Posts Tagged ‘trump’

« Older Entries

Robert Reich on the One Big Beautiful Bill

May 23, 2025

Reich asked people to share….. Hence I’m sharing – and as usual it demonstrates Trump’s neoliberal priorities – Benefit his own class of people first, and stomp on everyone else.

The bill is over a thousand pages long, it is almost certain that there are pork-barrel sections in it for particular Republicans.

No sensible bill should be that long, Congress should know what it is voting on.

********************

Reich says:

The old professor in me thinks the best way to convey to you how utterly awful the so-called “one big beautiful bill” passed by the House last night actually is would be to give you this short ten-question exam. (Answers are in parenthesis, but first try to answer without looking at them.)

1. Does the House’s “one big beautiful bill” cut Medicare?

2. Because the bill cuts Medicaid, how many Americans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage?

3. Will the tax cut in the bill benefit the rich or the poor or everyone?

4. How much will the top 0.1 percent of earners stand to gain from it?

5. If you figure in the benefit cuts and the tax cuts, will Americans making between about $17,000 and $51,000 gain or lose?

  • (They’ll lose about $700 a year).

6. How about Americans with incomes less than $17,000?

  • (They’ll lose more than $1,000 per year on average).

7. How much will the bill add to the federal debt?

8. Who will pay the interest on this extra debt?

  • (All of us, in both our tax payments and higher interest rates for mortgages, car loans, and all other longer-term borrowing.)

9. Who collects this interest?

  • (People who lend to the U.S. government, 70 percent of whom are American and most of whom are wealthy.)

10. Bonus question: Is the $400 million airplane from Qatar a gift to the United States for every future president to use, or a gift to Trump for his own personal use?

  • (It’s a personal gift because he’ll get to use it after he leaves the presidency.)

11. [In another email Reich argues that: the courts are now without ability to enforce judgements against Trump and his coterie in government.]

The courts have one power to make their orders stick: holding federal officials in contempt and enforcing such contempt citations against them. [However the big bill states]

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued….”

As U.C. Berkeley School of Law Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law Erwin Chemerinsky notes, this provision would eliminate any restraint on Trump.

‘Without the contempt power, judicial orders are meaningless and can be ignored. There is no way to understand this except as a way to keep the Trump administration from being restrained when it violates the Constitution or otherwise breaks the law. …

‘This would be a stunning restriction on the power of the federal courts. The Supreme Court has long recognized that the contempt power is integral to the authority of the federal courts. Without the ability to enforce judicial orders, they are rendered mere advisory opinions which parties are free to disregard.”

With this single provision, in other words, Trump will have crowned himself king.

[12. Another source states that the US government’s authority to borrow, known as the debt limit, will increase by $4tn. Anyone who has followed American Politics knows that Republicans try to stop debt limit expansion when there is a Democrat President. It also admits that Trump will hugely increase the deficit despite the chaos generated by Doge. This is usually considered bad.]

[If you didn’t know this,] that’s because of

(1) distortions and cover-ups emanating from Trump and magnified by Fox News and other rightwing outlets.

(2) A public that’s overwhelmed with the blitzkrieg of everything Trump is doing, and can’t focus on this. [“Flood the zone with shit” as Bannon says]

(3) Outright silencing of many in the media who fear retaliation from the Trump regime if they reveal things that Trump doesn’t want revealed, [and the ownership of Media by Billionaires and corporations, who will benefit in the short term from Trump’s policies.]

Tags:, ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Dictatorship or Evacuation?

April 5, 2025

Trump may want a dictatorship with himself at the top gaining deference from everyone. He has for example, not consulted with congress about a number of things he is supposed to consult about. He has said he will be able to seek a third term, possibly through succession. There are innumerable stories about how State level Republicans have been trying to get rid of potential non-Trump voters to fix elections for good eg [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. This is all part of Project 2025.

But if that is his aim, his attempts to implement project 2025 may not be generating the result he wants. Dictatorships are usually said to require a strong, well organised State.

By pulling the State apart, and massively confusing people as to his aims, he is generating a plutocracy, in which those who have enough riches will be able to do what they want, and those who do not have enough riches will get to do what they are told and to suffer. This represents a philosophy generally called “libertarianism” [7], [8]. Peter Thiel one of the billionaire founders of the movement leading to project 2025, stated clearly that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Democracy, in which people (including women) are consulted, is apparently incompatible with corporate liberty, or the liberty of the rich and special. Libertarianism, or oligarchy, is more likely to result from Project 2025.

Musk is a libertarian, who may well consider getting some people off earth more important than any aim of general welfare – after all if Earth is rendered unlivable before he gets a self-sufficient Mars base, then humanity may be doomed. If every human on Earth dies as a result of corporate and government actions, and the survivors on Mars found ‘Human space’ then all is well – humanity continues. This is virtue in the long term! As far as I know he has not declared government spending on his Space-X company to be a waste of money, and suitable for cutbacks (although he apparently has terminated expenditure into investigations into potentially illegal acts by his companies) [8]. He seems far keener to sink money into escape than into technology to prevent or lessen the effects of climate change – as after all climate science in the USA has been severely disrupted and repressed [9], [10], [11], [12].

Generally corporations like stability, so they can plan, so they can engage in profitable but low risk investment and so on. So most companies will not like the chaotic result of Project 2025 when they see the results, however much they have supported it until then.

