"And we're already much further down the road than many people realize." . . . than MOST people realize.!
2
Oh, oh, oh, what is it that Putin has on Trump? A video in full color that Trump would burn the world to nuclear ashes rather than the public or even close officials see it.
That's what this immoral presidency is all about.
3
Republicans are evil and need to be opposed at every turn.
2
Remember, he's a property developer with a very shady past. He comes from a culture of intimidation, deception, secrecy, and bribery. (No, not all property developers are like this, but there are a lot of slime balls in the business and this is how they operate. I have worked with a lot of both types.) The "aides" he hires are thumb breakers, the lawyers he hires are loyal to him, not the law, and the money he gets from anyone who will give it to him while assuming all the risk. This is his model of government, and the model of government of his supporters, from the vice-president to senators and on down to the very bottom. It is not justifiable on any basis.
8
Tim Cook and Don Trump, brothers in arms.
1
The example of Biden's son is disturbing. Let's say that Hunter Biden is unfit to earn on his own the level of income that he aspires to and even thinks he deserves. Let's further stipulate that the father and son have agreed not to discuss each other's work and finances, as is the case with many another father and son. My own son is a lawyer who defends corporations against workers' rights litigation - not the highest of callings, in my opinion, but it's his life and I love him. But Hunter Biden cashed in on his father's elected office and his father's role in Ukrainian politics. This is corrupt, full stop. Hunter shouldn't have sought or accepted the sinecure, nor should Joe have permitted him to take it. He did so out of love for his idiot son, no doubt, perhaps compounded with the guilt that parents feel when their child is unable to get on without parental aid. Perhaps he feels he neglected his kids as he pursued his career. But still it's corrupt on his part not to have stopped his son.
My conclusion is that a certain level of corruption is built into ALL human activity. When I was a teaching graduate student I gladly accepted a key to the faculty restroom, which was unavailable to other students. I don't think I questioned this perk, or thought of turning it down. My corruption was tiny because I had little status or power, but these abuses snowball as one rises in the ranks. Trump is doing what he's ALWAYS done, but he simply has the power to do it on a grander scale.
1
Yes, Trumpy, the Hater President, is manipulating trade for political and his personal financial gain. And yes, some Republicans in Congress are trying to get on his coattails. Because of plans that are not well thought out, sudden reversals, stupid decisions, Machiavellian machinations, and vindictive actions the end result is haphazard and pitiable. The effect on governance is hateful.
2
Where is the Democratic leadership? Do they have anything to say about anything? Tom? Chuck? You're free to chime in at any time. Don't be shy...
2
Bribery.
1
I wonder if Dr. Krugman would like to write something eventually on the "not Nobel Prize" winner in economics and if he sees her theories, what I call supply side Keynesianism (even if nobody else does, lol) as a way of overcoming our present quandary where a con man borrows a little fascism from the past to lead the ignorant along by their noses towards a kleptocracy on steroids.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/business/mariana-mazzucato.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
I'm kind of bummed seeing the old left dragging out their old worn out ideas which are not resonating with the "don't take mine and give to them" crowd. We need to offer a system which lifts all boats, like they say.
2
I was at a workshop when the Indian guy giving the talk produced an all-time classic Spoonerism -
The word was "psychophants".
This level of derangement and total incompetence, driving real business with political breezes and favors, is truly psychotic. It's a pattern of psychological behavior, also very like the financial sector and Washington deciding Main Street was irrelevant, way back when. Call it cronyism, call it extortion, call it selective corruption; it's psychotic, and only those who get on with the psychosis can prosper.
2
"...countries like Hungary, which remains a democracy on paper but has become a one-party authoritarian state in practice. And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize."
I think we're there. The Dems are proving remarkably impotent at getting anything to budge on the massive corruption of the Republican party. The only reason we don't have internment camps is they haven't figured out how to make camps the size of NY and CA.
2
Hey, isn't that Tim Apple holding that system board?
@John Huppenthal Calm down before you slip and fall on your typos, bro. Don't be the answer to the question why Trump Believers can't take part in conversations with anyone who doesn't subscribe to your peculiar surreality (neologism noted). My best guess -- and most charitable -- is that you're emulating your stable genius and just throwing wishful thoughts off the wall hoping just one of them bounces back with a patina of rationality. Maybe a chimpanzee given sufficient time can randomly peck out on a typewriter a play that rivals Shakespeare but I'm afraid that Trump and/or his acolytes (that's you) could peck away at the same Smith & Corona for several eternities and not come up with anything that's true. That's the problem venerating someone like Trump -- he boasts openly about his lying so no sane person bothers to even listen anymore, let alone imagine an iota of correspondence between Trump and truth. Like cheap shoe polish, it rubs off.
5
"And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize."
In fact, there is only one bulwark left against this vindictive, incompetent fool currently occupying the White House, the ballot box. After the House duly does its duty, the Senate won't do ITS duty, for NO reason other than partisan politics. That leaves the American voting public to render the final verdict. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the fate of the world rests upon the outcome of the 2020 elections. I, for one, plan on doing my duty. How about you?
5
Trump should be impeached and removed from office, but was giving lethal weapons to Ukraine a good idea? Surely Russia gave an equal amount to the other side. So our aid just made the fighting more deadly.
1
Paul, Bribery is the way Trump operates. Last Friday, MSNBC reported on a new scheme (the information came from a Vanity Fair article). Trump intends to create an adult playground for Republicans, and presumably Republican senators who will vote in the impeachment trial. I cringed when I heard the term "adult playground" because the term adult entertainment is associated with gentleman's clubs, strippers, porno movies, and porn-stars (like Stormy Daniels). So, it appears that Trump intends to bribe senators with sex. The Vanity Fair article said that Trump himself does not intend to participate, but if any Republicans get snared in this scheme, not only will they have been bribed, but Trump will have evidence on these people to use as an additional inducement to to vote for him in the impeachment trial, or be exposed publicly.
@Daniel G Swaine they say Hoover used to collect dossiers on the politicians for precisely the same purpose. DJT's personal attorney, Barr, may very well supply his boss with the dirt needed to keep the GOP senators in line. Watched Se. Kennedy explaining why he thinks Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. See!
Usually dying hulks of Trump’s businesses are picked upon by legal vultures and debt scavengers.
Because we’re a country, not one of his failed companies, the corruption is so vast that entire ecosystems are at the trough, including toxic cocktails of foreign policy business, investors in “free enterprise zones”, and Putin always lurking in the wings.
The trajectory of corruption described by PK is alarming because it suggests that the share of Trump’s mind preoccupied with scores to be settled keeps getting larger, the list of enemies to confront each morning longer, the number of Twitter attacks to be launched each day greater.
wrt JEDI, Trump may have accidentally made a good technical decision for the DoD. Microsoft’s Azure cloud solution is technologically ascendant, especially with respect to security and integration of enterprise software. Amazon’s AWS is a bigger cloud business though technologically more isolated. The deal size hardly makes monetary difference to one mega billionaire, Jeff Bezos, versus the other, Bill Gates. The badge of honor on JEDI goes to Bezos because he confronts Trump through the Washington Post, whereas Gates, however cerebral he may be, does not.
1
The Republicans once favored Adam Smith and his "invisible hand" of competitive forces that drove the free market. Now they support a president who favors the "unclean hand" tipping the scales of commerce in service of political advantage.
322
Nice to note that Tim Cook and the balance of corporate America are willing to sell democracy off for a buck.
I guess they don’t understand that American institutions - including the rule of law - made their successes possible.
714
@Joe
If there's one thing we know know about Tim Cook, it's that his toolkit doesn't have a tool for ethics. It doesn't have a tool for political courage, either. He and his company, Apple, in connivance with tyrants and dictators, exploit workers all over Asia to produce overpriced Apple products to sell to USAmericans who apparently are missing some crucial tools from their toolkits, as well. No wonder we have a corrupt businessman as U.S. president.
50
@Joe
To a large extent there are no longer large "American" companies. Rather there are multinational corporations, some of which were founded in the U.S. and/or are headquartered on the U.S.
Tim Cook was merely doing his job as he sees it, which is within reason is to do what is in the best interest of his stockholders. While one would hope for better, I would not expect anything different from someone else in his job.
30
@Joe
Maybe it's time for we Apple/Mac folks to throw in the towel for the cheap stuff. That might wake up Tim and some of the others who kiss the t-Rump.
21
Krugman won his Nobel Prize with painstaking attention to detail. Now he ranges far afield, stopping here an there, dropping cluster bombs to get the job done so he can move on elsewhere. There is no need to be a Nobel Prize winner to follow. Better to be a cyclist and go quickly from bomb site to bomb site.
"the Ukraine scandal made it into the public eye only because a single whistle-blower set an investigation in motion"
This is an argument I have made. It supports the view that Trump almost got away with it. I don't like it anymore. About half the world seems to have known what the whistle-blower knew. It would have come out soon enough. Cluster bomb misfired.
oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Direct hit. But an aside. Every millionaire in Russia is supposedly an oligarch. Putin's circle is tight, and the word needs to be used with discretion. Not Krugman's fault.
"tacit quid pro quo" That's pretty much how SCOTUS described corporate campaign contributions in Citizens United, holding that they were ok because tacit isn't explicit. Krugman takes the opposite view, arguing that tacit is plenty bad. He gets points because, unlike SCOTUS, he takes the common sense view. But he loses points for suggesting that tacit and explicit are pretty much the same. Getting a Biden smear was the thing. If Trump only got a tacit benefit there would be no case. Good target. But Krugman should have used a conventional bomb, not a cluster bomb.
Krugman confirms in his observations of quid pro quo substituting for an economic policy what Bret Stephens called the “Ukrainezation” of the US as a country. After almost three years in office Trump has shaped the country in his image: shielded by his US attorney general and protected by sycophants in Congress he extorts favors from anyone to enrich himself and his crony friends.
1
"What I haven’t seen pointed out is that Trump is quietly applying a Ukraine-type extortion-and-bribery strategy to U.S. corporations."
Professor Krugman, you're always spot-on. However, I can explain this one: The reason there isn't more focus on other wrong-doings is because the Supreme Leader is so thoroughly corrupt -- both as a president and an individual -- that we can't possibly focus on every impeachable scandal. In fact, he says and does so many outrageous things that it actually works to his benefit, as we forget what he did the day before.
It was just a few weeks ago we learned Trump was intending on allowing the Al Sisi regime to imprison a NYT journalist; fortunately, the Irish stepped in to help. Isn't this, too, an impeachable offense?
1
Republicans aren’t “ok” with Trumps treasonous quid pro quo Paul. They only act like they are solely because it is Trump doing the quid pro quo-ing. And thats the most glaring difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans are fine with crimes against America if they are the criminals. If Obama had acted in the same criminal manner as Trump has, democrats wouldn’t side with Obama the way Republicans do with Trump. Obama would have been unacceptable to democrats AND republicans had he cucked to Vlad Putin and extorted Ukraine etc. We have never witnessed such hypocrisy in the history of our nation before and 2020 cannot get here fast enough. The “Trump stain” will be the downfall of the republican party as it goes the way of the confederacy. Or at least, thats the hope!
7
The textbook definition of arbitrary and capricious. Or corrupt. Or both.
4
It is hard for me to imagine Steve Jobs cuddling up to Trump. Cook is playing with fire by befriending Trump to get tariff exemptions.
3
There is some consumer social conscience. I was going to buy a Toyota recently but when I saw them fighting California on emission controls and teaming up with Trump, I bought a Subaru instead. I love it.
10
No, actually a lot of us do realize we are further down that road to totalitarianism, and that it hurts everyone, corps included, just so Donny can line his pockets. The trouble is, most of the federal government is GOP and just as corrupt as he is, so we are in very big trouble already. When we save ourselves and vote the slime out - what will we do when they won't go? Because they won't. Do we start looking like Hong Kong, or do we just whimper away because hey, I've got my 401k (at least until Donny gets his grubby little fingers into it).
From the SFgate (Chronicle) today: "Trump is a businessman. We can just pay him money and the problems will be solved," said a politically connected person in Beijing, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about sensitive international issues. "As long as we have money, we can buy him. That's the reason why we prefer him to Democrats."
6
This has been happening since the inauguration. What ever happened to those funds? Oh, wait, look over there. It's democrats doing bad stuff.
1
One thing was missing in the photo - executives holding little notebooks and pencils and writing eagerly, with a dove-like look on their faces, in the best North Korean style.
But that will come too, if Trump is reelected.
4
Thank you, Dr.Krugman for this description of the present grim situation in America. Rest of the world is also much worse-off as a result.
5
What don't most of us get about our own nation?
We have been directed since childbirth by a coterie of religious leaders and followers of the divine who value their own positions in our culture much more than any reasonable consideration that their take on lthe American dream might be skewed by ignorance, fear, control and the accumulation of wealth.
Like the mushrooms in nearby Kennet Square, we are kept in the dark and covered in the same manure by the leaders of both political parties.
1
In the 1972 campaign, Nixon's people were strong-arming potential contributors, warning them that the administration would remember who gave and who didn't. Probably kept that list of disfavored entities in the same drawer as the better-known list of media enemies and such.
The world view of the dumpster and his cohorts is now in our faces, but in fact it has been taking shape and gaining power for a couple of decades. In my opinion, one of the first big US operations was the creation of ALEC American Legislative Education Committee--I may the exact name wrong. Whatever.
Funded by the monolithic corporations, its game plan started way under the radar and one of it's most dangerous successes was the overtaking of many state legislatures and governor's houses while we were all focusing of national and world issues.
The 'coup' created repub controlled states in time for 2010 census and redistricting of congressional seats--and here we are: the Koch Brothers meet the Ward Heelers.Keep your fingers crossed for 2021 state bodies.
We as individuals and the rational media need to do a better job of looking behind the press releases, the tweets and the FB blowouts and investigate what's happening in the real world.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty" has never been truer and we should all take heed.
2
Fifty years from now every one currently associated with Trump, from CEOs, members of Congress, the media, the Supreme Court, to so-called "evangelical" leaders, will be considered traitors to their country and heretics to their religion. You cannot get much further from the ideals and values of our nation's Founders, or to the teachings of Jesus Christ, than these people are.
10
I am reminded in reading this, of a former president's declaration that "I am not a crook."
3
Well if people are upset by this I guess they could stop buying Apple products. But I suspect they would rather use their iPhones to blog about how outraged they are.
3
The NY Times should administer an anonymous poll of Fortune 500 CEOs to determine if they feel political pressure from the Trump administration as well as these levels of extortion. This would be very important information for the public (and the Republic).
5
Krugman is right, how many more scandals do we not know about because there are no whistle-blowers to tell the American people the truth?
8
Trump's base is angry at how the American Dream has been killed - just working hard won't support a family and a house any more, while some game the system for favors. They don't seem to get it: Trump and his party have sold them out. Trump does not care about their hard work and dedication - only homage to Trump. The deal with Apple shows how little he cares for his base - as does his lack of respect for people who have worked hard in government and the military. Trump's respect for hard working people in his base? - it's a hoax!!!
8
@Gary
It's totally true and was very predictable and inevitable. But we'll all end up in Bellevue if we try to figure it out.
2
I couldn't make it past the first paragraph of your article before commenting. The last sentence states, Even Republicans understand this; they just think it's O.K.
This is not true. The sentence should read, "Even Republicans understand this; they are just too timid, unprincipled and weak to do anything about it."
6
Trump is doing the same thing with the states of the union. Red states get preferences. If you're a blue state like California then he will lie and say that the forest fires are you own fault for not cleaning your forests (which is absurd). It's retaliation for not supporting Trump. The president is intentionally dividing the nation. The USA has a wannabe dictator for president and in the present cultural war climate (white nationalist and evangelical vs. feminists and people of color), no side is willing to compromise. Both want victory and will not settle for compromise. Sadly, I am somewhere in the middle because I don't side with either and, even if I did, neither side wants me. The USA has become a terrible place to live.
1
Cook and others could learn a thing or two from North Korea. All they need to do is write flowery gushing praise and he will give them everything they want. No further actions are necessary.
3
While I am one to always say "be careful what you wish for" when proposing new rules or laws, I think it might be appropriate to have a check on the power of the executive to declare emergencies for spending or tariffs. Say for example, when a tariff is imposed by the executive branch, both houses of congress must have a simple up or down vote to approve the tariff within 60 days, and if approved, re-vote every 60 days to continue the tariffs otherwise the tariffs would expire at the end of 60 days. Same with the movement of funds appropriated by congress to other uses. This would allow for emergencies, but restrict the use of these powers when they are not in the national interest. Sort of a war powers act for tariffs and and funding.
Government + Corporations - Democracy = Fascism
3
Amazon will never get a fair shake as long as Trump is president. Jeff Bezos their sworn enemy.
Even if Amazon demands a review, nothing will change. The decision is too complex, subjective, and nebulous to secure obvious prejudice. Trump's people can just say, "We feel that Microsoft is the better way to go. Nothing against Amazon. It was a close decision, but Microsoft just had a little more going for it." What or how can a judge do to straighten that tangle out?
This situation reminds of the dynamic, The boss may not always be right, but he's always the boss. Trump here is the boss, a man who said, "I can do anything I want as president."
1
Corporate interests rule the country. Donald Trump is simply getting his cut of the corporate dark money. The entire system is rigged to benefit the corporations and their paid and bought for politicians.
We have become an exceptional banana Republic - Deal with it.
1
Didn't Cook sign the business round table statement on social responsibility versus shareholder profits? Wouldn't correcting an obvious falsehood by the President a social responsibility?
2
We are losing democracy bit by bit and there are even many people who now claim we aren't and weren't intended to be a democracy even though our nation has moved forward toward fuller democracy on a fairly steady path since our founding...up until recent times, that is.
Democracy was under intense attack by Republicans and the extreme right before Trump lumbered on the scene. The new poll tax, voter ID requirements, came before Trump. Closing multiple polling stations, cutting short early voting, wiping thousands of voter's names from the registration lists, these and other tactics were all designed to reduce participation and, thus, democracy itself.
One under covered scandal is the way college students are discouraged from voting while they are in school. Many jurisdictions have tried to classify students as non-residents, refusing voting registration. Texas passed a law that a student ID could not be used when going to vote, a clear attempt to keep students from being heard. Instead of eagerly joining in the citizenship ritual of voting on turning 18, young people are pushed away.
It is going to take years, perhaps a decade or two, to even try to recover higher rates of voter participation. Thankfully, however, Trump is stirring the waters enough that 2020 is likely to be a record year.
4
Donocracy and Oligarchy in action. Two of the worst forms of government, and sadly we have them both.
4
The problem with a mob boss running the country is that we all become a mob member. And do try to remember what happens to members of the mob.
