Message To Canada: Most Of Us Support You Standing Up To The Bully!

I think Robert Reich speaks for most in the U.S. in this post:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will gather his cabinet in Banff, Alberta, today to consider whether Canada should continue to respond to Trump’s trade war and Canada’s former retaliation for his tariffs against Canada with more tariffs against U.S. goods. 

The answer is yes. 

On Tuesday, Canada retaliated against 50 percent American tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods with 15, 25 and 50 percent tariffs, depending on the product. Trump responded that evening by adding more products to his 50 percent tariff list and banning the imports of several Canadian goods outright, including beer, wine and liquor.

I obviously cannot tell Carney or Canada what to do. But I can say that, based on my experience, the only way to stop bullies is to hit them back. And the only way to deal with Trump is to make it impossible for him to bully worse. Otherwise, he will continue to bully. 

Most Canadians appear to feel the same way. Polls released in recent days show unusually widespread support across Canada’s fractious regions to fight back. Many Canadians want the Canadian government to go further, with measures like an export tax on electricity.

Carney is a former central banker with a doctorate in economics, but this is not an economic issue. It is a matter of political bullying.

 

To our friends in Canada, I say: We here in the United States are embarrassed and outraged by the ignorant ego maniac now occupying the White House. Most of us do not support him. Many of us have tried — and will continue — to fight back against his war against Iran, which the United States is losing; his war against immigrants in our communities, many of whom are terrified; and his extraordinarily stupid tariffs.

 

I’m sure I speak for many here in the United States when I say that whatever you do we will be your friends and allies, but that we hope you continue to fight Trump. The more of us — here in the U.S. and around the world — who take him on, the more likely it is that his bullying will stop. 

We are now in the final weeks of a midterm election where control of Congress is at stake. You should know that we’re doing everything we can to take back Congress, so we can limit his ignorant megalomania. 

Our best wishes to our Canadian neighbors, friends, and allies.

They Finally Stood Up To The Bully - And He Backed Down

Most reasonable people understand that appeasement does not work with a bully. It just encourages the bully to continue (and even expand) his bullying.

For far too long, nations, law firms, media organizations, and too many people have tried to appease the bully currently living in our White House. It has not worked. It just encouraged him to continue the bullying and make even crazier demands.

But he went too far. When he demanded that Denmark (and NATO) give him Greenland or he would take it by force, that was a demand that could not be appeased - and the world finally stood up to the bully.

The NATO nations together said NO and stood up.

The stock market, with a huge sell-off, said NO.

The Congress said NO, and even Republican members made it clear there was enough support pass a veto-proof war powers resolution to stop him - and maybe even impeach him.

The people of Greenland said NO and demonstrated against a U.S. takeover.

And the American people said NO. Poll after poll showed that overwhelming majorities of Americans (including even majorities of Republicans) opposed the taking or buying of Greenland. 

He tried one last time at Davos to bully the world into giving him Greenland, but it didn't work. It just made him look crazy in front of the entire world.

SO HE BACKED DOWN!

He said he had reached the "concept" of an agreement with the NATO commander. But there was no agreement - or even a concept of an agreement. It was simply a face-saving attempt by Trump to say that.

Unfortunately, even though Trump backed down, all is not well. Trump ridiculous demand and threats has convinced other nations (once our reliable allies) that he cannot be trusted - and the American people can't be trusted not to elect an insane leader. It will be a long time before we can again earn that trust - if ever.

In short, Trump has made the world a much more dangerous place for everyone.

"Conceding Greenland Will Not Mollify Trump - He Will Simply Come Back For More"

The following is from widely respected political scientist Francis Fukuyama:

Over the weekend, Donald Trump announced that he would be imposing a 10 percent tariff on February 1 on eight European countries that had agreed to send forces to Greenland, and that tariffs would be increased to 25 percent by June 1 if they did not agree to support the sale of the island to the United States. Over the past couple of months, there has been a debate over whether Trump was serious about claiming Greenland for himself or just trolling the Europeans. It appears that he is indeed deadly serious.

I want to say this straight out: as an American, I have one thing to say to my many European friends—do not back down in this confrontation. Up to now, both the EU and the major European powers have sought to appease Trump by offering him concessions, flattery, personal gifts, and other forms of tribute. This strategy has not worked and should be abandoned immediately. Donald Trump is fundamentally a bully who wants to dominate everyone around him.

