Treasonous bitch, but why is none dare call it treason, for when it prospers none dare call it treason
The day of Reckoning will come for all, Experts estimate that we have 33 years left, before the collapse of the anthropocene
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Trump 2.0 Un(der)covered: What This Really Means For The Climate — And the World
While “climate change is a hoax” wins the election, 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest on record
ANTARCTIC SAPIENS 🇦🇶
NOV 9
READ IN APP
Created by author
So “climate change is a hoax” Donald Trump is set to reclaim the reins of the world’s largest historical greenhouse gas emitter.
Unsurprisingly, neither Trump nor Kamala Harris made the climate crisis a prominent feature of their campaigns, daring to confront the elephant in the room. This oversight occurred even as the US was pounded by weather disasters supercharged by an unusually warm Atlantic Ocean that claimed 232 lives across the southwest in a merciless display of climate change’s growing wrath.
And here’s the most ridiculous irony: nearly half of those deaths occurred in the swing state of North Carolina, which, believe it or not, moved decisively behind Trump. In the state’s still-recovering western region, voters lacking proper polling stations cast their ballots in tents.
Meanwhile, global temperatures have been so high through the first 10 months of 2024 that only an implausibly sharp drop in the final two months would prevent a new record from being set.
That's it. doesn't matter your religion, your ideology, your politics we are in the same situation as we would be if we were under attack by aliens from space.
Only worse, there are always humans which are Quisling, who will sell out to an alien threat for a pat on the head and a few extra bennies.
Ever see the series "Colony"
But there is no getting in bed with climate change and saving your bacon, in fact assissting climate change is suicide
If citizens are gullible enough to elect a wife-rapist, one who fills his diapers with nonstop aplomb, and deliberately hurts people for his kind of sadistic entertainment, then I feel as if I've awakened as Randle McMurphy (Jack N.) in Mark Burnett's off-earth-1 version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Perhaps the entire nation needs a transorbital, frontal lobotomy. Or mass electroshock at a minimum.
To paraphrase comedian/actor Bernie Mac, "I feel sorry for you, America."
Paradox: Putin fights for years to acquire Ukraine. But has been gifted America without firing a shot.
The USSA — Vlad's new client-state, run by his XXL, orange puppet.
Good question, BillyN. I think the last and only resort will be a few patriots at the top of the US military, because what we've just witnessed has been a slow rolling coup. With the inclusion of JD Vance and especially Elon Musk (a nasty duo far more capable than DJT who might well be disposed of), they will move for a fast decapitation of the military, replacing general officers with loyalists. When this starts to happen, our top brass must indeed succeed where Hitler's best generals failed or it's over for this country.
There will likely be some conflict in the ranks of the military between the careerists and the colonels and one-stars who were passed over for promotion. One should not forget the National Guard contingents either. They are under the control of governors.
There is a huge unaddressed problem in the military Dr Doug. The service academies have been infected with Dominist/New Apostolic Reformation ideology
It started in Colorado Springs when the AF Academy opened it's door in 1962, megachurches quickly followed as did Dominionism ideology.
It has since spread to West Point and Annapolis . I have done a google on the top generals and admirals as to who is an academy graduate and who was commissioned via ROTC or Officer Candidate Training. Gen Milley came up via ROTC..
I don't trust Academy grads, as they are brainwashed.
The military will be difficult. Imagine Kash Patel as Secretary of Defense. So much for the UCMJ and the Hatch Act.
Aspects of the military have been "privatized" starting with GWB. I expect Eric Prince to be one of Trump's principal advisors. Defense Base Act and War Hazards Act cases involving mercenaries were no 1 on my hit parade before I retired in 2018. I also heard Service Contract Act cases that sometimes involved the Defense Department. I expect Trump will expand the program. I assume that his donors will get the bulk of the contracts...if they don't have them already.
Many of the contracts are supposed to be open to bidders, but Trump tried to install the spoils system during his term
Contractors are subject to ethics rules, which I expect will be eliminated.
I don't expect the military to be difficult at all, but I do agree with you about using Mercenaries, and there are a lot of paramilitaries which are eager to prove their mettle against the hated libs, which will spring into action like the SA,
As a retired regular officer I know the mettle of fellow officers and the ass kissing required to climb the ranks.
I know more than one officer who lusted after a Colonels eagle or a generals star, so he could do what was done to him by his superiors.
had the pleasure of watching a General dress down (effeminate and emasculate) a Colonel who visibly shrunk as it happened, and then that Col recharge his testosterone, but doing the same to a Major, and the Major did the same to a poor 2d Lt who was stuck with not being able to kick the dog,because the Senior Master Sergeant wasn't about to take shit from a butter bar, and no I wasn't part of the circus
Haha, "shit rolls downhill." I was an enlisted man dressed down regularly by drill sergeants and the occasional officer as part of the training turning civilians into soldiers. It always hurt, by design, but everyone understood they were just doing their job and didn't take it personally.
There were times, though, that the discipline was over the top. One soldier, small in stature, just couldn't coordinate his body to meet the demands of marching in a large group. We had a big parade coming up in a few days in front of the brass, and the DI was becoming increasingly frustrated until he totally lost it, grabbing the poor guy by his web gear, lifting him off the ground, and shaking the holy fck out of him. It literally looked like he exploded — his helmet, rifle, and rucksack flying off in all different directions. Needless to say, he missed the big parade, relegated to cleaning the barracks.
This is definitely who the "bros" are. And then there are a lot of people who live in the Orwellian reality matrix, and they thought they were voting for God and Country.
There will be a recession within two years if he implements what he says he will do. No prob. He will just blame Biden/Harris, "I inherited their terrible economy," and the base will believe it. If he does not do those things, doubtful, there is enough baked into the economy from Biden's infrastructure, Chips, etc., bills to carry the economy forward for a while, which Trump will then take credit. He wins regardless. Rinse, repeat. And the media will say speak into the mic.
Prices are already going up after Nov 5th due to some companies stockpiling BOM components, particularly Chinese components, ahead of the tariff increases. Exporters are doing the same thing. I think we’ll see a recession as early end of 2025, accelerated by the deportations, resulting shortage of farm workers and resulting increase in food prices. Trump’s plan to further cut the corporate tax while keeping the current tax roll-back for consumers and businesses means the deficit is going to balloon. In advance of that, the stock market will price that in via bonds and stocks will drop. Bond prices are already changing. The borrow from Peter to pay Paul is going to be deliberately used to decimate the social safety net. Welcome to a nightmare. I can only hope New York puts Trump in prison.
Or, never thought I would say this- so I say it with caution- there is something really strange about the missing 15M to 20M Dem votes for President when considered in view of the Dem wins at the state level even in the battleground states and the 2008-2024 voting stats. For 2024, I used stats that said 38% of eligible votes did not vote to make an estimate of voting population. Those same stats said 34.3% did not vote in 2020. Using 66% did vote, I get 239M votes for 2020, which jives with the eligible voting population that year using a different source. Even though some votes are still being counted, it seems we lost at least 4M eligible voters between 2020 and 2024 and that is only if voting population did not grow at all. If it grew by 9M, there are 13M votes missing based on trends below. Covid deaths in that time period were about 1.25M excess deaths. The US population is still increasing. Children, who can’t vote, are a decreasing percentage of the population. Where did 4M to 13M or more eligible voters disappear to?