7
The transparency of evil has always been visible to those who are willing to see. Americans need to take their blinders off.
6
If the voters of America want a strongman who values his own personal interests above the values and interests of the nation's as a whole then Trump the entertainer is going to win re-election and avoid criminal prosecution. Trump will divide the nation even further demanding the population overall accept his tweets as the real truth and law of the land unquestioned as lackey Miller proposes ,America will have it's first dictator . Living under a dictatorship is great for the loyalists but as I spoke with a neighbor last night who lived under Hitler in Germany and then the Russian afterwards the population lives in terror as any neighbor can turn you in for questioning authority's official position . Let's hope we do not end up there.
7
I used to be proud of all the Apple products I own. No more. Apple is not a good faith corporation in America. After Tim Cook’s dishonest love fest with lying Trump at the Apple factory I am ashamed of my iWatch and iPhone and iPad. When it comes time to replace these it won’t be with an Apple product.
5
So much for all of us who view trump as a bungling, incoherent and incompetent person. It appears that trump is quite successful at establishing an autocracy here in the U.S.
3
"But seriously, is anything clean in this administration? "
This statement is typically Krugman. Totally anti-Trump all the time. I guess you can't get over your terrible prognostications after he was elected in 2016. The economy, thanks to Trump and his agenda, is going bonkers. The stock market is makeing all time highs nearly every day. Pension plans, as a result, are markedly up. Unemployment is down. Average middle class income is up $ 5,000 this year. Their tax burden is lower. I, like most Americans, am very happy. I would be happier if your Democrat buddies in Congress would pass the USMCA.
@MCH
Yes, 2% economic growth, a 22 trillion dollar debt, an 898 billion dollar deficit - something is definitely bonkers.
6
@MCH
Unemployment is down simply because of the way it's measured. If older folks stop looking for work, or take a minimum wage job, the figures look good - but the people don't feel so good. "Average middle-class income," eh? How big is the middle-class now anyway? The lower taxes affect the upper-class a lot more. As has been said, things Worked Better with higher taxes on the well-to-do. And they will again. I'm glad you are happy, but I don't know why you say most Americans are very happy. Most folks I talk to are not so happy. You live in Florida? Enjoy.
1
@DJ You got it. "Something is definitely bonkers".
2
He’s the Don, henchman like consigliere Guiliani out selling protection for a price. You don’t do what he wants and he’ll hurt you bad. Count on it.
Shame and karma ignored by collaboraters Graham, Pence, Pompeo, Mulvaney, Perry, Nunes, Jordan and McConnell.
FYI: He went to Walter Reed after a heart irrgularity, AFIB. Staying in WH living quarters so others can’t tell he’s a little off his game. Don’t tell anybody, it’s a secret.
2
"But seriously, is anything clean in this administration? " Maybe coal?...(Extreme sarcasm)
2
I read things such as this article, climate change impending perils, politicizing the military, the Kurds in Syria and this was just today's paper and I am glad that I am old.
3
How about Trump announcing that he would intervene in the decision to award a $10 billion defense contract to Amazon, probably motivated by the fact that Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/us/politics/amazon-pentagon-contract-trump.html
The contract went to Microsoft.
Another example of how Trump will go down as the most corrupt President in American history. The only one close is Harding.
On a scale from 1 - 10, Harding is an 8.
Trump = 100
3
If Ivanka Trump is working in the White House with her father--should she be making her business arrangements in China?
4
So much for the concept of a free market economy!
What a disappointment Tim Cook turned out to be. Fealty to Trump and his financial bottom line over patriotism. When do people actually have enough money?
4
Trump does not believe in fairness. He is a loud-mouthed arm twister who thinks being President equals carte blanche for anything and everything he wants to do. He has offended, ridiculed and sidestepped the State Department, the Treasury, the CIA, the FBI, Congress, the armed forces, and yes, even America's favorite government agency, the National Parks, as well as foreign allies and other nations. He has created a revolving circus of advisors and appointments. The only word he uses to describe those who fall out of favor is "bad." "Bad" is how behavior is described to a two-year old. The American public is not 2 years old, but apparently Trump still is. Impeach, vote him out, just let's get rid of him in politics.
3
President Eisenhower warned us about a military/industrial complex. Maybe that should be expanded to incorporate presidential payoffs like you outline under the term political/business complex. I have a count down clock at the bottom of my screen. 342 days left of this Narcissistic.
Trump's corruption is the best way to corrupt the whole country and make corruption a "way of life"; where breaking the law is acceptable to the eyes of everyone, but be careful not to be caught. If somebody is caught nobody condemns him or her for the fraud, but for being careless and imprudent.
That was the way in Mexico: The Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) correctly affirmed that "corruption goes from high places in government", not from the bottom of society.
In his effort to correct corruption and clean the government is being subjected to furious attacks from the right, the main beneficiary of corruption in the country.
1
I’m an optimist by nature, but it’s painfully clear that Trump and his criminal syndicate are drinking America’s milkshake, and there will be blood.
1
" ... it’s the incentives this regime creates for ... "
Back in the day, like 2010 or 2005, the collective noun to describe the executive branch under a particular president was "administration." "Regime" described China, Russia, Venezuela ....
1
It is amazing that one has to spend an entire column to just state the obvious, but that is what it has come to. This is also obvious, the dirty Republican super-wealthy religious-right machine is a menace.
1
"And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize."
If you think so about USA, what can we say about Brasil, where we have a clone of Trump.
Bolsonaro think that Trump is like a superhero and try to copy everything he does, with no resistence, so far, from brasilian institutions.
Today, his Secretary of Economics, Paulo Guedes, mentioned again the "AI5", a law that closed the Congress back in 1968 as a possibly outcome if we have massive mobilizations against the government. By the way, we haven´t.
1
There are a number of opportunities open to the Trump administration:
1) Work through bilateral agreements rather than multilateral. It is easier to find a quiet place with no other ears - to negotiate side deals.
2) Don't replace retiring career Foreign service officers. Less ears on the ground to pick up details of questionable dealings.
3) Keep cabinet officers at 'Acting' level. That does not require Senate approval and it keeps the officer in a loyal dependent state.
4) If you need to recruit a few heavies for extra curricular work, the power of the Pardon works just fine.
2
The small business community and government supported rural dwellers are responsible for much of the problems we have today. Their undying support for Fox News, the Republican supported propaganda machine, is evident everywhere. Visit a gym, restaurant, waiting room and you will be confronted by some talking head on the Fox News network --- all agreeing with the President and his agenda. This misinformation machine has allowed the President to put forth his message without compromise. Control of the media is the first step in the processes to a single party state run by oligarchs. We are there --- but most people don't realize it. The next election may show them.
5
Donald runs the Senate, the military, foreign policy, trade policy, immigration, environmental deregulation and a lot more that demonstrates the failure of Congress to legislate a national agenda.
The Constitution doesn't anticipate a Congress that so abandons its role in favor of granting the executive ever expanding power.
Donald is dangerous precisely because he's so venal. He offers and accepts bribes, and he thinks it's a good deal.
2
I wonder what happens if the smart phones stop working. Will Americans rise up in protest?
2
Your concluding paragraph tells me that the socioeconomic and political policy communities must redouble their efforts to restore the balance of power in the Congress in the next election. Mr. Trump is NOT presidential, and everyone knows it, but Republicans are very fearful of losing power and have rationalized their loyalty to Mr. Trump's G.O.P. as the best in their own long-run interests. But, the critical question is this really in the best long-run interests of the nation. I think not, but quickly note that my conservative friends sincerely believe should Democrats return to power in the Senate and the House that they will increase taxes on the upper middle class people. And they really do believe that Democrats really don't understand the principles of why America has become the wealthiest country in the history of the World. Red states that become red during the Reagan years created conservative rationalizations based on smaller government, free markets, less regulation, capitalism, and very abstract concepts like freedom, liberty, 2nd amendment, etc. When I interject the realities of global warming, the benefits of a healthy educated population, and a collective effort to fund the highways and other forms of communications like high-speed internet they don't disagree but they don't want the government to intervene in the natural behavior of the market.
So, I just say we all need to do a better job at defining the problems that we collectively face. They agree.
1
“[We are becoming] a one-party authoritarian state in practice. And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize.”
I agree. It is especially scary that we are not horrified by the increasing power and authority held by the domestic armed force called ICE. We continue to gape with inaction at the prisons for young children, parent less by virtue of the executive branch orders. Just yesterday we met a mother and her two young children begging on the roadside. Her husband, a skilled laborer working here for many years had been imprisoned and deported days earlier. Remember the story, when they came for others I turned a blind eye; when they came for me there was no one left to stand up to help me.
4
Trump supporters are quite confident that there is NO possible way they themselves will ever be begging by the road. Their Strong Man Papa will take care of them and they will live in peace and comfort as their ancestors did under...under...well, whoever the previous Strong Man was.
1
@Nancy Rathke You're correct. They do not believe the regime will turn on them, but when they become the last mouths to feed, they will find themselves eaten.
We were already well on our way down the rabbit hole prior to Trump - he is just accelerating what was already known - large Corporations and the wealthy are able to exploit "the system" for personal and corporate gain, while the rest of the population struggles to keep their heads above water. Tax law and regulations have long been authored essentially by the very entities and organization these laws and regulations were to impact. The Boeing fiasco is a glaring example of how Government refuses to invest in the experts and their training to be able to regulation highly technical industries - therefore the "oversight" is essentially given to the industry itself - sometimes with fatal results. The problem is our political system is dependent on the donations these wealthy people and corporations give via direct donations, and then providing lucrative jobs to politicians and high level political appointees once they leave office. I'm personally not optimistic we can wrangle control away from those who exploit the rest of us. Trump is just much more open about what goes on, and is shameless about doing it.
3
Tariff exemptions are just the beginning.
What I want to know is why Apple provided an allowance for taxes for the year ended September 28, of only 15.9% when the statutory rate is 21% (net pre-tax income was $56 billion).
Two years prior, when the statutory rate was 35%, Apple paid 24.6%.
Apple has net deferred tax ASSETS of $8 billion (essentially overpayment of taxes). In other words the stated allowance for taxes is greater than they company actually incurs.
The question is rhetorical. Apple artificially domiciles certain operations in countries with lower tax rates.
Apple has a net worth close to $100 billion. Why did it, and other large companies that don't pay their fair share to begin with, need a tax reduction beginning in 2017?
We have an enormous deficit. Trump and the GOPers engineered a gift for their donor base. Trickle down my ...
1
For most of us, corporations and workplaces in general are totalitarian organizations. We sell our bodies, minds, and souls to them for an hourly fee, and don’t get to ask a lot of questions. I’m not sure going with Trump is really going out of their way for these guys. Making the US more like China might be just fine.
1
Perfect example of how government is in bed with industry.
It’s not blue vs red. That is a distraction - the real divide is the rich vs. everyone else. The red/blue distraction blinds us to the back room deals and the tax cuts for the wealthy.
It’s why some of the wealthiest individuals and corporations pay zero tax, and many of the rest pay a smaller rate than you and I. We are subsidizing billionaires.
And - BTW - while they take our money, they also degrade the public good, assuming our tax dollars will bail them out.
This was meant to be a country built for the people by the people. Instead, it’s become an oligarchy for the rich and their entitled children, supported by hardworking people. It’s disgusting.
In 2020, please vote for people locally and nationally who will reset this shameful imbalance. Put your family’s future ahead of a multinational CEO’s.
194
That would be nice but the boomers have to get out of the way. Full disclosure, I’m a boomer, go figure. Nice comment on the situation.
7
@R
Except that NO Democratic president has EVER launched a tariff war against our best allies and biggest international trading partners and our own companies, only to then be able to exempt them IF they are willing to publicly support him politically.
This - together with the SC Citizens United ruling that allowed companies to donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns - is something only the GOP does to the US, and is totally different in nature and impact than no matter what "normal" lobbying might have existed before.
As to tax cuts for the wealthiest: that too only the GOP supports, to then pass bill after bill that massively increases the deficit only to give some billionaires a bit more money.
So call "blue versus red" a "distraction", if you want, but this "rich versus everyone else" problem will never be solved as long as we allow ourselves to be distracted by the kind of cynicism that you're proposing, instead of finally voting the GOP out so that campaign finance bills that the Democrats already passed in the House, and other redistributing measures that reduce the inequality gap, can finally be signed into.
There is no other solution, in a democracy.
15
@R
You are, in my opinion, certainly headed in the right direction, but I think that you go too far.
Billionaires are people, too; and they pay -- what? -- 40 percent or more of all income tax revenues. [New data shows that the top 1 percent of earners (with incomes over $515,371) paid nearly 39 percent of all income taxes, up slightly from the previous tax year's 37 percent share. The amount of taxes paid in this percentile is nearly twice as much their adjusted gross income (AGI) load.]
I'm relatively poor, nonetheless why must Warren Buffet pay millions and millions in taxes to drive the same roads, drink the same water, be protected by the same military, enjoy the same freedoms, etc., as me?
It's no skin off my nose if you double or triple the income taxes he must pay, but what is fair? Is their money our money? Maybe it is.
The now extinct Soviet Union and Red China probably tax hell out of their rich, but I wouldn't trade with them.
1
Discretionary power tends to give the results you are describing, most of all with a paranoid president who perceives that everything is about him.
Regulations and policies should indeed promote a healthy economy and support business without cherry-picking for political reasons but most of all regulations should also be designed to protect the public and consumers.
To be fair, it is our system (in place before Trump) that is structured to protect the rights of the providers of goods and services over the rights of the public and the consumers. Those providers have the funds to lobby and the consumers and the public are not as organized and do not have the budget. In a democracy, it is also the job of the government to protect the public. A job poorly done.
By the way, I am too one of those who wonder how many other "Ukranian operations" are happening behind America's back.
102
And now add pardons for campaign help to the list of corruption: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tells-allies-he-wants-absolved-war-criminals-to-campaign-for-him
We are lost
Evil rises
Sorry grandkids
Conscription is next...
1
The Twilight Zone meets Putin meets Trump. The result: A Book called “ To Serve Americans “.
Yes, a Cookbook.
1
Trump and his spawn could care less about America. He doesn’t even try to get the facts straight, and she is complicit.
1
John Adams said,” all democracies die by suicide.” We are seeing it in real time!
2
All we can say is thank you Russia and the Electoral College
1
willfully missing the point IS the wsj/fox m.o.
Paul Manafort may be the first American prisoner to reject
a trump pardon. If Manafort leaves jail, Oleg Deripaska
will be looking for him to get his money back.
2
What is Ivanka Trump doing in that picture? Banana States of America.
1
One of your most important columns ever! To see what the next steps can be, look at the history of the Krups in Germany for whom WWII and the holocaust were key business opportunities. Or, if you don’t like that idea, examine every possible way to get Trump away from the levers of power: the extremely justifiable use of Article 25, impeachment and conviction, defeat in the 20 election. We need to be rid of this monster and his minions who are stealing our country out from under us and laughing all the way to the golf club locker room.
2
Well written. All those left wing apple users must real happy at Cook's cozy up to Trump. Gives me a grin to think of all those hipsters with their iphones. Like fox news being taken over by Tom Steyer or something.
What a long time it seems since the (no drama) Obama administration!!!
1
Whether you’re Vladimir Putin or Tim Cook, you want to see Trump re-elected for one very simple reason: he and his supporters are very easy to play.
1
The very definition of fascism. Actually, Trump admires the Chinese system. You are not being "saved." You are being "sacrificed."
Certainly this was DJT's angle from the start as he conducts his own business in the same way from what the NYT has brought to our attention.
Yes businesses factor this into their budgets but to say your going to supercharge the economy with legitimate means, this back room dealing will be DJT's legacy.
Tim Cook is a shameless coward. Steve Jobs may have been a tyrant, but I can't believe he would have abetted in political propaganda like Cook.
2
Perhaps Paul can tell us who got bribed.
The behavior described in this article has a name: fascism. The U.S. has now been officially lost to it.
Donald Trump, leader of the 'Banana Republicans'.
Tim Cook hates democracy. That will be his legacy
1
The better analogy might be Venezuela, that supposed "socialist" hell hole loathed by conservatives, where the "populist" leaders claimed support by the military, manipulated the economy supposedly to keep it strong (the oil industry there, but tax cuts and tariffs here), and picked economic winners and losers based on loyalty to the administration. Chavez and now Maduro's rhetoric even sounds Trumpian.
Americans wanted a businessman. What they got was a crime boss. The really sad part is that many Americans believe that that is how businesses are run, like criminal enterprises.
Trump and his family wouldn't survive in the real business environment of a publicly traded American business.
1
@Marie
The worst is that because of the GOP and Fox News' relentless cultivation of cynicism, at least 40% of the American people now falsely believe that the government itself is run like a criminal enterprise, not only when it's controlled by the GOP, but also when Democrats are governing.
THAT is undermining people's faith in their own country more than anything else, and it's precisely what Putin takes advantage of and what his fake news deliberately reinforces, as THE best way to weaken a democracy is to make ordinary citizens disengage and give up on hoping for a better future.
2
@Ana Luisa
Absolutely correct Ana. I've worked with different government agencies, fed and state, as clients and have worked with many dedicated professionals.
Thank you.
1
Just like Moe, the bully in Calvin and Hobbes, who threatened physical violence to get lunch money, Trump has used intimidation his whole life to get what he wants. Hurting others, whether by raising tariffs, withholding military assistance, or debasing judges, military leaders, and essentially anyone who disagrees with him or stands in his way in obtaining his personal objectives, has been a constant in his life. Once a bully, always a bully.
4
When quietly reflecting on the history of the Trump presidency; in the light of previous corrupt monarchies or dictatorships, it is impossible not to see a vast criminal enterprise at work, into which, Trump wants to insert himself as the new boss and take us all with him.
How dismaying.
1
This is not new. Corporations have been guarding the henhouse as in the FAA, FEC, FDA, EPA, and SEC. We have seen this before and done nothing about it--air, water, and food pollution, planes that dive into the ground and much more.
Now comes Trump gaming the already compromised system for his political benefit. Do we need a more blatant example of the failure of our winner-take-all political/financial/judicial thievery?
Wake up!
1
In fact, we are so far down the road, I think we have missed the exit ramp entirely. There is no question that Ukraine is merely an example of Trump's corruption of government, perhaps not even a very large one. And the Republican party plays right along because Trump's behavior, and his apparent immunity to all consequence, both validates and provides a road map for their own corrupt fantasies.
I have come to the view that the House Democrats should never turn control of the narrative over to the Senate Republicans, who have already signaled that an impeachment trial would be a sham dominated by false narratives about Hunter Biden and Ukrainian election interference. The jury has already said it will acquit. That in itself is corrupt.
