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“When your neighbour’s house is on fire, wet yours!” is an excellent Trinidadian proverb applicable now.
We have been consumed with the goings-on about succession planning cum election preparation in the People’s National Movement. Not forgotten is the troubles of the Dissident Five, who have been sidelined after the United National Congress internal elections.
What can we learn from the landslide victory in the US elections?
“This election was a CAT scan on the American people, and as difficult as it is to say, as hard as it is to name, what it revealed, at least in part, is a frightening affinity for a man of borderless corruption,” said Peter H Wehner, a former strategic adviser to then president George W Bush and vocal critic of Mr Donald Trump. “Donald Trump is no longer an aberration; he is normative.”
We, too, face this same challenge: are our politicians above the law? Do and will we excuse them because they are our felons? Would we throw out all sense of decency to win an election and to rub the noses of our opposition into the earth?
We accept their aberrations as normal because they are our party leaders!
(Copyright Business Insider)
The critical point is that Donald Trump’s voter base did not materially change from the 2020 outing. Kamala Harris dropped approximately 18 million votes from the historic Biden-Harris victory. When we fail to vote, we cede control to others. A lesson for us here at home.
What about the young men who are schooled and supported Trump out of misogynistic reasons? Interestingly, some young white women agreed. Handmaid tales!
A perpetual question for me was the quality of education. I am aware of the pitched battles over the teaching of slavery, but it appears that critical thinking was also not taught.
Uneducated people, low wages, and high inflation form an explosive combination. What would the sense be if you worked hard, followed the American dream, and had to stay in your parents’ home because you could not afford to do otherwise?
Guys like Trump are waiting to pounce and offer you anything. Your lack of critical thinking power makes you a sitting duck.
Enabled by the US Supreme Court case known as the Citizens United decision, the bags of campaign financing money turned into billions of dollars. At an 11 April dinner at his Florida home, Trump asked oil executives for US$1 billion for his campaign in exchange for lower taxes and less regulation.
“They are paying up for this $1 billion request that Donald Trump made because he has promised to do everything in his power to protect their profits,” said Alex Witt, a senior adviser on oil and gas for Climate Power.
Who pays for this? We, in the Caribbean, do. Climate change concerns have been jettisoned. We face the perils of hotter temperatures and rising sea levels.
Enter the technology guys. We know about Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, but do we know that the world’s top ten wealthiest guys saw their worth increase by US$64 billion the day after the elections?
“Much of the gains for the ultra-rich come down to a surge in US stocks, underscoring bets that Trump, on his return to the White House, will implement an agenda favouring lower taxes and less regulation.” (ibid)
(via Yahoo)
Remember that Peter Thiel spent US$15 million to help JD Vance win a Senate seat.
Musk warned that Trump’s plans will bring “temporary hardship”. Economists across the policy spectrum have a dejected outlook for the economy if Trump follows through on several of his policies, some of which he doesn’t need Congress to approve.
Bill Stern, a former endorser of Donald Trump, once said: “Our elections are free; it’s in the results where we eventually pay.”
The poor will vote, but it is the rich that benefit. It’s a massive con game! Trump exploited both ends.
Are our eyes open here? Or are we, too, drinking the Kool-Aid of lies and myths?
The scary part lies ahead. The wonder of artificial intelligence (AI) is actually a replay of colonialism. We believe that an AI product is spontaneously created. It is not. One hour of video data requires 800 human hours of data annotation!
The work by Muldoon et al builds on the seminal work done by Shoshana Zuboff on how data collected from you feeds the advertising business (think Facebook and the content served up to you).
In this phase, the authors deal with the infrastructural aspect. Technology is meant to automate menial work and create freedom and time. However, in fact, people are being forced to do more routine, tedious, and less skilled work because of the inclusion of algorithmic management systems in their workplace.
The old story of the essential workers during the pandemic who have now been consigned to the dung heap is replicated in AI innovation. Those hours are paid at a meagre wage. The work is repetitive.
It is the dung heap of AI innovation. Big tech feeds off the physical and intellectual work of human beings. Musk and Microsoft win. We lose. Our countries will be the new sugar plantations.
Think of the implications of this type of new colonialism. Our education system will be shot to pieces. The wages cannot meet the cost of living. The local governments will face turmoil.
The Musks and Thiels of this world will be the new overlords. Isabelle Wilkerson called this outcome a reinforcement of a caste system.
Trump promised everything to everyone. Where did inflation come from?
“Goods inflation surged in 2021 as supply chains struggled to keep up with sudden demand for all the things people bought while staying at home. Last year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled global energy markets, sending prices on gas and utilities soaring.”
We have the same problem here. Incumbent governments are blamed for the high prices.
Trump vowed to slay inflation even though the data showed it was at its lowest recently. The real-life experiences did not match the data. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, said:
“If Donald Trump wins the election, the main reason will surely be that a majority of voters believe that America’s economy is in bad shape.”
The economy is not doing badly, but the people feel badly. The US was the best-performing economy after the pandemic. But the narrative about milk and gas stuck.
Trump promised peace to the US Arabs and the Jews. They believed him. Who will be disappointed? Yet, he was telling Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do what he needed to do. Are such discussions at odds with the official position of patriotism?
(via Seattle Times)
These actions remind us of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter’s hostage crisis: “It was 1980, and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, bedevilled by a hostage crisis in Iran that had paralyzed his presidency and hampered his effort to win a second term.
“Mr Carter’s best chance for victory was to free the 52 Americans held captive before Election Day.”
What did the Reagan camp do? A blunt message was passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr Reagan will win and give you a better deal.
Photo: Express.co.uk
What should we make of the conversations that Musk had with Putin? What do we make of Russian interference in the 2024 campaign?
Are we witnessing the decline of the great USA? So the plebs shout, “USA! USA!” But their leaders are conversing with Russia? Makes sense? Have we seen this behaviour locally?
What do we make of the evangelical churches who took a stance to be anti-government because of the protections under the pandemic rules? Can we not see that the wolves have led the sheep to their slaughter because of the deception of pride?
Don’t we have the same problem of narrative versus reality? What is the role of the media? Bezos represents the crassest example.
No endorsement by the Washington Post, but posted on X: “Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
Can we trust the media to call things right? They who sanewashed his speeches? Do we trust our local media houses?
The parallels are striking. Actions have consequences. Stay tuned.
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Utter leftist/globalist rubbish , the data coming out of the 2024 election in the US suggest without a shadow of a doubt that Trump gained ground in all the counties throughout the US , he overperformed in key demographics , saying the economy is better than here or there does not make a difference to the voter living cheque to cheque and grappling with extreme inflation brought about by excessive Govt. spending coupled with high crime and unchecked immigration through a wide open southern border all of which the average voter is the primary recipient of said bad policy , aside from the misleading and totally erroneous references to inflation when Trump left office in Jan 2021 inflation was at 1.4% as of August of that year after the American rescue act was passed that day an injection by the Fed of 2T dollars stimulus with no production behind said investment and faux “clean energy” inflation jumped to 20% (headline) hence the Fed cut on interest rates recently to curb the inflationary spiral . There were no new wars under Trump , wars broke out under Biden’s leadership when America was caught in the debacle of the horrendous Afghanistan withdrawal …. I could go on and on but in the final analysis Kamala was the worse candidate ever she had no personality , totally scripted and lacked any sound policy that dealt with the alleviation of the pressure on the middle/lower/working class . The American public finally awoke as other countries are gradually doing straight across the globe by rejecting the Politocal elite and their false promises , the question asked by Trump was quite simple : “ are you better off that 4 yrs ago” and everyone and their Mama said a resounding NO !!