Tag Archives: trump

Political

Today’s Fnord: MAGA’s Foreign Policy in Europe is Contradictory Even to MAGA

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Here’s a fnord for you all: the US is positioning European nations as rivals while demanding an increase in their military budgets. Think about it. What happens when countries like Germany, in a post-NATO world, start boosting their military budgets? Is… is the US happy when China increases it’s military budget?  Does it leap for joy when Iran or North Korea spends more on missiles? Any increase in the military capacity of any country is contrary to the nationalistic and imperial interests of the Trump regime. The more European countries grow their militaries, the less powerful the US will be, contrary to the very foreign policy that the Trump regime is creating.

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Political

Democratic Culpability in a Trumpian World

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I’m not a liberal or, really, a Democrat (though during the Trump years, I registered with the Democratic Party because I understood his unique threat to the country.) (Edit: I’m a leftist, usually identifying as a red-green.)  So, yeah, I went to Bluesky because fuck Facebook and X, and it’s very liberal over there. Given the times, there’s a lot of stress about Trump’s regime, and a lot of people are going, “How could this have happened?” They aren’t lifting a mirror to themselves, so I will.

A lot of what’s happening has been coming for a long time, and much of it has been abetted by the Democratic Party and its liberals.

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Political, Writing

History Has No Sides, Trump Edition

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I dislike the saying “the wrong side of history.” History doesn’t have a side. It’s the study of the past, that’s it.

Granted, some historical narratives can seem like historians are choosing sides, but they aren’t. So, yes, I fully expect that the historical consensus on Trump will one day be, “The Trump administration weakened the foreign policy of the US by attacking traditional allies with strong democracies and siding with authoritarian leaders in Russia, China, and other places. His policies at home drove dissent, worsened inequality, sparked civil conflict, and saw a reduction in the US standard of living. He was also responsible for stalling global action about climate change which had disastrous consequences while worsening wars all over the world.”

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Political

Focus on the emergency powers, not the tariffs!

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This one is brief for me but still too long for a social media post. It’s about tariffs or, more exactly, how Trump is leveling them.

Typically, changes in the budget have to originate with the House of Representatives and get passed into law. Control of the executive’s purse strings was one of the first moves towards a viable democracy in the Anglo-American legal tradition, returning to the Magna Carta. However, US law allows the president to levy taxes by declaring an emergency, also a presidential power. (1)

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Political

Farewell NATO, we will miss you!

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So… there’s a good chance that NATO – the pillar of global peace in the post-World War II era – is a spent force. Trump has probably broken NATO by saying that if Russia starts a war with European nations over Ukraine, they’re on their own, including the US’s NATO allies. It looks like the US is working on a pro-Russia peace settlement and forcing it on Ukraine without input from anyone else. Regardless of what happens in Ukraine, the message is loud and clear: The US is more on the side of Russia than its NATO allies in Europe.

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