monies gained by tax dodges, tax evasion, corporate shell companies, and off-shoring wealth. Absent better ways of tracking the international movement of monies including block-chain bitcoin dark monies we are at the mercy of dark money not just in out politics, but in crime, contraband, business, and government corruption. Meanwhile, the rich get richer, including Hannity and the Murdochs.
4
How right Mr. Krugman is ! But shall we (and he) make the same mistake by supporting a similar candidate to Hillary ? A candidate supported by the bigwigs in the Democratic party and not the people? It is that that brought about the our present calamity, where undecided voters, displeased with their lower wages and income under Clinton-Obama, turned to a demagogue out of frustration. We must choose a candidate who truly represents the people, not a falsifier who will set the stage for another trump. We must choose and support Bernie Sanders.
1
@JFP
What's the definition of insanity?
In my opinion, Bernie Sanders is a modern-day Ralph Nader.
1
I hope our current fiasco with trump at the helm, will once again inspire college students that serving in the government is a noble profession necessary to maintain democracy and serve your fellow man. During JFKs presidency many were inspired to service. trump is a negative inspiration, but hopefully this will convince all the need for the best and brightest in government if we all hope to survive. American Universities please rise to this call to train and inspire this next generation of government administrators. We need smart government more than ever.
5
@Rebecca
I agree but instead of waiting until college, we need to teach junior high through high school students about how our government was formed and how it works. I’ve run into too many even at my age in my late 50’s who considered history and government classes boring. We need to teach our citizens about civic duty. Classes in financial responsibility, and integrity would go hand in hand with the above mentioned classes.
6
Hannity’s defense of low tax rates for the wealthy, in essence “they’ll spend more” is interesting. After all, one of the justifications for giving money to the poor is that all that money generally will be spent, increasing economic activity. The question is whether it’s true. I thought giving money to the rich generally just went to increasing their investment accounts.
8
"On the generic point: To be a modern conservative is to spend your life inside what amounts to a cult, barely exposed to outside ideas or even ways of speaking. Inside that cult, contempt for ordinary working Americans is widespread — remember Eric Cantor, the then-House majority leader, celebrating Labor Day by praising business owners. So is worship of wealth. And it can be hard for cult members to remember that you don’t talk that way to outsiders."
This.
The GOP has been getting worse for a long time, but the point of no return, I think, was the mid-1990s with the election of the Gingrich Congress on the one hand and the launch of Fox News on the other. Two things that simultaneously radicalized the base and the elites and locked them into their own universe, with everything outside of it evil and not to be trusted.
The longer we go, the longer the GOP (all of it) has spent in its bubble and lost its grip on reality. You can see the deterioration from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Sarah Palin to Donald Trump.
12
That’s what sticks in my memory also, this ugliness all began with the Newt. Since then the number of obnoxious arrogant Republicans has skyrocketed.
1
Too much criticism from the culturally elite readers of the Times. Criticism is easy. Offer the county solutions to the problems that you charge to our poor, beleaguered President. We all agree that the people serving in the Administration are unable to come up with any solutions for the common good of the nation. Create solutions, test them, prove them, promote them throughout the county, let everyone in the country understand the value of your proposals and I believe that real change for the good will occur because our legislators will then have no choice than to enact laws that will serve the common good. I know; much too simple and naïve.
2
@Chaps, much too simple, naive, and innocent. You see, Trump and his allies have god-almighty on their side. How do you deal with such profound ignorance? Up against the value of fine proposals and laws that serve the common good, these people have their god who moves in mysterious ways. Reason, education, intellect, morality don't stand a chance when pitted against lies, corruption treason, crime, and willful ignorance that are encased in blind faith.
The god of the religious right has completely forgotten wisdom. Happens, you know, and it is so very helpful to the devil's deeds. Fortunately, Speaker Pelosi is very wise.
1
Naive, maybe, simple, not at all....
Our poor beleaguered president? Perhaps you are not aware that Donald Trump has a long record of criminal activity, is a psychopathic lier and phony, has multiple charges of sexual harassment and assault, has colluded with foreign governments and obstructed justice, is a threat to democracy, the free press, and the health of the planet, whose associates are convicted criminals and others engaged in criminal activity.
2
Yep, they're Dumb and Dumber and Still Dumber, plummeting toward Idiocracy as quickly as the force of gravitas allows them to implode into a barrel of rotten apples.
