Trump is just the next step in the natural evolution of America into a plutocratic state. The US -- like the rest of the West -- was sliding along this path until the great depression and WWII destroyed that regime. Our elites have spent several generations rebuilding their institutional power. Now new technology and massive immigration are further increasing their power, shifting the balance from labor to capital. [ 359 more words ]
http://fabiusmaximus.com/2016/12/18/usa-becomes-a-plutocracy
Today's must-read: Why did liberals fall in love with a deranged tweetstorm about a massive Russian plot to control America? It excused their many foolish failures in #Campiagn2016.
http://www.slate.com/…/what_the_hell_is_wrong_with_america_…
Summary: Immigration from Mexico was a hot issue in Campaign 2016. An equally serious danger was ignored -- contagion to the US from the insurgency of drug cartels against Mexico. Geopolitical infections spread just as biological ones do. Here Stratfor gives us a status report for Mexico's decade-long war on drugs. A wall will not keep it from spilling into America. [ 1,271 more word ]
http://fabiusmaximus.com/…/stratfor-status-of-mexican-war-o…
Summary: Trump has been called an authoritarian, a fascist, and another Hitler. What is his true character? The question becomes more important as Trump approaches the White House. An interwar insight from a German general can help us evaluate him. The answer helps explain why Trump did so well on November 8, despite his many obvious faults. [ 470 more words ]
http://fabiusmaximus.com/…/16/how-to-understand-donald-trump
Scaramucci gives a word salad when asked about climate change, repeatedly attempting to change the subject. Congrats to Chris Cuomo. He handles this interview quite skillfully.
Summary: Trump's unexpected election forced changes in the forecasts and plans of the Fed's leaders. Today's decision to raise rates is their first result. Janet Yellen was quite candid about this. The implications of the rate rise are complex. The effects might prove calamitous. Janet Yellen's remarks at the press conference She clearly pointed to Trump's plans for a combination of tax cuts plus large increases in infrastructure and military spending. [ 914 more words ]
http://fabiusmaximus.com/…/trump-forced-the-fed-to-raise-ra…
Trump's National Security Adviser Flynn deletes tweet about Clinton's involvement in sex crimes, hiding evidence of his gullibility. That's a serious weakness for someone in his job.
http://thehill.com/…/310372-flynn-deletes-fake-news-tweet-a…
Conservatives belittle concerns about America’s increasingly unrepresentative government. But unequal political representation has caused serious problems in other societies, eroding away their legitimacy and increasing social tensions. As shown in a new study, it was a major cause of the American Revolution (despite the colonies’ low taxes). It will cause problems for us too, unless fixed soon.
https://fabiusmaximus.com/…/unequal-representation-in-amer…/
"How are we the country that took the beaches of Normandy if we need a therapy dog every time things don't go our way?" – Laura Ingraham on 'Fox & Friends'
Trump's team asks Dept of Energy employees about their work. Outrage results! Who does the President think he is? (There is no basis for their self-dramatizing fears of "retaliation", esp if they're doing legitimate DoE work.)
http://www.govexec.com/…/trump-teams-energy-questio…/133829/
A new era of protests by the Left: recruiting voters for Trump!
America's Left has suffered large defeats in US elections, but began a new era of public protests. Occupy Wall Street, Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, and others. Have they found the path back to political power, or have they turned onto a dead end road?
http://fabiusmaximus.com/…/…/new-era-of-protests-by-the-left
National Review accurately points out that There Is No Right-Wing Equivalent to Political Correctness.
http://www.nationalreview.com/…/conservatives-political-cor…
A map of downward mobility in America shows that inequality is growing in the States where Trump won. This was a problem for the Democrats, an an opportunity for them in the future.
http://mainepublic.org/…/us-kids-far-less-likely-out-earn-t…
Hillary Clinton's campaign is like the hospital patient who died after a minor infection overwhelmed a compromised immune system. Had the patient been healthy t...o begin with, the Comey letter and the (likely) Russian hacking would not have mattered -- though I doubt the latter was a major factor.
Donald Trump was elected president despite all his manifest flaws because his willingness to engage the news media over the course of decades built up his antibodies to whatever negative scandalous revelations might appear throughout the course of the campaign. Sure, not all press is good press, but when the explosive Trump tape hit, his campaign got a cold it quickly recovered from a couple weeks later, while the boring bureaucratic Clinton scandals caused her campaign to be in and out of the hospital for 20 months. Trump's ability to parry scandal into spectacle and drama is a key feature of his strong "immune system." By rolling around in the mud, it turns out you don't get sick as often as someone who avoids all contact with anyone who might make them sick (e.g. the press).
Someone else who had this ability to dodge scandal, to get voters to buy into his misbehavior as part of the overall package, was Bill Clinton. The question of what Bill would do to escape Houdini-like from the latest scandal bears a lot of resemblance to the parlor game of obsessing over the latest thing Trump said on Twitter to distract us. If we're being honest with ourselves, we're entertained by this sort of thing. And, as was true in the '90s, voters prefer to be entertained than not. Hillary was the opposite of her own husband, eschewing the limelight, and acting cornered in the face of scandal instead of going on offense. Maybe there's something virtuous to not being like her husband, but politically, it's the reason she's spending her days hiking in the woods and not planning a transition to government.
Summary: How much Trump accomplishes will depend in part by how effectively the Left opposes him. A few on the Left have seen the essential element for success, but overall their early responses suggest that the Left will remain dysfunctional. Perhaps a few years in the political wilderness will bring new insights to them. But they are some hopeful signs out there… [ 1,109 more word ]
http://fabiusmaximus.com/20…/…/12/the-left-responds-to-trump
The results of the election are in! The Republic lost, with a new President who got second place in the public vote. Then came a barrage of lies about the simple facts of the election, propaganda which our institutions seem unable to fight. Can we reform the Electoral College before 2020? That will show if the Republic remains vital or has become decrepit. The clock is running.
https://fabiusmaximus.com/…/election-results-popular-vs-el…/