We voted them in. They are now in control and it will take more than votes to drive them out. These people can change laws with the blessing of SCOTUS. This will take a long time. Sad
Votes to drive out Martin? Have you not been paying attention. Trump said vote for mean and you will never vote again. I believe him, so should you,so should all. He will staff the government with loyalists, He will control the legislature, executive and the judicial, nothing stands in his way.
He has told us many times, what he is going to do, and the Heritage Foundation gave him a playbook,so why don't you believe him?
We are children who pull the covers over our head cause we are scared of the boogeyman, at least I am not.
Here we are, and how soon will the trump supporters start to grumble, and the rest of us simply say,We told you so. Problem, we're going to be just as Screwed as they are, so there's no satisfaction in Truth. Great piece this morning ☕ Thom and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Good to now turn the spotlight upon this fascist greedy and sick disgusting Murdoch. The worst australian plague? He definitely must get some people attention and hopefully some sanction. What a bad very bad bloke. Tks!
Elie Mystal is not wrong about the racism. But two equally important factors which were not mentioned are 1.) the religious extremists who needed to believe in the guy who is going to hasten the Second Coming and punish the people who are naughty and then eliminate the resulting fetus they pathologically see as a real child, and 2.) the great dependence on authoritarianism to protect from disorder and human "sin", willfulness and frailty perpetuated and magnified by authoritarian institutions obsessed with obedience to authority at the expense of autonomy and critical thinking (you know what those are). Our leaders refuse to confront either of those issues. We need new leaders and I do not see them on the horizon, especially when those issues are totally neglected, even here. Hopefulness and encouragement without realism and truth are irresponsible folly.
Organized religion teaches children to accept as truth unprovable concepts and the hierarchy of authoritarianism. It takes a radical revolution of thought to counteract the damage done to an innocent mind.
Truer words were never spoken, as they say. “…a radical revolution of thought” has always been thought to be the primary objective of education for people whose minds have been freed from the “…hierarchy of authoritarianism”.
Unfortunately, schooling, and especially schooling established as a consequence of attendance laws is the main organ for setting into concrete the hierarchy of authoritarianism. Indeed, it has worked splendidly with brilliant and otherwise enlightened people we are very familiar with here. The compulsive reliance on arbitrary authority in our traditional public schools is a direct derivative of organized religion. Listen carefully to almost any teacher in those hallowed classrooms and you will hear the sermons, admonitions, scriptures, and guilting of the clergy echoing clearly and incessantly.
The unproved and unprovable concept of the mass production of education in such schools is accepted everywhere as gospel, and our schooling “systems” are a sacred cow as a result. To suggest that they should be attended voluntarily, rather than as coerced “improvement” or re-education and punishment for being a child is heresy, sadly even including in this space. Religion’s reach and influence is the reason we are entering a new dark age on Jan. 20,2025. It has even reached us here.
I hear you but wonder about the alternative. I've read your take on this subject of education many times over the years and agree with certain basic premises as you've outlined. It's hard to ignore the many flaws in a public education system that tries to condition the masses of children to conform to the demands of a society, which they must learn to work and live in as responsible adults.
I'm not smart enough to come up with viable solutions other than perhaps offering easily available and intelligent counter-narratives (parents, libraries, unbiased media sources, sincere friendships, quiet time under a tree contemplating the clouds, ???) to the worst of the brainwash — some way to encourage independent thought and critical thinking skills, while still maintaining a stable system upon which children, teens, and young adults can anchor their formative years and learn the skills necessary for survival and sanity in a crazy, fcked-up world.
Otherwise, we might end up with "Lord of the Flies" on a grand scale. (Then again, when you look down from thirty thousand feet at this fragmented world of widespread chaos, which insane Homo sapiens have consciously and unconsciously created, that is already the case in way too many ways.)
I would hope that's true in most public school districts. My brother's grandson is autistic (and very smart) and has benefitted tremendously from special needs programs and loving parents. Not to sound patronizing, but I think Eliot means well and makes good points about certain things we as a society could improve upon. I just don't agree that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, is the solution.
Whereas IEPs are usually limited to IDEA kids, in some places every kid gets them. I lived in the DC suburbs and in Miami where some public schools are superior to any as in ANY (all caps) private school in the US.
I do not know how to describe my alternative than the one I have repeated many times in this space. If the patient has a cancerous but operable or removable tumor, the alternative is to cut the damn thing out and hope the patient recovers and thrives. I have never said that a single school should close or that school as an institution cannot be a force for social amelioration and for good, or that I have the formula for success. The educational wheel has been reinvented every nine days somewhere for well over a century. Innovations come and go, often in identical iterations but cannot be maintained because of the power structures and their conflict with the obsession with authority. IEP's are dandy for a few fortunate students but are barely worth the paper the are written on for the majority over the long-term. The school remains a poor imitation of a prison. There is one undeniable inherent problem and that is the arbitrary authority inescapable with mandatory attendance. Indeed, that authoritarian influence is what I have complained most often and loudly about.
I will include here what I was thinking and writing about when I took a break to check messages.
The big emphasis on the failures of the “mainstream”/corporate media in informing the public and the blaming of the Democratic establishment for not doing a better job of “messaging”,( i.e. managing, manipulating, and molding perceptions and condensing big concepts down into more digestible bites for the masses of low-information voters and non-voters) shows that the ignorance of the American people has been accepted as unchangeable by the leaders in many areas such as schooling, intellectual and elite influencers, politicians, the media etc. Mr. DS is obviously easily satisfied.
Someone, such as Thom, who as a student clocked in with an IQ over 140 and would probably score at 160 or 170 now just does not have any hope or expectation for the people as a whole to become truly knowledgeable or educated because they have always recognized a huge gap between themselves and the rest of us and cannot imagine that actually creating school environments which treat children as adequate intellectually, as too bright to be forced to sit through trivial lectures, exercises, and meaningless, abstract class discussions and debates, and as motivated enough to care about learning about the demands of their world without coercion, prodding, and frequent shaming would actually result in a more well-informed and well-educated citizenry. One could say it is a question of no respect as much as anything else.
As I stated earlier the idea of eliminating compulsory attendance laws is heresy. Not because it would not solve myriad problems or not because it wouldn’t immediately establish more functional practices and healthy relationships, or not because it would result in measurable improvement, rather than be a panacea. It is a heresy because a mindless and irrational taboo has developed over generations against the thought of schools which might accidentally provide some modicum of education and autonomy instead of conditioning and indoctrination. I thought this would be a place where democracy in schools as training for democracy in life would be understood. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
I think buyers remorse will be quick among his base. Some are already beginning to understand that tariffs will increase prices. Duh. When mass exportation begins and the economy tanks they will be in for another shock. And then it will be too late for them and us, the Gestapo will arrive.
The European Green Parties have disowned the American Green Party for having no other agenda than to do anything for money and attention--which is how Trump operates. Maybe we should call them the Orange Party.
Still, they wouldn't be a feckless disruption except for our first-past-the-post, winner-take-all electoral system that mitigates against third parties. Ideally, we need a truly progressive alternative to put a serious dent in the heavily compromised political cartel run by the D's and R's. Why blame the player, when we should blame the game.
Crickets chirping, leaves rustling in the wind, a dog barking in the distance... The silence is deafening. Where are all the hurricanes and tornados blasting out windows and ripping off roofs? Where is the cacophony of angry voices screaming about Democrats cheating and stealing elections?
For four unbearable years, that's all the nation, indeed the world, heard from outraged Republicans. Marinated in non-stop lies from the omnipresent right-wing media platforms, pissed-off citizens frothing at the mouth pounded on doors at local election boards up to the halls of Congress.