5
Please remember that Conservatives need Liberals as much as Liberals need Conservatives because truth emerges most often from the honest conflict between opposing values. Isn't the emergence of truth from the conflict between the prosecution and the defense the cornerstone of our justice system? Liberals should hope the Conservatives regain their footing soon, I know I do.
2
What you say is absolutely true. However, another factor that compounds the problem is that, since most-- if not all-- members of the Republican Party believe in "small government" and the Reagan mantra that the government can't do anything right, why would anyone expect them to be able to find competent individuals to run the various department of government whose mission they don't even believe in? They just don't travel or socialize with such people -- only those who represent the special interests.
7
You do a great job of defining the GOP; it has always been this way. The stripped away nuance-speak has occurred because the Base Loves it; even to their own peril. It's like the story "then they came for me...". The Democrats have become the Conservative party as far as spending goes. Perhaps a strong third party will end the GOP; we can only hope.
3
I notice that a lot of people really do think that yachts and expensive vacations and multimillion dollar palaces power the economy. Talk to all the middle class people who are supporting the greedy. It's feudalism with overlords, retainers and the downtrodden. Yes, the serfs aren't bound to the land, but the difference seems to end there. Do we need numbers to show that an economy with better distribution albeit without mega-luxuries would be a better one?
9
With few exceptions, our political class offers two possibilities each election cycle. Either government for the money class or government by the money class. As Paul observed, Republicans favor government by the meanest and dumbest of the money class. It just defines our post-democracy American Exceptionalism and it means that we are not exceptional.
4
Trump supporters want him to disrupt government. Each of his original, and subsequent, acting department secretaries have done everything in their power to dismantle their respective departments. The vast majority of his supporters apparently do not care that they have not benefited at all from his policies. One could reasonably infer that his supporters have another agenda relating to his anti-American immigration policies.
Trump and his staff's Nihilism is astonishing, but real. One can hope that the Democratic Congress will impede, or reverse Trump's destruction of our economy and values.
Dr. Krugman was kind to the economic advisors. He could have done a number on Kudlow and Mnuchin.
8
"Again, the point isn’t that people in Trump’s circle don’t care about ordinary American families, and also talk nonsense — that’s only to be expected. What’s amazing is that they’re so out of it that they don’t know either how to pretend to care about the middle class, or what nonsense to spout in order to sustain that pretense."
The Trump Administration, in its ham-handed behavior, has stripped away the pretense that it cares anything at all about ordinary people (not just "the middle class," Mr. Krugman). Trump did not invent political cynicism, he's just too inept to sweeten it with nonsense-talk and the newly popular "fake populism."
This is a feature, not a bug. Trump has shown us how little regard the DC elite actually have for the citizens they pretend to represent.
6
If there is anyone out there left who believes that either Trump or the GOP are for we, the people they must be high on a hallucinogen. This shut down is further proof.
Good article as usual.
It is said that the one percent controlling all the wealth and beating up the middle class and the low income American population is actually .4 percent of the entire population, as if that somehow makes us feel better. We have less 'masters' out there to contend with.
They are the billionaires and trillionaires who figure they deserve ALL the profits of their own corporate industry and their idea of spreading the wealth is to buy luxury items such as yachts and private planes to avoid traveling with the 'great unwashed'. This serves to further alienate them from the "common man" and that is their intention.
5
To me what is more unfathomable than the stupidity and incompetence of Trump's "best people" is that his supporters totally buy into it and believe what Trump says. Trying hard not to despair about the future of our nation.
5
For two years the Republicans held sizable majorities in the House and the Senate. Why haven't they passed funding for the Trump Wall? Now that they have lost total control of the nation's purse strings, they love the wall so much they are ready to shut down the government to get one tenth of it. Who's fooling who?
11
@Marvin Raps
On the spot! Right on! They are posing, pretending to fool everybody they are patriots.they are not!
Did not Nancy make some comment about the benefits of unemployment? Krugman should look up the results of NJ luxury tax on yachts a few years ago. Trump didn't leave a trail of broken men; Mueller did with a "witch hunt." And economics is not a science.
2
@h dierkes
What?
Please explain...
1
@h dierkes If it's a witch hunt, it's a very successful and productive one. Mueller is finding evidence and prosecuting crimes. If those guys are broken now, they were broken before, just unconvicted.