Instead, the Democrats should hold an uninterrupted series of hearings that continuously spotlights the depravity of the Trump administration. There is nothing that says that a single President cannot be the subject of multiple impeachment investigations when there is a nearly endless list of impeachable behavior.
Every subpoena that is not honored should be met with contempt and a lawsuit. The earth should be scorched. Democrats should not fear public opinion. Forty percent of us are hopeless. Nor should they fear that their behavior will result in similar future behavior when a Republican House confronts a Democratic President. That future already exists.
Democrats need to ask themselves, what would the GOP do? Fight dirty.
In other words, when you ask Republicans and GOP voters why they support this form of totally unprecedented bribery and extortion of US corporations by a sitting US president, they reply that Democrats too do "bad things" to America's companies.
The type of argument is always the same: "tu quoque filio!", you did this too!
It was the bottom line of David Nunes' attempt to deflect the public's attention from the very subject of the impeachment hearings, as he argued that Trump should not be impeached for bribery because in his perception, Democrats "got caught" (sentence repeated over and over again, respecting a basic rule of brand marketing) too - and yet, we were supposed to conclude, they weren't punished, so we ask you to not punish any Republicans either.
How this kind of reasoning and behavior could ever MAGA is a mystery to me ...
The only thing stronger than religion and pride of country is the love of money. We know trump loves money above anything else. He knows how to leverage his power through years of doing so. He is now at the point where he can do and say anything as his base and corporate leaders know who is in charge and the great leader of the cult will make them drink the Kool-aid if they put up any resistance. It seemed to work as planned with Tim Cook.
So. Microsoft just got a huge defense contract. Hmmm. Maybe that's why "philanthropist" and megabillionaire Billy Gates recently spoke out harshly against a "wealth tax" for megabillionaires proposed by certain Progressive Democrats. I guess ol' Billy is another oligarch who would happily sell out his country if it meant making a buck and (this seems particularly vital to megamillionaires) avoiding paying even a single buck more in Federal taxes.
Good column, and it’s easy to see why corporations haven’t made a fuss about paying off the Trump machine.
Who can they complain to, our Trump-Can-Do-No-Wrong Attorney General?
How about the FBI? Oh, right.
knowing trump, he will claim he has been in office only 3 months and has much more time on his hands to extort even more companies and countries.
I am in awe at the photo provided as a lead in to this story.
In a world where corruption, graft, greed, and the 1% run everything, we find Tim Cook holding up a motherboard for a desktop computer to a puzzled group of the ruling elite.
Donald, Mr. Mnuchin, and Ivanka all awestruck, surely wondering how such a big piece of hardware would fit into a cell phone. Maybe actually wondering when they could get their next cheeseburger.
2
This favoritism is called "The Art of the Deal" . That is all Trump knows.
1
Zelinsky has reason to be wary of US promises. In 1994 the US and Britain were party to the signing of the Budapest Memorandum in which they would guarantee Ukraine's territorial sovereignty in exchange for Ukraine destroying its nukes that were inherited after the collapse of the USSR.
When Putin invaded Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, both countries were MIA. So they put some sanctions on Russia. Big deal, it didn't help Ukraine.
Obama wouldn't even let Ukraine buy weapons to defend itself from a superior Russian force.
Today the US and Britain are still MIA while Zelinsky is trying to cobble together some form of peace agreement with Russia with France and Germany as arbiters.
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
Thomas Jefferson
...if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.
Noah Webster
Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.
Samuel Adams
2
Professor K, are you sure he didn't visit a phone manufacturing plant with Tim Apple, Cooks CEO?
Krugman asks: "Are we really supposed to accept on faith"
Er, what other basis is possible? Having faith in Trump and showing your faith by ignoring facts is what the Republican/Trump cult is all about.
Truth or the perception of prosperity.
This is the voter’s choice.
For some, the perception of prosperity, without actually having it themselves, is enough to re-elect Trump.
Truth, apparently, doesn’t pay the bills.
1
@Lake Monster
Except that truth is that the current economy and low unemployment rate has been installed by Obama and the Democrats.
So it does pay the bills.
Whereas Trump's ignorant tariffs are literally forcing farmers to close their farm, as we speak.
So falsehood in general ends up no longer allowing you to pay the bills.
1
@Ana Luisa
Preaching to the choir Ana! How I long for this country to choose truth over Trump.
Why is the agreement to supply Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank weapons contingent on the Ukrainian government agreeing to store them in a warehouse hundreds of miles from the front lines? Is this a condition of the "aid" imposed by an act of Congress or the Administration? Why aren't they allowed to use them at their own discretion? Are we determining Ukraine's military policies and agenda? Isn't Ukraine a sovereign nation? Despite US desires, we do not rule the world. If our policy is to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression, why are we handcuffing them?
2
@KOOLTOZE
All NATO members agree that the first priority here is to NOT escalate the war.
The more we send heavy weapons close to the border, the more Russia will have to do so too, and the more people will get killed.
Secondly, we also don't want those highly valuable weapons to fall into the hands of the Russians, of course.
Third, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and a lot of militias are present at the border - and we don't want them to start having access to US weapons either.
Finally, Ukraine is a NATO-aligned country. That means that all matters that have to do with its military defense, are discussed together with NATO, but it's not NATO (or the US) that has the final word in it, Ukraine's government does. Because it is indeed a sovereign nation.
So those Javelins are there because Zelensky wants them there. It's the result of an international agreement, where Zelensky asked military aid from allied countries.
The ONLY thing that truly disrespects its autonomy is all of a sudden backtracking, as US president, and now asking Zelensky to basically get on the presidents political reelection campaign payroll before the US will respect its own military commitments.
1
@Ana Luisa
I understand the concerns about escalating the conflict and allowing rouge actors access to lethal weapons, but if those types of concerns had overly influenced our Founders, we'd still be a British colony. Mr. Krugman says "Donald Trump withheld crucial aid — aid Ukraine needed to defend itself against Russian aggression..." It's irrational to provide crucial aid, and then demand it not be used.
1
The Atlantic had an interesting article exploring the term "fascism" in December 2016 (well worth reading). In one section, it quotes Robert Paxton's five steps to fascism. Number 4 is:
"Exercise of power, in concert with institutions and business. The regime expands its control at home: restricting the press and democratic processes, corporatizing business, and collectivizing the people. Abroad, it asserts itself militarily."
That step covers a lot of ground (all relevant here). But let's not forget that the marriage of government to corporations has long been a definitive part of something called "fascism."
6
Some of the damage Trump has done is already seen. Things like letting carbon lobbyist set policy to pollute our streams, put methane in the air. And then there is weakening of financial regulations , taking away food stamps, free lunches, using kids as barriers at the border, selling out to Russia. Intentionally weakening ACA only because Obamas name is on it. And the Republicans stand by looking at their shoes. Probably the greater damage will be done as future politicians see how far Trump has pushed us over any boundary of decency with no accountability and they decide to push it even further.
5
US Corporate CEO's and business men who play to Trump's favor may be trying to avoid the wrath of his easily bruised ego and bad humor, but by doing so they also underscore the truth that they bear no allegiance to the US or any other nation. They join him in his dishonesty, the concerted deception of the public and help to perpetuate his alternate-facts universe. They show by example that they are driven by one objective only: maximize their corporate and business bottom-line profits...no matter what.
Now some may argue that is exactly what they are paid to do. But when a corporation or business bows to a dishonest conman, puts principles on the chopping block, puts profits above community responsibility, reduces its relationship to its workers to a cost-of-doing-business factor, that is when it puts its interests above our national interests. That is when they ship jobs overseas to save a nickel, that's when they allocate the profits to the CEO, board of directors, upper management and stockholders all at the expense of keeping worker wages and benefits stagnant. That is why CEO's and business owners are distrusted, even abhorred by workers. That is why workers bear no loyalty to their employers. That cannot be good for a corporation or business' bottom-line. It's certainly not good for America's bottom-line.
7
Oh the road we’re on. How republicans can believe this will end well for them is beyond me. Must be some psychology of the hurd that each thinks they will be safe if they stick together. ...as the entire Hurd drifts towards the cliff with the entire planet in tow
9
Trump's tariff regime creates the conditions where 'crony capitalism' flourishes... just one more step along the corrupt Trump path to prosperity - for Trump. Not so very far from providing convenient political cover to Trump, which Apple will apparently do, to some smaller corporation, privately held like the Trump Organization, providing a direct "consulting fee" to some Trump crony for "guidance in navigating the Trump tariffs". Oh, look at that, they got their exemption! And the bags of cash wend their way to Trump's pockets. I wonder if Rudy is the bag-man? Trump is "very concerned about corruption" - he wants to make sure he gets his share and more. The most corrupt president ever - including the 1870s and 1880s and the Teapot Dome scandal. Trump *is* corruption - everywhere he dabbles ends up cheapened, corroded, and weakened. Just ask the military leadership, concerned about 'good order and discipline' in the Age of Trump. Just ask our allies, concerned about the durability of NATO; the cost of American presence in South Korea; just ask the Kurds who fought and died instead of US forces; among other places and instances. Trump *is* corruption.
3
When the tariff regime went into effect a year and half ago (after Peter Navarrow said China would not retaliate because “we hold all of the cards”) and the administration initiated an “exception process, I thought at the time, what a boon to the Republican Party coffers that might be.
I hope some intrepid young reporter is digging deep into the hundreds (if not thousands) of tariff exemptions granted and the specific party or Trump Campaign donations made by those exempted. What a story that would be!
7
"And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize."
We've been travelling that road since the Reagan era, and this corporate owned government is the result.
Now that corporate America and the wealthiest Americans are firmly in control, there is zero chance of a return to a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Forty years or so, is all it took to lull the people into a state of unconcern and complacency, playing one against the other, promising salvation and all manner of useless platitudes generally aimed at quelling social, emotional, and cognitive unease.
What fools so many have become, kept eternally distracted by constant 24/7/365 perception management techniques deployed by our corporate owned political parties and government.
4
You are right. Trump’s corruption extends to the politicization of business contracts, with the rewarding of lucrative contracts to companies that support him and his political narratives.
This will destroy the fairness and even handedness required of an honest capitalistic business climate and will lead to a corrupt economy governed by political favoritism. It is as you eloquently stated another step towards an authoritarian state.
1
By now, I assume that anything Trump or his minions do is corrupt, unless by pure chance his interests and the country's align, and then he might do the right thing, but for the wrong reason.
4
This column, like many recent ones, are pointing out Trump's self-interested flouting of American values, norms, and laws, but there's really only one thing that matters in the end. If you are writing in these comments anything supporting the outrage that is the only reasonable response to what this president is doing, that's fine, but it will lead nowhere unless you VOTE. These people aren't listening to reason, common sense, moral arguments, or even outrage. They will only be stopped by being forced out of power. It seems likely that the Senate will not convict on impeachment, so you have to VOTE. You have to get all your friends to vote.
That is the only thing that really matters. If you don't vote, then your outrage is just pointless venting.
5
I agree and perhaps we are too far down the road to turn back and reverse this perverse course don has shaped for us. Even if this is so, there’s no reason to acquiesce to lies and chaos.
There will be a balance. This is a fight for a sunny new day - one with the rewards of honest hard work. The people of this country are a mix of our race and as a nation have the wisdom to lead us out of this mess.
Vote against don, lies, lack of honesty and truth.
1
What a nightmare this administration, with quid pro quo, or bribery or extortion or whatever you want to call it everywhere.Trump has his enemies list, and everyone on the Republican side follows his lead. Clearly Trump is not the only "Republican" who is compromised.
The question in my terrified mind is will we will ever recover? When I am long gone, what will be left for my children and grandchildren?
2
This has been going on forever. Pork barrel spending, earmarks were all intended to give political favors for votes in Congress. Presidents have enormous power to pick winners and losers when you have a federal budget of close to 5 trillion annually.
We haven't seen anything as transparently corrupt as the tariff transfers and waivers but to think nearly 5 trillion is spent on an annual basis and pallet loads of money aren't being transferred to constituents throughout our Congress and the Presidency is amazingly naive.
Trump has done a much better job of monetizing power for his personal benefit and in many ways he's more transparent about it. Cheney and his former employers used the Iraq war as a slush fund.
Trump is a crook and he's taking his cut. That was the deal when he was elected. Trump has convinced his supporters that if they don't get a cut they're being played for suckers. He's just holding the money for them.
We don't need Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders we need Teddie Roosevelt to clean this mess up.
2
The Trump game of Quid pro quo has been under way since the tax cuts were passed that allowed corporations to perform stock buy backs while allowing the deficit to ballon. Wall street in return for the tax cuts has done nothing but rave about the stock market while looking the other way as climate change, inadequate health insurance and tariff wars that concern main street americans take a toll on their real incomes and lives.
Ukraine is having happen to it what has occurred here already with a government that is picking winners and losers with a political calculus in which the rich are helped to become richer provided that they are silent as the lower 99 % see no wage improvement and find that benefits such as health insurance are cut back to the point where they are almost worthless.
Trump has weaponized the american economy and is using it to obtain his domestic and foreign agendas. The real question that confronts us is when will Republicans realize that they have become the party of corruption , when will they show shame, when will they stop acting as if this was a banana republic. Clearly with the coming elections it can only be hoped that Democrats will speak out loudly and clearly as most certainly republicans will not !
1
Republicans were never truly opposed to Government picking the winners and the losers. They were opposed to the choices not by Republicans. The corruption and the corrupting influence of the corruption will continue so long as the Republican Party remains a political force and minority rule by the Republican Party is facilitated by redistricting, the Electoral College, and ignorance.
2
Sometimes things get worse slowly, imperceptibly, unnoticed by most except by the most observant. Then the decay enters a fast, exponential phase where the approaching calamity is obvious to most except those willfully blinded by their own ambitions or interest.
With Trump in the White House, we are now in the exponential phase of this decay. If the 2020 elections don't put a stop to it, the US most of us have known will be no longer, replaced by some sort of authoritarian pseudo-democracy like Hungary, Turkey, and India. And the descendants of Marx, Russia and China will be celebrating--probably they already are laughing at the naive, inane and utterly vulgar behavior of Trump's GOP.
2
Before Trump was elected conservative economists went crazy over crony capitalism. They called Obama’s auto bail out just that.
And now? Crickets. Since Trump was elected I have not read a single piece in the National Review railing over the evils of the government picking winners and losers. I have not read anything about the moral perfection of the invisible hand.
Whatever principles the right had about free markets are gone. (Not that I agreed.)
3
The politics of this are simple really. Multinational corporations such as Apple, FIAT Chrysler, Nestles, Amazon, etc. have all but purchased the various governments where they operate. As "persons" they do not play by the same rules as small businesses or regular folk. Never, ever forget that they operate for the benefit of their shareholders, nothing more. To pretend otherwise is foolish.
3
“Trump is taking us along the same path already followed by countries like Hungary, which remains a democracy on paper but has become a one-party authoritarian state in practice. And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize.”
No Professor, Trump is the sewage that is causing the normal river of corruption that is US governance to overflow. In this, Trump is a symptom. Were the system not “bendable” then Trump couldn’t twist it.
2
While I agree with most of the comments here, there is an additional reason Trump is considering giving Apple exemptions from tariffs on parts imported from China -- because by taxing them he is giving unfair cost advantage to Samsung, a foreign company whose products are made in and imported from South Korea at lower duty rates. Tim Cook pointed out (discretely no doubt) the imbalance created and Trump responds by offering to cut a deal to repair the damage. It is an open admission of the stupidity of his whole economic agenda.
1
It's a worrying prospect to consider how many "Ukraine scandals" have passed us by without us noticing. The one common thread among all the testimony is that what happened with Trump/Zelensky is standard operating procedure.
There does not a appear to be a bottom to how low the GOP will go in order to deprive progressives any power in government. The party of men and women who loudly proclaim that "i stand for the flag" will happily turn around and call a patriot who's bled on the battlefield for his country a traitor. Devin Nunes is happy to interrogate career public servants whilst hiding the fact that he's been on "dirt digging" trips to Ukraine. Jim Jordan stands accused protecting sexual predators on a university campus and currently has no defense against those accusations.
Somehow, all of these things are now the actions of patriots. Somehow, anybody who finds these actions objectionable are engaged in a coup.
If the GOP are given a choice between embracing authoritarianism or losing democratically to the will of the people it is obvious which one they will choose. It is the responsibility of every thoughtful american to vote in every election. That is the last and only hope we have left.
1
I believe at one time people, half jokingly, referred to the Trump administration as a criminal enterprise. It’s no longer a joke. The description feels appropriate now more than ever. The best way to deal with this would appear to be the racketeering laws. Domestically as well as internationally the theme seems to be, give me what I want or something bad will happen to you. This looks very much like an old fashion protection racket. I believe most banana republics would be jealous of the level of corruption at Trump has instituted.
Always the same thing with Trump - and the craven lackeys who kiss up to him for fear of losing wealth and power. It shouldn't really come as any surprise that the 'thought leaders' of American business who always are looking for a way to dodge taxes, lower costs no matter whom it hurts, and, if they can get away with it, bribe foreign officials, would be only to play along with Don the Con. Soon enough we'll be looking to Mexico for advice about how to clean up our corruption.
Superb article, but one that will not change the thinking of one Trump supporter. No level of corrupt conduct, what you call crony capitalism, will influence one Trump voter. Keep writing the truth, and continue disclosing hidden corruption. In these times there is no other course of action for decent, rational individuals. Again, I fear we are all tilting at windmills.
2
This is naked, unvarnished corruption. Pure and simple. When you use your office to extract personal benefits, that is what it is. There is no need for an authoritarian state (a la Russia or Hungary) - this is eminently do-able in a democracy. Witness India over the past 70+ years. Politicians get away with it when the Judiciary allows them to (either because they do not have enough resource or they are themselves corrupt). But when the Judiciary wakes up (like in India recently) or remains alert (like it had been in the US till now), the politicians behave themselves - at least in public. India recently sent its ex-Finance Minister to jail - if the Judiciary in the US wakes up again, we could very well see a bunch of Cabinet ministers in orange garb.
Instead of meaningful public policy, which is the collective job of Congress and the President, what America has instead under Trump is loyalty policy to King Trump.
Companies that genuflect before Trump and his Mount Everest of lies, misstatements and frauds will be rewarded.
Companies that point out the truth will be punished.
Who needs public policy when loyalty, favoritism, and sycophantism have produced such wonderful historical results such as feudalism, monarchy and the Dark Ages.
Boy does this disaster need to be evicted from the Oval Office.