The spitting fury reached such a crescendo that armed elements of the more radicalized demanded revolution and civil war. Unhinged wingnuts called in bomb threats, terrorized election workers, and burned drop boxes. The pervasive propaganda generated by their favorite media influencers and politicians convinced true patriots they must retaliate against the perceived evil intentions of wicked Democrats to save a badly broken nation. Mayhem was the order of the day.
To placate their fired-up base, shameless Republican lawmakers who knew better but played the game for votes (What a great talking point!), tried to pass draconian laws on the local, state, and federal levels to "solve" a problem they knew didn't exist. Even the Speaker of the House and the Supreme Court got into the act to prevent hordes of "illegal" Browns and Blacks from voting (for Democrats). Why else would unpatriotic, immoral liberals want open borders except to replace us good, white Christians?
Democracy, tolerance, diversity, freedom died at 10:00 pm EST when VP Harris sanctified Trump' election, not waiting till all the votes were counted, by conceding defeat. The Democratic party and camp following liberals have absolutely nothing to say now.
Yeah, it's very hard to swallow the "inspiring" words of Harris and Biden about the "peaceful transfer of power" to Trump the Traitor and his obsequious cronies who refused to do the same in 2020, especially after the leaders of the Democratic Party spent their losing campaigns harping about the existential danger, the fatal blow to democracy another Trump regime loudly promises. Understandably, the good Democrats are just trying to be the proper and acceptable ideological purists in the vain hope of living to fight another day — a day that may never come if Trump and his MAGA clowns get their way.
I believe in all-out revolution against the fascists, short of resorting to guns and spilling blood. At the very least, this sick, conquered nation needs a Woody Guthrie on every street corner to fire up the complacent, brainwashed masses, strumming his guitar, which he labeled: "This machine kills fascists."
Harris couldn't wait to concede, there were still votes to be counted, things have flipped in the last minute before, but even then,.make the mother fucker sweat. she didn't even do that. I will never donate one penny more to act blue.
The money candidate that I backed, actually won,Jeff Jackson attorney general of NC
The rest were throwing good money after bad.
A poster named Alan Zinger tried to give me shit because between My voting for Goldwater in 64 and for Hillary in 16 I had not voted. He should have been glad, because then I was a right wing extremist. but as an RWE I knew then that the two parties were Kabuki theater two sides of the same coin,Humpy and Dumpty
I really thought things were different in 2016, then I learned both parties slop from the same trough,
I should have learned that from Obama when Rahm and Nancy sold out to AHIP and shit canned single payer in favor of AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Providers)
I plied money and support toward Jon Tester, a third-generation dirt farmer native of Montana. He played the two-party game too, of course, but amazingly survived in this ruby-red rural state for several cycles as one of its best senators we've seen in a long time. It's sad to see him go, finally beaten by Tim Sheey, an "out-of-stater," lying, corporate-sponsored toady suck-up of the worst kind, just like Ryan Zinke, one of Montana's two right-wing US House representatives and one of the most corrupt cabinet officials in Trump's first administration.
Zinke was born and raised, I'm sorry to admit, in my beautiful hometown of Whitefish by a strict, mean, authoritarian father. One time his brother came to school with tears in his eyes, trying to get a teacher to change a B to an A, so that he could show his dad a straight-A report card and avoid severe punishment and humiliation.
A potential lesson . . . The years 1932 and 1933 in Germany were full of promises and solutions to the economic issues of the past years. The regime implemented higher social payments and forced companies to hire the unemployed. By 1934, it had gone seriously downhill, and there was a turning point.
On a positive note, the use of tariffs may provoke a real discussion on adequate revenue for the government. Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. has not implemented a consumption tax, such as a VAT or GST. The proposed tariffs are a simplistic VAT, so maybe the discussion that began in the Nixon Administration should resume. Adjustments, such as not taxing food and daily necessities, have to be made to avoid an overly regressive tax.
An example> My 14th great grandfather made a good living he resided on the top of a fell, that fell off the spine of the Pininnes in west Yorkshire, he owned sheep that grazed on the unique sweet grass and produced fine wool, which he then had sheered and dyed,
However England did not produce it's own textiles, they exported raw wool to the Netherlands were it was made into fabric, England also imported its flat ware and dinner ware, there were no silversmiths no fine china.
Henry VII found that the land that he won at Bosworth, was the poor man of Europe, potholes that could swallow an oxcart .
Google a painting of him, notice how he is dressed.
He imposed a tariff on exported raw wool, and imported fine goods
And that forced the English to develop their own textile industry, their own fine goods industry, and my 11th Great grandfather and his cousins became owners of fulling mills, textile mills, branched out into real estate making money and become wealthy enough to invest in the London Company of Virginia.
In the two decades between his victory at Bosworth and the ascension of his son Henry VIII to the throne, England had transformed from the pitiful poor man of Europe,to a power house.
There was so much wealth,that common merchants,yeoman , freemen were dressinglike the nobility, they complained and Henry VIII passed Sumptuary laws forbidding the populace from wearing fine linen, furs, silk and dressing like the nobility.
As proof of how far England had risen, he had built the most expensive warship of his time, The Mary Rose with over 100 bronze cannons, which are very expensive to make
Tariff's on EV should spur the homegrown manfuacture of EV's and batteries,but it is all too late, all we are doing is whistling past the graveyard. Experts estimate that at current rate, there are 33 more years until the collapse of the anthropocene, wars for water, protein and carbohydrates are already manifesting, we just aren't calling them that, we call them migration, sivil wars and the like.
Oceans can no longer feed the nations, forests are destroyed for cattle, whose methane accelerates climate change a (a double whammy). And I am only one of thousands of Cassandra's more educated, researched and knowledgeable than I.
Over many years, Thom has been in the trenches doing yeoman's work in explaining climate destruction and its consequences to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, in the face of the massive propaganda campaign over the decades by big oil and their compliant politicians, investors, and big corporate media megaphones, all the voices of reason and the best science on the subject are but farts in the wind. At this late date, the ship is swirling down into the maelstrom.
Notice how few people comment on Thom's substack, that is because people don't care, those that believe don't want their little world disrupted at the moment in time in which they find themselves.
If Thom lifted the paywall, the right wing, corporate, macho, religious trolls would pile on, as it is we have to contend with a few simple minded, true believing Marxists it is like having to contend with radical Libertarians, Evangelicals and Catholics in your family.
Before he took his blog to Patreon and then to Substack, I used to post a lot on Thom's main website for several years when there was no paywall. You're right about that — I wasted much internet ink endlessly, probably futilely, fighting off incorrigible right-wing trolls of every imaginable flavor and persuasion, you name it. Sometimes I miss the fight; although it was easy to get burned out trying to reach them on some reasonable common ground.
I understand that people are getting information now about how tariffs are REALLY going to work! Surprise, dumbasses, we're the ones that pay. And evidently a major shoe manufacturer is going to move his operation to avoid trump tariff. And, oh gosh golly, he "ain't" bringing the operation back to the US!
And just wait until those "evil" illegal immigrants aren't around to help provide our food. The Magats think grocery prices are high now, just wait til the items won't even be available!!!
At least we can suffer along with the rest of the country but we can say: "WE TOLD YOU SO!"