The culture of ignorance, willful or other wise, is in power and they have their perfect leader, a man who despises cognitive thinking, studied information and rational thought, he trusts his gut. Have you ever seen his gut, I wouldn’t trust that gut to do anything but feed itself? We are living in the new dark ages void of the light of reason, protected from truth by the likes of Mitch McConnell.
6
In an effort to support and acknowledge our legion of already underpaid—and now unpaid—-TSA workers who faithfully “clear” the rest of us to literally “fly away,” I called my mortgage holder—-Wells Fargo—-and made an offer which I thought would provide them an opportunity to redeem some Grace after the debacle of their recent criminal activity: I would pay this month’s mortgage for a TSA worker’s WF mortgage in my local community if the bank would likewise match my offer to cover a month’s payment for another one of their own furloughed TSA local customers. Rather than even discussing the possibility with me—perhaps a group invitation for other customers who might be like-minded facilitated by the bank—I was told to call a local charity. I guess when bank and customer face a crisis which one of us cannot fly away from, “bailout” is a one way direction.
5
"Government by the worst and the dumbest". Well, that about sums it up perfectly. When will somebody in the GOP summon the courage to put us out of our misery? End this colossal mistake once and for all.
4
Heaven help us if we have to rely on the boat buying rich to make a living. In the Trump / Hannity economy we should all be happy as deck hands.
What will the bottom finally be in this administration?
4
@James
There was a cartoon in Playboy magazine ( I think it's Playboy) years ago.
The cartoon showed two men in Dr coats standing on the edge of an empty pool behind then was a door with a sign saying "Mental Institute". There were folk jumping into the empty pool some sitting on the pool floor looking hurt.
The one Dr is saying to the other " it's a shame to stop them as they're having so much fun". (Not sure that's the exact quote but I think it's close".
At the time it was funny to me as it seemed to be so outrageous and silly. Now I'm not so sure...
I am terrified of what's happening to my country.
1
Democrats need to wake up and get our act together. I just spent a couple of days driving around my state and saw not a few "Trump 2020" bumper stickers on rusty pick-up trucks.
I will never forgive the Democratic Party if we lose this one.
5
I come from a long line of conservative Republicans. My father and grandfather were true conservatives, but they are now groaning in heaven as they see with horror how this immoral and indecent president is undermining their values.
8
@Steve Savage
Don't forget to "credit" the Republicans in general for finally coming into the open with their unfettered support of Trump. This is who & what "conservative values" have been for several generations now.
Not long after he was elected, the president boasted that he had assembled a cabinet with the highest collective IQ in history. The racial subtext was unmistakable.
Since then, this cabinet has been ignominiously disassembled and the president has gone on to garner a record number of Pinocchios for his chronic and unrepentant lying.
Policy is now conducted through Twitter and Fox News. The biggest influences on the president’s thinking are Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter.
And yet, the president does not seem to have suffered substantive damage except for the sustained—and self-congratulatory—denigration by East Coast and Hollywood mandarins.
The special prosecutor does not seem to have cobbled together sufficient actionable evidence against the president. Lying about two non-disclosure agreements—while morally questionable—is not actionable, unless, of course, it is enacted in a court of law or in a formal interview with law enforcement.
Meanwhile, government workers struggle on without paychecks.
I have an uncanny feeling that the president’s connection to his base is as strong as ever.
How can the US government have devolved into this state of affairs?
Culture of the spectacle? The hegemony of the simulacrum? Unfamiliar cultural codes?
I am truly puzzled.
4
Dr. Krugman’s comment leaves out a crucial, key member of Trump’s abject crew: Mitch McConnell. Here is a dyed in the wool Republican, who even without Trump, is and was willing to violate his oath of office in the Garland nomination, willing to ignore the Constitution, willing to support this autocrat in his punishment of the electorate by NOT SCHEDULING A VOTE BY THE SENATE to pass the bill they already passed before Christmas when they thought that DT was going to sign and avoid the shutdown!
This shutdown fully belongs as well to the Senate leader and to his merry band of followers. Those who do not see that do not understand how our government is supposed to work (in ways that counter a would be dictator). Their silence and the acquiescence of the mass of Trump supporters and Republican supporters are at their core anti-American and unpatriotic. They would rather see one man hold up the entire nation than compromise on anything. Democracy cannot function without compromise and that has been on display every day since DT took office and most especially now. Every day that passes puts all 350 million citizens at risk from food and water borne illness not caught by our FDA, at risk of other things imported into the country and not caught because our nation’s watchdogs are not at the gates and the ports etc. This is how it is possible for a minority of mesmerized citizens to put the rest of us at risk. Call your Senator and have them vote to end this nonsense.