4
Mr. Krugman, you, again hit the bullseye. The extortion is remarkably blatant . Even the Building Trades Unions are complicit with this guy. And a considerable amount of the rank and file of other unions are ,so quietly, supporting him. We are being governed by weasels and hyenas. The kakistocracy is humming along.
3
Krugman makes a profoundly important point that was obvious to me the day it was announced that DT was going to visit the Apple facility in Texas. We simply can not have a country in which the President decides who gets tax breaks or tariff breaks based on who he likes or who does the best job of stroking his sick ego. As a long time (until Trump) Republican, Army officer in the Vietnam era, retired corporate executive, I find this kind of domestic deal making with industry (or any other party or institution) absolutely repulsive. Republicans must wake up to this sick ad hoc and arbitrary rule making at the highest level and ask themselves what this country is all about and what principles we really stand for.
Going forward, Presidential power needs to be revised. It just takes one maniac to demolish the supposed system of checks and balances. I've lost confidence in the Supreme Court, the Fed, the DOJ. Ambassadorships are clearly a pay for play. I've lost all respect for Tim Cook. Where's his principles?
1
It is called oligopoly and is practiced by the United Russia party in Russia. Putin's party. These policies are in lock-step with the US republican cult's policies as evidenced by the last 3 years of their rule. Lifting sanctions on russian oligarchs, refusing to believe US intelligence agencies instead of the FSB and GRU, anti-immigrant rules, pro-elite tax cuts, strong arm tactics, militarizing civilian police forces, etc.
This is the primary reason the republican's are so favorable to djt and his fealty to putin. They want some of the action. Greed. Greed. Greed.
Disgusting.
1
It is very dispiriting to watch this administration daily undermine nearly two and a fall centuries tradition, precedent, law and simply common decency.
It is a daily struggle to avoid despair and try to make an impact by speaking to Trump supporters and voicing concerns of, what appear to be obvious, outrageous, immoral, unethical or downright illegal actions committed in our name.
Like banging one’s head against a wall, the effort causes pain but barely makes an impact.
Nonetheless, doing nothing is unthinkable.
Leaving the stage to Trump and his sycophantic supporters is to collaborate in the downfall of all that is great in America.
1
Tim "Apple" might have appeased shareholders but his silence around felonious Trump is nothing short of sycophantic approval. Apple's record of working the US tax system to their advantage while not paying anywhere near their fair share of taxes and enabling the Chinese to work their Apple manufacturing workers to death is appalling enough. Apple, like Facebook and other tech giants, have sold their souls to Trump and Republicans to curry favor.
1
The repubs have never done anything for the 99% during modern times. But what have the dems done for us lately?
FDR and LBJ certainly helped their country with their programs but who lately? Exactly very few. Why? We are a plutocracy. Our government is owned by big money. Our politicians tell us what we want to hear and do what their big money lobbyists puppet masters tell them to do. Guess what, I'm betting nothing will change any time soon.
Thanks for keeping your eye on the ball, PK, revealing the TRUE pernicious effects of Trump's presidency instead of reacting hysterically to every tweet.
2
It's all about fear or fortune as it is known Trump was produced in the Queens NY crucible of criminal ways that we have long endured for decades. Trump is his upbringing. Funny how Trump never claimed he was honest. He always attacked his accusers, but he did deny collusion with Russia. He's a salesman. You don't get to be a Billionaire with heavy sales without being a good salesman. What you write of is Trump's overbearing Mafia style heavy salesmanship. Can we say it's illegal? Trump has his lawyers who likely advise him of the detours around law just as a Don's Consiglierie does. It may be to the letter of the law, but certainly not to the spirit of America. The unfortunate truth about our highly cherished freedom is that for those inclined to wrongdoing, it is a way for them to do bad things.
It’s always a bit comical to me when progressives claim to be have a plan that will “fix” business and corporations. Their pervasive view of corporations (and people) is that they are ATM machines for a clumsy and bloated federal government - hence the reason Warren and the leftists are sinking in the polls and Bloomberg is getting involved.
1
Republicans are the world's loudest marketer of "free market capitalism". And one of the loudest voices is working in the White House for Trump. Now where are those prim free market capitalists? My answer is that they are somewhere in Trump's person but writing where that is, is not permissible in this paper.
And meanwhile the Trump Party says absolutely nothing. It’s time to stop calling it the Republican Party and what it really is a party of sycophants worshiping at the alter of a Trump. I don’t see this ending well for our country or for the party of Trump.
Trump is merely the symptom of the malaise in USA. The rot of the system enables the egregious behaviors in politics and business. Morality is almost a dirty word. Lies, bribery, nepotism, cronyism, corruption, oppression, racism, greed, threat of violence, these former sins barely get a shrug from American public and media these days. That's the new normal from top to bottom. Forget moral leadership. If it is from bottom to top then USA is doomed. Still, people around the world are blinded by the "democracy" slogan. Democracy does not equate morality. Voters putting Trump in charge prove the case.
It absolutely galls me that the folks in high places, who could say something, simply don't have the underpinnings to do so. Nor do they have spines. This simply tells me that money is the most important thing to politicians and business. So much for voting. Time for everyone to lawyer up. This seems to be the trend of this administration. Everyone has a lawyer or two or three. We have become so pathetic.
2
Rewarding and punishing corporations based on their political behavior is bribery, pure and simple. Trump is the most corrupt President in the history of this country.
1
Trump does bribery with foreign powers and extortion, as he accepts election help from foreign powers(Russia and Ukraine). He is doing what he can to move America from an imperfect representative democracy to an autocratic state such as Hungary. Now, as Mr Krugman points out, his policies are tantamount to politically extorting US corporations. He bring fascism by government control of corporations and the financial sector. Check out the way he has berated Mr Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve. He attacks the press. Look at the formation of fascist regimes in Japan in 1941, China now, Germany in 1944, Italy in 1944. You will encounter the same process to forming those authoritarian states as the actions of Mr. Trump now. Treason is betraying one's country. Mr Trump acts like a dictator. I guess the Republican politicians have no problem with Trump's conspiracy with other nations to get elected. They have abandoned and betrayed our democracy. But that is that is our perspective who hold dear the principles of the US constitution. Understand their behavior from their point of view. The view of extreme right Republican politicians(almost all of them now) is intrinsically an authoritarian government. Democracy is their enemy. They tolerate it on paper so as to manipulate many US citizens. Of course, how could Trump commit any crime, even treason. Trump is above the law to them. He is their de facto dictator. To them, Trump couldn't betray the US. To them, he is their king.
Trump has gotten away with extortion and ignoring the Supreme court and he is getting bolder. It is as if he asks Putin what he can do next to punish the US and bring it down and then he follows Putin's orders. He could not think up all these destructive decisions himself. We are probably seeing only the tip of the iceberg. Trump has free reign and the destruction of the US is moving at a furious rate because there is no oversight. Trump wants to destroy and bring the US to its knees..Trump obviously hates democracy. He does not understand anything that is of a higher order. He only understands basic raw ideas, like force, extortion, pressure and bribery.He thinks he is king, his narcissism is in charge and we are gradually learning why this is called a disorder. He is a small minded dictator and must leave this powerful position that he should never have taken in the first place. Republicans who slavishly follow him must go as well. We need a clean sweep.
1
Now we learn that Trump punishes corporations for failing to show the proper fealty. This just after he damaged military morale by throwing order and discipline under the bus. He never takes any actions to strengthen the country. Just the opposite. He needs to be impeached.
So glad you brought this up. Steve Cook has shown that he is quite willing and adept at getting along with dictators. History has shown that a lot of money can be made, for a while at least, by snuggling up with strong men. The market is amoral but this, sadly, is no time for business as usual. I guess it's more ridiculous subscription TV for all of us as we try to block out this reality.
Trump and his GOP are shameless in their unethical behavior however pay for play and backroom deals catering to special interests are par for the course in our bribery ridden political system.
The moment Trump imposed tariffs, my Argentine dad said "This is just a way to make your family and friends rich and punish your enemies. It is what tariffs are used for in Argentina."
1
@Paul Krugman
Good points, to all readers who made comments.
Now help me out here Paul. Start by helping me explain how Sortition works, and how it would solve these problems our Democracy faces.
I can't do this alone. Please help.
"I’m not alone in wondering how many other comparable scandals haven’t come to light"
Yet. The dam is crumbling. The political question is: at what point will the GOP abandon Trump? How many more scandals and lies will it take? The tipping point can't be far away.
1
More troubling is that many Americans accept Trump's crimes. They knew he was a criminal when they elected him. Apparently, the Democrat alternative was considered worse.
Frankly, I have come to expect that almost anything Trump has a hand in is corrupt.
"Tim Apple" seems less and less intelligent all the time. His top design tem left Apple because of his policies and now he baby sits a "stable genius" for a career. When is Apple going to realize he is bad for their reputation and future, and fire him.
2
Trump spreading corruption, kakistocracy and nepotism. He is destroying our institutions and alliances, and reshaping our corporations in his foul image. The only beneficiaries of America's discomfiture and decay are those who wish us ill, such as the smirking Putin. And over the years the hard right of the Republican party made the election of a president such as Trump first conceivable and then possible. When Trump is gone, soon one hopes, let us not forget this fact.
Tim Cook is a coward. I am done buying Apple products. He is becoming a tool for trump's lies. If corporate America does not stand up to him, they deserve what they get when we finally have a different potus and party in charge. They will be viewed the same as as all the not honorable republicans who enable trump.
Threats, fraud, shakedowns, and outright criminality - plus sheer incompetence. Trump really is running the government the way he runs his businesses.
1
Trump used $400 million in taxpayer dollars to try and rig the 2020 election.
That's it in a nutshell, that's what has to be hammered home over and over again.
Everything else, quid pro quo, bribery and corruption, high crimes and treason, obstruction of justice, that's all bonus material, that can be added on but it must not obscure the core message above.
1
DJT and his administration demand unconditional loyalty. Give that to them and they hand you the keys to kingdom.
For example, DJT could care less about Hong Kong. But he uses it as a tool against China. Once the trade deal is signed, I bet you you will never hear about Hong Kong from this administration.
DJT is above the law, aided by the GOP.
Cook is an enabler of the egregious behavior taking place in the Oval Office and in the Republican Party. Is he just playing for time, thinking the 2020 election will rid his country of its greatest threat, or does he actually endorse the president's sordid administration? In either case, he's no profile in courage.
The Trumpification of America is very nearly complete. Let us count the ways.
Donald Trump is the warlord of the Republican Party. It bends to his will, fearing both his considerable wrath and his increasing might. Whatever policy that seeps out from underneath his hard shell of contempt and malice is not too great a task for Republicans on The Hill or in the many statehouses that have succumbed to his will.
In foreign policy, he has envied the reach and power of autocrats, wherever they are. Whether they rule in fear from Riyyadh or Moscow or Manila or Budapest or Pyongyang or Beijing, the American president is greedily copying their repressive governments for use here. He has pointed us in their awful direction.
When Americans protest police violence; gender identity attacks; abortion rights; the proliferation of guns, Donald Trump is in the forefront of rabid, snarling discontent. He demeans and attempts to diminish our political discussions. He has misused his office in the service of politicizing the judicial and military arms of American government to further his frightful ends.
So it comes as small surprise that he has made it his policy to pressure American commerce and industry to parrot his worldview. He is the incubus of the American Dream, savaging it by both night and day. “Cross me,” he seems to say, “and I can punish your bottom line.”
His fingerprints are all over the delicate wrappings of our democracy, busily tearing away our protections and our guides.
2
It is extremely disappointing that Tim Cook has become a willing participant in Trump's fake claims that he has created manufacturing jobs, pointing to a plant that opened in 2013. Cook should be ashamed of himself for caving to Trump's pathological lies and megalomania. Very disappointing, no matter if Cook thinks the Dictator will grant tariff relief. This should be brought up at the Apple shareholder meeting. Disgraceful.
This extortion and bribery of US corporatiions are impeachable abuses of power. They are part of a whole pattern that Congress should be investigating. Ukraine, just because it is a slam dunk, is not enough. The investigations must continue and be thorough. The voters, and the Senate, must be faced with the incontrovertible pattern of abuse and corruption.
I live in a Red state & know all the Republican talking points well. They rant & rave about 'crony capitalism' all the time as every single policy they support, primarily privatization of govt services, serves to create crony capitalists.
The crony capitalists donate to their campaigns, PACs and super PACs which keeps political support and it becomes a vicious, reinforcing cycle.
What I don't understand is why Democrats seem so totally unable to turn this hypocrisy against them....or, why the media rarely picks it up, much less exposes it.
What about the quid pro quo with SOTUS? Why are Trump’s taxes off limits to Congress and SOTUS decides? Will Kavanaugh and Gorsich recuse themselves?
"I know I’m not alone in wondering how many other comparable scandals haven’t come to light."
You certainly are not alone with that idea, Paul.
Yes on all counts especially referring to the Trump administration as a regime as opposed to what was formally a Presidency.
Well, at least those companies don’t constantly bombard us wth loud, intrusive advertising.
Rebecca Rivers , the Google engineer who had denounced Google's collaboration with ICE has been fired with 3 other engineers .
She is accused by Google of giving "private " protected internal data from the company to the press thus enfringing the "security rules " of the company !
Remember that it is Google's usual business to steal private data from citizens without telling them or asking them.
In that case Google had been unmasked by Rebecca Rivers to steal private data from immigrants to give it to ICE and have them deported, their families torn apart.
It is cynicism at its most extreme scale.
Let's recall also that Google is not fiscally a US corporation. It is registered in Ireland where it uses tricks to cheat and pay zero taxes while invading the European markets, stealing all advertising markets, stealing European citizens private data without respecting European laws and repatriating the cash through dubious banking operations via London and the US offshore banks in the Caribbean .
It is well documented that in a short period of 2018 Google extorted 20 billion dollars of benefice from the European market without paying 1 $ in tax to the EU budget .
1
Absolutely. Who else is getting pressured for Donald's personal benefit. Regardless of what the Senate does the Hoise MUST keep an eagle eye on Trump.
It's undeniable that there are many more deeply corrupt schemes already underway as planned and executed by Trump and his utterly amoral West Wing sycophants.
Why is this undeniable? Because Trump is a thoroughly-corrupt con man - and has been for all his adult life. It's the only way he knows how to operate.
Just ask the thousands of his former business partners, contractors and employees whom he stiffed over the last forty years as a "businessman" (six major bankruptcies should render the title of "businessman" oxymoronic).
This is why so many of us (those of us who had the intelligence and literacy to do our "due diligence" into Trump's widely- publicized life of fraud and scandal) just KNEW that Trump could never become the GOP's presidential nominee.
Then we just KNEW that the American electorate would be appalled by Trump's sordid, life-long trail of corruption - not to mention his profound ignorance, off-the-charts demagoguery and his blatant racism.
Now we know that Trump (with the help of Putin and Comey) slipped into the Oval Office because most of his supporters viewed his ignorance, vulgarity, corruption and bigotry as a FEATURE, rather than a bug. All in the service of their passion to "stick it to the Libs" - most specifically as revenge for an eloquent and urbane black president they despised for being "too uppity".
So yes, almost everything in the West Wing that Trump has his fingers in (both over and under the table) is corrupt.
It's all he knows.
Here are a couple of questions likely to irritate at least a few of us.
How many Polacks does it take to change a lightbulb?
How many Americans does it take to change our form of government?
The first question—politically incorrect today—has a funny punchline: Three: one to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder. (See Wikipedia.)
The second—politically correct—has an unfunny answer: Five: one to be president, one to be attorney general, one to be Senate majority leader, one to be Secretary of State, one to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and all five to turn our democratic institutions on their head.
Five is not totally correct, of course. The Republican bloc in the Senate now assists the Trump Revolution by constant, alternating spinning.
Can this small but entirely public cabal—plus Fox and friends, here and in Moscow—defeat the historical American Revolution, and again thwart will of the majority of modern day Americans?
So far this scary stress test is still inconclusive—and bloodless. I guess we should enjoy what may be the last peaceful Thanksgiving, provided we limit our conversations to the day’s gridiron bashings. Justice is still taking a knee.
There is nothing "squeeky clean" about Mr. Trump's presidency, and anyone whohas been paying attention knows this is true. But we all know that the abuse of presidential powers will not end until he is voted out of office by a clear majority in the Electoral College.
Those who support Mr. Trump will not budge. Those who believe he is destroying the American rule of law at home and abroad must get to the voting booths and overwhelm those who do not. Nothing else will matter now.
Once that is done, sane minds can begin to rebuild a democratic system which includes all voters. One that registers voters at birth and maintains a national database with national identity cards allowing all citizens over 18 to vote automatically. Such a system as is in place in most countries in the EU. It works and it gives voting percentages in the high 80s! If ALL AMERICANS VOTED WE WOULDNOT BE IN THIS MESS!
I wondered about what was going on with Apple.
Thanks for enlightening me.
Apple wants to keep its factories in China tariff free, and, if they kiss up to Trump enough, then, he will remove tariffs.
Very nice.
Not much we can do Paul. Your writing helps, because, at least now I know WHY Tim Cook was kissing up to Trump.
1
Tim Cook's pandering, deceitful conduct is actually worse than Trump's. We expect Trump to lie; Cook has chosen to join him in it.
The facility in Austin has been open for more than ten years, was expanded in 2014 (with a taxpayer subsidy), and has been operated by Flextronics, a global electronics manufacturing services company to assemble Mac Pro products in Austin using circuit cards and other assemblies from China.
After Trump gave Apple a tariff exemption for the Chinese cards and assemblies in September 2019, Apple merely switched from an EMS activity at this site to an in-house one.
Both Cook and Trump are three card monte men.
1
Well put. Fascism has often been described as corporatism with violence. We have the corporatism. People in the intelligence community probably know a lot more than the public ever will.
"... and [Trump] refused to release it [aid] unless Ukraine publicly said it was investigating one of his political rivals." No honest person would posit that Trump was intending on revoking this aid. Pretending otherwise is manipulative. Pretending that Trump's main objective was to spur a Ukrainian investigation of Burisma (Hunter Biden), rather then possible Ukrainian (CrowdStrike) involvement in the DNC server(s) hack, is also manipulative. This may very well be off-base and inappropriate. But so is the twisting the truth by our media and politicians in order to bring down the president. If they can do this to Trump they could do this to an FDR-like progressive... and they would.
It is not a good idea to allow a narcissist with comprehension problems who thinks he's king to chase all the adults out of the room, threaten his associates, and make his own decisions about everything. The man is a calamity and a force for destruction. He needs limits and they need to be iron clad ones. He is blind to anything that opposes his personal power as he sees it, which is as unlimited power. He has built a huge castle made of cards, but Republicans are terrified not to go along,and some have begun to believe him. All these weak people who traffic in magical thinking are threats to democracy and do not have what it takes to be in the White House. They must all be replaced with principled, patriotic people who understand the Constitution and believe in the rule of law. The White House is disgraced by its occupants today, and the US democracy is as threatened as it has ever been. We must rally together as a people and end this charade with determination and pride in our founding fathers who foresaw this day.