Even if Trump's idiotic, across-the-board tariffs brought a substantial number of manufacturing plants back to the shores of this country, our land simply does not contain enough raw resources that make up the ingredients for the final products to meet the demand of our large population. A lot, if not most, material and components would have to be imported from other countries in our interdependent world — fact of life. Ergo, the tariffs imposed on the ingredients would still significantly raise prices for consumers who buy "made-in-America" products.
unfortunately US corporations will add their mark up to the tariff pricing to their current over inflated price gouging to keep capital growth on their books and prices will be over the moon. The bible they base their fantasies on during the "end times" says the cost of a loaf of bread will cost a days wages...here we go careening......
I don't believe the U.S. doesn't have all the raw materials we need to produce everything we need. That is another fraud on the U.S. workers. What raw materials don't we have?
Nothing is absolute in life or in an economy. Although I'm not a macro-economist, I don't believe we have enough to produce "everything." The US has a lot of land and so probably does possess most of the raw materials it needs to produce the goods we like or need.. But the big question is: Do we have ENOUGH precious, dwindling resources to meet the insatiable demand in perpetuity of such a large population, and even if we do, is it possible to produce the quantity needed without raping to an unacceptable degree the land and the climate any more than we already have?
Of course, in light of climate destruction, perhaps that is the big question of the day the whole world needs to ask. Forget America; as a species, do we need to think seriously about producing much, much less to survive on a dying planet?
Lithium, niobium, rare earths. We have some but at major expense to mine. Also American doesn’t have that many skilled machinists or other well experienced factory workers these days
WE have enough Lithium in Texas to meet our own needs and the worlds.
We actually don't need to import anything.
Certainly not oil, we produce all of our own, and even export,but we also import oil to keep the profits of the oil companies up.
There was no need for Biden to issue all of those drilling permits, and the only reason we frack, besides profits for corporations, is because they provide jobs and income for workers and the states.
Humans don't give a rats ass that they are eating themselves up from the feet, so long as they have a job and an income.
Look at the people who live in cancer alley, they mobilize and whine about the cancer causing benzene, but do they consider moving or shutting down the plants. hell no.
.Hemp solar panes. The vast majority of solar panels on the market are made from silicon, which can be expensive to produce. Graphene can also be used to produce solar panels, but like silicon, it comes at a price. Hemp solar panels can be much more cost-effective than silicon or graphene solar panels and are usually easier to manufacture.
The waste fibers in hemp crops can be transformed into high-performance energy storing devices. With solar panels becoming increasingly popular, solar panel manufacturers are going to be looking for ways to cut costs and bring additional layers of efficiency to their production process. Going forward, we believe that industrial hemp could play an important role in the mass production of solar panels.
Hemp stalks are also considered a substitute biofuel to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Hemp can be processed into various energy products such as briquettes or pellets for heat production, biomass for electricity, or vehicle fuel.
Just to be clear, Gloria, I've been a union member on the railroad in good standing my entire career and so energetically root for workers and manufacturing jobs to return to or originate in America, which naturally makes for a healthy economy and democracy. However, blanket, un-targeted tariffs, as Trump is proposing, is not the way to go. There's a smart way to do it and a dumb way. OF COURSE Trump came up with the dumbest way possible. Is anyone surprised?
First of all, note that Trump has not repudiated and condemned the words and actions of those who participate in the "rape squad" lunacy that emerged in less than 3 days from the election. And he won't, he WANTS it this way. When all we feel we can do is warn women to be careful, we illustrate the terrible severity of our situation. The words alone are devastating, conveying contempt, sexual dominance, and claims of ownership of women, by men. The words are delivered as a warning and a threat, and because there is no pushback from ANYONE in power (or power in waiting), it is impossible to brush off and/or compartmentalize, out sight, out of mind. Especially for women, who already go through life with a nervousness or at least hyper-awareness that sexual threats could be ANYWHERE. What's it going to be like for them NOW?
Voters were ignorant of the Christian Nationalist source of Project 2025, didn't take it seriously as a threat, or supported the aims set forth. A startling percentage of WOMEN are included in that truth. The thing is, that game plan is far broader than the immediate threat to women. We will now have far too much power in the hands of our very own Taliban. Men who defend their women will be "corrected". Very few are actually attuned to the very real, imminent threat that will force the citizens of the United States to abide by laws established and enforced by a radicalized sect of Christianity. We will see the complete elimination of the very idea of separation of church and state. We will now have to deal with the threat of, and in many states the enactment of enforced theocratic oppression. Remember, too: Vance is a Christian Nationalist, as is Johnson. I wager we'll learn that there are many more in positions of power, but already, next-in-commands are in place.
Depressingly, all of this is just one detail of the tsunami-strength tidal wave of change that is coming.
Rallying cries of resistance are far too late. It all could have been stopped. And it wasn't. It isn't so much defeatism as it is recognition of what has happened. What the decision actually means: Theocracy on one hand, Plutocracy on the other. Plutocracy has BEEN the fact for quite a while. Trump made it an official status. All manner of guardrails will be systematically removed, with the blessing of the so-called Supreme Court. No more regulations that impede profit.
No more tolerance for words like these, showing up anywhere, especially in media of any sort. One of the hallmarks of our Democracy is highly likely to be rendered something much closer to impotence.
As is always the case, time seems faster in retrospect. The "slow-rolling coup" referenced here in these comments seems incredibly, impossibly fast, looking back.
The trillions of dollars that have already been transferred to the highest tiers of wealth are just the beginning. I can try to trick myself into being positive and optimistic. But almost always, I'm too smart to fall for my own antics. Which leaves me in a frozen state. Waiting and watching for the next step, knowing that all of the things that could have been counterbalances are soon to be completely gone.
I know it's alarmist, and I know I could be wrong. Trust me, I HOPE I'm wrong. But we've been told that "we are already in the middle of the second revolution, which will be bloodless if we don't interfere". Others may be able to take the position that the speaker of those words was just kidding. I think he was deadly serious.
What we feared could happen has already happened: the worst-case scenario politically, economically, socially. How long will stubborn truth tellers survive in this new George Orwell "1984" dystopian world, such as this blog on which we are still freely posting our dissenting voices? It feels like a scene from a movie of a medieval battle, where the noble protagonist, hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered by a vicious enemy, is wielding his sword to the very end until cut down in a last bloody stand.
I think the next step is to get their people in the streets. Get them mad, fire them up. Once this is done they can then spread fascism to the next level. What have we done?
To your point Martin the inevitable collapse of our economy will be blamed on liberals, queers, minorities, just as Adolph blamed all of Germany's woes on the Jews.
When in fact it was the Kaiser and his alliances that brought on WWI.
The voters who elected tRump got the president they deserve. I just wish they hadn't included me in the nightmare.
Jill Stein managed to do her job for Putin,if only a small triumph.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696
Treasonous bitch, but why is none dare call it treason, for when it prospers none dare call it treason
The day of Reckoning will come for all, Experts estimate that we have 33 years left, before the collapse of the anthropocene
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Trump 2.0 Un(der)covered: What This Really Means For The Climate — And the World
While “climate change is a hoax” wins the election, 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest on record
ANTARCTIC SAPIENS 🇦🇶
NOV 9
READ IN APP
Created by author
So “climate change is a hoax” Donald Trump is set to reclaim the reins of the world’s largest historical greenhouse gas emitter.
Unsurprisingly, neither Trump nor Kamala Harris made the climate crisis a prominent feature of their campaigns, daring to confront the elephant in the room. This oversight occurred even as the US was pounded by weather disasters supercharged by an unusually warm Atlantic Ocean that claimed 232 lives across the southwest in a merciless display of climate change’s growing wrath.