Trying to placate him with concessions is a fool’s errand. He despises weakness and those who display it. Last spring, the EU cut a trade deal with him that accepted a 15% tariff on all European goods with no retaliation against American products. This was a bad decision. The EU, which in terms of population and wealth is on a par with the United States, should have taken a common position and retaliated. What makes any European think that conceding Greenland will mollify Trump? He will simply come back for more later.

The arguments that Europeans have used for a concessionary policy is that they are still dependent on the United States for security and need help in dealing with Russia. They also argue that they don’t want to provoke a mutually destructive trade war. But at this point, Trump’s America has amply demonstrated that it will not be a reliable ally when push comes to shove.

It has already abandoned Ukraine and stated in its national security strategy document that Europe has fallen behind the Western Hemisphere in terms of American priorities. Europeans should keep in mind that those countries that stood up to Trump’s threats in 2025, which include Brazil, India, and China, have actually done well for themselves. They’ve increased domestic support, and in the case of China, they forced America to back down.

My European friends need to keep in mind that Donald Trump is not the United States. A majority of Americans are dismayed and outraged by his policies, and they will likely vote against him and the Republican Party in the coming November election. It may be the case that the world will have to suffer a global recession as more countries stand up to Trump and retaliate against his policies. But a U.S. politician who wants to weaponize trade and use it as an instrument for territorial aggrandizement really needs to be stopped.

We Are Living In An Age Of Bullies

This excellent post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: 

We are living in an age of bullies. Those with power are less constrained today than they have been in my lifetime, since the end of World War II. 

The question is: How do we lead moral lives in this era?

Putin launches a horrendous war on Ukraine. 

After Hamas’s atrocity, Netanyahu bombs Gaza to smithereens and is now starving to death its remaining occupants. 

Trump abducts thousands of hardworking people within America and puts them into detention camps — splitting their families, spreading fear. His immigration agents target people with brown skin and Mexican-sounding names. 

He usurps the powers of Congress, defies the courts, and prosecutes his enemies.

He and his Republican lackeys cut Medicaid and food stamps — lifelines for poor people, including millions of children — so that the wealthy can get a tax cut.

 

Hate-mongers on right-wing television and social media fuel bigotry against transgender people, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people. 

Powerful men (such as Trump) sexually harass, abuse, and rape women. Some of the abused are children. 

Powerful male politicians make it impossible for women to obtain safe abortions. 

CEOs rake in record profits and compensation while giving workers meager wages and firing them for unionizing. Billionaires make large campaign donations — legalized bribes — so lawmakers will cut their taxes and repeal environmental and safety regulations. 

Each such abuse of power encourages other abuses. Each undermines norms of civility. 

Every time the stronger bully the weaker, the social fabric is tested. If bullying is not contained, the fabric unwinds. Those who are bullied — who feel powerless, vulnerable, bitter, and desperate — become fodder for “strong men” demagogues who lead them into violence, war, and tyranny. 

This is hardly new. Throughout history, the central struggle of civilization has been against brutality by the powerful. Civilization is the opposite of brutality. A civil society doesn’t allow the strong to brutally treat the weak. 

Yet in my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a breakdown. I’ve seen a change occur — from support of decency and constraints on brutality, to tolerance of indecency and support for unconstrained cruelty. 

Trump is not the cause. He’s the culmination.

 

So how do we lead moral lives in this age of bullies?

We do everything we can to stop the brutality, to hold the powerful accountable, and to protect the vulnerable.

Putin and Netanyahu are war criminals whose criminality must be stopped. Trump is a dictator who must be deposed.

 

Right-wing politicians who encourage white Christian nationalism must be condemned and voted out of office. Pundits who amplify racism and xenophobia must lose their megaphones. 

Powerful men who sexually harass or abuse women or children must be prosecuted. 

Women must be given full control over their bodies, including access to safe abortions. 

Police who kill innocent people of color must be brought to justice. Immigration agents must be prohibited from abducting people off the street or from their homes or courthouses or places of work.

CEOs who treat their employees like manure must be exposed and penalized. Billionaires who bribe lawmakers to cut their taxes or exempt them from regulations must be sanctioned, as should lawmakers who accept such bribes.

This isn’t a matter of “left” or “right.” It’s a matter of what’s right. 