However, they will fight to retain their power and positions, and the destruction of the US State will likely lead to the enshrinement of corporate power, wealth and struggle.

It could result in a feudal system in which ‘the Barons’ of industry fight over property, without the obligation the real Barons had to provide any ‘protection’ for the people. There will be nothing to constrain pollution or ecological destruction, or to counter act against the power of riches – except The Market – and the conveyance of elites to Mars -which will not be a pleasant life either.

However, a likely unexpected consequence of these policies, could be that the capitalist market falls apart, because ordinary people do not have the money to drive production… Can capitalism as we know it survive without a relatively well off working class, with the rich just serving each other? I don’t know. It will be a different type of organisation, perhaps again if it encourages mass die off, then it might survive going to Mars….

What happens after the elites hit Mars, is anyone’s guess.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Trump tariffs and the world economy

April 4, 2025

Economies are complex systems. Predicting what will happen is a fraught occupation. As you will know it seems easy for economists to say that the economy will boom, or is now stable, just before it collapses.

However, it seems pretty safe to say that a major set of disruptions, such as the huge tariffs that Trump has imposed on many countries, including allies, could lead to chaos and collapse.
Militarily, it makes visible what some have been saying for a while, that the US under Trump is not a reliable ally and you should shift your alliances elsewhere. If so, that shifts balances of power away from the USA.

If he has exempted Russia from tariffs but put them on Ukraine, as I have read, then that gives another reason why people will not trust him as a military ally.

In Australia it is quite obvious that the tariffs have been place on weird locations, such as uninhabited islands, or Norfolk Island which at the moment seems to have no trade with US at all [1], [2]. It seems that officially figures were calculated by subtracted US imports from a countries exports and declaring that this had to have something to do with tariffs [3] [4], . This is complete Rubbish. The American people may not be informed by their media, but business people will know the figures are essentially random and there for punishment’s sake.

This fragility of purpose and calculation, may cause people to evaluate the US as a “basket case” and shift trade into non US dollars, or provoke the Chinese to sell part of their dollar reserve. This would have huge effects on American Power, status, and currency stability, as the dollar is potentially sold off everywhere.

The Tariffs will massively boost price increases in the USA in time. Sensible US companies will have bought excess products to help them with the price increases over the last couple of months, but that will only last for a time and some of them will use the tariffs to excuse price rises. This is called ‘replacement costs.’

As a result, people in the US will pretty certainly be paying more for almost everything soon. This probably will not trouble the top 5% income and wealth owners, but it will trouble most other people.
Farmers will also go bust because of the scrapping of USAID which bought billions of products from them [5], [6]. However, this will allow large US landowners to displace even more ordinary farmers.

Exports will probably crash, because people elsewhere on the planet, will resist buying American products (I might even stop using Amazon) and most countries will boost their tariffs against American products or seek out products from elsewhere, because no one knows what else Trump will do in the future. This wrecking of exports will further depress wages, and add to suffering.

The tariffs will possibly be hugely beneficial to China who will likely become the center of a new world trade order – the US has handed China the renewables market already,

My feeling is that seeing trade with the USA collapse, American companies will not find it that attractive to return to the USA. But if they do, they will likely build up to date fully automated factories, that will not increase the employment of ordinary workers. If they hire anyone it will be at the basic wage, and you will likely have full time employment with food and housing insecurity for most people.

Education will have collapsed, except for the rich. It will no longer lead to good jobs, just to people who support right wing ideology which will be all that can be taught, so ignorance will increase. It is debatable if a modern economy can survive mass ignorance – we shall see.

Then of course you have to face increased climate change. With Trump doing everything he can to destroy the environment (even banning paper straws!! [7]), the world condition will get much worse than it could have. However, the USA will probably encounter mass poisonings as it becomes legal to dump almost anything in poor areas where people cannot afford the law. Lack of stability in the climate/ecology, with wild storms overwhelming what can be insured, will also curtail economic stability, so the results of Trump’s presidency will pile up, and be unlikely to be beneficial for most people.

The outlook is not good because of many Trump induced factors, but, as I said, its complex and I could be wrong.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Are Trump voters responsible for him being anti-democracy and destroying the country?

February 17, 2025

No.

All 77,302,580 Trump voters do not have to support Trump’s moves for anti-democracy and destroying the country.

As far as I know Trump never campaigned saying he is anti-democracy and aimed at destroying the country. So few people. who voted for him were voting for that.

Trump also did not get 50% of the total electorate voting for him, he even got less than 50% of those who did vote. Other Presidents have had much bigger majorities in the Electoral College, and it did not stop them being opposed. There was no landslide of support.

So Trump can have lied (surprise!), or completely misunderstood what he is doing (Surprise!!!!). And, sadly with high-rating 100% pro-Trump media, many people may never have encountered the truth of what he promised to do.

So, lets ignore the fact that he threatened to terminate the constitution to prevent him from losing elections, and promised to be a dictator. People were told this was exaggerated or even lies, despite being truth. We cannot blame people for believing what trusted sources tell them repeatedly. This is unfortunately how people work, when they cannot have had experience.

My argument is that Trump does not know, or understand, what he is doing is bad. He may even be completely well-intentioned in his actions.

The problem for the USA is that Trump is a corporate boss, with no adult experience of being anything else.