And here’s the most ridiculous irony: nearly half of those deaths occurred in the swing state of North Carolina, which, believe it or not, moved decisively behind Trump. In the state’s still-recovering western region, voters lacking proper polling stations cast their ballots in tents.
Meanwhile, global temperatures have been so high through the first 10 months of 2024 that only an implausibly sharp drop in the final two months would prevent a new record from being set.
https://rickylanusse.substack.com/p/trump-20-undercovered-what-this-really
Yes! The biggest problem facing all of humanity, by far dwarfing all others, affecting every one of us regardless of political stripes.
That's it. doesn't matter your religion, your ideology, your politics we are in the same situation as we would be if we were under attack by aliens from space.
Only worse, there are always humans which are Quisling, who will sell out to an alien threat for a pat on the head and a few extra bennies.
Ever see the series "Colony"
But there is no getting in bed with climate change and saving your bacon, in fact assissting climate change is suicide
If citizens are gullible enough to elect a wife-rapist, one who fills his diapers with nonstop aplomb, and deliberately hurts people for his kind of sadistic entertainment, then I feel as if I've awakened as Randle McMurphy (Jack N.) in Mark Burnett's off-earth-1 version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Perhaps the entire nation needs a transorbital, frontal lobotomy. Or mass electroshock at a minimum.
To paraphrase comedian/actor Bernie Mac, "I feel sorry for you, America."
Paradox: Putin fights for years to acquire Ukraine. But has been gifted America without firing a shot.
The USSA — Vlad's new client-state, run by his XXL, orange puppet.
You don't need an army to take over a nation; you only need to conquer the minds of its citizens.
Could we get a remake of the Beatles "Back in the USSR" to "Back in the USSA"?
The American people chose a fantasy over reality. This is the real problem. How do we solve that?
Good question, BillyN. I think the last and only resort will be a few patriots at the top of the US military, because what we've just witnessed has been a slow rolling coup. With the inclusion of JD Vance and especially Elon Musk (a nasty duo far more capable than DJT who might well be disposed of), they will move for a fast decapitation of the military, replacing general officers with loyalists. When this starts to happen, our top brass must indeed succeed where Hitler's best generals failed or it's over for this country.
There will likely be some conflict in the ranks of the military between the careerists and the colonels and one-stars who were passed over for promotion. One should not forget the National Guard contingents either. They are under the control of governors.
Could be quite the battle royale.
How many soldiers will say, "I was only following orders"?
There is a huge unaddressed problem in the military Dr Doug. The service academies have been infected with Dominist/New Apostolic Reformation ideology
It started in Colorado Springs when the AF Academy opened it's door in 1962, megachurches quickly followed as did Dominionism ideology.
It has since spread to West Point and Annapolis . I have done a google on the top generals and admirals as to who is an academy graduate and who was commissioned via ROTC or Officer Candidate Training. Gen Milley came up via ROTC..
I don't trust Academy grads, as they are brainwashed.
The military will be difficult. Imagine Kash Patel as Secretary of Defense. So much for the UCMJ and the Hatch Act.
Aspects of the military have been "privatized" starting with GWB. I expect Eric Prince to be one of Trump's principal advisors. Defense Base Act and War Hazards Act cases involving mercenaries were no 1 on my hit parade before I retired in 2018. I also heard Service Contract Act cases that sometimes involved the Defense Department. I expect Trump will expand the program. I assume that his donors will get the bulk of the contracts...if they don't have them already.
Many of the contracts are supposed to be open to bidders, but Trump tried to install the spoils system during his term
Contractors are subject to ethics rules, which I expect will be eliminated.
BTW all of my former colleagues who are service academy graduates flipped on Trump. Check out F.P Wellman "On Democracy". https://fpwellman.substack.com/p/breaks-overback-on-your-heads/comments
Some of them gave testimonials to Vote Vets.
I don't expect the military to be difficult at all, but I do agree with you about using Mercenaries, and there are a lot of paramilitaries which are eager to prove their mettle against the hated libs, which will spring into action like the SA,
As a retired regular officer I know the mettle of fellow officers and the ass kissing required to climb the ranks.
I know more than one officer who lusted after a Colonels eagle or a generals star, so he could do what was done to him by his superiors.
had the pleasure of watching a General dress down (effeminate and emasculate) a Colonel who visibly shrunk as it happened, and then that Col recharge his testosterone, but doing the same to a Major, and the Major did the same to a poor 2d Lt who was stuck with not being able to kick the dog,because the Senior Master Sergeant wasn't about to take shit from a butter bar, and no I wasn't part of the circus
Haha, "shit rolls downhill." I was an enlisted man dressed down regularly by drill sergeants and the occasional officer as part of the training turning civilians into soldiers. It always hurt, by design, but everyone understood they were just doing their job and didn't take it personally.
There were times, though, that the discipline was over the top. One soldier, small in stature, just couldn't coordinate his body to meet the demands of marching in a large group. We had a big parade coming up in a few days in front of the brass, and the DI was becoming increasingly frustrated until he totally lost it, grabbing the poor guy by his web gear, lifting him off the ground, and shaking the holy fck out of him. It literally looked like he exploded — his helmet, rifle, and rucksack flying off in all different directions. Needless to say, he missed the big parade, relegated to cleaning the barracks.
Scary shit!
Feeling so encouraged to have ur content to read so i can be informed.
Problems have solutions. There is no solution other than the collapse of the anthropocene.
This is definitely who the "bros" are. And then there are a lot of people who live in the Orwellian reality matrix, and they thought they were voting for God and Country.
There will be a recession within two years if he implements what he says he will do. No prob. He will just blame Biden/Harris, "I inherited their terrible economy," and the base will believe it. If he does not do those things, doubtful, there is enough baked into the economy from Biden's infrastructure, Chips, etc., bills to carry the economy forward for a while, which Trump will then take credit. He wins regardless. Rinse, repeat. And the media will say speak into the mic.
A recession has been the norm of Republican administrations going back over 130 years. No reason to see a deviation from the norm now.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1139763/number-votes-cast-us-presidential-elections/
Prices are already going up after Nov 5th due to some companies stockpiling BOM components, particularly Chinese components, ahead of the tariff increases. Exporters are doing the same thing. I think we’ll see a recession as early end of 2025, accelerated by the deportations, resulting shortage of farm workers and resulting increase in food prices. Trump’s plan to further cut the corporate tax while keeping the current tax roll-back for consumers and businesses means the deficit is going to balloon. In advance of that, the stock market will price that in via bonds and stocks will drop. Bond prices are already changing. The borrow from Peter to pay Paul is going to be deliberately used to decimate the social safety net. Welcome to a nightmare. I can only hope New York puts Trump in prison.
Or, never thought I would say this- so I say it with caution- there is something really strange about the missing 15M to 20M Dem votes for President when considered in view of the Dem wins at the state level even in the battleground states and the 2008-2024 voting stats. For 2024, I used stats that said 38% of eligible votes did not vote to make an estimate of voting population. Those same stats said 34.3% did not vote in 2020. Using 66% did vote, I get 239M votes for 2020, which jives with the eligible voting population that year using a different source. Even though some votes are still being counted, it seems we lost at least 4M eligible voters between 2020 and 2024 and that is only if voting population did not grow at all. If it grew by 9M, there are 13M votes missing based on trends below. Covid deaths in that time period were about 1.25M excess deaths. The US population is still increasing. Children, who can’t vote, are a decreasing percentage of the population. Where did 4M to 13M or more eligible voters disappear to?
2024 total votes cast 145.97 M vote pop235.43?