14
@B. Rothman
Wish I could recommend this post at least 100 times. Trump couldn't be doing this without the obstructionist behavior of Republicans and McConnell in particular.
1
It is now obvious that there are insufficient consitutional provisions to remove criminal presidents.
11
Fox as 'State TV', a sad truthful insight. Two years into empirically the worst presidency and congressional leadership in history but the streets are empty. Does this prove that it is really, "all about the economy stupid." Perhaps once federal workers start defaulting on their mortgages the streets will fill. A shame it might eventually have to come to that but what really have the consequences of such egregious behavior been? Wall Street certainly doing their best to bail the boat for their friends in Congress lest the economy burst the last remaining flood gate of ill will.
2
Trump is all about winning his deals. This wall is one of his deals and if he wins it, the reason for the wall will be totally dismissed by him. He does not care about the people who get into this country or the people in this country. His focus is to win his deals and then move on to the next. No matter who or what he plows over getting there. You and me are next.
2
@LFS
A Vanity Wall?
Could be.
1
What drives me crazy is the sense that humanity as a whole is being reduced to the lowest common denominator quite systematically by social media's algorithmic goal of grabbing as much screen time as they can from everyone by feeding them back their own tendencies on steroids. I just want to be able to sue Mark Zuckerburg etc for pouring the whole social world into the toilet. We are next to NOTHING as individuals - our only strength is to the degree we work together and rely on honesty to learn truths from each other's experiments and experience properly studied, accepting honest and systematic ways of determining how to become better seekers of truth and to recognize better seekers of truth. I subscribe to 4 good newspapers in 3 countries and a local paper that has well known biases and intentional blind spots due to outside corporate interests, but which nevertheless serves a valuable local service. I'm not on a single social media platform anymore and I deplore the garbage I hear from others who get the bulk of their news that way. And I'd like to see Zuckerburg in shackles for what he and his kind are doing to the world.
3
@Charles
This is Mark Zuckerburgs fault?
Think Not...That's just a small part the bigger part is the folk who for years felt they had no voice in their lives. Then came Mr Trump who told them that the "Elites" who rejected him were the reason they had lost things important to them. That their failures were not in any way their fault but were forced on them. That's a fair sized group of folk.
He also stated he loved the uneducated I shuddered over that but Mr Trump told them they are OK it's the rest of the population that's wrong.
Snake Oil anyone?
"Hassett declared that it’s all good, that the workers are actually 'better off,' because they’re getting time off without having to use any of their vacation days."
Says a lot about Hassett's attitudes about work. If only these government workers had boats for their recreational use while they are furloughed.
Then there are many, many people who actually enjoy working. Well, they liked working before the advent of the Trump era. Now, Mr. Trump can't find any willing to fill jobs in his administration. Perhaps he could offer recreational boats as a perk.
4
A condition of employment in Trump's administration is not just to listen to his constant, public lies about everything but also to his private lies and to take these lies as your marching orders. These now mountain of alternative facts have created a fantasy world disconnected from any logic or experience -- much less any actual expertise -- and is driving each and everyone who remains in his government mad.
5
It takes a village to make a dysfunctional country. Look at political ads on TV. Look at snooping browsing activities on commerical websites. Look at economists who dummy down for readers -- ignoring concepts of elasticity for marginal tax increases and decreases. Look at the public itself that wants to be entertained more than it wants to be informed. Put it all together and then hold your nose both for the stink of it all, as well as that we are all going down, below water, together.
1
"The Best People" as perceived by the "Stable Genius" acting on "My Gut Tells Me More Sometimes Than Anybody Else's Brain Can Ever Tell Me"
This is what we have working for us.
4
Old saying, better to hire a thief than a fool. The thief will be out for himself and will try to steal but you can watch him and see what he is doing. The fool? Unpredictable and out of control. Who knows WHAT he will do.
3
And, what if the person is a fool and also a thief , you know, like Trump?
3
@Bill Need to replace him.
2
Guilt-by-association, big time! Resume wrecker for sure. Coattails characteristics: impetuous, narrow-minded if not outright racist, selfish, shallow, tactical and transactional, divisive, talk a lot, say little, listen even less, prone to temper tantrums. A 3-year-old's resume, if only they could work!