Bosses never have to deal with democracy. They can more or less do what they like to their workers, to their company and to their property. They can betray and deceive other people. If they have influence and personal riches they can get away with almost anything (as Trump has), unless corporations of equal power get in the way.

On top of this, Trump thinks he knows everything. Therefore he does not have to consult or negotiate with anyone. People just have to do what he says, because he is the boss and knows best. People who advise anything else are defining themselves as enemies.

Partly because he is a positive thinker, Trump forbids people to discuss issues he does not like. Events he deliberately ignores did not happen, or will recover by the force of his personality and positive thought. People who do not gush over him and agree to ignore disliked events, are disloyal to America, hence they have to be sacked. Climate change, for example, is not real, or to be mentioned by government departments. Pandemics are likewise not anything people can discuss. This, in his mind, makes America safe again.

You cannot run any non-totalitarian State like that, Especially democratic states. People are supposed to be able to disagree, they are supposed to notice unpleasant events. And even totalitarian States will fail without accurate feedback about the world, because the leader governs in fantasy and nobody who wants to survive can advise the great leader to change their mind or understanding.

Trump is ending democracy not deliberately, but because he does not understand what it needs or how it works. He thinks being a President makes him the unchallenged boss of that country..

Trump also does not understand how social and economic forces work. Again this is partly because he is a boss, and all bosses care about is the bottom line and their profit. This may be fair enough for a company, but Presidents and politicians should consider what is good for most people in the country in the long run. They should not be governing just for personal profit, the profit of shareholders, or for the next quarter. They should be governing for everyone, and for the best possible next 200 years at least.

However, over the last 40 years, for nearly all Republicans, and many Democrats have embraced neoliberalism: “what is good for big business is good for the country.” Which often translates as what is good for bosses is good for the country. If that means lots of homelessness, if that means lots of disease ridden people, if that means low wages and no hope of social mobility no matter how hard you work then, that is the price you pay to support big business and The Market. Trump seems to agree. Anything which might inhibit bosses or profits like Climate Change should be ignored. We should not even prepare for likely future disasters.

So he will continue and intensify the policies that have made America “Second Rate’’ if you will.

In terms of the world. Trump has clearly shown the USA cannot be trusted. He has surrendered to Putin over Ukraine before the negotiations started (breaking his own principle laws of the deal), and without even talking to the Ukrainians, or NATO. The sensible thing for NATO to do is to reject any negotiated solution if it does not include Russian withdrawal and compensation for the damage of the invasion, and to discuss whether to expel the USA from NATO as it clearly considers it is a boss and not a partner. Trump might be happy with the expulsion, but I suspect he will be offended, and that might lead to war, and to American deaths over events that could have been avoided.

His proposal to override Palestinian property rights in Gaza and ethically cleanse Palestinians by force to make money for real estate developers, probably including himself, also demonstrates that he cares nothing for Democracy or poorer people in general. Profit is everything, consequently he is, for neoliberal minds, doing good.

His overseas policies announce that the USA is no longer a force for good, but a force for profit and dictatorship. The free world can no longer be led by the USA. End of story. Maybe Trump wants to be the leader of the autocratic world, and destroy democracy elsewhere as well?

Non of this was known by all Trump voters before the election. In many cases, it could not have been known. As a result, they do not have to support his anti democracy moves or his destruction of the USA. Some of the more badly informed, will continue supporting him, because they do not understand or wish to understand, but it is probable that Trump will continue to lose support as his actions come to affect people, and they lose government support they depended upon, and prices keep rising while wages do not. Most Trump supporters have been deceived, but they it is possible they can start seeing what is happening, and admit to themselves that the deceiver deceived.

That is, unless Democrats drive them away, because its easier to attack supporters than to attack Trump.

Democrats do seem to be that stupid sometimes.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Making America Great Again

November 9, 2024

I have no idea what this slogan means, because President Trump never seems to explain it. It is probably appealing to people because it sounds good and has no content to disagree with.

However, in Agenda 47, his speeches and past behaviour, he does explain, or demonstrate, the means of getting there, which might be more controversial, and suggest what he means by ‘great’.

To him US greatness is brought about by:

1. Increasing prices and inflation by raising tariffs. This may start a ‘tariff war’ in which other nations put tariffs on US imports and harm US export markets. The upside is that US companies may abandon their capital invested in other countries and come back to the USA, or perhaps they may think the tariffs against US exports will cancel the US market out. We don’t know – we just know inflation will increase.

2. Giving corporations and hyper-rich people even bigger tax cuts, because they are the important people in the USA. Everyone else is perhaps useful for voting in corporate power and providing cheap labour, but without any other value.

3. Getting rid of regulations that stop companies from injuring workers, poisoning communities or harming the planetary systems. Making sure no business, especially any associated with Donald Trump, can ever be convicted of fraud.

4. Preventing shareholders and businesses doing anything about climate change, while handing climate policy over to oil companies.

5. Getting rid of the minimum wage so labour is as cheap in the US as in China or Bangladesh and can compete.

6. Getting rid of Affordable Healthcare and replacing it with something more profitable for companies. Making sure that you can only get vaccinated if you leave the US.

7. Scrap 2 trillion dollars from social services and regulatory enforcement, to make sure people have to work even if they are 90, and to stop the State interfering with corporate activities unless those activities impact the President harmfully. These cutbacks help provide the funds for corporate tax cuts. Musk admits this will hurt ordinary Americans, but the imagined future greatness justifies the acts.