1
All this thanks to Trump voters. Their irresponsible votes will not be forgotten.
1
An article in Le Monde reveals that a security breach was discovered with 1 billion private data email addresses, phone numbers, etc...freely accessible in full public view.
The FBI had to shut the company's website down immediately.
It is one of these firms specialized in "data enhancement ". the multi crossing of private data to sell it back to tech companies who use it for advertising or who knows what .
Some firms have the equivalent of the whole European community private personal data in their coffers: more than 300 million individual accounts with law binding contracts saying that their use or resale is limited but who knows and who controls what . This is an extremely dangerous situation and there is no legal or institutional organization of policing .
https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2019/11/25/les-donnees-personnelles-de-plus-d-un-milliard-d-internautes-decouvertes-en-libre-acces_6020459_4408996.html
Another reason to not buy Apple!
The reason 45 is emboldened is that Dems have done questionable things in the past - no not nearly as bad. This president has lowered the bar twelve notches because of course he is a stable genius.
Only problem with this column is that the GOP senators and congressmen are also in on the graft. Follow the money is a cliché but just see who gets what from big business in the debt to Trump.
Oh and Trump supporters do not care because they are not getting anything so then nobody should, especially those elitist climate change cry babies and all those refugees getting welfare and free medical care and taking all the good jobs!!
Not only my generation but in generations after mine there are still Canadians who don't realize we are on average healthier, wealthier and better educated than Americans.
America knows how to misinform and manipulate its citizens. We are watching as citizens of our fossil fuel resource provinces are daily brainwashed by the World's Big Oil barons, the same folks that made Venezuela, Iran and Russia economic basket cases.
I would like to blame the Trump administration and the GOP but anyone who has paid attention to Davos realizes the game has spun out of human control.
When you rent computer space across the street from the stock exchange because you order gets there a fraction of a nanosecond sooner you are doing your patriotic duty or you are mad.
You are no wiser than your fellow citizens in Trump country. Do you have any reason to believe that they love America? I suspect they know Trump much better than I know him.
This isn't a battle of ideologies , policies or philosophies.
The question I ask is when did so many Americans fall in love with the supervillains trying to tear apart their richest most powerful country in the world.
I can't understand why anyone could think Trump conned anybody, he let you know from the beginning who and what he is. Trump doesn't even pretend to care about your America.
2
If Trump and his accomplices in the Ukraine scandal were jailed and given one lash for each Ukrainian soldier who died while U.S. military aid was delayed, how many lashes would they get? Or if Trump was lashed for every farm bankruptcy resulting from his trade war with China? Or lashed for every dollar added to the price of an American vehicle by his tariffs on steel and aluminum? Maybe Harley Davidson was wise to move some of its production to Europe.
1
Did anyone else think it was odd how Trump launched this peculiar and economically harmful trade war with China, apropos of nothing?
Does ANYONE doubt that he did it because Putin told him to?
I recall a photo here several years back of Trump in the foreground and Tim Cook beside him at his left side smiling widely at Trump's early pro manufacturing conference in the White House. Obviously a smile works every time, doesn't it?
And while all this is going on domestically, Trump and his allies are pushing the fiction that he was interested in rooting out corruption in Ukraine.
Watching Tim Cook of Apple kowtow to Trump was scary. It says a lot about the corruption, bribery and extortion at the core of the Trump admin.
Once we worried about business controlling government. With Trump we have government blackmailing business. It's closer to fascistic corporatism than to normative capitalism.
"Tim Cook's incentive to play along was obvious."
I bet if you asked Cook if he felt pressure, he'd say , "No,...No pressure".
So in summary, Republicans and their administrations are not allowed to mistreat Corporations, only DEMOCRATS are allowed to mistreat Corporations.
You can say a lot about Krugman, but you can never say he ain't a hypocrite.
1
Build that wall and let's start lining up republican legislators...
I hope Krugman or someone will organize and publish a future analogous article about how this administration has been giving the 50 united states “the Ukraine treatment”. Has anybody noticed that “red” states lately seem to consistently benefit from superior federal government support and largesse, while “blue” states seem to be selectively relegated to second class? Providing substantial subsidies to the heartland to counteract the economic effects of tariffs while scoffing at California wildfires just seem like more demonstrations of “quid pro quo” to me.
His business, politics, foreign policy, and personal space violations demonstrate his lack of boundaries, ethical, moral or otherwise.
Will he pardon sex offenders who have been treated "very badly" in a new gaslighting?
How sad to see a spineless Tim Cook. I wonder what Steve Jobs would have done. Certainly nothing this spineless. It may be time to start thinking about ditching the iPhone.
Republicans seem to be ok with anything under trump no matter what. Where are the ethics, morals, integrity? November 3, 2020 can’t come soon enough.
The Apple board of directors should be asking for Tim Cook's resignation because he stood silently and let Trump LIE about a plant that opened in 2013 in order to dodge U.S. imposed tariffs on his Chinese manufacturing.
To Tim Cook: Have you no decency, sir? Trump assuredly does not.
The House will impeach, the Senate will acquit, and then even more misconduct and criminality will come to light, what do we do then?
Krugman writes: "Trump officials claim, of course, that the decision process [giving contract to Microsoft rather than Amazon was squeaky-clean, based on expert judgment untainted by any political influence. "
This reminds me of Trump's promotion of his Doral resort for the G7 meeting. When it was announced and critics had the temerity to suggest that it was self-dealing Trump expressed amazement, explaining that a rigorous vetting process had resulted in the selection of Doral.
Well after Trump in the face of ridicule said he would forego Doral did it come out that Doral was only a last minute addition to the four venues that had been rigorously screened. The Secret Service noted that Doral would present "challenges" were it selected. (https://nypost.com/2019/11/16/trumps-doral-resort-was-added-as-possible-g-7-site-at-last-minute-secret-service-email-reveals/)
Is there anything that comes out of the WH that can be believed?
It's deeper than the recent Trump coercion's.
It's the 911 attacks and the Patriot Act that focused more assets on we Americans than was called for. We were obliquely suspected or blamed for the attacks. What did that tell all of you? Do you wonder?
It was the Wall Street empires than controlled the cuffs of debt to negate nearly impossible to track cash with records of all our vastly innocent purchases and activities.
Trump is the Wall Street Elite. He is "The Wall".
We are the treasure.
We are the slaves. Television is his Ukraine treatment.
The day Trump is in jail , there must a day light massacre where every Trump Toady should be immediately fired with no pension . The company should be fined and the boards repacked( those who did not object) . Rules only seem to apply to the little people in CEO LAND.
1
Top-down political control over semi-dependent corporations is known as a specific type of political-economic system: fascism.
Cook doesn't correct trump because he wants exemptions from trumps tariffs on China, ya know, like Ivanka got. Makes it hard to have any confidence in Apple. Cook didn't even correct trump when he called him Mr. Apple. So false information is now trump's coin of the realm. You either play along, or he is out to hurt you. Like he gave the bigly computer contract to microsoft instead of Amazon. With no tears for Amazon, but trump can't handle the truth the Wash Post tells and here we are again, down the rabbit hole of trump's world of lies. Which suits the corrupt GOP because lying is their speciality. Like Nunes, claims he didn't go to Vienna last year to meet the corrupt prosecutor from Ukraine as Lev Parnass testified, but there's his expense report for his trip to Vienna. So he goes to commit a crime, denies it, but wants to get reimbursed for it. This is what defines Republicans today.
We are still in the early stages of totalitarianism, where we give wry praise to business leaders like Cook clever enough to "play along."
Eventually we'll recognize them as selling their souls despite initial apprehension and distates, like Gustav Krupp.
1
Once a political party fully embraces and wallows in a thuggish political culture, is it ever possible for it to redeem itself by electing honorable men and women as leaders? Or are we to expect political thugs of the worst order to compete to occupy the "throne" of such a party?
1
We DO teach ethics in business school. Seems some need a refresher course.
Paul suggests Apple is bending to “politics”. That is redefining “politics”, the art of the possible, to mean rule by the mob, by graft, by extortion.
Unfortunately, maybe not a redefinition after all.
1
When the Republicans can repeat, over and over, that the Russian support of Trump's election was a hoax in the face of much evidence to the contrary . . .
And repeat that the shameless shakedown of the Ukrainian president to bring down Joe Biden, who at the time was clobbering Trump in the polls, is an insignificant sham . . . .
And repeat that never will the Senate Republicans vote to convict and remove Trump from office . . . .
Then we have lapped the Hungarians -- and are now only a democracy on paper.
Trump will stop targeting California if its residents start praising him. Isn't this another quid pro quo? Definitely thuggish - I won't break your knees if you do what I want.
In the world of household pests, the old adage goes that if you "See one rat, five are in your home".
Ironically, If Trump were just a little less the braggart, grifter, crybaby that he is, The Republicans would have maintained majority in the house. And ner the word 'Impeachment' threaten to spoil his averous today.
But, of course vigilance must be maintained. Biological science tells us that a single pair of rats produce 50 in a year's time.
1
A better question for a lot of Americans is: why the heck are we giving half a billion bucks away, while the roads are crumbling, and the inner-city kids go hungry in THIS country?!
I can only applaud Dr Krugman for his innumerable and consistent articles exposing the infantile (yet deliberate)
La-La Land policies and lunatic stratagems emanating from Trump’s Whitehouse
Public TV hearings of the House Impeachment enquiry have opened a window on the normally closed
world of Washington proceedings. The focus on the corruption and venality of the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukrainian
plutocrats has exposed the “backdoor” machinations of Rudy Guillianni and the rogue wing within the White House. Just another example of the chaos and disorder rampant within the current Whitehouse “administration”.
Gordon Knox
Trump is not following the Ukrainian model, he is following the russian one.
Be nice to Putin, and you will get rewarded with state contracts and enjoy impunity.
Dare to criticise him, and you will get the Khodorkovsky/Yukos treatment: accusations of corruption, tax evasion… to ruin you and push you abroad. You might even end up dead like Berezovsky and many others.
1
Tim Cook has turned Steve Jobs APPLE upside down. It’s now a force of no-good.
1
You are wrong. Republicans will see this as a crime when a Democrat does it. But otherwise, well said Mr. Klugman.
And it started right out of the gate. What was the first major policy that Trump implemented? He passed a massive tax cut for corporate America that blew a huge hole in the budget. Now why would he do that?
It was a bribe. See how good I am for you? Stick with me and it will only get better for your bottom line. And if you see me do things that may upset you, just don't worry about it. And they all bought it, swallowed it all and asked for more.
Once you dance with the devil, he never lets go. Now they are all hooked on Trump. But the devil always takes back what he gives. Trump wants tariffs so if you want relief, you give me what I want.
This is how Trump operates, how he has always operated. The people of New York know all about it. Now, the rest of world does too. So, ya wanna dance?
1
I'm not too surprised about Tim Cook, who's as crassly mercenary as Trump. Someone who's comfortable with children manufacturing their products for slave wages, and then selling them for a fortune, should get along swimmingly with a creature that rips babies from their parents and puts them in cages.
More Krugman nonsense. Hey Professor, did you see where Bloomberg has jumped into the race?
What does that tell you about the Democrat lineup?
What we are seeing over and over again stems from the original sin committed in electing Trump. We elected a mobster-type president under the guise of "he'll straighten out Washington," or "he'll throw a malotov cokctail into the system," or he's a wrecking ball that will be good for American politics," or "he's a businessman who will make great deals for us," or similar types of thoughts.
That thinking, combined with the narrative gaining traction that Hillary Clinton was a cheating, lying and untrustworthy candidate, created the explosion we got, Trump.
It all starts from the poorly reasoned and uninformed (no taxes were submitted by one candidate) decision-making that this country irresponsibly arrived at. The country gets stupid, daily, by a loss of critical thinking imposed in the shenanigans of a king-like president that turns minds to mush.
“Even Republicans understand this; they just think it’s O.K.”
Huh?
No, they don’t acknowledge understanding it.
No, they don’t think it’s okay.
They don’t make moral or ethical judgments one way or the other because they have no standards of morals or ethics. It’s tactical. It keeps them on the road to fascist rule that they’ve been on for four decades. Until that becomes the American narrative, the path to fascism will continue uninterrupted. And since it won’t become the America narrative, we can kiss the country goodbye. RIP.
1
I wonder what Steve Jobs would have made of Trump? Cook continues to disappoint.
We are witnessing the result of decades-long lax enforcement of laws against white collar crime. In America, rich white men do not go to jail. Trump knows this and acts with impunity.
The Trump Organization operated as a criminal organization for years without being slapped with the RICO it so richly deserves. Now the corrupt TO has infected the American government. Trump is trying to create an interlocking network of dependency and corruption, so that, yes, he -can- shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and walk away unscathed.
Americans worry about the chokehold of the military-industral complex. You ain't seen nothin' yet...
I wish the news media (except FOX, of course) would give Trump less “air” time. Tell us what he said, if you must, but then fact check it immediately. So, the media can tell us about Trump’s trip to Texas and his visit to an Apple plant. Tell us the president said it just opened, if you must. But then, follow it with the “by the way,” Apple opened the plant in 2013. If you want to add a little jab, note it was when Obama was president. Of course, such editing and truth telling might cause Trump to add a few TV stations to his “enemy” list. This “one-party authoritarian” needs to be impeached. Will the GOP place America’s democracy ahead of the Trump-Putin team?
1
Trump's voting base is at home with the idea of a king. Fits with the idea of a 'Chosen One' or a 'King Cyrus.'
1
Excellent article Mr. Krugman.
It should be read by every American to balance the drumbeat of right-wing misinformation.
Unfortunately the New York Times has been banned from Citrus County (Florida) Libraries.
The County Commission at first declared it "anti-trump", but later said the county cannot afford the subscription.
This is trump's America, coming to a county near you?
Lyndon Johnson used every form of leverage at his disposal to achieve his political goals but those goals, however reviled his Great Society programs may be these days on the right, were big and just. It is a tragedy that he felt he had to get sucked into Viet Nam to advance his domestic agenda. But Trump is only about Trump. He uses the powers of the presidency corruptly to advance himself and his family, not the country. Because of his narcissism, he is also very easily played which is why I imagine both Vladimir Putin and Tim Cook would be delighted to see him reelected.
He’s beats you to every turn, how’s that stock market collapse you predicted working out?
"We do this all the time" Mick Mulvaney
I know next to nothing about Apple Head Tim Cook. But when he let stand Trump's blatant lie about one of his factories, I learned all I need to know:
Tim Cook is both rich and morally bankrupt.
Sound familiar?
1
Google just fired 4 engineers for their militant contestation of Google practices. One of them was the software engineer lady who had unmasked the collaboration of Google with the Trump administration, notably with ICE .
Google delivering private data collected in the immigrant communities to ICE .
It is in Le Monde this morning. I have not seen it in the US press.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2019/11/26/fronde-chez-google-des-employes-contestataires-licencies_6020571_3234.html
1
Making an example of Jeff Bezos by awarding the JEDI contract to Microsoft instead of the expected Amazon does not go unnoticed in the American corporate leadership community.
"Pay to play," kickbacks, bribes, board placements, insider "news," country club deals, super-PAC contributions, can become the new normal of American business behavior.
The "Tax Reform Act of 2018" has certainly had winners and losers.
Because of the deductibility cap upper bracket taxpayers in high State and Local tax locations have paid more Federal taxes on their "double taxed phantom income." Adding insult to injury, these Blue state taxpayers see their tax dollars being siphoned off to pay for needs in undertaxed tax Red States.
The corporate tax break has given US multinational corporations billions to pad their bottom lines, pay higher dividends and bonuses, and juiced their share values, but precious little to invest in US manufacturing facilities and pay raises for workers.
Real estate investors have been rewarded, but somehow low income Americans in most major US cities can't find any affordable low income housing.
Meanwhile, the Federal regulatory agencies that were built to protect Americans have been gutted and political appointees have replaced civil servants who know how to interpret and enforce the law.
Trump Tweets dominate newspaper columns, while less telegenic news affecting more Americans goes unreported. EPA air and water, food inspections, FAA safety, and more.
1
As economist Anne O. Krueger has pointed out, over 50,000 requests for steel tariff waivers were requested as of last March. How much should a company spend on Trump campaign donations? 10% of hoped for profits if they get the tariff waiver? 20%? Small companies may have to spend even more.
3
Has it always been this way, meaning previous presidents use their office and power to reward businesses that support the administration. From my readings this isn't new, just has grown in size. So we are reminded by PK that from the very beginning of our national government that favoritism is the basis of political parties. Seems this article should be followed by a article on what Congress is doing to prevent lobbyists from buying off politicians. Or, are we saying it is just the same thing Trump does to grow the GOP. Which is worse, that we do it, or that we don't do anything to stop it? Is there a double standard here? Hungary gets criticized for it, yet in the U.S. we show Cook and Trump doing the same thing and consider it just normal.
43
@Me Too
No president has ever used a foreign policy strategy that strongly harms our allies and most important trading partners abroad, only to be able to give waivers to America's biggest companies IF in return they accept to politically and publicly support him.
What exists (and that's bad, but totally not comparable/equivalent in nature) is US companies giving unlimited donations to political campaigns, which then of course means that they get privileged access to that politician once he's elected.
BUT:
1. this only exists because of the SC Citizens United ruling, which is once again a Republican/conservative decision, that Democrats strongly oppose (Pelosi already passed a bill in the House that would end it, and end other corrupt forms of campaign financing ... but the GOP Senate refuses to allow a vote on it, and Trump obviously opposes it).
2. in itself, it does not necessarily mean that once elected, a politician will behave in a corrupt way, as privileged access does not necessarily mean bending new bills in their favor.
We're not talking about earmarking bills here though. We're talking about a huge foreign policy decision, coupled with explicit public support of both the president and his lies.
That's why there is no equivalency at all here.
18
@Ana Luisa
Correction: my first sentence above should have been:
"No president has ever used a foreign policy strategy that strongly harms our allies, our most important trading partners abroad, and our own biggest and smaller companies, only to be able to give waivers to America's biggest companies IF in return they accept to politically and publicly support him."
5
@Me Too
False equivalency, Me Too.
Kinda like saying jaywalking and murder are both crimes, so what's the difference?
11
And these examples are of large companies with tremendous resources. It would only take a whisper to put my small company out of business which is why I do my very best to not take sides in any political discussion - regardless of the party in power or the country.
