It has to be said that Trump lived up to expectations during his inauguration.
In this regard, I see him as being remarkably like Keir Starmer. I always expected Starmer to deliver nothing of any consequence, and that is exactly what he has done.
I always expected Trump to deliver a programme based on hate, disruption, distraction, and delivery of benefit for the ultra-wealthy at a cost to everyone else in the USA and beyond, and again, that is exactly what it seems that he plans to do.
I tried to persuade myself that I did not need to watch the inauguration, but then I felt it impossible to miss it, so I dual-screened (as I seem to do whenever I watch television these days), editing videos while watching what I am calling the Age of Aggression begin. I then listened to Trump confirm that it would be as bad as I had anticipated.
As expected, Trump has turned on migrants.
Also, as expected, he has turned on the LGBTQ+ population.
Refugees are a target, as they always seem to be for those on the far right who wish to pretend that they are hard when all that they actually reveal is their lack of concern for their fellow human beings.
Trade war is going to happen, but the details are unclear as yet. The associated tax commentary was unbelievably stupid.
War was effectively declared on Panama. So far, Canada and Greenland have been spared. But that is just a matter of time.
The Green New Deal was ended.
Climate destruction was promised. "Drill, baby, drill" is on the agenda.
Some truly mad religious rhetoric was used.
General George Patton - the US anti-semite General who claimed he did not realise that World War 2 was fought to de-Nazify Germany - was lauded.
In this Age of Aggression, any semblance of rationality was dispensed with. All Trump wants to do is save his own skin while simultaneously enriching those who are already exceptionally wealthy, including himself. In this process, what passes for policy is actually nothing of the sort. It is simply promoted as a distraction, put in place to deflect attention from Trump‘s true agenda, which is motivated by greed alone, coupled with a visceral hatred of all those who he thinks might stand in his way and that of his billionaire associates.
That said, however, it was impossible to ignore Biden and Harris watching on. That was their role because the Democrats dismally failed to differentiate themselves from billionaires. They also failed to deliver for ordinary people, who saw none of the benefits from the growth that Biden could claim that he had delivered. The suggestion that the Democrats abandoned working-class people is true, as it is also true for Labour in the UK.
The consequence is, as I have explained in today's video, that we are now entering the Age of Aggression, with neo-fascism on open display. This will replace the Age of Indifference that was created by a neoliberal elite to eliminate economic and political competition so that the priorities of the wealthy came to be seen as the normalised goals of society, however inappropriate that very obviously was. The Age of Aggression is what logically follows from that. Those supposed left-wingers who let this happen have a lot they can rightly be blamed for.
Now, we live in an era where political-economic corruption is writ large. A political era that has been deeply destructive for our well-being - because it was an Age of Indifference - is being replaced by one that is worse. We really are in a mess.
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I did not watch it and avoided the news. The MAGA crowd remind me of post WW2 Empire loyalists. They can’t accept they are on the way down. If we won’t team up with the rest of Europe – and let’s be honest they have no “cloud capital” – maybe we need to join BRICS?
We may belong with the BRICS – but I doubt they would have us. We have a lot of humble pie to eat before that might happen.
Brazil got rid of Bolsonaro by a small margin and de Silva seems a good man, but Democracy seems precarious.
Russia is an Oligarchy with rigged elections and muzzled media.
India is the world’s largest democracy but Modi has done his best to undermine it. It may yet survive.
China has seen tremendous growth but if we look Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and a President who has torn up the concept of term limits, it isn’t a political system we want to see here.
South Africa is a democracy and impressed by its role at the ICJ but is one of the most corrupt countries.
No doubt we can work with them but we need to be very cautious.
Well said.
His speech was delivered in such a deadpan way but was full of menace – it was rather I would say cognitively dissonant and you are not sure if he was serious or not.
You then see Biden’s pre-emptive pardons and Trump’s pardons of those who marched on Capitol Hill and you realise that these are not states men – they are just rich people playing politics.
America has failed.
Too much freedom brought it down in the end.
Trump appears to wish to model himself on the expansionist geopolitical policies, and successful industrial and economic policies of a predecessor, President William McKinley (1843–1901), President 1897-1901; in a very different age. The national myth Trump appears to wish to exploit is that of the American as “frontiersman”. Notably, it was in 1883 that a poem was written in 1883, with the line “Give me your tired, give me your poor, give me your huddled masses … “; which was reproduced on the Statue of Liberty; unveiled in 1903, two years after McKinlay’s death.
Thanks
and like all Fascists there is a promotion of grievance -unfairness. It was in the statements on Panama, the WHO, the January 6 th insurgents, immigrants and trade. “Being taken advantage” is the phrase. Find a trouble, promise to save people from it and then do something.
And it seems he/advisors have also taken on Putins use of chaos as Curtis explains in his documentry
“HyperNormalisation”
feeding the mass’s a few titbits from time to time, creating havoc whilst getting on supporting his self interest /oligarchs/ finance.
Oh, and God is somehow involved in all this (just for the benefit of the American people, though). If there is a God, He would strike that place as He did to Sodom and Gomorrah for the benefit of humanity.
The hypocrisy of religious leaders praying for God’s blessing on the Trump administration is striking. On some level, they must be aware that Trump is not destined for heaven.
Their god is a tribal deity.
Not a god I would want anything to do with.
The turkeys have voted for Christmas!