8. Making sure that Donald Trump does not get prosecuted or convicted of any crime at all, no matter what that crime is. Ordering those he appoints to head the FBI and the DoJ to drop all and any charges against him, while proclaiming the charges to be political only.

9. Making sure that the FBI and DoJ go after anyone who has disagreed with, or will disagree with, Donald Trump, to bring harmony and agreement to the US.

10. Deregistering or continually suing media that does not 100% support Donald Trump all the time, as they are clearly unpatriotic. This gets rid of those scum who accuse the President of misrepresenting reality, and stops people worrying about what is being done, what mistakes are being made, and what climate events are happening and the lack of government response.

11. Stopping climate and weather research, as they just make things worse and cause people to worry, or think that maybe we should not be mining more fossil fuels.

12. Getting rid of all people working for the government who might not be completely obedient to President Trump. Loyalty to the Constitution and the USA should obviously be secondary to loyalty to President Trump and to Republican ideology.

13. Arguing the President can terminate, or ignore, the Constitution. It is an old document that does not recognize the need for absolute Presidential power.

14. Making sure to give pro-Trump Christians control of State apparatus, as the USA is a Christian nation, built on Christian principles, and subservient to Christian power (apart from the President of course). Christians who don’t support Trump are atheists, heretics or demon possessed.

15. Hitting sexual deviants as hard as possible to get rid of lesbians, gays, trans people and so on. They probably should be burnt alive to please the Christians, and make America Straight Again.

16. Making sure more women die of complications in pregnancy, by valuing the fetus more than the mother.

17. Deporting tens of millions of “illegals”, many of whom probably do not have anywhere to go back to. This will require rounding people up with armed force (it will be bloody, said Trump), setting up camps to store them, hundreds of millions in transport unless cattle trucks and ships are used. Non-white people will need to make sure they always have identity or citizenship papers, or they may be picked up (and their papers lost). Americans will get used to armed bands rounding people up, so it won’t be noticeable when the Democrats and RINOs go.

18. Building trust and respect overseas by abandoning allies, as was done with those Afghans friendly to the US, Kurds and so on.

19. Handing Ukraine over to Putin and supporting Putin’s expansion of Russia.

20. Helping Netanyahu slaughter Palestinians and start a war with Iran as this will bring about Armageddon and the final days and please the right-Christian electorate.

21. Cuddle up to dictators to preserve world peace and discuss how to bring order to the USA and get rid of undesirables. Become part of the Axis of Evil as that is really cool.

22. Find new ways for Donald Trump to profiteer from Taxpayers. The boarding secret service people at Trump properties at maximum price is wearing a bit thin.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

The Supreme Court and Trump

July 2, 2024

I still have not got around to reading the judgement yet, so please be charitable, but my understanding is that one of the problems of the judgement is that few of the important terms are defined properly, and the bias of the judgement is towards increasing the power of the US President, and to reinforce their lack of responsibility to the American people.

After the Court’s decision, the President is immune from criminal prosecution for all acts that can be interpreted as part of their official “core” duties, and given “presumptive” immunity for all other official acts. This appears to allow the official Presidential core or other capacities to be stretched to provide immunity anywhere. Assuming the President has good advisors, it will be very hard to argue that any action is not a core activity or one with “presumptive immunity”.

So if Trump or anyone else says, “As part of my core activity of protecting the constitution and the stability of the Country, I will declare Martial law and suspend all elections” or “I will prevent all Marxists from participating in elections,” defining Marxists to be people who do not vote Republican (which is pretty much the current FOX position and that of many Republican politicians). He can then suspend all elections and remove all non Republican voters and candidates, to cheers from his media.

We can be sure that the President’s party will ignore impeachment, especially if he can have them killed. So no President will ever be impeached, and the President could presumably have the witnesses or prosecutors ‘disappear’ to protect the State from insurrection.

It already seems to be recognised by the Court that Trump’s attempts to force Pence into not certifying the result, is part of his official job of communicating with the VP. His attempts to force the DoJ to overthrow results is part of his core duties as supervising the DoJ. Possibly his ‘talks’ with the governor of Georgia are part of his duties as President to ‘prevent’ electoral fraud, and so on. We have been told he can only obstruct congress by refusing information, so arranging the assault of members by followers does not count. His earlier attempts to obstruct justice in the Mueller inquiry have been ignored anyway.

In other words, because of vagueness over his core capacities (even without presumptive immunity), it should be relatively easy to rule that the President could assassinate someone, or imprison them without trial, as long as he made the connection to a core activity. What a future this opens.

The judgement should have given hypothetical examples of what might be a crime, especially given that it gave comments which are clearly directed at stopping the cases against Trump, but I guess that would have undone the purpose of the judgement. The members of the Court could, for example, have replied to justice Sotomayor’s objections, by saying the president could be prosecuted for organizing a military coup, trying to overthrow an election, shooting unarmed people, starting a war without consulting Congress, or for taking a payment (or gift) in exchange for a pardon etc. but they didn’t. This implies that the judgement potentially recognises such acts as non criminal when committed by the President.

If any of what I’ve written is remotely correct, then I really had expected better of the Supreme Court, even this one. They, at best, show a remarkable lack of understanding of consequences of their actions. If not now, then later, they have made it legal for the USA to be seized by a dictator. This is a decision which supports the Deep State and tyranny.