83
The real question left is that even after we get rid of Trump, can we return to good governance? Once a rule is willfully broken without consequences; it will be broken again.
218
@Peter You are spot on--the Senate will not impeach Trump and by doing so the GOP is saying that using federal dollars to bribe a foreign country to participate in undermining a forthcoming election is fine. This will be the new standard of governance--what Trump does will become the new norm. The same is true with the tolerance of Trump's undermining the military structure, his changing civil service jobs into political appointments, etc., etc. Americans, hang your head in shame--not only did you elect Trump but you elected a Senate that will approve everything he wants.
17
We can’t.
2
@Peter Our Constitution was always fatally flawed in that it never had any way to safely get out of a Trump-situation. What’s amazing is that it’s lasted as long as it has, dependent as it was on unwritten rules and presumptions that nobody would ever actually do X or Y or Z. And then Trump. My presumption has been that the inevitable crossing of those red lines was avoided only because of a few existential crises that temporarily reset our national psyches, particularly the Civil War and the Great Depression/WWII. My fear is that we have no good way to avoid Constitutional collapse short of another existential crisis on that scale (and the good luck that we had to survive those earlier examples), and neither of those are appealing paths to me. I hope I am wrong.
7
"And remember, the Ukraine scandal made it into the public eye only because a single whistle-blower set an investigation in motion."
A sidebar, maybe, but still constrained to point it out: what various and numerous PT supporters have made clear is the whistle-blower outed, would be confronted and excoriated whether or not formally interrogated. IMO also likely to be assaulted and possibly assassinated. Maybe her/his relatives as well.
The point? Don't let some angels- on-the-head-of-a-pin legal analysis, which might somehow judicially vitiate the protections of whistle-blower laws, stand in the way of protecting this person at all costs. Vigilantism? Perhaps. But the rightest of the right things to do.
1
Trump is often seen as a solo, self-focused grifter, but the most striking fact about his operation is its scope.
On the personnel side, we know from the last weeks of hearings and surrounding reports that many of the most powerful figures at top end of the government --- from the Vice President to the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, to the director of the OMB, to important members of Congress --- are not just nodding onlookers or yes-man enablers, but active participants on the ground. Then there are the extra-governmental 'personal' agents like Giuliani.
Krugman reminds us that the activities involve just the internatonal manipulations we know about, but also large-scale schemes of reward and punishment striking at major private corporations.
Overall, the Trump team is beginning to look like a replacement for the government rather than a version of something we're familiar with. It's far from clear how these operators, like unwelcome guests who have taken over the household, can be made to go away.
9
One aspect of this that bears considering. Most big corporations are, well, big. Far more powerful than one man. And they have been around long enough to understand how the game is played. Every one of these corporations know Trump will not be there forever. They will do what is in the corporation's best interest. They may be willing to kiss the ring. But they will not drop to their knees for Trump or any one else. Their goal is to come out more profitable next year than this. They will only go so far in helping Trump. They are very good at making it look like they care about Trump when he is just another piece of overhead they have to figure into the calculations. Like advertising or utilities. These companies and their CEO's didn't get where they are today trusting guys like Trump. I can just imagine what they have to say about him out of earshot. "What a nice guy" is not the first thing that comes to mind.
100
@Walking Man Dark Money boughy GOP. Trump happened to be included, but has been a great, but dangerous asset.
8
@Walking Man
Corporations don't have knees.
What Trump wants is for them to publicly speak well of him and "his economy", and make campaign contributions. Trump is getting what he wants, he doesn't need any "ring kissed".
1
Ask yourself: where are Republican Senators (Rob Portman) and American corporate leaders (Jamie Dimon) in the face of Trump's onslaught against all of our institutions of society, economic, political, cultural, governmental and legal?
It's why people like Michael Bloomberg and, yes, even Tom Steyer, are Important voices to be heeded. They have an insider's perspective on Trump's malfeasance, as does Portman, who served as budget director and head of the OMB earlier in his career. We need lots more people who do know better to break ranks to help save the nation.
Absent even a peep of protest from within the GOP and corprorate America, the U.S. is well on its way to being a corrupt, authoritarian state. No exaggeration.
221
@PaulB67 I don't understand why the current Democratic candidates are so condescending to the two financially successful business men running against them. How can they say they will work with American businesses when they insult their own party members who happen to be business leaders.
11
@PaulB67 We already are a corrupt authoritarian state. Agree on Steyer.
3
@PaulB67
I can tell you where Portman is: hiding in the weeds hoping nobody better or prettier appears before 2024. He knows there's nothing he can say, nothing he can do that will not end up getting him in some sort of trouble.
Just watch what happens to that fool Nikki now that she has proclaimed herself the avatar of gracious political acumen and diplomacy. Old Miss
"...those who don't have our back, we're taking names..."
Yeah, grace like a mob gorilla at Big Spec's cousin's birthday. Pure class wrapped up in a big ball of ego and heedless international arrogance. Like we need more Trumpishness out there wrecking alliances.
No...Rob felt the heat over that sudden-conversion-from-wanting-all-gay-people-to-die thing when sonny boy came out. He knows silence is his best friend.
Whatever happens to the country in the meantime? From the Portman perspective, well, it is what it is. You know? Just leave him alone.
7
Since Citizens United I thought the "quid pro quo" between business and politicians was pretty much out in the open. Democrats have been a bit more discreet - but really do you think no bankers were jailed after 2008 because there was no justification? The GOP has been more open about it and Trump has now internationalized it. Non-establishment Democrats have realized this for a long time and this was finally made clear in the 2016 election. The Obama administration did very little for those middle and lower class homeowners slammed by the 2008 crash and Hillary paid the price and Trump raked in the pot. Biden's early success in the polling makes me wonder if Democrats have still failed to learn the lesson and are set to give us 4 more years of Trump!
4
Sarah Chayes wrong a book called "Thieves of State", not talking about America at the time. But she was prescient in her account of all the institutionalized corruption she has encountered in her career reporting around the world.
The most salient point she makes is that the very worst of these countries are the ones who take for granted that nothing can be done about the trickle down extortion, bribery and corruption experienced from the top down!
The people have given up and have become active participants in the "system" as an exercise in survival.
Corrupt systems steal everything from the poor and middle classes and lodge it in the corporate and banking systems, supported by corrupt laws and held in the hands of the mega rich. And it is those same people who control where the changes in laws and the judiciary take us. This system will continue until some catastrophe overtakes the country in question. So where are we America?
3
"We are much further down that road than many people realize."
A very alarming reality. I suspect most Americans envision that a loss of democracy would look like a coup or violent revolution, but it doesn't have to. This administration absolutely acts like a totalitarian government, from the complete abandonment of truth to the utter disregard for the rule of law. If enough Americans will tolerate this, bingo! No more democracy.
450
@Matt What makes this even more alarming is that this wanna-be totalitarian government is headed up by a man who doesn't read, doesn't know history, is an awful business person, doesn't listen to expert advice - in other words a completely inept leader. If people/businesses cater to his whims instead of fighting back they are just as guilty of destroying our democracy as he is. Frightening!!
30
@Matt Exactly correct. Hitler, Mussolini, and Chavez (probably others) all took power in peaceful transitions where the people and the legislatures simply gave the powers of government to the emerging dictator.
33
@Matt
"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
TS Elliot
The Hollow Men
27
Let's view this from another angle. The President represents a party that has demonstrated going back at least to Richard Nixon that it values its own survival ahead of the survival of the United States (the flag pins are unintentionally ironic). When Ronald Reagan showed his contempt for US law by illicitly providing missiles to Iran, a public enemy he excoriated regularly, in order to then illegally divert that money to buy weapons for Central American thugs responsible for murdering civilians and clergy alike, the nation shrugged. Isn't this what Republicans do? was the unspoken question.
So, considering that Americans know how self-satisfied Republicans attach themselves like patriotic barnacles to corporate power and international strongmen (we act like Trump, when kissing the rings of despots, isn't following the GOP script--remember the Bush administration hustling Saudis into the international departure lounge right after 9/11--a curious priority when New York City was still covered in ash), shouldn't we accede to what's become an American reality, that through "contributions," crony capitalism has recast our government in its own image, with Koch and Halliburton quid pro quos the lifeblood of reelection campaigns?
I am reminded of the Monty Python protection racket sketch. Trump comes to Apple and says, "Nice little company you have here, Tim. It would be a shame if anything happened to it."
Now tell me that that scenario sounds far-fetched. Alas.
20
The end result of this is that we become like Russia. Imagine it: A former scientific super power, we focus on extractive industries and fail to lead the green revolution. Our most talented scientists and innovators move to other countries, where their efforts are more appreciated and better funded. New small businesses are crushed by giant monopolies that owe their allegiance to our dictatorial strong man leader. Most of the wealth is in the hands of the oligarchs, who are kept on a short leash by our dictator. Elections are just for show. The dictator controls the military and the press. Political enemies disappear, or have tragic “accidents”. The economy stagnates and wages drop like a rock.
15
Far and away the most lobbying money flows from big business to Trump GOP republicans to buy political influence. Sure it happens on the Democratic side, but in a far less organized and institutionalized way.
The left used to have union money - but that has diminished greatly - so the money balance is now so far out of balance and is made far worse by Citizens United. Maybe Bloomberg is at least part of the answer, at least in this election. Someone has to tackle or outspend Trump.
12
This is not just a Trump issue. We are naive if we believe only Trump uses leverage in negotiations, especially with businesses.
It's a Congressional balance of power issue.
Congress writes such weak laws, that the Executive branch needs to promulgate extensive regulations. Those regulations can be easily manipulated to the president's viewpoint.
Congress has given up the power of tariffs.
Congress has given up their oversight functions.
As we move toward authoritarianism, don't just blame Trump for taking advantage of it. Blame Congress for allowing it in the first place. Members on both sides of the aisle think of themselves as Dems or Republicans first, and Congresspersons second. Wrong order for a strong democratic republican form of government.
Negotiation is the heart of compromise. Leverage is at the heart of power. We can pretend that these doesn't exist in good government, but that is ignoring reality. Sure Trump has pushed the boundaries way to far. But that's because the boundaries have been so weakened.
I urge all of you to remind your representatives of the proper order of their loyalty.
1
To your point, Prof Krugman, it's worth pointing out that foreign aid money appropriated by Congress for military equipment i.e. security assistance is largely spent in the United States and profoundly affects the American economy. One Congressman interviewed on cable news was asked, "when did you know the aid [to Ukraine] was being withheld?" His reply, "when we started hearing from the defense contractors, asking what was happening with the orders."
Who knows at what level Raytheon or Lockheed Martin was making inquiries, but assistance to Ukraine and other countries affects American products, American workers and American jobs.
12
Trump has a lot of great ideas for big business. Remember when he floated that plan to include Russian intelligence in plans to boost election cyber-security?
39
Read Thomas Piketty new book : " Capital and ideology " .
The history of capitalism throughout the world. Highly documented with a double volume of data from different economies .
A 10 year work assemblage .
A must if you want to understand how the economy of today works in continuity with its history and its predictable doom that was envisioned by Karl Marx in the 19th century .
6
The "cult of the presidency" has all but guaranteed that a Trump-like POTUS would come along sooner or later.
Trump is nadir of what Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. wrote about in the 1973 book, "The Imperial Presidency".
The very first POTUS issued 8 Executive Orders while Carter in his 4 years issued 320.
Many of these Orders were more or less benign -- Obama issued one creating national monument in Maine -- but all of them to some extent circumvent Congress.
There are many other examples of imperial behavior, undeclared wars come to mind.
12
@john huppenthal -- trying to figure out whether Trump 's administration has been "good for the economy."
It depends, of course, on:
1) How we think about "the economy". Are we looking at the stock market and corporate earnings or budgets of most families, debts of students and former students. Are we looking at rural communities, urban centers, or suburbs? Only if we seriously parse out what we mean by "the economy" will be able to find agreed upon factors and have a reasonable discussion.
2) How we decide which statistics to use. If we use numbers beginning with the worst of the 2008 deep recession and then look at the end of the Obama administration we get one trajectory -- glorious growth and success. If we begin sometime during the late Obama administration after the damage had already been corrected, and then go to a point where that levels off or dips for a while, we get another picture.
3) And then there is that part of our lives that can be called economic in a broader sense (the customs and history of a nation to guide production and distribution of goods along with all its consequences) -- well-being, health, civic harmony, quality of life. Earning $1 million but living on polluted land with toxins in your water, air that chokes you, and food that makes you sick, is not real success. And this does not even take into account whether we are freely governing ourselves and have a fair set of institutions and rules and laws within which to lead our lives.
24
It is the new American " triangular trade " . The US Tech corporations order from the US products to be fabricated in China at way below minimum wage cost in slavery sweat shop factories , then settle themselves fiscally in Europe to cheat and pay zero taxes while invading the European markets with illegal hegemony practices and stealing private data, to finally launder the money in their friend country capital London to ship it back secretly in cash to the USA ( with stolen private data ) via the semi illegal US offshore banks hidden in the Caribbean.
The American 21 st century revival of the 17th century slave trade .They don't transport the slaves any more , they just transport the products from who is forced to work to whom is forced to buy and they use the stolen cash to speculate on the economies to weaken them and enslave them even more .Good old protestant capitalist ideology.
17
@JPH The interesting thing is that the West Indies ( as they called them ) have kept today the same geographical function of trade pivot. It is where the crime gets fructified by reshuffling the stolen cash into new speculative markets : real estate, hedge fund manipulation of foreign industries, stock re-investments, etc...
6
I am continue to upset friends with some analogies: Mr.Trump is constantly expanding his powers, is using tariffs to artificially control markets and therefore pricing of domestic products independent of their quality, is handing out support money for products nobody wants anymore, is increasing the “supervision” of average citizens and companies, is trying to suppress the free press and seems to be involved in bribery and extortion schemes, loves military parades (and the list could go on...) - all things typical not only for authoritarians but also real world “communists”. The next logical step will therefore be the manipulation or suppression of free elections...and we are way further down that path than we realize at this time.
31
Dr. Krugman discussed Trump's shaking down US Corporations for support, or, at least, lack of criticism. He can dole out goodies (lucrative Government contracts, tariff relief), or punishment (no contracts, tariffs). My question is, where is the line drawn, or do we even have lines drawn anymore, when it comes to the President's behavior. He shakes down companies, states (he had threatened to withhold Emergency Aid to California, a very "Blue" state, to fight wildfires). He shakes down foreign Governments. And all of this, he does in our name. Is there no limit? He has cowed Republicans, so he will not be removed by them. Are we stuck with a criminal shakedown artist as our leader for the forseeable future?
33
@Michael Yep, as a mostly lifelong Californian, his blatant threats of withholding funds to the state that pays the most into the national treasury because we didn't vote for him really hit home for me. But he needs us more than we need him at this point, Nunes and McCarthy notwithstanding. When he comes to The Golden State, he should buck up his security detail. Most of us are hostile to his brand of POTUS.
11
As I read this article I couldn't help thinking of the reverse of its premise, and its false equivalency. Here's a politician shaking down a corporation(s) that has participated in bribery and extortion of its own, albeit legally, to get what it wants. Apple and Amazon are perfect examples of corporations that has used their vast wealth (Apple at one time sitting on 1 $trillion in cash) to shake down our elected officials (by extension, us) and put the strong arm on them.
In the case of Amazon, here is a corporation who's owner is worth $120 billion and had to be forced by the public shaming campaign and other threats of legislation by Bernie Sanders to pay his workers a living wage. And it threatened Seattle to abandon a minuscule tax on large corporations to help deal with the homeless problem there. Sort of a "Nice city you have here, we would hate to see anything happen to it" kind of thing. So, no Mr. Krugman, I don't fully buy your premise here. Politicians are allowed, and expected, to wield the power of the purse and legislation to keep corporations in check and to make sure they do what's right for us, not necessarily them. Presidents and politicians have been doing it for years, or at least they use to until they started being bought off with legal bribes to look the other way and to give them huge tax breaks and relax regulations. Joe Biden and Clinton were instrumental in overturning the Glass-Steagall Act, which helped lead to the banking crisis.
9
@FXQ None of this excuses what Trump is doing. He is not keeping corporations "in check". He's keeping them under his boot.
2
@FXQ Trump is not using his office to curtail corporate power. He is using his office to award corporations (and likely foreign powers) who will act or refrain from acting in a way that benefits his own political franchise and, more often than not, his business concerns.
First a coded message about the Civil War, now a veiled message about fascism. I do believe Krugman has the makings of a revolutionary. To get the wheel spinning in our alternative facts universe, the friction of propaganda must be overcome, not an easy task. O’Brien and Goldstein and Big Brother. It has happened here.
4
@Thomas
I'm afraid that bold truth-telling is just the beginning of what is needed to save out Democracy. For an example of a people who are standing up to the forces of oppression, we need only look to Hong Kong. In addition to taking to the streets for months now, they had a 70% turnout in their election last week. Imagine if we could muster a 70% turnout in 2020. How much could we reverse the Republican shakedown operation currently underway?
12
This is a major opinion expressed by Mr. Krugman. It is spelled out how the entire government is being set up to give all power to Trump. And government no longer advocating the public good.
44
The real question is - what do we do if the Supreme Court protects Trump from the House? Do we tweet up a storm or March to Washington?
45
Neither, all major institutions in the U.S. have been captured by corporations, or worse. Meh, we had a good run.
5
@Expat March. I'll come home too if there's a substantial movement, I'm in SEA. The USA has become mostly a playground for the rich, and subsistence for those who serve them.
5
All of the above.
It's about time someone wrote this story. I haven't even read it yet, but couldn't contain myself here. King Trump loves tarriffs because it gives him control over our businesses. I recognized this play from day one because I lived in Argentina during the Kristina Fernández administration. It starts with loyalty, but that is not where it ends. You don't need imagination to see where Trump and Lindsey Graham are taking us because its all been done before. If Trump wins next year, some company will be doing an equity deal with a company controlled by Trump Junior - that never would have happened if Trump were not president. And so it goes. The wall we should be building is the wall against corruption, not the wall to keep out the people fleeing corruption.
75
This obviously goes much deeper than Trump. I do see Trump as an accelerant; exacerbating already worrisome trends.
One such trend is a consolidation of corporate power into oligarchies. That has been going on for more than half a century, urged on by "shareholder value" at the expense of "stakeholder value". We are beginning to pay the price.
Read "Why Nations Fail". They looked at societies going back 9800 years - from Rome and Venice to the Aztecs - and found that when the elites pull back on the rungs of opportunity (e.g. monopolies, lack of education, income inequality, corruption) things just stop. And nations die.