2020 total votes cast 158.38 M 239.25
2016 total votes cast. 136.75 M 230.93
2012 total votes cast. 129.17 M. 222.47
2008 total votes cast. 131.3 M. 213.31
We voted them in. They are now in control and it will take more than votes to drive them out. These people can change laws with the blessing of SCOTUS. This will take a long time. Sad
Votes to drive out Martin? Have you not been paying attention. Trump said vote for mean and you will never vote again. I believe him, so should you,so should all. He will staff the government with loyalists, He will control the legislature, executive and the judicial, nothing stands in his way.
He has told us many times, what he is going to do, and the Heritage Foundation gave him a playbook,so why don't you believe him?
We are children who pull the covers over our head cause we are scared of the boogeyman, at least I am not.
Here we are, and how soon will the trump supporters start to grumble, and the rest of us simply say,We told you so. Problem, we're going to be just as Screwed as they are, so there's no satisfaction in Truth. Great piece this morning ☕ Thom and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Good to now turn the spotlight upon this fascist greedy and sick disgusting Murdoch. The worst australian plague? He definitely must get some people attention and hopefully some sanction. What a bad very bad bloke. Tks!
Elie Mystal is not wrong about the racism. But two equally important factors which were not mentioned are 1.) the religious extremists who needed to believe in the guy who is going to hasten the Second Coming and punish the people who are naughty and then eliminate the resulting fetus they pathologically see as a real child, and 2.) the great dependence on authoritarianism to protect from disorder and human "sin", willfulness and frailty perpetuated and magnified by authoritarian institutions obsessed with obedience to authority at the expense of autonomy and critical thinking (you know what those are). Our leaders refuse to confront either of those issues. We need new leaders and I do not see them on the horizon, especially when those issues are totally neglected, even here. Hopefulness and encouragement without realism and truth are irresponsible folly.
Organized religion teaches children to accept as truth unprovable concepts and the hierarchy of authoritarianism. It takes a radical revolution of thought to counteract the damage done to an innocent mind.
Truer words were never spoken, as they say. “…a radical revolution of thought” has always been thought to be the primary objective of education for people whose minds have been freed from the “…hierarchy of authoritarianism”.
Unfortunately, schooling, and especially schooling established as a consequence of attendance laws is the main organ for setting into concrete the hierarchy of authoritarianism. Indeed, it has worked splendidly with brilliant and otherwise enlightened people we are very familiar with here. The compulsive reliance on arbitrary authority in our traditional public schools is a direct derivative of organized religion. Listen carefully to almost any teacher in those hallowed classrooms and you will hear the sermons, admonitions, scriptures, and guilting of the clergy echoing clearly and incessantly.
The unproved and unprovable concept of the mass production of education in such schools is accepted everywhere as gospel, and our schooling “systems” are a sacred cow as a result. To suggest that they should be attended voluntarily, rather than as coerced “improvement” or re-education and punishment for being a child is heresy, sadly even including in this space. Religion’s reach and influence is the reason we are entering a new dark age on Jan. 20,2025. It has even reached us here.
I hear you but wonder about the alternative. I've read your take on this subject of education many times over the years and agree with certain basic premises as you've outlined. It's hard to ignore the many flaws in a public education system that tries to condition the masses of children to conform to the demands of a society, which they must learn to work and live in as responsible adults.
I'm not smart enough to come up with viable solutions other than perhaps offering easily available and intelligent counter-narratives (parents, libraries, unbiased media sources, sincere friendships, quiet time under a tree contemplating the clouds, ???) to the worst of the brainwash — some way to encourage independent thought and critical thinking skills, while still maintaining a stable system upon which children, teens, and young adults can anchor their formative years and learn the skills necessary for survival and sanity in a crazy, fcked-up world.
Otherwise, we might end up with "Lord of the Flies" on a grand scale. (Then again, when you look down from thirty thousand feet at this fragmented world of widespread chaos, which insane Homo sapiens have consciously and unconsciously created, that is already the case in way too many ways.)
In some districts, every kid gets an IEP every year. Elliott is oblivious.
I would hope that's true in most public school districts. My brother's grandson is autistic (and very smart) and has benefitted tremendously from special needs programs and loving parents. Not to sound patronizing, but I think Eliot means well and makes good points about certain things we as a society could improve upon. I just don't agree that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, is the solution.
Whereas IEPs are usually limited to IDEA kids, in some places every kid gets them. I lived in the DC suburbs and in Miami where some public schools are superior to any as in ANY (all caps) private school in the US.
I do not know how to describe my alternative than the one I have repeated many times in this space. If the patient has a cancerous but operable or removable tumor, the alternative is to cut the damn thing out and hope the patient recovers and thrives. I have never said that a single school should close or that school as an institution cannot be a force for social amelioration and for good, or that I have the formula for success. The educational wheel has been reinvented every nine days somewhere for well over a century. Innovations come and go, often in identical iterations but cannot be maintained because of the power structures and their conflict with the obsession with authority. IEP's are dandy for a few fortunate students but are barely worth the paper the are written on for the majority over the long-term. The school remains a poor imitation of a prison. There is one undeniable inherent problem and that is the arbitrary authority inescapable with mandatory attendance. Indeed, that authoritarian influence is what I have complained most often and loudly about.
I will include here what I was thinking and writing about when I took a break to check messages.
The big emphasis on the failures of the “mainstream”/corporate media in informing the public and the blaming of the Democratic establishment for not doing a better job of “messaging”,( i.e. managing, manipulating, and molding perceptions and condensing big concepts down into more digestible bites for the masses of low-information voters and non-voters) shows that the ignorance of the American people has been accepted as unchangeable by the leaders in many areas such as schooling, intellectual and elite influencers, politicians, the media etc. Mr. DS is obviously easily satisfied.
Someone, such as Thom, who as a student clocked in with an IQ over 140 and would probably score at 160 or 170 now just does not have any hope or expectation for the people as a whole to become truly knowledgeable or educated because they have always recognized a huge gap between themselves and the rest of us and cannot imagine that actually creating school environments which treat children as adequate intellectually, as too bright to be forced to sit through trivial lectures, exercises, and meaningless, abstract class discussions and debates, and as motivated enough to care about learning about the demands of their world without coercion, prodding, and frequent shaming would actually result in a more well-informed and well-educated citizenry. One could say it is a question of no respect as much as anything else.
As I stated earlier the idea of eliminating compulsory attendance laws is heresy. Not because it would not solve myriad problems or not because it wouldn’t immediately establish more functional practices and healthy relationships, or not because it would result in measurable improvement, rather than be a panacea. It is a heresy because a mindless and irrational taboo has developed over generations against the thought of schools which might accidentally provide some modicum of education and autonomy instead of conditioning and indoctrination. I thought this would be a place where democracy in schools as training for democracy in life would be understood. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
I think buyers remorse will be quick among his base. Some are already beginning to understand that tariffs will increase prices. Duh. When mass exportation begins and the economy tanks they will be in for another shock. And then it will be too late for them and us, the Gestapo will arrive.
The European Green Parties have disowned the American Green Party for having no other agenda than to do anything for money and attention--which is how Trump operates. Maybe we should call them the Orange Party.
Still, they wouldn't be a feckless disruption except for our first-past-the-post, winner-take-all electoral system that mitigates against third parties. Ideally, we need a truly progressive alternative to put a serious dent in the heavily compromised political cartel run by the D's and R's. Why blame the player, when we should blame the game.