3
"...no man is an island, although Trump comes closer than most."
Ouch! I will have to quote you on this, with attribution. It is just too precious not to be repeated, millions of times.
And so true!
A very tiny, desolate island, surrounded by rising seas. Sandbar-level, in fact.
5
There is no doubt that Trump has provided us with the best of the worst public servants. And boy is it ever obvious. After two years of this garbage presidency who would expect anything more.
As slow messy and questionable as government is under normal circumstances Trump and his cronies make normal look like a walk in the park on a beautiful day. American government in terms of integrity is at an all time low.
3
It always killed me to hear people excuse their support for the unqualified, inexperienced Trump thusly: Well, he may not know what he's doing, but he'll hire people who do, so it'll be OK.
I always responded: And how has that worked whenever you've had a stupid boss?
This would leave them sputtering, but just like Trump, they had their willful ignorance for comfort and assurance, so they no doubt voted for him anyway.
6
Dumb and Dumberer. As I sit and watch the Senate hearings for the Attourney General, I am struck at how ridiculous this all looks and feels for anyone American that has a sliver of a patriotic bone (even a spur of a bone).
I am listening to former Senator Orin Hatch and can't help but wonder who bought his soul. Across the chamber is our Judiciary Chair, Senator Graham. He is still a sitting Senator and has turned from Trump critic to Trump licker. How and why did that happen.
Where are our patriots in the GOP? And why are they not doing more than just providing lip service?
Where is Mitch McConnell? Our nation is in crisis and your inability to circumvent a White House veto is one of your own doing. I hope that the voters in Kentucky remember your cowardice come 2020. They definitely deserve better representation. So do the rest of us.
Today, the headlines might be about the Attourney General, tomorrow they will return to the Government shut-down. Trump clearly doesn't care about America and Americans. The question I ask McConnell and Graham as well as all other Republican Senators, do you care about your Country and its citizens? If so, it is time to show it through action and not just carefully worded statements.
4
May I mention the one name that seems to go unmentioned when assigning responsibility for this mess? Murdoch - the family that owns and manages the Ministry of Misinformation and Fear called FOX.
6
The terrible state of our executive and legislative branches is something we used to watch in other countries, and I at least, believed it could not happen here.
Boy do I feel stupid.
3
Thank you, Paul. You have expressed my rage.
3
Trump's inner circle and entourage of sycophants are a known quantity.
The real mystery is why the actions of these miscreants is celebrated by his "base," even as they steal the nation's silverware through tax breaks and demolition of vital regulations for the benefit aspiring oligarchs.
The fault lies not in the stars, reality TV stars and otherwise, but in ourselves.
2
It would be hilarious if it wasn't true.
3
Mr Krugman, thanks for always speaking on behalf of the working class. Working to improve the lives of people less fortunate is what makes America great, not making it a wealth haven for the rich.
1
Barr is proof that the GOP clown car of willing enablers is perpetually full.
2
How great is an economist is Kevin Hassett?
Well.... He published Dow 36,000 a couple months before the Dot Com Bubble burst, dropping the stock market 40%.
2
Fox News and Putin have a lot in common almost identical talking points for Putin's puppet! Although even trump surprised Fox with his Putin's talking point on why Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979!
2
Access Hollywood video..."There's a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you." Kellyanne Conway
Thank goodness we are a democracy and have decent, law-abiding, intelligent and dedicated legislators who can rein in this bozo and his cadre of dummies. It is absolutely appalling to see the carnage ( Trump's biggest word ) he has already done in every imaginable area - foreign policy, trade, social justice, health care, tax reform, economic policies and so on. It is frightening to witness his ignorance, boorish behavior and inexplicable catering to the thugs of the world and his complete ignorance of how government works. It is terrifying to contemplate what he could do on a whim, increasingly so because he presides over a cabinet of sycophants and arrogant ignoramuses (i.e. Bolton, Pence, Pompeo) who readily swim in the swamp he has filled to capacity. And just to round out the Trump adulation society, you have to add the spineless mute, McConnell and the unctuous Graham to the mix wallowing in the Trump swamp. As the immortal Pogo was fond of saying,... "we have met the enemy and he is us."
3
Enjoy the Cartier ad that pops up repeatedly as I read this piece on my tablet.