Living a moral life in an age of bullies requires collective action; it cannot be done alone. Each of us must organize and participate in a vast network of moral resistance. 

This is what civilization demands. It’s what the struggle for social justice requires. It’s why that struggle is so critical today, and why we all must be part of it.

Trump Goes To War - Against The United States

 

The following post is by Robert Reich:

The man who launched an attempted coup on the United States in 2020 and instigated an insurrection at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths now claims that people in Los Angeles are launching an insurrection. They’re not.

 

Yesterday, the Pentagon activated 700 Marines out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, to join the 4,000 federalized National Guard’s military occupation of parts of Los Angeles.

Trump doesn’t give a damn whether the troops are necessary. Nor does he care how many people are injured or even killed in his raid on Los Angeles. The show of military force is the point. It gives him the appearance of power. 

Like any bully, Trump is fundamentally a coward. Humiliated by China, Harvard, the Supreme Court, Elon Musk, and the federal courts, Trump has launched a war inside America on vulnerable people inside America, in a place — California — most of whose inhabitants loathe him.

All of this was manufactured by Trump. It was and is his creation. The frightful specter of federally controlled troops in American streets has historically signaled a social crisis — forcing integration in Arkansas, protecting civil rights marchers in Alabama. But Trump is sending the military to Los Angeles at a time when state and local officials say there is no need.

 

Let’s be clear: Trump and his lackeys want blood in the streets. They have been planning for it. “Looking really bad in L.A.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight Sunday night. “BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” 

The bully-in-chief has appointed a bunch of tin-pot bullies to every position of lethal force in the federal government — and is now activating them.

 

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristy Noam is a Trump stooge seemingly without understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears willing to go along with whatever Trump wants. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is a maniacal xenophobe. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a brain-dead Trump sycophant. Border czar Tom Homan is a toady who has not ruled out arresting California’s leaders if they obstruct federal law enforcement. 

The central struggle of civilization has always been to stop brutality. Unless we prevent the stronger from attacking or exploiting the weaker, none of us is safe. 

A civil society is the opposite of what Trump seeks. A civil society doesn’t allow the strong to brutalize the weak. It moves as far as possible away from brutality. 

Every time the stronger brutalize the weaker — whether it’s Trump and his flunkies bullying immigrants and the state of California, white supremacists bullying Black and Latino people, giant corporations bullying customers with high prices, the wealthy bullying the public to get giant tax cuts, Elon Musk bullying poor people by cutting programs they depend on, police bullying poor Black people, powerful men bullying women through sexual harassment, politicians building their power by bullying racial or ethnic minorities, Netanyahu wiping out Palestinians in Gaza, Putin trying to take over Ukraine — it’s fundamentally the same playbook: Stoke fear. Exploit desperation. Suspend the rule of law. Fan brutality.

 

Unless the bullies are stopped, an entire society — even the world — can descend into chaos. 

Our duty is to stop brutality. Our responsibility is to hold the powerful accountable. Our challenge is to stand up to abuses of power. Our moral obligation is to protect the vulnerable.

Trump's Use Of Tariffs As A Weapon Is A Big Mistake

In some rare instances, a tariff can be a good thing. An example would be to protect an industry critical to the country's economy. But Donald Trump doesn't use tariffs in that way. For Trump, tariffs are a weapon to beat another country into submission. If a country doesn't do what Trump wants, he punishes it with a stiff tariff..

This "tariff diplomacy" is not good for anyone, and it has negative consequences that Trump seems to be ignorant of.

* Tariffs on goods coming into the United States make those goods more expensive for consumers in the United States - raising inflation. This wouldn't be so bad if there were cheaper American made products available, but in many cases there aren't. Most electronics are no longer made in the United States. Many car parts for American cars are made in other countries. About 40% of vegetables and 60% of fruits are imported - an amount that could not be replaced by American growers.

* Imposing tariffs on another nation means they will likely retaliate by imposing tariffs on goods from the United States. This makes U.S. made goods more expensive in the other country, and hurts American businesses that try to sell goods in that country.

* In many instances (probably most), imposing a tariff violates a free trade agreement with that country. This is true of the tariffs leveled against Canada and Mexico. Those tariffs violate NAFTA, which was renovated and agreed to by the Trump administration. Why should any nation agree to an agreement with the United States knowing that Trump could violate that agreement at a moments notice?