Crickets chirping, leaves rustling in the wind, a dog barking in the distance... The silence is deafening. Where are all the hurricanes and tornados blasting out windows and ripping off roofs? Where is the cacophony of angry voices screaming about Democrats cheating and stealing elections?
For four unbearable years, that's all the nation, indeed the world, heard from outraged Republicans. Marinated in non-stop lies from the omnipresent right-wing media platforms, pissed-off citizens frothing at the mouth pounded on doors at local election boards up to the halls of Congress.
The spitting fury reached such a crescendo that armed elements of the more radicalized demanded revolution and civil war. Unhinged wingnuts called in bomb threats, terrorized election workers, and burned drop boxes. The pervasive propaganda generated by their favorite media influencers and politicians convinced true patriots they must retaliate against the perceived evil intentions of wicked Democrats to save a badly broken nation. Mayhem was the order of the day.
To placate their fired-up base, shameless Republican lawmakers who knew better but played the game for votes (What a great talking point!), tried to pass draconian laws on the local, state, and federal levels to "solve" a problem they knew didn't exist. Even the Speaker of the House and the Supreme Court got into the act to prevent hordes of "illegal" Browns and Blacks from voting (for Democrats). Why else would unpatriotic, immoral liberals want open borders except to replace us good, white Christians?
Oh wait; Trump won the election!
Never mind.
Democracy, tolerance, diversity, freedom died at 10:00 pm EST when VP Harris sanctified Trump' election, not waiting till all the votes were counted, by conceding defeat. The Democratic party and camp following liberals have absolutely nothing to say now.
Yeah, it's very hard to swallow the "inspiring" words of Harris and Biden about the "peaceful transfer of power" to Trump the Traitor and his obsequious cronies who refused to do the same in 2020, especially after the leaders of the Democratic Party spent their losing campaigns harping about the existential danger, the fatal blow to democracy another Trump regime loudly promises. Understandably, the good Democrats are just trying to be the proper and acceptable ideological purists in the vain hope of living to fight another day — a day that may never come if Trump and his MAGA clowns get their way.
I believe in all-out revolution against the fascists, short of resorting to guns and spilling blood. At the very least, this sick, conquered nation needs a Woody Guthrie on every street corner to fire up the complacent, brainwashed masses, strumming his guitar, which he labeled: "This machine kills fascists."
Harris couldn't wait to concede, there were still votes to be counted, things have flipped in the last minute before, but even then,.make the mother fucker sweat. she didn't even do that. I will never donate one penny more to act blue.
The money candidate that I backed, actually won,Jeff Jackson attorney general of NC
The rest were throwing good money after bad.
A poster named Alan Zinger tried to give me shit because between My voting for Goldwater in 64 and for Hillary in 16 I had not voted. He should have been glad, because then I was a right wing extremist. but as an RWE I knew then that the two parties were Kabuki theater two sides of the same coin,Humpy and Dumpty
I really thought things were different in 2016, then I learned both parties slop from the same trough,
I should have learned that from Obama when Rahm and Nancy sold out to AHIP and shit canned single payer in favor of AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Providers)
I plied money and support toward Jon Tester, a third-generation dirt farmer native of Montana. He played the two-party game too, of course, but amazingly survived in this ruby-red rural state for several cycles as one of its best senators we've seen in a long time. It's sad to see him go, finally beaten by Tim Sheey, an "out-of-stater," lying, corporate-sponsored toady suck-up of the worst kind, just like Ryan Zinke, one of Montana's two right-wing US House representatives and one of the most corrupt cabinet officials in Trump's first administration.
Zinke was born and raised, I'm sorry to admit, in my beautiful hometown of Whitefish by a strict, mean, authoritarian father. One time his brother came to school with tears in his eyes, trying to get a teacher to change a B to an A, so that he could show his dad a straight-A report card and avoid severe punishment and humiliation.
A potential lesson . . . The years 1932 and 1933 in Germany were full of promises and solutions to the economic issues of the past years. The regime implemented higher social payments and forced companies to hire the unemployed. By 1934, it had gone seriously downhill, and there was a turning point.
On a positive note, the use of tariffs may provoke a real discussion on adequate revenue for the government. Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. has not implemented a consumption tax, such as a VAT or GST. The proposed tariffs are a simplistic VAT, so maybe the discussion that began in the Nixon Administration should resume. Adjustments, such as not taxing food and daily necessities, have to be made to avoid an overly regressive tax.
Dr Doug, tariff's can be used productively.
An example> My 14th great grandfather made a good living he resided on the top of a fell, that fell off the spine of the Pininnes in west Yorkshire, he owned sheep that grazed on the unique sweet grass and produced fine wool, which he then had sheered and dyed,
However England did not produce it's own textiles, they exported raw wool to the Netherlands were it was made into fabric, England also imported its flat ware and dinner ware, there were no silversmiths no fine china.
Henry VII found that the land that he won at Bosworth, was the poor man of Europe, potholes that could swallow an oxcart .
Google a painting of him, notice how he is dressed.
He imposed a tariff on exported raw wool, and imported fine goods
And that forced the English to develop their own textile industry, their own fine goods industry, and my 11th Great grandfather and his cousins became owners of fulling mills, textile mills, branched out into real estate making money and become wealthy enough to invest in the London Company of Virginia.
In the two decades between his victory at Bosworth and the ascension of his son Henry VIII to the throne, England had transformed from the pitiful poor man of Europe,to a power house.
There was so much wealth,that common merchants,yeoman , freemen were dressinglike the nobility, they complained and Henry VIII passed Sumptuary laws forbidding the populace from wearing fine linen, furs, silk and dressing like the nobility.
As proof of how far England had risen, he had built the most expensive warship of his time, The Mary Rose with over 100 bronze cannons, which are very expensive to make
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose
Tariff's on EV should spur the homegrown manfuacture of EV's and batteries,but it is all too late, all we are doing is whistling past the graveyard. Experts estimate that at current rate, there are 33 more years until the collapse of the anthropocene, wars for water, protein and carbohydrates are already manifesting, we just aren't calling them that, we call them migration, sivil wars and the like.
Oceans can no longer feed the nations, forests are destroyed for cattle, whose methane accelerates climate change a (a double whammy). And I am only one of thousands of Cassandra's more educated, researched and knowledgeable than I.
Over many years, Thom has been in the trenches doing yeoman's work in explaining climate destruction and its consequences to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, in the face of the massive propaganda campaign over the decades by big oil and their compliant politicians, investors, and big corporate media megaphones, all the voices of reason and the best science on the subject are but farts in the wind. At this late date, the ship is swirling down into the maelstrom.
Notice how few people comment on Thom's substack, that is because people don't care, those that believe don't want their little world disrupted at the moment in time in which they find themselves.
If Thom lifted the paywall, the right wing, corporate, macho, religious trolls would pile on, as it is we have to contend with a few simple minded, true believing Marxists it is like having to contend with radical Libertarians, Evangelicals and Catholics in your family.
Before he took his blog to Patreon and then to Substack, I used to post a lot on Thom's main website for several years when there was no paywall. You're right about that — I wasted much internet ink endlessly, probably futilely, fighting off incorrigible right-wing trolls of every imaginable flavor and persuasion, you name it. Sometimes I miss the fight; although it was easy to get burned out trying to reach them on some reasonable common ground.
I understand that people are getting information now about how tariffs are REALLY going to work! Surprise, dumbasses, we're the ones that pay. And evidently a major shoe manufacturer is going to move his operation to avoid trump tariff. And, oh gosh golly, he "ain't" bringing the operation back to the US!