Read also "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War" by Robert Gordon. He posits that most of what got invented in America occurred between about 1870 and 1970. Since then; not so much.
Piketty said in his book "Capital in the 21st Century" that wealth concentration does not get mitigated naturally. It did not happen voluntarily in the last century; it took two world wars and a depression, followed by a New Deal that is now under attack by the wealthy and their stooges in the Republican Party. And now we get Trump and his quid pro quo (e.g. tax cuts).
If the 2020 election is not a wake-up call, I do not know what is.
64
@PB Who reads and understand Piketty in the US ?
You should read his new book :" Capital and ideology ".
@PB
You're not suggesting Trump supporters start reading, are you? They follow their hero, thinking not required. "Democracy dies in Darkness" couldn't be more true than now. Sad but true.
1
@PB the claim that nothing s been invented in the US since the 70s is bunkers. What about the Internet, major medical break-throughs (immunotherapy, anyone? AIDS vaccine?), electric cars, smartphones, laptops, wifi, etc, etc?!
1
@robsea69
We need to ensure that voting is secure, otherwise it doesn't matter how many people vote against Trump and the GOP. State by state, we need to go for paper, handwritten ballots. It may sound far-fetched in this tech world we live in, but how else can we be sure the Russians aren't just changing the numbers????
Make America a democracy again.
41
@Make America GOOD How do we know the Russians aren't changing the numbers? How do we know grass root Republicans in state and local governments aren't changing the numbers, in exchange for quid pro quo.
11
@Steve
"How do we know grass root Republicans in state and local governments aren't changing the numbers, in exchange for quid pro quo."
Or how do we know if they are changing the numbers out of fear of retribution?
3
Trump first term presidency is ‘quid pro quo’. What would be his second term looks like? It would say it would be most likely ‘Pay-to-play’.
35
@Kodali How 'bout the 3rd term? What will the Supreme Court look like by then? Surely full of justices who find the 22nd Amendment ambiguous.
1
The only difference between fascism of the 1930's and the libertarian oligarchy that pervades technology firms in the U.S. now is, about 85 years. I wish I could say that Bill Gates, and Tim Cook are just milk toast. They are more than that. Libertarians say they are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Trump shows us what they really are, fascists to the core. Social progress and this brand of fiscal conservative are at direct odds. Both Martin Luther King and Gandhi knew that massive wealth accumulation is a zero sum game.
71
@Bruce Colman Thomas Piketty has a whole book explaining how capitalism actually contains the seeds of its own destruction in the pursuit of profit alone.
8
@B. Rothman Do you mean his new book ?
Capital and ideology. That was Marx theory, even though Piketty says he is not a marxist.
"I know I’m not alone in wondering how many other comparable scandals haven’t come to light."
The president's brother, Robert Trump, is involved with a possibly questionable defense deal, the Washington Post reported several weeks ago. But it's just the old-fashioned type of graft that now seems quaint.
Because 'waste. fraud, and abuse' has been a standard GOP bleat since Reagan, you'd think Republicans would have a problem....
25
“...But seriously, is there anything clean in this Administration?” The central question is asked and the answer seems obvious: No... not a thing. The cancer spreads.
42
When you compare the US to autocratic countries, one major difference is that autocratic governments are jealous of and do not tolerate independent power figures or power centers. So Jack Ma, founder of the large and successful Chinese company Alibaba, felt it necessary to double down on his Communist Party membership and mouth Communist Party slogans more and more in recent years. He also retired recently -- too popular for the Party's taste? Xi Jinping will not brook any rivals. In the US, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfree and others have been seen as more independent from the US government. They can criticize government policy, and their success in business gives them credibility. As in so many areas Trump would like to emulate the autocrats around the world. His "base" loves his message of "greatness" and "strength", but ask yourself: does fealty to a single leader, with a monopoly on power and authority, make the US stronger? Our tradition says otherwise. We cut ties with the idea of a king in 1776. Let's not go backward on that key commitment.
22
The optics of the rotten Apple tariff quid pro quo is bad enough. Who knows what accommodations Apple is making out of sight to gain Trump's favor. Is Apple's emphasis on data security in its current advertisements simply a cover for secretly allowing the US government a backdoor to users' data? The loss of corporate integrity to the bottom line is a slippery slope.
8
Paul you make terrific points but I don't see these relations are very 'new'. I could point to Dick Cheney e.g. Marx's definition of the state as "executive committee of the bourgeoisie" does link to your points. The idea behind it was that the state should act on behalf of all the disparate capitalists and not a select few who saint the government of the day. But I don't think that has operated for at least 40 years, what with many governments' favouritism to the banks and lack of interest in industry outsourcing to many parts of the world.
6
The trouble is, Trump thinks he's being smart and efficient. He sees nothing wrong with "deals" like this--it's the way he's always done business, and didn't he get elected because he's a great (the greatest!) businessman? His base approves, and will undoubtedly vote for him again. Letting him slip out of the legal boundaries just serves to convince him that he has nothing to fear, and he knows he can continue his scams and gangster schemes as long as the Republicans stand loyally behind him. I'm trying to hope that the majority of voters will see the danger and sweep away the Damocles sword of the Electoral College.
24
@Carol Robinson Then, please, help to get out the vote! just google it, any number of terrific .orgs to find involvement opps.
1
That line that government should be run more like a business? Trump believes the US government is now part of his business empire.
42
@Larry Roth
If Trump runs the US like he runs his business, we should prepare for a bankruptcy, and probably some fraud lawsuits or other repercussions. Imagine that the stock market is breaking records, while more people don't have health insurance, more people are homeless, incomes remain stagnant for most, and Government is buried in debt.
9
The type of soft corruption, corporate favors for lack of criticism has probably been going on for a long time. Also relatives getting preferential treatment like Ivanka Trump and allegedly Hunter Biden. While a lot of outage has been exhibited here I have yet to see a good proposal to make this type of corruption less likely to happen.
5
Hunter Biden stepped down from the board of Amtrak, appointed by Bush jr, when his father became VP in 2009, and set up his consultancy firm. He then became an advisor to the board of Burisma in Ukraine, and while potentially unseemly, there is zero evidence of any wrongdoing there. The Teump children and their spouses, on the other hand, are directly benefitting from unofficial roles with the highest security clearance, and haven't divested their holdings and put the proceeds in a blind trust. Stinks to high heaven. Don't even begin to try to equate the two.
1
How depressing to remember before Trump began making America great again, it was just recovering its reputation around the world as being the indispensable country.
31
@Leigh Then, please, help to get out the vote! just google it, any number of terrific .orgs to find involvement opps.
1
Trump's regime now seems a lot like the hasty retreat Trump ordered US troops in Syria to accommodate Erdogan's assault on the Kurds. It's like watching F-15s bomb the US weapons depot left behind in the rushed retreat.
Trump is likewise in a full gallop retreat, a mad scramble to save himself ahead of impeachment and on his knees hoping the Republican toadies in the Senate he's treated with contempt will now hold the Trump Maginot line in the Senate.
In real estate parlance, it's now a buyer's market and his toadies will turn the table and extract special favors as the price of their Senate vote. If you're a Republican Senator it'll be a Merry Christmas indeed as a scared Trump stares into the abyss his own wretchedness has wrought.
It's a reverse Ukraine with GOP Senators jockeying to be the critical 4 GOP votes that can terminate America's long night of political darkness. As Lindsey Graham said about stabbing Biden ("the nicest guy you'll ever know") in the back: "It's politics." If Senator Murkowski wants Trump to grant Alaska independence as the price of her vote, any doubt there'll be one less star on the flag?
Even someone as nondescript as Tim Cook, heretofore admired for his stewardship of Apple and a steadfast supporter of human rights, trades a political photo op for the promise of tariff relief, (and instantly tarnished Apple's brand).
Trump will be Ukrained a lot in the coming weeks. He needs to start doctoring the transcripts now.
24
@Yuri Asian Your scenario is badly flawed. Conviction by the Senate requires 67 votes, not 51.
1
I think you're analogy is good, but it's not Trump who's staring into the abyss. It's Democracy. We're entering the endgame, and it won't survive a Trump win in 2020. As bad as his polls ratings are, he's still only a few percentage points away from grabbing those crucial swing states that will allow him take the Electoral College. He's managed to scoop the brains out of not only Republicans, but also some of biggest players in business.
Jeff Bezos isn't the only person Trump has threatened with problems. He said he'd make trouble for Marie Yovanovitch. How many other people has the president threatened and is it legal for a president to make threats against individuals?
87
@Linda -- Trump's calls to violence, and veiled (or not so veiled) threats, need to be de-normalized by separate counts of impeachment memorializing each of them.
19
Perhaps you should ask Jim Jordan or Devin Nunes or Mitch McConnell that ...
7
Republican tax “reform” practiced the same kind of extortion against populous blue states. If these states weren’t going to support Trump, they were going to lose the deductibility of their state tax payments. Anyone who thinks Trump wasn’t consciously aware of this extortionate policy should look to his recently announced move to Florida.
58
Trump is the first outwardly appointed President by the American Plutocrcay following decades of political rebellion against unseen foes and exercises in social chaos engineering. The stage was set by Television for Trump by the Wall Street headquarters of American wealth. The Newt Gingrich Republican Revolution was seeping through the nation, and without declaring a commencement of hostilities in impossible ways to victory, the public slowly grew into the Party of "Red" as it aligned allies and cultivated the military and gun owners. They started it. Now we are at the edge by all indications. The Trojan Horse Trump has established the beach head and now Wall street is presenting another Billionaire in the other party to oppose him in what appears to be a Fix to assure a win either way by the Plutocracy.
Like Trump brainwashed us with "The Wall". The Planet "Pluto" was removed from history as much as many other facts as the Republican rewriting of our history is and was occurring.
This is now a battle between the Plutocrats and the Democrats. The political lines are drawn as Trump has politicized business, I'm guessing along Military Industrial Complex lines and most notably, he has fought the new economy of Amazon favoring the company with long standing worldwide reach, Microsoft with a massive and cynically named military data gathering program. It is the Plutocracy now. Can we be Democratic again? If you all acknowledge the obvious truth of all this and tell the public.
7
@PATRICK I am glad more people are seeing us as a plutocracy. This is the first step in recovery. A very long recovery.
1
Trump is the first outwardly appointed President by the American Plutocracy following decades of political rebellion against unseen foes and exercises in social chaos engineering. The stage was set by Television for Trump by the Wall Street headquarters of American wealth. The Newt Gingrich Republican Revolution was seeping through the nation, and without declaring a commencement of hostilities in impossible ways to victory, the public slowly grew into the Party of "Red" as it aligned allies and cultivated the military and gun owners. They started it. Now we are at the edge by all indications. The Trojan Horse Trump has established the beach head and now Wall street is presenting another Billionaire in the other party to oppose him in what appears to be a Fix to assure a win either way by the Plutocracy.
Like Trump brainwashed us with "The Wall". The Planet "Pluto" was removed from history as much as many other facts as the Republican rewriting of our history is and was occurring.
This is now a battle between the Plutocrats and the Democrats. The political lines are drawn as Trump has politicized business, I'm guessing along Military Industrial Complex lines and most notably, he has fought the new economy of Amazon favoring the company with long standing worldwide reach, Microsoft with a massive and cynically named military data gathering program. It is the Plutocracy now. Can we be Democratic again? If you all acknowledge the obvious truth of all this and tell the public.
1
Trump is the first outwardly appointed President by the American Plutocracy following decades of political rebellion against unseen foes and exercises in social chaos engineering. The stage was set by Television for Trump by the Wall Street headquarters of American wealth. The Newt Gingrich Republican Revolution was seeping through the nation, and without declaring a commencement of hostilities in impossible ways to victory, the public slowly grew into the Party of "Red" as it aligned allies and cultivated the military and gun owners. They started it. Now we are at the edge by all indications. The Trojan Horse Trump has established the beach head and now Wall street is presenting another Billionaire in the other party to oppose him in what appears to be a Fix to assure a win either way by the Plutocracy.
Like Trump brainwashed us with "The Wall". The Planet "Pluto" was removed from history as much as many other facts as the Republican rewriting of our history is and was occurring.
This is now a battle between the Plutocrats and the Democrats. The political lines are drawn as Trump has politicized business, I'm guessing along Military Industrial Complex lines and most notably, he has fought the new economy of Amazon favoring the company with long standing worldwide reach, Microsoft with a massive and cynically named military data gathering program. It is the Plutocracy now. Can we be Democratic again? If you all acknowledge the obvious truth of all this and tell the public.
2
@PATRICK just like Rome 2,000 years ago. First a republic, then an empire, and finally the fall. We will soon do the same.
1
Just when I thought that at least there was nothing NEW to worry about from this administration, I read this column. Thanks, Paul.
18
Very astute observations! I think you have found the perfect term for Trump's modus operandi - "the Ukraine treatment". After reading your article, I suddenly realized that "the Ukraine treatment" explains just about everything about Trump's perverse hold on Republican legisaltors etc., etc. Cook may fear tariffs, but GOP legislators fear his base. "The "Ukraine treatment" is all about sniffing out vlunerabilities and applying leverage. Yes, there are plenty of GOP legislators who are inherently not that far removed from Trumpism. But anyone who wanders from the flock will get the "Ukraine treatment".
18
Maybe, at some point there might have been a few in Congress that argued it is a good idea to grant Presidents wide-ranging authority in tariffs and trade treaties to diminish the possibility of and distortions from influence peddling. With the likes of DJT in the Oval Office that fantasy is surely over. Dr. Krugman's history may or may not be correct. Nevertheless, this latest example of the effects from Congress ceding authority to the Office of the President provides more impetus to why voting matters. In particular voting in the 2020 election to make as much headway to a veto-proof majority in the Senate and House to put an end to at least a few of these wretched ideas that vest Presidents with unchecked authority.
7
"Trump is quietly applying a Ukraine-type extortion-and-bribery strategy to U.S. corporations...the implicit quid pro quo...is that corporations support Donald Trump."
Recall a recent column: "...what we’re actually witnessing is a test of the depths to which the Republican Party will sink. How much corruption, how much collusion with foreign powers and betrayal of the national interest will that party’s elected representatives stand for?"
Economic globalization means not only multinational supply chains, but multinational corporations--with transnational ownership and control.
The Moneylords--i.e. oligarchs--live in transnational--transcendent--economic heaven. There is no need to ever touch cash--that's for peasants. "Foreign" refers to other corporations, not nation states.
The GOP are the vassal knights of Moneylords/Oligarchs of Economic Heaven. Nation states--geographically bound polities--are irrelevant.."National interest" is also for peasants. Trump and the GOP don't care about "national interest". Money (unlike currency) is transnational--they think.
But Economic Heaven is a creature of international law and order--mainly intellectual property law as well as tax and labor law.
Heavenly or not, corporations are polities too--they make and police policy albeit with the authority-recognition by financiers, employees and geo-bounded polities.
Plato's intellectual realm is more real and powerful than he knew. But what the intellect giveth, it can also taketh.
6
That explains why Trump's trade policy is so fickle! Tariffs are being used to make companies beg him for exemptions. Wow, Trump is a genius, a stable one at that.
9
“I know I’m not alone in wondering how many other comparable scandals haven’t come to light.”
This very likely scenario is why I don’t understand why Congress doesn’t audit a few other phone transcripts to ensure Trump did not do worse things.
12
In terms of becoming a democracy on paper and being further down the road then many realize, that's too kind of a description. It's more like a swimmer going under and our democracy seems to be going down for the second time. Time to throw out the life line and brush up on resuscitation.
13
@richard wiesner, the problem is that the lifeline (impeachment) has been thrown out, but it requires enough "Republicans" to reach out and grasp it.
12
Will we ever get trade agreements? It seems that Trump’s ability to grant exemptions to tariffs give him power he will never give up. We are stuck with his corruption. He will not give up this power to reach sensible agreements.
22
@Fern
And that is also why he wouldn't agree to the bipartisan immigration policy that was ready for his signature in 2017(?). He needed that issue to remain a potent source of red meat for his base.
3
Yes, he can make stupid decisions and then arbitrarily ‘fix’ the effects on the narrow population of his supporters. If you impose tariffs you should stand by the effects. Or, undo the whole thing.
2
So, now that Obamacare has been cycling for a few years, which has given special interests more time to adapt to their new profit models.
Obamacare was designed to expose the weaknesses in the market and to course-correct once vulnerabilities emerged.
That didn’t happen. The market, instead, found its way to make money.
I have been focusing on the differences between republicans and democrats.
Democrats want to solve problems and republicans want to exploit them.
As a dem, I am tired of unearthing the problem only to have the solution exploited for a few people’s gain.
48
Trump is an equal opportunity President, regarding his policy decision making.
Whether it is repealing consumer or environmental laws, favouring or punishing US companies, there is a single thread running through his decision making. Under no circumstances, will his policies be favourable, to a majority of Americans.
His unfunded tax cuts, were skewed to give most of the benefit to his fellow mega rich elites. His tinkering with the ACA, was designed to weaken healthcare in the US.
That Trump’s blatant exercise of political favouritism, has not been called out more often, is an ongoing concern.
53
It may come down to “Nervous Nancy” deciding she’s had enough of the autocrat in the WH and using the power of her purse. No appropriations bills or at least severe cuts to various departments that will prevent anyone there from enforcing anything. Start with the DOJ and EPA.
55
@Jazz Paw
EPA?! Oh, right. The (dirty) Energy Protection Agency.
2
This president and his administration writ large are corrupt, from the moment they wake up in the morning, until the turn out the lights at night. It is almost as if they cannot help themselves.
As Krugman notes, even Republicans understand this; they just think it’s O.K.
Since the president and his Republican allies are out there beating the bushes trying to find foreign governments willing to help them and to interfere with our elections, the Democrats should start looking for some real corruption busters at home or abroad to work on the behalf of the rest of us.
It's clear the Republicans won't lift a hand to alter the path the country is on since, at least for now, that path benefits them. And if the elections are rigged in 2020, who can otherwise stop them?
46
The oligarchy got exactly what it wanted from the combination of Trump and a GOP congress before the 2018 election. In many respects, the oligarchy and plutocracy (if you differentiate between the two) are still getting much of what they want between the continuing roll-backs of regulation, lack of supervision, Trump's open door and open personal cell phone policy, meetings with any of his kids and son in law, etc.
While Tim Cook might have quibbled about when his Texas factory was actually opened for business, he probably learned it is wisest not to correct Der Trump. After all, there are still some concessions he needs from him, particularly when it comes to the trade business with China.
Foreign leaders have also learned how to get what they want from Trump. Ask the Saudis, Erdogan (he got Trump to make Lindsey Graham to nix some embarrassing things) and, of course, Putin, who gets to win so much thanks to a very grateful Trump.
