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.

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irish granddaughter1 year ago

How is it over here? It's awful. If I had to name the very worst thing, it's the collapse of the DOJ. We don't have rules anymore, at least not any rules that are worth a damn. They can do what they want and get away with it.

A friend of mine is doing a careful historical deep dive into the life of Mary Walker, who kept meticulous diaries about her life as an Oregon territory missionary in the mid 1800s. Today my friend read us a passage about an incident in which a US agent negotiated with the tribes to set up rules governing behavior, with established penalties for transgressions.

A year later a white man murdered an Indian, and the agent explained that the rules couldn't be applied to white men. There would be no penalty.

Predictably, it wasn't long before Indians took their revenge and executed a couple of missionaries and a dozen others. It was the culmination of several years' worth of grievances. For fighting back, they paid and paid (and are still paying) the price.

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Sepideh M1 year ago

Europe has a functioning government that is going to ban political advertising on Facebook. Wish we had a functioning government.

https://about.fb.com/news/2025/07/ending-political-electoral-and-social-issue-advertising-in-the-eu/

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Scott H1 year ago

Just another example of government overreach by those awful bureaucrats in Brussels.*

*Sample reaction of a typical Brexit supporter

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Busted Knee1 year ago

Not banning it is functional. You just don't want to admit why.

Where is facebook? California. Who does facebook employ? College educated social liberals. Where are facebooks other offices? Blue cities mostly in blue states.

And like that no Democrats can't touch it. It would be an attack on Democrats, educated liberals, blue states, and blue zip codes. So as educated social liberals have a god given right to a six figure income and blue states much get rich facebook must exist and must be helped.

So until liberals are willing to go after the industries that make blue states and cities wealthy and make the educated upper middle class what it is nothing can be done about anything. And that right there is the problem. So let's blame sexism and racism because I'm not fucking settling for mid range sushi and not taking an international trip each year. That's my god given right. Because I am a liberal!

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Kay W.1 year ago

Nonsense. Denmark has a thriving upper middle class, middle class and working class. They also accept more immigrants than the US (per capita, as a percentage of the population). They tax at 40%. I currently pay 25% (fed, state, property). The difference is they GET something in return for taxes- health care, education and affordable housing for those who need it. What they don’t have is a tiny ultra wealthy group with outsize power who grab everything for themselves. Christian is a middke manager and he can afford to travel to both the US and Europe every year.

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John S.1 year ago

It’s amazing that MAGA and their media enablers all nod along while the mad king sits in the Oval Office, issuing his little proclamations with the glee of a child using the potty for the very first time.

All while they continue to bleat about autopens.

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

What fresh hell decree is this

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/

Stephen Miller on steroids

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

"Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order. Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens. My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety."

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

What, they're gonna 302 all of us unless we can show a deed or a lease?

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

Ken White (Sedatious Hat today):

"In America, the people most enthusiastic about institutionalizing more people are usually the people most opposed to funding or regulating institutions or providing due process to the involuntarily institutionalized. So, business as usual."

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

I think this decree is a harbinger of things to come (will be used for disappearing white people into slave labor situations to replace immigrant labor).

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Marmot Pimpernel 1 year ago

Not well! I have kids who need an education and a future, and the MAGA tantrum is doing its best to destroy both, while telling itself that we’re the actual monsters.

Like TBone, I don’t think they’ll realize who’s responsible. I think maybe they’ll blame someone currently on their team for being less than MAGA enough. That’s what Driftglass always says, since that’s what they did to GWB after Iraq predictably sucked.

Back then they suddenly pretended to be libertarians and “constitutional conservatives”! And boy howdy they found fault on both sides, like our media loves to hear.

Next time, burn the boats as Driftglass also says. Don’t let them escape guilt.

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Scott H1 year ago

Driftglass, as always, on target with astute analysis.

Which means none of it will happen.

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Marmot Pimpernel 1 year ago

You mean the burning of the boats part or the part about MAGA denying responsibility (or maybe just pretending they’re not MAGA)?

If we can’t flush ourselves of the Dem old guard, I can see them allowing MAGA to skate. Again.

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John S.1 year ago

I think MAGA will absolutely run away from the mess they created.

But unless some of the Democratic old guard get punted, no boats will be burned. No lessons will be learned. So strong is the desire to return to a status quo that no longer exists.

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Busted Knee1 year ago

It's not the old guard entirely. It's that a lot of our socially liberal pickups are upper middle class and the old moderate Republicans and they need the GOP to exist to make sure the Democrats keep punching left on economics.

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

The cult won't notice or, if they do, hold their ears & shut their eyes while yelling "I can't hear you!"

Digby lays it out though

https://digbysblog.net/2025/07/24/trump-deals-arent-worth-the-paper-theyre-printed-on/

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

I adore cold water swimming and always have (we have, in Penn's Woods, mountain springwater-fed streams that stay cold year round, hopefully that won't change too soon). When all else fails, a drive up into the mountains on the unpaved State Forest roads provides relief when swimming pools have become warm bathwater.

Not doing particularly well with the combination of news and current heatwave setting in again today. Was writing to a friend about that this morning. Too much news added to this heat and I might spontaneously combust.

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