* This kind of "tariff diplomacy" makes other nations seek and agree to free trade agreements that do not include the United States. The European Union and other entities are already starting to do this. When this happens, U.S. businesses lose out.

Trump thinks he's smart to use tariffs as a weapon. He's not! The United States will lose in the long run to this kind of idiotic bullying.

It's The Bullies Versus The People In This Election

 This post is from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:

I’m feeling optimistic about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

 

I want to put this extraordinary moment into context. 

Like many of you, I’ve worked my heart out during elections. (My first one was in 1968, when I went “clean for Gene” — Eugene McCarthy — shaved off my beard and organized volunteers to go door-to-door for the anti-Vietnam War candidate.) And like many of you, I’ve been heartbroken by some election outcomes. 

This one feels different.

 

Over my lifetime there’s been a shift in power: from small businesses, local and regional banks, labor unions, and political parties to giant corporations, Wall Street, and a handful of obscenely wealthy donors. 

Today, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and the Democratic Party, have a real chance to take back some of that power on behalf of all of us. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen. It gave America enough confidence to pass the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. It enabled people of color and women to begin to gain ground. And we had a Supreme Court that encouraged this. 

Then around 1980, progress stopped. The bullies began taking over. 

As a kid, I was always a head shorter than other boys, which meant I was bullied, mocked, threatened, sometimes assaulted. 

Over the last four decades, America has allowed fiercer bullying than anything I experienced as a kid. Wealthier Americans have bullied poorer Americans, CEOs have bullied their workers, white people have bullied people of color, men have bullied women, people born in America have bullied new arrivals and undocumented workers. 

Sometimes bullying involves physical violence, but more often it entails intimidation, displays of dominance, demands for submission, or arbitrary decisions over the lives of those who have no choice but to accept them. 

At some point, those who are bullied fight back. 

I remember the day I did, when I had had enough. I was 10 years old. One morning when I was waiting for the school bus, a local bully started shaking me down. He wanted my lunch box and the change in my pocket. He began threatening me physically, as he had done several times before. 

I felt power well up inside me. I quietly put down my lunch box and punched the bully in the nose. 

It was a mild punch. It merely stunned him. (It stunned me, too. I had never delivered even a mild punch before — nor have I since. ) But it demonstrated that I wouldn’t take his bullying any longer. And from that day onward, he left me alone. 

Donald Trump is a bully. He has used his wealth to gain power, and used his power to target people of color, harass and abuse women, lie, violate the law, trample on our Constitution, and rage at anyone who calls him on his bullying. 

Since Joe Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris, Trump has been on the defensive. But make no mistake: He became president by exploiting the anger of millions of white working-class Americans who for decades have been economically and culturally bullied by corporate executives, Wall Street, and upper middle-class urban professionals. 

The bullied are still there; Trump is still exploiting their anger. 

For nearly a decade, Trump has channeled that anger into racism, nativism, and misogyny. He has encouraged his followers to feel powerful by bullying those with even less power: poor Black and Latino people, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, families seeking asylum, undocumented workers, pregnant women who can’t afford to travel to a state where abortions are legal. 

This bullying game has been played repeatedly in history by self-described strongmen who pretend to be tribunes of the oppressed by scapegoating the truly powerless, but who are actually fronting for the rich and powerful. 

In reality, Trump and his lackeys work for the oligarchs — cutting their taxes, rolling back regulations that protect the public but that cost the oligarchs, and dividing the rest of us into warring factions so we don’t look upward to see where most power and wealth have gone. 

The good news is that Americans are catching on.

 

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are part of a movement to make America more inclusive, strengthen our democracy, and stop the bullying.

The real fight between now and Election Day is not between Democrats and Republicans, as the two parties came to be known in the decades after World War II. 

It is a fight that began to take shape in 1968 when Nixon won the presidency, that became bellicose after 1980 when Ronald Reagan took office, and that came into full view in 2016 when Trump won the electoral vote. 

It is between democracy and oligarchy, between self-government and tyranny. It is a fight between the bullies and the bullied. 

I have much the same feeling now as I had when I was 10 years old at the bus stop. I believe tens of millions of other Americans are experiencing it, too — including you.

 

We are feeling the power well up within us. We are quietly putting down our lunch boxes and are about to demonstrate to the bullies — peacefully, through the power of our votes — that we will no longer take their bullying.