Does the oligarchy mind the daily embarrassments Trump causes? Not really. The cash is flowing in and the bleeding from taxes has stopped. Besides, they've got things handled if Trump loses in 2020. There's always Biden, Mayor Pete and now Bloomie they know they can count on not to go Soshulist.
See? It's all good!
27
@Rima Regas "In many respects, the oligarchy and plutocracy" You are one of the few who gets that. Why is it so hard?
2
Republicans also often defend Trump by saying that the particular action in question is something he has the legal right to do. Of course, that completely ignores the fact that simply because he can do doesn't mean it's right to do.
41
We went sliding down that slippery slope a long time ago. Can you count the number of times you've heard a politician, business person, celebrity, whomever, defend him/herself by saying "what I did was perfectly legal"? It is perfectly legal to walk up to a stranger in the grocery store and say "you are fat and ugly." So is "perfectly legal" the standard we want to live by? Sadly, apparently so.
Print media are packed, end-to-end with stories relating to Trump corruption and avarice.
Given that Trump's base is ever shrinking, the best that we can do, as patriotic American citizens is to spend an out-sized effort in donating and volunteering to get people to VOTE.
And, once this train wreck gets turned around, we need to do what is necessary to ensure that the process of voting is made easier and more inclusive for all citizens.
The Democrats have the numbers. If America will exercise its right to vote anywhere close to it's potential, the GOP will be relegated to a minority party for a generation and we need not have discussions like this in the future.
176
@robsea69 The problem is that the election will likely be decided in Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. "Getting out the vote" in California or NY will not make any difference.
In answer to this problem, the Democrats do not seem to have a "winning" candidate. In the swing states, Trump received (generally) fewer votes than Romney, but Hillary received fewer votes than Obama at a greater magnitude.
In order to win next time the Democrats have to motivate the Obama voters who stayed home in in the last election. A socialist candidate will not engage working class voters. A "stop and frisk" veteran will not bring back African American voters. The risk to America - and the world - of a Trump second term is terrifying, but unfortunately all too possible.
16
@robsea69
We need to ensure the voting is secure, otherwise it doesn't matter how many people vote against Trump and the GOP. State by state, we need to go for paper handwritten ballots. It may sound far-fetched in this tech world we live in, but how else can we be sure the Russions aren't just changing the numbers????
Also, please don't say votes in NY and CA don't matter. A massive defeat in the popular vote SAYS something, even it doesn't change the electoral outcome. Imagine Trump losing, but 25 Million votes....
12
@Michael Greason It is ironic that a “socialist” candidate might not get workers to vote for them since only through the insertion of a little more socialism into the economy will workers find their standard of living able to rise.
Capitalism as we now have it is geared solely to profit making and workers in the US have no leverage with competition from cheap labor elsewhere in the world and no labor unions here to provide leverage. With the increasing use of robots and AI even higher level workers will find their jobs threatened.
7
It is important for journalists and columnists to continue writing columns like these, asking the question: is anything clean in this administration? Each new article gives undecided voters -- hard to believe any still exist -- a reason to stand up.
But it's important for large majority of us, who know that Trump is a cancer on our Republic, to ignore all of this outrage. Because the belief that Trump will easily be defeated in 2020 is wrong. The November 2020 election will be very close, and only one factor will decide whether Trump is re-elected or rejected: voter turnout.
Voter registration and voter education, now.
117
The federal government has been doing this for decades with public education. If a state wants to get federal funds, they have to comply with federal requirements.
So, why not corporations as well?
3
@Raz
Is there a difference between complying with "federal requirements" and Trump's requirements?
12
@Raz
Federal requirements enacted by Congress or political shakedowns enacted by no law making body? Just Trump.
19
@Raz , Different cases.
Yes, national (i.e. federal in the US) governments expect regional (state) governments to use national taxpayers' money the way national legislatures set out in laws.
tRump is simply using his power to blackmail and extort. He is working entirely for his own, personal interests. What he is doing is a crime.
Please note that, in the US like elsewhere, states can't tell the federal government what to do with federal taxpayers' money NOR can the federal government tell states what to do with STATE TAXPAYERS' money.
20
Sadly, yes. We are farther along the road to autocracy than we realize.
120
It should also be mentioned that Trump is probably using this tool to manipulate a company's stock price and either profiting himself or helping others profit. Your own reporting on him and his father pointed to the two instances where he would announce something to get the stock to go up, his father would sell making a profit and then he would never follow through and the stock would go down. Someone should look into large stock sales prior to Trump tweeting about certain companies, such as Amazon.
229
@Jonathan I'm sure the SEC and Justice Department is all over this. Oh, wait...
8
There is an interesting analogous example in this regard during the Franco regime in Spain. The policy was to reduce importation of goods except under permission by the government. As it happened, permission for scarce items was given to regime officials and supporters who made a killing with their exclusive control of the products. There is more than a slight resemblance in Trump's handling of exclusions from tariffs.
253
@Frank Casa - true, but that is only one of a hundred different ways in which corrupt politicians extract personal benefits using the power of their offices. And, pols whose primary background and experience is in business (and, real estate or used car dealerships or gambling at that) have especial expertise in these methods of corruption. The ONLY antidote is a strong Judiciary.
2
Any living breathing soul who knows Trump (I'm thinking of the word vindictive here) knows that he had a hand in this decision. I hope it is revealed in the contract award challenge. If so, like the Ukraine whistleblower, you can be certain there are many many civil service folks aware of that. Who will spill in this one? It would be one of those never trumper unelected bureaucrats, which I must say is part of their job.
30
Over the years, Congress has ceded too much of its authority to the Executive Branch and, to a lesser extent, to the courts. Trump will have done the country a favor if his behavior motivates Congress to take that authority back. Who was the brilliant person who thought that a president was so much less susceptible than Congress to accommodating wealthy special interests?
59
@CH , YES! But first (or simultaneously) draconian control over political campaign funding, please.
15
@CH Unfortunately it doesn't look like ANY Republicans are likely to be motivated....
1
What I'm reminded about almost everyday that Trump is in office is how much damage one man can do to democracy and the rule of law. He isn't just tearing us aaprt politically, he is inflicting harm on so many facets of American life. I want to believe that the harm is not lasting; that our institutions can hold. But when I see so many Republicans willing to lie and weaken those institutions on Trump's behalf--it makes me worry.
474
@GK "...inflicting harm..."
Help me find it. Did a lot of searching. This is what I found:
Economic growth in 2018 $630 billion versus $300 billion in 2016 versus Europe’s 210 billion
Full-time jobs up 3.1 million in 2018, 200% of the 1.56 million increase in 2016
Manufacturing jobs up 500,000 under Trump
Open jobs 7.0 million up 20% from 2016’s peak 5.8
Unemployed 4.7 million vs 7.5 in 2016
Stock market: $34 trillion, up $9.5 trillion
Mortgage delinquency down 37%
Combined Black and Hispanic jobs set ten all-time records in 2018
Consumer confidence highest in 20 years, up sharply from 2016.
Unemployment 3.3%, lowest since 1969.
Initial Public Offerings up 250% since 2016 to $46.8 billion in 2018
Real disposable personal income up $597 billion in 2018 versus $244 billion in 2016
Total wealth up $17 trillion
Business investment growth up $334 billion in 2018 versus $52 in 2016
Total federal revenues increased 3% from 2016 to 2018 after negative 1% in 2016
Adults with $400 to cover an emergency: 2016? 137 million. 2017? 147 million, 7% increase.
Wage & salaries up $390 billion in 2018. 2016? $255
1.6% inflation in 2018
6.7 million escaped food stamp welfare since 12/2016
Murder down 6.3% since Dec 2016, over 1,000 lives saved
Debt service on federal debt is 1.6%, less than half of peak
Households able to pay all bills 82% in 2018 up from 75.9% in 2016
2
@john huppenthal. Money is not everything. Especially when most of it is making the rich richer. Take, for instance, health, whether it is access to good health care or it is protection from toxic chemicals. Money is not everything.
130
@John Huppenthal
Sources and context would be appreciated.
Also, explain how this economy is not the result of Obama's efforts.
THEN, explain how Trump's obvious corruption somehow created this economy. Be very specific in your explanation. It must be logical, not cherry picked and free of lies. Good luck with that.
318
Elsewhere in the NYT today is the piece by Lee Drutman, who points out that in times past in America, our dark political hours have shocked us into course corrections - so perhaps all isn't lost now, after all. Many of the comments in response to that one called it out as, alas, too optimistic, given the unprecedented self-dealing and corruption of this president and his party (among other things not going well these days). Sorry to say - but with this new account of corporate sycophancy and Trump accommodation, I think Professor Krugman just put the last nail in the coffin.
34
@original
"...dark hours..."
60 million people died in World War II. Arguably, Roosevelt overt discrimination against the Japanese and destructive economic policies led in a straight line to those deaths.
The Volcanic spew of jealous spite emanating from the New York Times and Washington Post hardly qualifies as "dark times" by comparison.
@original More nails to come. Count on it. Nancy is playing chess, Cadet "Sharpie" Bone Spurs and crew playing checkers.
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@original
The unfortunate part is, should there be any changes, it will affect the Dems the most. They may return to "power" but all the new changes may handcuff them. It's a double edged sword.
The serious question raised is what else is this deeply corrupt administration cooking? Every department should be reviewed to determine whether standard procedures are followed or whether Trump has stuck his thumb on the scales of procurements, arbitrary deregulation, interference with internal decisions for political benefit, etc. Given the notorious propensity to lie and mislead nothing can be taken at face value. The impeachment hearings have brought enough to light to warrant impeachment but it cannot be the end of investigating every Trump decision that is meant to benefit him personally at the expense of US tax payers. As an example legislation must be passed to limit the President expenses for travel back and forth for activities like golfing or relaxing with sycophants at Mar-o-Lago. How much money have these amusements cost us? And then there is the issue of what exactly is he hiding in his tax returns.
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Article 1, Section 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.
Time for Congress to take this power back.
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@spughie Correct. But Tariff Man would then flood us with idiotic and rabid tweets.
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@spughie
Why do we need a Congress and to pay their salaries and expenses if a unitary executive can do it all? One king and a H-U-G-E kowtowing staff is all we need by Trump's light.--Well, and big h-u-g-e border walls on the south and north.
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@spughie
Also, we need to be clear that Congress can't delegate legislative authority to the executive.
The law that allows the president to override Congress's tariffs, in the face of majority votes of both houses against the override, is an unconstitutional delegation of the legislative function.
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One recommendation I see would be to reduce executive power and have Congress serve as a system of checks and balances, so exceptions are not granted solely based on presidential whim. Then we’d only have to worry when executive and legislative are aligned in their favorites, but that would be a lesser problem.
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@Shyamela Just make exceptions granted by supermajorities, rather than a simple majority.
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No wonder Trump is raising tons of money for his re-election campaign.
He was already shaking down foreign governments who understood that they needed to host events at Trump's hotels, buy some of his high end properties or help Jared refinance his faltering real-estate empire, if they wanted access and special treatment.
Is the US becoming a ''Billionaire Republic''?
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@Rap instead of a billionaire republic, the more accurate term is an “Oligarchy”. Unfortunately.
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@Mary Ann ''Billionaire Republic'' was a reference to ''Banana Republic'', where a country becomes a Republic in name only. But Oligarchy works to.
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@Rap - No, it's becoming Little Russia.
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And don't forget how Trump is punishing, or attempting to punish Democratic voters and blue states.
First was the Republican tax bill, which significantly raised taxes of property owners in blue states by capping the amount that can be set off against federal taxes.
And now he wants to punish California by repealing the long held practice of letting states set strong emission standards, and by withholding federal funds. This action benefits no one, it only punishes California for taking the lead in fighting climate change and acting to protect the air we breath.
These actions are all calculated to punish people who disagree with him, and to show his "bones" to his liberal hating base. If you have any doubt about whether Trump is justified in any of these actions, ask Secretary of the Navy Spencer how he feels about Trump's interference in military discipline actions. We are now in a country run to reward Trump voters (though not the farmers, if they ever wake up), but to punish Trump's "enemies." If this isn't an abuse of power, I don't know what is.
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@Eero
Atmospheric levels of lead, carbon monoxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are all at their lowet level in history. Far below the averages recorded during the Obama administration.
Why?
Because the record number of full-time jobs created by Trump increased real disposable income by $597 billion which resulted in 57 million super clean cars being purcchased, by far an all-time record, which lead to a record number of polluting clunkers going to the shredder.
Now, we are pulling a Europe which increased the cost of clean electriicty so much that they all burn toxic wood to heat their homes in Europe, polluting the air.
Europe has much dirtier air than the U.S. as a result.
California doesn't have a cleann air program, they have a dirty air program.
@Eero
Gives a whole new meaning to the term "mob rule."
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@John Huppenthal What "record number of jobs"?
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So Paul - what specifically do you recommend we do to stop the slide? How do we get people who don't want to believe what the Times prints to see things differently now? How do you get the politicians in power to not want to keep building barriers to protecting their positions?
Those in power are building the systems to reinforce their power - be it economic or political. Hard to break the cycle.
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@Rolfe
"...don't want to believe what the Times prints..."
How about we start with the truth?
The brainwashing that higher tax rates produce prosperity is so untruthful as to qualify as mendacious.
We have 60 years of panel data with over 150 countries. GDP growth and income taxes.
We know exactly what the effect of taxation is on economic growth.
Trump reduced the personal income taxes for all families of four or more making $53,000 or less to zero.
Such families worldwide are considered upper middle class or rich, paying tens of thousands of dollars in taxes.
As a result, our prosperity for the poor and middle class is exploding.
Krugman desperately hopes that rational expectations of the coming Democrat president destroys the economy before anyone notices.
@Rolfe
It is Trump and Republicans who are profoundly corrupt. Democratic administrations have been proven to be remarkably free of corruption despite Herculean efforts by Republicans to find such corruption.
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@Rolfe What we have to do is VOTE for Democrats in 2020 and begin to clean up the corrupt mess! It will take a long time and a lot of work to clean it up.
We also need to return to 3 co- equal branches of government.Congress has been abdicating to the Executive branch for years.
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Lord Acton was right, "Power Corrupts." If you start with a person who is corrupt by nature, then you pile one corrupt act on the other . Trump has used whatever pressure he could on U.S. politicians who cross him, trying to utterly destroy them via twitter and his Bully Pulpit . Sectors and states that vote for him he placates by adjusting tariffs and tax laws to their advantage. New York and California suffer the most from the 10,000 limit on state tax deduction.
Trump has learned to use his power to get his way, to carry out his whims.
Where Trump has been most exposed to breaking laws is when he takes his pressure practice overseas. For personal gain , he uses his tactics of using money enticements to get foreign governments to play along with his plans. Overseas, this tactic of pressuring for compliance, which is less illegal within U.S. boundaries, becomes impeachment material.
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It can't happen here. It could happen here but our institutions are robust. It's happening here. It will affect us for generations to come but we can get through this. It has happened here. "And we’re already much further down that road than many people realize."
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@freyda:
Unfortunately, we've been here since Reagan.
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@freyda
It has been happening here for a long time. It’s just that media is only now acknowledging that this has been going on. In the 90s Republicans not only accused the Clintons of murdering their close friend Vince Foster, they spent millions on multiple investigation of that insane, vicious, cruel charge. The media shrugged it off even when investigations of that crackpot lie continues after the Special Prosecutor, Robert Fiske - a respected Republican - had declared the Clintons had done nothing wrong in Whitewater, Travelgate or Foster’s death. The media ignored those findings which is why most people I know don’t know who Fiske was but remember Ken Starr clearly. Instead the media joined Republicans in demanding an independent counsel (this media outlet was a major offender).
When Starr allowed Brett Kavanaugh to conduct yet another investigation of Foster’s death, causing great pain to his family, the media did not express outrage. Nor did they make a big deal about it when he was being vetted for SC. The Times did at least write one article about it.That article says that Kavanaugh’s memos to colleagues from that investigation made it clear he knew that Foster had committed suicide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/why-was-kavanaugh-obsessed-with-vince-foster.html
Imagine if the media had expressed outrage and excoriated the Republicans for their many slanders then instead of waiting until Trump? They didn’t want to hurt their supporters’ feelings.
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@freyda Vote!!
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Surprise, surprise!
Anytime someone thinks this administration cannot go any lower Trump confounds us, whether it bee in domestic or foreign affairs. Tragically, many still support him, and it is doubtful that the United States can ever fully recover.
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@Cassandra
Actually, as the author points out, we just don't know how low they can go. There is a reason Trump is a pariah in NY business and social circles and as likes attract, his people are similar in lacking a moral side. Stiffing subcontractors, shoddy buildings, shady financing are all part of how they did business, now its on a national scale.
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I was under the impression that a contract the size of JEDI would have to be going through a huge multi-step procurement process with thousands of pages of documents of justifications. Additionally, it was also my understanding that any large DOD contract like this between 2 well financed entrants is likely to be challenged in court regardless, the stakes are too high not to challenge and see if the courts will side with you. I wonder if any of the justification is available for a FOIA or a congressional review of the procurement.
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"I'm not alone in wondering how many other comparable scandals haven't come to light". Among Democrats as well as Republicans? Do we have the internet to thank for so many disclosures in so many areas, not just politics? Are we all now victims of wall-to-wall internet news coverage? Are we finding out more than we want to know about how government and business work? Are all the reports of misbehavior and malfeasance 'true', or are we often victims of 'spin'? How can we tell which is which? Is government being immobilized by too much disclosure? Do we need to back-off a bit?
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@Ronald B. Duke Too much disclosure? How can we not benefit from transparency in government except in those places of national security and those things involving personally identifiable information. Transparency is our friend - used to be the best disinfectant. Try getting transparency in Saudi Arabia or China and see what life is like there. What we have is precious, and fragile.
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@Ronald B. Duke No, Mr. Duke we do not need to "back-off a bit". On the contrary, we need to double down to do the hard work of sorting fact from fiction and making a strong and vocal commitment to the facts. If we shrug and walk away from this commitment, we will be complicit in the theft of our democracy and the corruption of the rule of law.
Speaking for myself, I have read three newspapers today and watched two hours of news across the political spectrum.
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Should we use facts to support our innuendo?
I remember times past when the GOP would forcefully and freely stand up to such errancy, including that of debilitating rade-wars and tariffs.
In fact, it generally appears that there is no stopping this erratic administration and loyal party.
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@Stephen Those days are long over. We should realize that the House and Senate Republicans have become willing accomplices to potentially the ultimate dismantling of what we tentatively thought was a democracy. Maybe it was never really true. But now with this presidency, doubt has now been removed. God help us.
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@Stephen Vote!!
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