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It occurs to me that my intermittent blogging and social media postings might give the impression that I am detached from the political realities of the moment. Far from it. FB mostly shows liberal messages, and Mastodon features insights and outrage. I haven’t felt any special need to express my political leanings on these platforms except on rare occasions. But I have strong opinions and emotions about the current chaos. Here I mention a few random thoughts to give an idea about what I’m thinking about.
I am outraged about the Texas government’s decision to allow 10 Commandments to be posted in every classroom. I am also outraged by the capitulations of various entities in society to Trump, especially our universities. I never would have guessed that they would give in so easily.
I am resigned to the fact that Trump’s coalition can pass whatever the hell it wants (at least until the midterms). On the other hand, I am shocked by how often Trump lawlessly steamrolls through existing statutes and just run out the clock on court orders — and gets away with it.
I am sick of GOP’s new budget cuts to Obamacare and Medicaid by applying means test and work requirements. The mere act of creating more hoops to leap through makes it harder for people to use the plans as intended. “Work requirements” is the phrase conservatives use to describe these hoops, but it’s not the work requirements themselves but the bureaucratic obstacles created by these hoops. For Obamacare, the ability to document income is particularly hard for self-employed and unemployed. Personally I depend on Obamacare and worry sick about the new rules (even though this setback was easily foreseeable).
Trump’s tariff game is transparently destructive and stupid, and yet Trump loves it because it flatters his ego and reinforces his notion of his power and importance. I am particularly struck by how major businesses have fallen in line to flatter Trump.
I am depressed at Trump’s decision to separate from Europe and NATO. The Ukraine conflict is a sticky and intractable conflict, and I probably agree that Europe need to take a lead towards a solution, but Trump seems to do everything to foil Europe’s efforts. I’m glad that Trump is finally turning Ukraine into a front burner issue, but meeting Putin seemed ridiculous.
I was never particularly pro-USA, but until maybe 10 years ago, US did lead the world in education, technology, business and (in some ways) culture. This country’s decision to demonize outsiders and immigrants is shocking because it undermines what made this country so remarkable. I see international students fleeing Trump’s intolerant philistinism in droves; that only accelerates the decline of USA across the board. I am basically stuck inside this country for the foreseeable future, but believe me, I am asking myself how I could escape the state that is a cesspool of conservatism.
Many political problems are so solvable, but where does the momentum to change things come from? We could legislate gerrymandering out of existence; we could make Puerto Rico and D.C. a state; we could implement the National Popular Vote by interstate compact. I wish every day after each Trump press conference, the Dems or progressives could organize some daily TRUTH CONFERENCE to counter GOP’s repulsive lies.
Many people seem to have blind faith that our political system will bounce back and recover from Trump’s insane demagoguery. I am not so sure. The second election of Trump showed that USA’s appetite for authoritarianism is increasing. So far the authority of the courts have been respected, but the decisions of the Supreme Court and Appeals Courts were already so reactionary that they already seemed in cahoots with Trump’s oligarchic vision.
I am depressed by the influence of TikTok and short vids. They are so useful for dictators and bad actors. They are so personality-driven and frankly driven by the sex appeal of youth. I’ve seen how teenagers and many adults are transfixed by all this malarkey and indifferent to nuanced reporting and editorializing just because it doesn’t include singing and dancing and sloganeering.
Trump’s corruption is so crude and obvious that what’s the point of having ethics anymore? He has manipulated the system to maximize profits for his companies and stock accounts and cryptos. He has thrown off any judicial oversight, fired inspector generals and turned the legislature into spineless Yes-men. Trump is basically a memestock selling worthless tokens and making a killing in the process. It doesn’t matter that it’s doomed to lose value; as long as he’s not the last one to be holding the bag, everything is fine. With the tariffs, a single announcement can manipulate the stock exchange, making it easier for his close pals to make a killing with advanced knowledge of what’s ahead.
Trump has so many flawed officials working for him. He is undeniably racist (see this and this), and I think a lot of his constituency belongs to the class of white aggrieved racist. Everything has to be the fault of the Asians, or the colored people or whoever is the scapegoat of the moment. If anything, it demonstrates how many American corporations stay silent when demagogues flail about.
It’s becoming apparent that the Trump Administration is not only corrupt, it interferes with the free market more than any socialist would do. Requiring that corporations and universities remove diversity policies is just as intrusive as requiring that they don’t have racist policies or behavior. Trump Administration requires that companies pay lip service to Donald Trump himself or they will be castigated by Trump personally. Trump has made companies more vulnerable to political influence — to arbitrary tariffs, to DOJ investigations, to blackballing them for federal contracts or to Twitter-hate. For companies to be allowed to succeed in business, Trump expects trinkets and statements praising him and nominating him for prizes. Now Trump Administration is buying ownership stakes in companies and pressuring the Federal Reserve to loosen credit and release politicized economic data. My question: what kind of business CEO would support this kind of nonsense?
I haven’t mentioned my core issue, which is fighting climate change. Once again, this issue gets lost in the weeds even though the need is more pressing. Climate events are happening with more frequency, and heat records continue to be set every year. Trump’s policies about renewables are not just kneejerk-ideological, they are out of date even in conservative circles by at least 50 years. Nobody is talking about coal anymore; electric car companies like BYD are quickly driving oil and gas out of business. Solar power is now the cheapest source of power generation and will continue to be. The truth is that nobody is listening to Trump anymore except his devotees. Trump is now the biggest advertisement for China’s eco-friendly authoritarianism. Trump is not just evil; his attitudes and actions now make him the enemy of the entire planet. He embodies the pampered aristocrats which demand that devotees eat shit and die. The sad thing about Trump’s backward thinking is that he undermines the main competitive advantage American business used to have. We will miss the opportunity to lead in renewable energy; instead Trump’s stupid policies will leave Americans further behind while the rest of the world benefits.
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