***********************

I may be being too narrow. It may be that the Supreme court wants to make it so that the rich-power elites can be immune from buying up the government

Earlier this month they essentially legalised bribery by saying in Snyder v United States that a bribe had to be paid before an advantage was given to the payer, and that gratuities, tips, gifts and other signs of appreciation given afterwards were perfectly legal.

This ruling guts most corruption legislation, and previous cases of corruption.

It also frees some of the Supreme Court from challenges of being corrupt themselves. Which is convenient

Tags:, ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Agenda 47: Lets make more climate change and eco destruction

June 8, 2024

As a neoliberal, Trump gets really upset about climate change being used ‘politically’ to encourage energy transition, cut back the burning of fossil fuels, helping electric cars or promoting corporate responsibility. The only responsibility that Corporations have is to make money, and that can never destroy their ability to survive.

To Recap: Agenda 47 gives Trump’s official policies, many of which are also present in the corporate manifesto Project 2025. They seem to be heavily oriented towards crushing dissent.

This section considers his ecological and climate attitudes.

Against Corporate Responsibility and Shareholder action

He makes it clear by his non-political support of free speech that it should be forbidden for shareholders to ask companies not to destroy the environment. The sole moral responsibility of companies is to make profit. That’s all; not to be safe for workers, not protect the communities they operate in, not consider the effects of their actions on others, or whatever, just make profit.

When President Trump returns to the White House, he will immediately ban ESG [Environmental, social, and governance] investments through executive order and work with Congress to enact a permanent ban.

“When I’m back in the White House, I will sign an executive order and, with Congress’ support, a law to keep politics away from America’s retirement accounts forever.”

The entire ESG scheme is designed to funnel your retirement money to the maniacs on the radical left.

But pensions and retirement accounts with his radicalism and incompetence, they’re going down and they’re going down big and nobody’s seen anything like it.

I will demand that funds invest your money to help you, not them, but to help you. Not to help the radical left communists, because that’s exactly what they are. I will once again protect our seniors, just like I did before, from the woke left and the woke left is bad news. They destroy countries.

Agenda47: President Trump Continues to Lead on Protecting Americans from Radical Leftist ESG Investments
February 25, 2023

ESG simply means asking companies not to destroy the environment that people (including old people) live in, to pay fair wages, not defraud people, adhere to labour laws, factor in the risks of their actions and be transparent and responsible. However, this will be prevented.

Under Trumps laws, no one, including shareholders will be able to ask companies to stop destroying things or poisoning people, apparently because not destroying things and not exploiting workers, is a radical leftism which destroys countries. It should also be remembered that shareholders are company owners, and that if they cannot influence what their companies do, other than support them going for more profit, then that is a fairly odd definition of capitalist property rights.

It seems that, for Trump, it is disloyal to America to challenge corporate power, while siding with corporate power is completely non-political. All those who disagree are “radical left communists, because that’s exactly what they are.” Asking companies to disclose climate risks is also criminal.

Against Recognising Corporate Climate Risk

In May 2021, Biden issued an Executive Order that required federal agencies to define “climate-related financial risk to the financial stability of the… U.S. financial system” which led the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require private companies to publicly disclose climate-related risks.

This ruling will force companies to share with investors their estimated impact on the environment, which will allow climate crusaders in investment firms to punish companies that do not conform to their radical environmental agenda.

Agenda47: America Must Have the #1 Lowest Cost Energy and Electricity on Earth
September 07, 2023

Apparently looking at climate related risk is too big a risk for corporate liberty to pollute and harm people, to be requested.

More Fossil Fuels

Given Trump being against people acting within the normal rules of capitalism, and effectively putting an end to shareholder motions requesting responsibility, it is not surprising that his energy policy is more fossil fuels, despite the warnings about what this will produce.

He states:

“Joe Biden’s war on American energy is one of the key drivers of the worst inflation in 58 years, and it’s hitting every single American family very, very hard… Biden reversed every action I took that achieved energy independence and soon we were going to be energy dominant all over the world.”

Agenda47: President Trump on Making America Energy Independent Again February 09, 2023

Let us ignore that Biden has pushed for the greatest expansion of American fossil fuel production ever, and presided over huge increases in profits for oil companies [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]: that is not enough for Trump.

Nobody has more liquid gold under their feet than the United States of America. And we will use it and profit by it and live with it. And we will be rich again and we will be happy again. And we will be proud again. Thank you very much.

So lets burn more oil and make things harder for non-rich people by encouraging climate change.

On Day One, President Trump will rescind every one of Joe Biden’s industry-killing, jobs-killing, pro-China and anti-American electricity regulations.

China is being made into an enemy, and trying to go against Republican fossil fuel ideology is traitorous.

President Trump will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.

President Trump will remove all red tape that is leaving oil and natural gas projects stranded, including speeding up approval of natural gas pipelines into the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York.

Yes we don’t have to worry about whether going after shale oil and gas will damage people, water or whatever, we just have to support fossil fuels and the profits they generate. People who might think this is not automatically good, or who protest, will presumably be told they are not real Americans but woke Marxists, and removed.

Stopping Legal Protest

President Trump will stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists that hold up critical energy development projects for years, increase project costs, and discourage future development.

