How are you all doing with this?

I'm still in Copenhagen and spent the day yesterday with my son and his Danish friend, Christian. Christian is quiet and serious and loves the US - he's a Cincinnati Bengals fan who has traveled extensively within the US and knows quite a bit about us.

About midway thru a very pleasant day spent swimming Christian asked me “how is it over there?”, very gently, as if raising a tragic situation (which of course it is). I found myself speaking in a rush, recounting how the legal system has failed and universities have thrown their students and missions under the bus to placate a fascist and how we have roving bands of masked thugs kidnapping people. I found myself telling him I'm not afraid of the US military - I think they're probably the least reactionary and fascist of all the armed entities in the US - but I am concerned about federal, state and local law enforcement turning on citizens.

So this is fucking crazy, right? I'm calmly ranking the level of threat by various state actors to this mild mannered Dane who is listening intently and accepting this because it is …fact. Its where we are.

Christian said what concerns him the most is what will happen on the US Right when they realize they have dramatically damaged US power and influence, that the US Right and Donald Trump are making the United States less dominant economically and culturally. How crazy and vindictive and dangerous they will become when they understand that their destructive temper tantrums have diminished US influence and power and the rest of the world will adjust to new reality of the US as an irrational, unreliable and dangerous nation and … move on without us.

I got a little frisson of fear when he said this - it rings true to me - and I realize I'm fearful a lot these days and still grappling with the extraordinary crack up of the United States.

• Photo is of public swimming area in Copenhagen - area bounded by the rope buoys - they're wildly popular and distributed all over the city. Cold sea though - North sea and Baltic. Danes think cold water swimming is healthy.