The mid-terms will give us a good indication. If they take place, if there is a sense that they take place openly and fairly, and if it becomes obvious that people have had enough of Trump’s shenanigans, then there might still be some hope to turn things around eventually, who knows?
But maybe I’m just fooling myself… 
The fact that he wasn’t even nominated and noone points this out is even more outrageous.
He has been nominated for next year’s one however with all this shit I think it’s time to cancel this prize and have a new one some prize for the biggest fuckwit, Trump would have a good chance of that every year (as long as he’s nominated).
Fixed
Think you would have to be naive not to believe Trump is Putins marionette.after all he thought he had sway over Putin and could stop the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
Clearly Putin told him to do one and Trump,hero to the end said “ Yes Vlad,you are right”.
Like most bullies Trump is a coward,and if most leaders stood up to him rather than follow Chamberlains example,his Greenland dream would come crashing down.
I want to believe but am also of the “once bitten twice shy” opinion. Whether or not this marriage, i.e. between the US and Europe, is saved, Europe would be wise to adopt a path towards severing their reliance on the US.
Do midterms take place if the US is at war?
Aren’t they always at war somewhere?
I know what you mean but I don’t put it beyond them to start an “official” war to suit whatever they want.
Further to this discussion…
Every US election is determined by the whims of about 100k across 4 or 5 states who barely know what day it is when they go to vote. Reelecting Trump last time around after everything that happened in his first go around is proof that the “hold tight and wait for things to get better” approach is fatally flawed.
Countries need to find a path forward without the US as a trusted partner because our electorate and political system means we cannot be trusted to not elect Pol Pot Jr because the brown woman has an annoying laugh.
Bond markets are profoundly unsettled right now, particularly for US Treasury. For the past year, the yield curve has been fairly odd as it was somewhat inverted (longer terms have higher yields than shorter). The curve itself has normalized over much of the range (30 year to 10 year is still odd). But it has done so but climbing up to the near-crisis levels seen in April. The 30 year in particular is creeping up towards 5%, which is seen as a critical threshold.
Unfortunately for the UK, the same pressures are pushing gilt upwards too, well past that critical threshold giving it the highest borrowing costs in the G7.
I agree.
However, it is not just countries that should plot an alternate course but companies also. Many people who I talk to are of the opinion “Trump but, yeah, people will still need planes and medicines”, these people are also a worry. These are people in Europe and it is about them being convinced Europe needs to change and it potentially impacting their pocket to accommodate the change.
Cue MAGA getting angry that Mexicans have somehow managed to invade Greenland already
That is very fair criticism. I seldom do, but I was in a snarky mood and wanted to show how that MAGA influencer changes with the wind.
But sure, it is not a source and not really important info at all !
Donaldinia has more schwung 
Putin hasn’t indicated any inclination to restore the Soviet Union. He has discussed defending Russian-speaking enclaves from persecution and de-russification, especially border countries like Ukraine and Georgia. Russia learned from the Cold War that occupying other countries doesn’t work.That’s it. Now America and Trump has emerged as the main threat to peace and intent on fracturing NATO there are people now willing to believe that he’s somehow controlled by Putin because no matter what, Putin always has to be the problem. It’s as nonsensical as it sounds.
Those who have swallowed the narrative are unwilling to abandon the comfort zone of their belief and see that Europe and especially the UK has always been a tool of American influence. We put all our faith and institutions under US control, isolated China and Russia and look where it has got us.
On this thread I’ve faced unreal levels of hostility and personal abuse solely for expressing an alternative view that Putin has no intention of invading Europe, even though it is self-evidently the case. Perhaps my explanations about Ukraine and Putin have been insufficiently coherent or convincing so I have attached the following link to Jeffrey Sachs’ version of events and he’s way more eloquent than me.
Being Welsh, I assume this means I can justifiably invade England?
Correct. The appropriate frame of reference for Putin’s vision is the older Russian Empire of Nicolas II. That frames their desire for territorial expansion as retaking land that by rights belongs to them rather than administering foreign countries. He has spoken pretty clearly about that
Yes. Unless they are invaded. Its one of the chief argument of MAGA and pro Russian nazis towards Ukraine (that they have no election during war).
Because the US did have an election during the civil war and blah blah. Of course, in modern wars against peer and near peer powers, its impossible to have elections when you have 0 security and millions cannot vote.
But the US have never had to cancel an election for security reasons due to the Atlantic Wall.