Agenda47: America Must Have the #1 Lowest Cost Energy and Electricity on Earth
September 07, 2023

It should not be a surprise to find out that people’s legal ability to protest and disagree with the demands of corporations is denounced as illegitimate and to be prevented. People should obey and curb their speech before their masters. They know nothing, and should have no power to disagree.

Against Climate Agreements and China

Biden is bad because:

he reentered the horrendous Paris Climate Accord, so unfair to the United States, good for other countries, so bad for us. He put up huge roadblocks to new oil, gas and coal production and much, much more…. The country that now benefits most from Joe Biden’s radical left Green New Deal is China.

President Trump will once again exit the horrendously unfair Paris Climate Accords and oppose all of the radical left’s Green New Deal policies that are designed to shut down the development of America’s abundant energy resources, which exceed any country’s in the world, including Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Agenda47: America Must Have the #1 Lowest Cost Energy and Electricity on Earth
September 07, 2023

We know by now that we should not expect evidence, but the point seems to be that the current COP agreement involves possible cuts to fossil fuel production, and thus should be repudiated, no matter what the consequences. Corporate profit is the fundamentally important thing. Oddly he uses a justice argument to excuse this, the agreement is unfair…. Fairness presumably means powerful people and countries should do what they like. I guess that by attacking the ‘green new deal’ he is objecting to providing jobs by helping the energy transition. Fossil fuels have to remain the main source of US energy.

As you know, China paid hundreds of billions of dollars to the United States when I was president.

I presume this means the tariffs on Chinese goods, which Americans paid, not the Chinese. It is possible that China lost some deals, but they did not directly pay any money to the US because of the tariffs. We might hope a President would realise this, so I suspect the idea he is referring to tariffs is wrong.

Against EVs

Trump is opposed to electric cars, and people making a choice.

Because EVs cost an average of TWICE as much as gas-powered vehicles, take longer to fully charge, and have shorter ranges, almost two-thirds of Americans prefer their next car purchase to be a gas-powered vehicle, nearly half of all car dealerships would never sell an EV, and about half of current EV owners plan to switch back to a gas-powered car.

This is probably one reason why Elon Musk is attempting to cozy up to Trump. He realises that if Biden wins, he will be no worse off, but if Trump wins, EVs might be banned or taxed or put out of action, to protect fossil fuels.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Trump does make a few sensible statements.

According to two 2022 studies, the vast majority of CCS projects have underperformed or failed to date and hydrogen blending is plagued with safety and effectiveness concerns

This is true, but in context, it means that even symbolic attempts to reduce emissions should not be allowed.

So in summary:

Basically most of Trump’s Agenda 47 policies take the attitude that anyone who disagrees with him should be dismissed, punished, or prevented from acting.

This does imply that, whether he claims to be or not, he will act as a dictator and attempt to purge the USA of the liberty of dissent, and prolong ecological destruction and climate change.

Agenda 47 makes clear:

  • Trump is fighting non-existent ‘communists’, and those he calls ‘woke.’ Both terms seem to mean people he does not like or who disagree with him.
  • He is enthusiastic about protecting America from free speech he does not like.
  • People who disagree or inconvenience him are not real Americans.
  • The DoJ should support him, and the Party, alone, and go after people he does not like.
  • Education should only reinforce Republican doctrine as anything else is political.
  • Attempts to recognise that the USA has a history of racism, are racist.
  • Corporations should have free rip, particularly oil companies, and people (even shareholders) should not be free to object to corporate behavior, or attempt to alter it it.
  • He opposes any ideas that people should protect America (or the world) from environmental destruction, as such protection is Marxist.
  • Fossil fuels must be the only energy source to be protected.
  • He wants to stack the government with pro-Trumpists so he will never hear anything he does not like..

This, seems a complete recipe for destruction. Under Trump the USA will not face its real problems, although it may try to crush people who recognize those problems as only Marxists and Woke people would notice them and want to solve them.

Part 1: (Back) Justice

Part 2 (Back) Education

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Agenda 47: Education as propaganda

June 8, 2024

Education goes the same way. It will become “non-political”. And it becomes non-political by banning everything that the Republican Party Machine might disapprove of. In a plan for an online educational institute for Adults or teens, which sounds like a good idea, he says

It will be strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed—none of that’s going to be allowed.

Agenda47: The American Academy

This might seem an odd use of the term ‘non-political,’ but it does try and pretend that his political views are not political, but the common sense of all Americans. He will make sure that only the right material is taught in schools, and lie about what is taught in schools now. It is perhaps too much to expect him to describe what he means by wokeness, but it usually seems to mean any realisation that not all is perfect, and recognition that some people suffer from inequalities and social bias. He is also very upset about the possibility of tolerating non-traditional gender behaviour in schools.

In another display of non-politicisation of education he says:

President Trump will get Critical Race Theory, transgender ideology, and left-wing indoctrination OUT of our schools—and he will get reading, writing, and arithmetic back IN, so that America’s young people have the knowledge, skills, and training they need to get a great job and lead a successful career.

President Trump will cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children—and he will pursue civil rights investigations into any school that engages in race-based discrimination.

Agenda47: President Trump’s Ten Principles For Great Schools Leading To Great Jobs

“Race based discrimination” seems to be telling people that white folk have not always been perfect, but it is a bit vague. However, Critical Race Theory, tends to be a term used by the Right, to mean teaching anyone about the history of American Race Relations. The aim seems to be that people should just ignore race relations and problems will go away, or we should learn that slavery was good, and taught ignorant Africans about agriculture.