And just wait until those "evil" illegal immigrants aren't around to help provide our food. The Magats think grocery prices are high now, just wait til the items won't even be available!!!
At least we can suffer along with the rest of the country but we can say: "WE TOLD YOU SO!"
So, silver lining of sorts!
Even if Trump's idiotic, across-the-board tariffs brought a substantial number of manufacturing plants back to the shores of this country, our land simply does not contain enough raw resources that make up the ingredients for the final products to meet the demand of our large population. A lot, if not most, material and components would have to be imported from other countries in our interdependent world — fact of life. Ergo, the tariffs imposed on the ingredients would still significantly raise prices for consumers who buy "made-in-America" products.
unfortunately US corporations will add their mark up to the tariff pricing to their current over inflated price gouging to keep capital growth on their books and prices will be over the moon. The bible they base their fantasies on during the "end times" says the cost of a loaf of bread will cost a days wages...here we go careening......
I don't believe the U.S. doesn't have all the raw materials we need to produce everything we need. That is another fraud on the U.S. workers. What raw materials don't we have?
Nothing is absolute in life or in an economy. Although I'm not a macro-economist, I don't believe we have enough to produce "everything." The US has a lot of land and so probably does possess most of the raw materials it needs to produce the goods we like or need.. But the big question is: Do we have ENOUGH precious, dwindling resources to meet the insatiable demand in perpetuity of such a large population, and even if we do, is it possible to produce the quantity needed without raping to an unacceptable degree the land and the climate any more than we already have?
Of course, in light of climate destruction, perhaps that is the big question of the day the whole world needs to ask. Forget America; as a species, do we need to think seriously about producing much, much less to survive on a dying planet?
Lithium, niobium, rare earths. We have some but at major expense to mine. Also American doesn’t have that many skilled machinists or other well experienced factory workers these days
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/lithium-mining-boom-northeast-texas/#:~:text=In%20March%202023%2C%20Standard%20Lithium,the%20new%20industry%E2%80%94albeit%20warily.
WE have enough Lithium in Texas to meet our own needs and the worlds.
We actually don't need to import anything.
Certainly not oil, we produce all of our own, and even export,but we also import oil to keep the profits of the oil companies up.
There was no need for Biden to issue all of those drilling permits, and the only reason we frack, besides profits for corporations, is because they provide jobs and income for workers and the states.
Humans don't give a rats ass that they are eating themselves up from the feet, so long as they have a job and an income.
Look at the people who live in cancer alley, they mobilize and whine about the cancer causing benzene, but do they consider moving or shutting down the plants. hell no.
We also have new technology that can displace all those rare minerals.
E,G. Hemp Batteries Last 8X Longer than Lithium, Outperforming Graphene for 1000th of the Cost https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/vv1s3q/hemp_batteries_last_8x_longer_than_lithium/?rdt=46719
.Hemp solar panes. The vast majority of solar panels on the market are made from silicon, which can be expensive to produce. Graphene can also be used to produce solar panels, but like silicon, it comes at a price. Hemp solar panels can be much more cost-effective than silicon or graphene solar panels and are usually easier to manufacture.
The waste fibers in hemp crops can be transformed into high-performance energy storing devices. With solar panels becoming increasingly popular, solar panel manufacturers are going to be looking for ways to cut costs and bring additional layers of efficiency to their production process. Going forward, we believe that industrial hemp could play an important role in the mass production of solar panels.
Hemp stalks are also considered a substitute biofuel to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Hemp can be processed into various energy products such as briquettes or pellets for heat production, biomass for electricity, or vehicle fuel.
Just to be clear, Gloria, I've been a union member on the railroad in good standing my entire career and so energetically root for workers and manufacturing jobs to return to or originate in America, which naturally makes for a healthy economy and democracy. However, blanket, un-targeted tariffs, as Trump is proposing, is not the way to go. There's a smart way to do it and a dumb way. OF COURSE Trump came up with the dumbest way possible. Is anyone surprised?
Start with Platinum and tin…
First of all, note that Trump has not repudiated and condemned the words and actions of those who participate in the "rape squad" lunacy that emerged in less than 3 days from the election. And he won't, he WANTS it this way. When all we feel we can do is warn women to be careful, we illustrate the terrible severity of our situation. The words alone are devastating, conveying contempt, sexual dominance, and claims of ownership of women, by men. The words are delivered as a warning and a threat, and because there is no pushback from ANYONE in power (or power in waiting), it is impossible to brush off and/or compartmentalize, out sight, out of mind. Especially for women, who already go through life with a nervousness or at least hyper-awareness that sexual threats could be ANYWHERE. What's it going to be like for them NOW?
Voters were ignorant of the Christian Nationalist source of Project 2025, didn't take it seriously as a threat, or supported the aims set forth. A startling percentage of WOMEN are included in that truth. The thing is, that game plan is far broader than the immediate threat to women. We will now have far too much power in the hands of our very own Taliban. Men who defend their women will be "corrected". Very few are actually attuned to the very real, imminent threat that will force the citizens of the United States to abide by laws established and enforced by a radicalized sect of Christianity. We will see the complete elimination of the very idea of separation of church and state. We will now have to deal with the threat of, and in many states the enactment of enforced theocratic oppression. Remember, too: Vance is a Christian Nationalist, as is Johnson. I wager we'll learn that there are many more in positions of power, but already, next-in-commands are in place.
Depressingly, all of this is just one detail of the tsunami-strength tidal wave of change that is coming.
Rallying cries of resistance are far too late. It all could have been stopped. And it wasn't. It isn't so much defeatism as it is recognition of what has happened. What the decision actually means: Theocracy on one hand, Plutocracy on the other. Plutocracy has BEEN the fact for quite a while. Trump made it an official status. All manner of guardrails will be systematically removed, with the blessing of the so-called Supreme Court. No more regulations that impede profit.
No more tolerance for words like these, showing up anywhere, especially in media of any sort. One of the hallmarks of our Democracy is highly likely to be rendered something much closer to impotence.
As is always the case, time seems faster in retrospect. The "slow-rolling coup" referenced here in these comments seems incredibly, impossibly fast, looking back.
The trillions of dollars that have already been transferred to the highest tiers of wealth are just the beginning. I can try to trick myself into being positive and optimistic. But almost always, I'm too smart to fall for my own antics. Which leaves me in a frozen state. Waiting and watching for the next step, knowing that all of the things that could have been counterbalances are soon to be completely gone.
I know it's alarmist, and I know I could be wrong. Trust me, I HOPE I'm wrong. But we've been told that "we are already in the middle of the second revolution, which will be bloodless if we don't interfere". Others may be able to take the position that the speaker of those words was just kidding. I think he was deadly serious.
What we feared could happen has already happened: the worst-case scenario politically, economically, socially. How long will stubborn truth tellers survive in this new George Orwell "1984" dystopian world, such as this blog on which we are still freely posting our dissenting voices? It feels like a scene from a movie of a medieval battle, where the noble protagonist, hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered by a vicious enemy, is wielding his sword to the very end until cut down in a last bloody stand.
I think the next step is to get their people in the streets. Get them mad, fire them up. Once this is done they can then spread fascism to the next level. What have we done?
...the same thing fascists did in pre-war Nazi Germany.
To your point Martin the inevitable collapse of our economy will be blamed on liberals, queers, minorities, just as Adolph blamed all of Germany's woes on the Jews.
When in fact it was the Kaiser and his alliances that brought on WWI.