1
Trump may soon be left alone on an island, watching a rescue Russian ship sail away, ignoring his calls for help.
1
Trump and his team get this winter's Grinch Award: For enacting a government shutdown during the Holiday Season, thereby robbing federal employees of much needed income to pay Holiday bills; Also robbing the country of the enjoyment of a Happy New Year. In our story, Grinch Trump looked out at Washington DC enjoying the Holiday and decided to teach them a lesson. Except the real Grinch gave back the presents, food, and decoration that he stole from the townsfolk. President Trump and his staff still hold the presents hostage.
2
Clemson?
Kind of harsh, don't you think?
Set aside saving your reputation. Who would want to work in a place where your boss regularly undermines your credibility and doesn’t think twice about publicly humiliating you?
2
Uh, what executive actions are losing coverage in favor the shutdown?
Doesn't the dictate to cut and run from Syria coincide with a wish of the Kremlin's?
What else is being carried out under the shadow of media misdirection (again)?
1
Such a disheartening and depressing report, albeit too accurate. Unfortunately there is strong distaste in America for intellectuals and the educated elite, as Richard Hofstadter pointed out in his history about the preference for anti-intellectualism by most Americans. We tend to have more trust in plain folk who are more like us and who we believe can better understand our problems and needs. Simple minds cannot handle the new world. The global world, in which all parts interact, requires a very smart and educated leader to put the parts together intelligently. Trump himself and his team of morons are not up to the task. His habit of sitting on the couch watching Hannity and other Fox performers to "plan" his policies results in catastrophic disasters. We get manufactured crises and imaginary dangers that as unreal as they are scare the simple folks of the base. We get a government that ignores real dangers of climate change and worries about non-existent caravans arriving as invading hordes. We get a government that does nothing about growing environmental dangers, carcinogens that are more and more increasing in air and water. We get a braggart that takes unjustified credit for a natural upswing in the economy following the 2008 collapse. We now are governed by fantasy, lies, and make believe. Great dangers face us as long as we allow the orange-haired baby to have his way. How depressing!
4
I believe President Trump saying there is a national emergency is what psychologists call 'projection.'
One flew east,
One flew west,
... The whole cuckoo's nest moved into the White House.
1
Lindsay graham is one such creature who makes us groan with a stomach ache and a headache. He’s surely headed for mental depression. John McCain’s soul must be restlessly flickering watching his friend become moronic day by day.
2
The drumbeat
Of the truth
Emits a very compelling cry
‘Cause beneath
The twitter and twitter
May lurk a two-bit Russian spy
Let truth emerge
Lady Justice, he’s yours
I have faith and I’ll tell you why
The drumbeat
Of the truth
Emits a very compelling cry
1
It's thus not because stupid people are drawn into Trump's circle or smarter ones stay away but much more alarmingly because Americans are eating up idiotic comments (like making it easier for the rich to buy yachts or better for low paid federal workers to have some compulsory family time) with a spoon. Why confabulate, come up with bogus trickle-down hypotheses, or claim higher purpose when the public is so debased and so loves wallowing in the pig stye of Republican politics? Look at the people making videos and taking selfies in the photo accompanying Krugman's elitist and out-of-touch commentary. They're loving it. Where's the pressure to return to reason, decency, secular values, democratic principles and accountability? Just isn't there . . . Trump and his entourage are celebrities, a sensation, just like some comic on crack who has assaulted his girlfriend, again. Can't wait for the next episode. I doubt America will ever rejoin the fellowship of civilized nations. Obama was a kind of last hurrah. Now it's the vengeance of the 50+% who loathed a man who was smart, sophisticated and black.
3
Meanwhile, We, the People, have a diagnosable Psychotic
“President” who does Not know enough to Care...or cate enough
to Know. He is beyond Treatment; we are in Need of it!
3
I won't be happy until Trump, his nitwit cabinet of weasel's, and his low-life family of wacko thieves are jailed or exiled to Bouvet Island for life. It would really make my day if the current so called "Republican Party" would vaporize. Sometimes dreams can come true, eh Stevie King?
Just wait until the Rooski Army visits Estonia to for R&R. Then The Wall will vanish as Trump negotiates a deal for 'peace in our time.' Sheesh.
1
Krugman is so right. There is nothing so refreshing as total ignorance.
3
POTUS says it is disgraceful to ask if he is an agent of Russia...
but we must ask-
because he is a disgrace to the USA.
3