The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left, and we will do that

When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.

Agenda47: Protecting Students from the Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions, July 17, 2023

We can assume that, as usual, ‘Marxist’ is a non-political term, which means person who disagrees with the Republican view of America, or who wants to teach history reasonably accurately, as it is highly unlikely that any followers of Karl Marx dominate education, given the smallness of the movement in the USA. It is so small that most people do not seem to know what Marxism is about.

He continues in his non-political manner by saying that education should

protect… free speech by removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats,… [and] schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.

Presumably the aim is to halt any criticism, diversity, equity or inclusion, and that any attempts to compensate for, or recognise, inequalities etc, will result in huge fines. My guess this that the last sentence is directed at endowed universities… because stripping away property from those who dare to differ from Republican ideas does not violate Republican ideals. Another way of interpreting his statement is that he seems to want to use education to continue the class system and inequality.

However the idea that education is only about making children into workers is perfectly standard practice.

His non-political positive vision is that:

President Trump will fight for patriotic education in America’s schools…. [because] decades of poor scholarship have vilified our Founders and the principles that they championed and have taught many of our young people to hate their own country…. we will teach students to love their country, not to hate their country like they’re taught right now.

No evidence is presented, of course, as this is not about evidence. Who when talking about education would want evidence? But the point is that students have to think America has always been good, and that other views cannot be allowed.

Non-political education is also about religion:

we will support bringing back prayer to our schools.

Agenda47: President Trump’s Ten Principles For Great Schools Leading To Great Jobs

President Trump will once again fiercely protect the First Amendment right to pray in public schools—and he will ensure that every American’s fundamental right to the Free Exercise of Religion does NOT end when you walk into a classroom.

In reality, no one is prevented praying in American public schools, however they are prevented from forcing others to pray to their particular God. We can guess what might happen if an Islamic teacher insisted their students prayed to Allah before engaging in football.

We can also guess that his defense of the right of parents to fire teachers is to get rid of teachers who might teach forbidden topics like evolution or climate science, so religion can be another non-political tool used to stop education and support Trump.

The key slur terms like ‘wokeness,’ ‘Marxist’ and ‘vilification’ are left undefined, precisely to get teachers to worry about whether some Republican will apply these words to them, to get them persecuted or dismissed.

The point, of this non-political free speech in education policy, seems to be to suppress free speech, real education and thinking about problems and issues, and teaching only safe Republican ideology.

Part 1 (back) Justice

Part 3 Climate and energy

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Agenda 47: the future of law, education and climate denial

June 8, 2024

If, or as now seems likely, when, Donald Trump wins the next election he has for once made it clear what he will do.

There are three core promises, which translate into:

  1. the Department of Justice will become a weapon [this page]
  2. Education will become propaganda enforcing Republican understanding
  3. Climate change will be encouraged.

Justice is a weapon

There are indications that Mr. Trump will attempt to end the existence of the Department of Justice as an officially neutral organistion, and make it a tool for the President’s use.

This policy seems easy to deny because his official position seems highly ambiguous. Some quotations from him imply he would do it, some quotations imply he might do it, and some quotations imply he should do it but that he won’t [1]. [2]. However it does seem compatible with his proposal to terminate rules in the constitution [3], [4] because he did not like the election results, his defense of rioters involved in the attack on the Capitol, and suggestions he might pardon them, and his convictions for financial crimes being denounced as Democrat driven witch-hunts, even when a whole jury found him guilty despite knowing they and their families would be threatened by his supporters if none of them doubted his guilt.

However, in Agenda 47, which is his official public policy document, he is much clearer as to his intentions. He writes:

There is no more dire threat to the American Way of Life than the corruption and weaponization of our Justice System—and it’s happening all around us. If we cannot restore the fair and impartial rule of law, we will not be a free country.

As President, it will be my personal mission to restore the scales of justice in America. We will have fairness and equality under the law.

To that end, I will appoint U.S. Attorneys who will be the polar opposite of the Soros District Attorneys and others that are being appointed throughout the United States. Very unfair to our population. Very unfair to our country.

They will be the 100 most ferocious legal warriors against crime and Communist corruption that this country has ever seen.

Agenda47: Firing the Radical Marxist Prosecutors Destroying America
April 13, 2023

It does not take much imagination to see this as a threat to have the law ignore Republican, and allies, crimes, as this is unfair, and to appoint people who will go after his perceived enemies without any restraint at all. It is standard for authoritarian parties to hold that the law should not apply to them.

That he is trying to slur people by calling the current DoJ officers ‘Soros Attorneys’ may be taken as indicating that he plans a direct attack on the freedoms of those he disagrees with and he will purge them from the office. That he also claims the main problem is “Communist corruption” shows how fake this pretense of reforming the DoJ is. The number of communists in the USA is tiny. The number of communists in positions of power (especially in the DoJ) will be likely be non-existent. However the amount of business and corporate corruption of the kind Trump engages in seems to be very high. This is basically saying the DoJ should not go after corporate corruption, as that would be unfair and communist. By the way, Soros is not remotely a communist, he is a person that thinks corporate domination is not good, that neoliberalism leads to corporate domination and that societies should be open in their discussions of politics. In other words he disagrees with the Republican Party Machine and with Putin.

From these comments we can expect a politicised DoJ. The idea of crushing opponents seems confirmed by other promises in Agenda 47 to protect free speech in universities by getting rid of people who teach things he does not like, and protecting students from learning anything that is not Republican Propaganda. He has also promised to stop investors asking companies not to destroy the environment.

In other words ‘impartial’ means “pro-Trump”. Agree with him or else the reformed DoJ will come after you.

Part 2: Education

Part 3: Climate and energy

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Trump and the ‘bloodbath’: What did he say?

April 5, 2024

As usual, reports of Trump’s apparent calls for a bloodbath have been dismissed as anti-Trump hysteria. He is supposedly threatening Chinese car manufacturers not his opponents

However as usual, the actual state of things is more ambiguous.

Here is the actual transcript, nothing deleted, giving the context:

Transcript

China now is building a couple of massive plants where they’re going to build the cars in Mexico and think, they think that they’re going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China, if you’re listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal, those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us. Now, we’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars, if I get elected.

Donald Trump Dayton Ohio Buckeye Values PAC Rally

Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole… That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.

But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories. A friend of mine, all he does is build car manufacturing plants. He’s the biggest in the world. I mean, honestly, I joke about it. He can’t walk across the street, in that way he’s like Biden. But for building a plant, he can do the greatest plants in the world, right? That’s all he cares about. I said, “I’d like to see one of your plants.” Recently, I said, “I’d like to see. Where can we go?” “Well, we have to travel to Mexico.” I said, “Why Mexico?” He said, “Because that’s where the big plants are building. China’s building really big plants in Mexico and Mexico’s building…” “What about here?” “Well, we’re building much smaller plants here.” Can you believe it? Can you believe it?

Comments

For Trump this is an amazingly coherent passage. As readers will probably know his normal speeches are fairly incoherent and repetitive rambles. So my guess is that most of this speech is prompted and prewritten. It is supposed to be about car manufacturing in Mexico, and everything he says could be true, Capitalists are not going to operate where its more expensive. They race to the location of the cheapest cost of production of the quality they need. Low wages costs, low materials cost, low pollution costs. Automation gives them the quality, so they don’t care that much about ‘quality’ workers, and the workers in Mexico may be the same kind of people they would employ in the USA.

In the middle of this speech apparently prompted by the “if I get elected” he appears to change subject. This section has little to do with the rest of this part of the speech at all, and there is an incoherence break, and repetition, possibly indicating it is not part of the script, its a digression and improvisation.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole… That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.

Let us be clear. He could be referring metaphorically to Chinese and other car manufacturers. But it does not fit in with the rest of the speech at all. It seems to be a mind-flash, a real statement of what he feels…

We can either be charitable to man who has threatened violence to his opponents elsewhere and say this is about a fight to the death against manufacturing in Mexico, or we can treat it as a real threat to non-Trumpist American citizens. I think the second option is a better interpretation. He does not specify the country where the bloodbath is to take place, although it makes better sense in the context, to think he is referring to America.

So a few interpretative quotes to give my impression of what he is saying:

  • “If I win, then the Chinese car manufacturers will suffer because I will do 100% tariffs…”
  • “But if I don’t win that its going to be a bloodbath for the whole country.”
  • “That will be the least of it.”
  • “Getting back to the cars in Mexico, even Americans are going to move there if we don’t act….”

If you are a free market person you should be angry in either case.

Earlier in this speech he also engages in dehumanisation of people he does not like, ‘illegal immigrants,’ which is often a precursor to bloodbaths and death squads:

But I got to know all these people…. Young people, they’re in jail for years, if you call them people, I don’t know if you call them people. In some cases they’re not people in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. They say you have to vote against him because did you hear what he said about humanity? I’ve seen the humanity and these humanity, these are bad. These are animals and we have to stop it. We can’t have another Laken {a woman who was killed by an illegal person}. We have so many people. We have so many people being hurt so badly and being killed. They’re sending their prisoners to see us. And they’re bringing them right to the border and they’re dropping them off and we’re allowing them to come in.”

same source

We can also remember this recent mindflash in what seems an otherwise unscripted speech….

On Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxist fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible. They’ll do anything whether legally or illegally to destroy America and to destroy the American dream. The real threat is not from the radical, right? The real threat is from the radical left and it’s growing every day, every single day, the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within our threat is from within. Because if you have a capable competent, smart, tough leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not gonna want to play with us and they didn’t, despite the hatred and anger of the radical left lunatics who want to destroy our country, we will make America great again. Thank you, New Hampshire. God bless you. God bless you all. Thank you. God bless you all. Thank you.

President Trump Campaigns in Claremont, New Hampshire2024

I don’t quite know what he is saying about Russia, China etc. That the radical left stop us playing with them?

But the threat of him, when he wins, purging the USA of people who disagree with him seems clear, and it should threaten everyone as the number of Marxists and communists in the USA is trivial and they are not very powerful or influential, unlike the radical right. He appears to confuse fascists with the left, but that is common for the right, who ignore the people waving swastikas at their rallies, or even encourage them. I guess because of their mutual sympathy.

So, on the whole, to me, it sounds most likely that Trump is threatening a bloodbath in the USA, whether he wins or not. This is compatible with his often expressed desire for revenge. Some people may think that this bloodbath will lead to a peaceful and functional country, rather than to accelerated collapse.

Tags:, ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries