American Politics

[QUOTE=Tiny 12;2991648]China started construction of 94.5 GW of coal power capacity in 2024, the most in 10 years! For comparison, Mexico's total electric generation capacity from all sources, including nuclear, renewables, coal and gas, is 86 GW. France's is 144 GW. And how about that 1 GW offshore PV capacity you mentioned that China's installing? Well, if it's enough to power 2. 67 million homes in China, that means the coal plants that just started construction in 2024 will be enough to power 252 million homes!

[URL]https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-power-plants-reached-10-year-high-in-2024/?utm_source=chatgpt.com[/URL]

Also, China approved 66.7 GW of new coal-fired capacity in 2024, which will start construction in future years.

[URL]https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/when-coal-wont-step-aside-the-challenge-of-scaling-clean-energy-in-china/?[/URL][/QUOTE]
Hey, I'm okay with China, continuing to use coal, in the short term. They are using what they have in abundance. The U.S. and much of Europe, have been burning coal for decades and still haven't yet gotten off coal entirely. So it wouldn't surprise me, if China shutdown and/or shuttered all their coal power plants, before the U.S. and many other western countries.

Many conflicting reports, on whether China has put the brakes on coal permits and have seen peeked coal production. Just back in Aug 2024, reports were China had halted new permits [url]https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-has-cut-new-coal-power-plant-permits-by-nearly-80-greenpeace-says-2024-08-21/[/url] and some have them reaching peek coal in 2025 [url]https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241127-china-expected-to-hit-peak-coal-consumption-in-2025-report[/url].

Even though your article is more recent, and China appears to be ramping up coal again, to me it doesn't matter as long as it's done in parallel, to China offsetting coal, with twice the amount of renewables, it all good IMHO, because this ramp up is only short term. Still, China is on pace and should meet their carbon emission goals by 2030 and 2050. Question is, will the U.S.?

[QUOTE=Tiny 12;2991648]Too bad China doesn't have abundant natural gas like the USA does. If so it could have used [b]clean burning natural gas[/b] to generate reliable baseload power instead of coal. And the air over Chinese cities would be even cleaner than it is now! [/QUOTE]
Nah, who needs dirty natural gas, when even your MAGA Fuhrer, has reservations, doubts and perhaps thinks, it's just dirty smelly gas. Yeah, [b]natural gas must be [u]so dirty[/u],[/b] your MAGA Fuhrer, vowed to bring back, [i][b]"...beautiful clean coal" (...kkkk!)[/b][/i]

[b]Trump vows to immediately ramp up U.S. production of beautiful, clean coal[/b], Mar 18, 2025
[url]https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-03-18/trump-ramp-up-production-of-beautiful-clean-coal[/url]

Maybe that's why China is ramping up coal again? They heard it was [i]"...beautiful clean coal",[b](...kkkk!)[/b][/i]

[QUOTE=Tiny 12;2991648]But yes, China is adding renewable capacity even faster than coal plants! It's a cheap and a cleaner source of power, as long as the wind's blowing and the sun's shining. [/QUOTE] Thanks for stating the obvious, but try not to trip yourself up, on the [i][b]"Primary Energy Fallacy",[/b][/i] the oil and gas industry would have you believe, is needed, when it comes to replacing the true "usable energy" needed with renewables. Renewables will always be 3 to 5 times more efficient than fossil fuels, in converting energy into usable electricity.

Just like South Australia (SA), I believe China will cover the buildout of their grid, with enough HVDC/HVAC, S+W+B and an increasing amount of pumped hydro, and one or two costly nuclear reactors, thrown in for good measure. (Note: Reactors for China not SA). And like SA, the coal power plants in China will decrease, plateau and decline, as more cheaper renewables come online to replace them, as many observers have predicted, judging by China's maga-projects success rate.

So tell me Tiny 12, how many MAGA suckers, will fall for the Fuhrer's "...beautiful clean coal", this time?

[QUOTE=Tiny 12;2991649]... And remember Spidy, perfect is the enemy of good! [/QUOTE]Tiny 12, not sure how or why the likes of Elvis 2008, has bamboozled you, into this somewhat flawed nonsensical line of thinking, w/r to [i]"perfect is the enemy of good",[/i] but Elvis 2008, should know "better" than to present [b]such binary thinking,[/b] by implying the only choice, is between "perfect" and "good".

First of all, other than you guys, who said anything about "perfection"? Who said anything about striving for "perfection", other than Elvis 2008, interjecting "perfection" into the argument?

Your logic is flawed, for the simple fact that, you guys always rocket, straight to "perfection" from "good", with your binary thinking, while overlooking [b]"better"[/b] and "best" (among others) as available options, to a more suitable incremental approach or middle ground, way before anyone logically arrives at "perfection".

So yeah, while S+W+B and other renewables have there downsides, they will always be [b]"better"[/b] and cleaner, than fossil fuels at converting energy into usable electricity.

Striving for "better", when the fossil fuel bar is set so low, is NEVER hard goal to achieve!

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2991027]Netanyahou and Putin kill many women and children and Trump knows this and let keeping on. Also criminal. Shameful not MAGA USA.[/QUOTE]Trump is complicit hand in glove in the zionist genocide of women and children in Gaza, and he is turning a blind eye to Ukraine too, which will shortly become two blind eyes.

The zionist tail wags the American dog.

The zionists are pursuing bloody genocide and ethnic cleansing.

America has fallen. I do fear a civil war in America.

[QUOTE=HotDog666;2991726]Trump is complicit hand in glove in the zionist genocide of women and children in Gaza, and he is turning a blind eye to Ukraine too, which will shortly become two blind eyes.

The zionist tail wags the American dog.

The zionists are pursuing bloody genocide and ethnic cleansing.

America has fallen. I do fear a civil war in America.[/QUOTE]Trump is a senile schizophrene non stop bullshiting, thinking all what he wants will happen, like if he was single on our planet. Just a stupid guy for no brained low level USA. Really no MAGA, but big shame. Enjoy inflation, recession and lost jobs in down USA.

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2991645][b]I think your meme is extremely funny, I'm sure it won him millions of votes LMFAO[/b]
If you are a retarded NYT gay crippled poodle you shouldn't take a bite at the Rottweiler.

When it bites your fucking head off because most, and espec me are going to ROTFLMMFAO.[/QUOTE]It's hard to argue with a MAGA over just how fervently determined he and his fellow MAGAs were to Turn America Into Shit And Then Kill It.

So I am perfectly happy to go with your personal MAGA expertise and insight and say ALL 77.3 Million direct Trump voters and a few stray Third Party voters did so in order to give Trump the means to touch America a 2nd time and really make sure he Turns It To Shit Before he Kills It.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2991724]Tiny 12, not sure how or why the likes of Elvis 2008, has bamboozled you, into this somewhat flawed nonsensical line of thinking, w/r to [i]"perfect is the enemy of good",[/i] but Elvis 2008, should know "better" than to present [b]such binary thinking,[/b] by implying the only choice, is between "perfect" and "good".

First of all, other than you guys, who said anything about "perfection"? Who said anything about striving for "perfection", other than Elvis 2008, interjecting "perfection" into the argument?

Your logic is flawed, for the simple fact that, you guys always rocket, straight to "perfection" from "good", with your binary thinking, while overlooking [b]"better"[/b] and "best" (among others) as available options, to a more suitable incremental approach or middle ground, way before anyone logically arrives at "perfection".

So yeah, while S+W+B and other renewables have there downsides, they will always be [b]"better"[/b] and cleaner, than fossil fuels at converting energy into usable electricity.

Striving for "better", when the fossil fuel bar is set so low, is NEVER hard goal to achieve![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Spidy;2991724]Tiny 12, not sure how or why the likes of Elvis 2008, has bamboozled you, into this somewhat flawed nonsensical line of thinking, w/r to [i]"perfect is the enemy of good",[/i] but Elvis 2008, should know "better" than to present [b]such binary thinking,[/b] by implying the only choice, is between "perfect" and "good".

First of all, other than you guys, who said anything about "perfection"? Who said anything about striving for "perfection", other than Elvis 2008, interjecting "perfection" into the argument?[/QUOTE][URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good[/URL]

In the English-speaking world the aphorism is commonly attributed to Voltaire, who quoted an Italian proverb in his Questions "Il meglio è l'inimico del bene".

It sounds like someone needs to redo high school English. LOL.

In your binary world, it is China good and the USA bad. When it to dirty air, China ranks as 21st worst in the world. The USA? #116.

[URL]https://www.iqair.com/us/world-most-polluted-countries[/URL]

And part of being a Democratic douche is playing the never mind game. Oh, we love EVs but now we hate Elon Musk. I have enclosed the perfect meme for you never mind Democrats.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2991724]
So yeah, while S+W+B and other renewables have there downsides, they will always be [b]"better"[/b] and cleaner, than fossil fuels at converting energy into usable electricity.
Striving for "better", when the fossil fuel bar is set so low, is NEVER hard goal to achieve![/QUOTE]No, solar / wind / battery are not better than fossil fuels. They are not as energy dense as fossil fuels like gasoline and natural gas. Obviously, you generate no power when the sun is down, and the wind is not blowing, and there is already a limit on how many Lithium ion batteries can be manufactured because of limits on Lithium production.

Then you have the problem of overproduction of electricity with solar, [URL]https://www.newsweek.com/california-producing-too-much-clean-energy-paying-other-states-take-it-1995346[/URL].

California is producing so much clean energy using solar farms that it sometimes has to pay utilities in other states to take some of it away.

The news comes in a LOS Angeles Times report which also says in the past 12 months California has forgone enough solar energy to power 518,000 homes for a year (three million megawatt-hours), due to supply exceeding demand and an inability to store the surplus.

When California's solar farms produce a surplus which battery storage cannot handle, to prevent grid overload, the state exports power. This is frequently sold at below the market rate, essentially subsidized by California energy consumers, and at times other states have to be paid to take surplus electricity if they have no demand for it.

According to a CAISO report, in 2022 California sold surplus electricity cheaply to the Public Service Company of New Mexico, which said it saved $34 million through the scheme, along with PacifiCorp, Avista Corp. And Tacoma Power.

When asked how much California had paid for utility companies to take its surplus electricity CAISO official Guillermo Bautista-Alderete replied: "We don't track that number specifically. ".

LOL. Of course not.

And then there is the kicker:

However California's power grid has at times struggled with extreme heat in the state, and in September 2022 the state was forced to deploy temporary gas-fired power plants to prevent supplies running out according to Bloomberg.

This summarizes alternative energy issues. There is too much when you do not need it and too little when you do.

The way around this is with better battery technology, and I do not think what we have is good enough to go as hog wild on alternative energy as we have in many places. EVs can serve many markets today but the PHEVs and ICE make way more sense if you are going long distances in driving.

The key is the battery then and there is progress being made in battery technology. This is a video on sodium anode technology and being produced by a NBC network of course they had to give a shout out to Biden: [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj0siYi4h0o[/URL].

A buddy of mine swears that Tijuana Rogers, who is not a liberal, and Enovix are going to lead in that space. They already have produced batteries everyone wants. They have not done it at scale yet.

Sodium anode batteries for an EV can be 80% charged in 6 minutes. That is where things get interesting and is competition for ICE vehicles.

The issue when you go ga-ga over a new technology is what happened in California. If sodium anode batteries can be made at scale, the whole game with EVs and alternative energy could change, but it is simplistic and foolish to say alternative energy "is better" than fossil fuels.

Opinion.

Ross Douthat.

It's About Ideology, Not Oligarchy.

March 22,2025, 7:00 am ET.

A photograph of Senator Bernie Sanders standing at a podium bearing a sign that reads "Fight Oligarchy. " he is holding up a peace sign with his hands.

Credit. Thalassa Raasch for The New York Times.

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Ross Douthat.

By Ross Douthat.

Opinion Columnist.

The Democrats, casting about for an anti-Trump narrative, have found a word: "oligarchy. " It was part of Joe Biden's farewell address; it's central to Senator Bernie Sanders's barnstorming; it shows up in the advice given by ex-Obama hands. It aspires to fold together President Trump's self-enrichment, Elon Musk's outsize influence, the image of Silicon Valley big shots at the inauguration with a familiar Democratic criticism of the G. O. P. As the party of the superrich.

I don't want to pass premature judgment on its rhetorical effectiveness. But as a narrative for actually understanding the second Trump administration, the language of "oligarchy" obscures more than it reveals. It suggests a vision of Trumpism in which billionaires and big corporations are calling the shots. And certainly, the promise of some familiar Republican agenda items like deregulation and business tax cuts fits that script.

But where Trump's most disruptive and controversial policies are concerned, much of what one might call the American oligarchy is indifferent, skeptical or fiercely opposed.

Start with the crusade against wokeness and the. E. I. , a fight spreading beyond the federal bureaucracy to everything (state policymaking, university hiring) influenced by federal funding. Is this a central oligarchic agenda item? Not exactly. Sure, some corporate honchos were weary of activist demands and welcomed the rightward shift. But before the revolts that began with politicians like Ron DeSantis and activists like Christopher Rufo, the corporate oligarchy was an ally or agent of the Great Awokening, either accepting new progressivism's strictures as the price of doing business or actively encouraging the. E. I. As both a managerial and a commercial strategy.

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Capital, in other words, is flexible. It can be woke or unwoke, depending on the prevailing winds, and it will adapt again if anti-the. E. I. Sentiment goes away.

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Next, consider Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with its frantic quest to slash contracts, grants and head counts at government agencies. Is this oligarchy? No doubt some corporations stand ready to fill spaces left open by the public-sector retreat. But the American corporate sector as a whole is deeply enmeshed with governmental contracting, heavily invested in public-private partnerships, accustomed to cozy lobbying relationships and eager to take advantage of government largess.

So there is no deep corporate investment in reducing head count at random federal agencies, and there is plenty of corporate angst about what DOGE might mean for the specific kinds of private-sector power that have metastasized all around Washington.

And even with Musk himself, the first oligarch: For all the ways he might use his access to game the system, the immediate effect of his crusade has been to undermine Tesla, his most important company, and substantially diminish his (yes, still world-beating) net worth. (The risks to his position if and when Republicans lose power are even more considerable.) So we should take him at least somewhat seriously when he talks like a libertarian or debt-crisis true believer; he's putting his net worth in the service of those ideas rather than just leveraging power to increase his wealth.

Finally, populist ideas rather than oligarchic self-interest are clearly the motivating factor behind Trump's highest-risk move, the great tariff experiment. Of course, there is a tycoon who stands to benefit from protectionism out there somewhere, but the generalization still holds: When it comes to the lords of the American economy, nobody wants this.

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The people who do want it are the right's version of the critics of neoliberalism who influenced Biden's administration: outsider intellectuals and dissenting members of officialdom who see themselves as champions of downscale constituencies ill served by a globalized system designed to benefit investors, corporations and billionaires. There are all kinds of ways in which Trump has failed to follow through on populist promises, but the vision of a new trade order is populism in its truest form; it rejects a consensus shared by academic experts and the upper class, and it promises long-term benefits for the working man in exchange for short-term pain for rich investors.

As such, it can't really be attacked coherently along the lines favored by Sanders or any left-wing Democrat. It's not a giveaway to Trump's biggest donors. (They hate it.) It's not a sop to the Wall Street players. (They're against it.) It's not an intensification of neoliberal capitalism but a rejection of its premises.

Instead, the opportunity it offers Democrats, like the opportunity that Biden's attempt at postneoliberalism offered Republicans, is contingent on its actual economic effects. A future where the economy sputters even as Muskian cuts lead to foul-ups with popular government programs offers Democrats the clearest path back to power. But they won't be leading a revolution against the oligarchy; they'll be promising a restoration.

More on political economy.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2991814]It's hard to argue with a MAGA over just how fervently determined he and his fellow MAGAs were to Turn America Into Shit And Then Kill It.

So I am perfectly happy to go with your personal MAGA expertise and insight and say ALL 77.3 Million direct Trump voters and a few stray Third Party voters did so in order to give Trump the means to touch America a 2nd time and really make sure he Turns It To Shit Before he Kills It.[/QUOTE]Is this this best you've got?? WoW Have you no sense of decency? The US is back and will be the ONLY Superpower again and you and your fellow vile American HATING Trump haters.

Are lost, you've got nothing but the lamest memes I've ever seen I think a 5 yr old could do better, I think your lame efforts to gaslight everyone here just keep getting lamer and lamer.

You and Spidy should hang up your keyboards and give it up, the jig is up, Globalism is as dead as dead gets WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP to all you ANTI American Scumbags, I wish you ADIEU.

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/19/exclusive-peter-narvarro-china-is-the-worlds-biggest-cheater-but-the-eu-and-vietnam-run-close-seconds/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/trump-oligarchy-populism.html[/URL]

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/19/exclusive-peter-navarro-virtually-all-new-jobs-under-joe-biden-were-taken-by-illegal-immigrants/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/opinion/trump-administration-polling.html[/URL]

[QUOTE=ShooBree;2991661]Why do you expect Westerners to care more about the lives of russian soldiers than the russian leaders and people do themselves?

Here's an crazy idea; if you don't want to die, don't start a war against your peaceful neighbors.

The same goes for the palestinians; their leaders even publicly talked about how the blood of palestinians had to be flooding the streets to "improve" support for their "cause".

I'm genuinely scared after seeing what's going on in the palestinian Territories; little children are being taught to murder Israelis and even their mothers, which should be protecting their children!, are openly saying to their little sons that they will grow up to become martyrs.

It truly is horrific. In gaza suicide bombers are celebrated and their parents are proud![/QUOTE]The fact that you actually say and believe all of this in the wake of the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinians by the Israelis shows the extent of your depravity, wickedness and hypocrisy of people like you.

"Peaceful Neighbors". What a sick comment. What a shameless sick excuse of a man you are.

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2991923]Is this this best you've got?? WoW Have you no sense of decency? The US is back and will be the ONLY Superpower again and you and your fellow vile American HATING Trump haters.

Are lost, you've got nothing but the lamest memes I've ever seen I think a 5 yr old could do better, I think your lame efforts to gaslight everyone here just keep getting lamer and lamer.

You and Spidy should hang up your keyboards and give it up, the jig is up, Globalism is as dead as dead gets WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP to all you ANTI American Scumbags, I wish you ADIEU.

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/19/exclusive-peter-narvarro-china-is-the-worlds-biggest-cheater-but-the-eu-and-vietnam-run-close-seconds/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/trump-oligarchy-populism.html[/URL]

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/19/exclusive-peter-navarro-virtually-all-new-jobs-under-joe-biden-were-taken-by-illegal-immigrants/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/opinion/trump-administration-polling.html[/URL][/QUOTE]Oh, do you like reading about polls again?

Here are a couple of stories for you. One to read to long-time China benefactor, President Musk and one to read to his assistant, Putin & Xi Ass-Kisser Trump.

The first story is called, The Boys Who Were Touched By Trump.

The second story is called, After Just Two Months, The RCP Trump Job Approval Poll Concensus That Even Rasmussen Could Not Save.

See screenshots below:

[URL]https://www.realclearpolitics.com/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/03/23/rolls-royce-planning-to-shift-production-to-united-states-to-avoid-trump-tariffs-report/[/URL]

All Praise and Glory goes to Mein MAGA Fuhrer.

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2992096][URL]https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/03/23/rolls-royce-planning-to-shift-production-to-united-states-to-avoid-trump-tariffs-report/[/URL]

All Praise and Glory goes to Mein MAGA Fuhrer.[/QUOTE]Breitbart alludes to it in passing, but just to be clear; Rolls-Royce ALREADY has production facilities in the USA.

And the company had ALREADY reported "stellar annual results on profits" under Biden, considering it was Biden whose brilliant economic stimulus led America and the rest of the World to a historic Recovery from the Trump's Pandemic Economic Catastrophe without so much as an iddy-biddy Global Recession, much less a Great Repub Global Recession or, more likely if Russia's influence had succeeded in placing their boy Trump in the White House again in 2021, a Great Repub Global Depression.

[URL]https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/eastmidlands/news/2096242-rolls-royce-mulls-shifting-engine-making-to-us-amid-tariff-scare[/URL]

[QUOTE]Rolls spokesperson said: We have additional capacity within some of our US operations and continuously seek to explore options to ensure that our global internal supply chain is optimised for delivery to customers in the US.

The news comes just weeks after Rolls-Royces share price hit record highs on the back of stellar annual results, which showed underlying profit rise from 1.26bn to 2.29bn last year. The business is forecasting its 2025 adjusted operating profit to come in between 2.7bn and 2.9bn.[/QUOTE]And, ah yes, the beauty and incomparable economic advantages of GLOBALISM. Rolls-Royce ain't giving up on the concept, you know. They are just mulling exploiting it even more.

[URL]https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mccarthy-democrat-trump/2025/03/23/id/1203970/[/URL]

The GOP establishment tried to destroy him, instead he destroyed them all McCain Romney Paul Ryan Murdoch McConnell Flake Desantis Bush Cheneys et al.

The DNC tried to destroy him and instead he eviscerated them.

Includ Silicon Valley Hollywood Wall St The Global Media The Deep State Big Tech Big Media Big Money, MAGA and Mein MAGA Fuhrer are truly invincible.

Its A New Damn for Gods Chosen People!!

Opinion.

Ross Douthat.

It's About Ideology, Not Oligarchy.

March 22,2025.

A photograph of Senator Bernie Sanders standing at a podium bearing a sign that reads "Fight Oligarchy. " he is holding up a peace sign with his hands.

Credit. Thalassa Raasch for The New York Times.

Listen to this article · 5:14 min Learn more.

Share full article.

1. 4 k.

Ross Douthat.

By Ross Douthat.

Opinion Columnist.

The Democrats, casting about for an anti-Trump narrative, have found a word: "oligarchy. " It was part of Joe Biden's farewell address; it's central to Senator Bernie Sanders's barnstorming; it shows up in the advice given by ex-Obama hands. It aspires to fold together President Trump's self-enrichment, Elon Musk's outsize influence, the image of Silicon Valley big shots at the inauguration with a familiar Democratic criticism of the G. O. P. As the party of the superrich.

I don't want to pass premature judgment on its rhetorical effectiveness. But as a narrative for actually understanding the second Trump administration, the language of "oligarchy" obscures more than it reveals. It suggests a vision of Trumpism in which billionaires and big corporations are calling the shots. And certainly, the promise of some familiar Republican agenda items — like deregulation and business tax cuts — fits that script.

But where Trump's most disruptive and controversial policies are concerned, much of what one might call the American oligarchy is indifferent, skeptical or fiercely opposed.

Start with the crusade against wokeness and the. E. I. , a fight spreading beyond the federal bureaucracy to everything (state policymaking, university hiring) influenced by federal funding. Is this a central oligarchic agenda item? Not exactly. Sure, some corporate honchos were weary of activist demands and welcomed the rightward shift. But before the revolts that began with politicians like Ron DeSantis and activists like Christopher Rufo, the corporate oligarchy was an ally or agent of the Great Awokening, either accepting new progressivism's strictures as the price of doing business or actively encouraging the. E. I. As both a managerial and a commercial strategy.

Advertisement.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT.

Capital, in other words, is flexible. It can be woke or unwoke, depending on the prevailing winds, and it will adapt again if anti-the. E. I. Sentiment goes away.

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Next, consider Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with its frantic quest to slash contracts, grants and head counts at government agencies. Is this oligarchy? No doubt some corporations stand ready to fill spaces left open by the public-sector retreat. But the American corporate sector as a whole is deeply enmeshed with governmental contracting, heavily invested in public-private partnerships, accustomed to cozy lobbying relationships and eager to take advantage of government largess.

So there is no deep corporate investment in reducing head count at random federal agencies, and there is plenty of corporate angst about what DOGE might mean for the specific kinds of private-sector power that have metastasized all around Washington.

And even with Musk himself, the first oligarch: For all the ways he might use his access to game the system, the immediate effect of his crusade has been to undermine Tesla, his most important company, and substantially diminish his (yes, still world-beating) net worth. (The risks to his position if and when Republicans lose power are even more considerable.) So we should take him at least somewhat seriously when he talks like a libertarian or debt-crisis true believer; he's putting his net worth in the service of those ideas rather than just leveraging power to increase his wealth.

Finally, populist ideas rather than oligarchic self-interest are clearly the motivating factor behind Trump's highest-risk move, the great tariff experiment. Of course, there is a tycoon who stands to benefit from protectionism out there somewhere, but the generalization still holds: When it comes to the lords of the American economy, nobody wants this.

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The people who do want it are the right's version of the critics of neoliberalism who influenced Biden's administration: outsider intellectuals and dissenting members of officialdom who see themselves as champions of downscale constituencies ill served by a globalized system designed to benefit investors, corporations and billionaires. There are all kinds of ways in which Trump has failed to follow through on populist promises, but the vision of a new trade order is populism in its truest form; it rejects a consensus shared by academic experts and the upper class, and it promises long-term benefits for the working man in exchange for short-term pain for rich investors.

As such, it can't really be attacked coherently along the lines favored by Sanders or any left-wing Democrat. It's not a giveaway to Trump's biggest donors. (They hate it.) It's not a sop to the Wall Street players. (They're against it.) It's not an intensification of neoliberal capitalism but a rejection of its premises.

Instead, the opportunity it offers Democrats, like the opportunity that Biden's attempt at postneoliberalism offered Republicans, is contingent on its actual economic effects. A future where the economy sputters even as Muskian cuts lead to foul-ups with popular government programs offers Democrats the clearest path back to power. But they won't be leading a revolution against the oligarchy; they'll be promising a restoration.

Did the MAGA Project 2025 authors forget the part about "collecting revenues" to offset the Trillions their tax cuts for Billionaires will add to Classic Repub Trump's record high Deficits?

[B]Tax revenue collected by the IRS set to plummet, report says.[/B]

[URL]https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/24/tax-revenue-collected-by-the-irs-set-to-plummet-report-says.html?__source=androidappshare[/URL]

[QUOTE]IRS officials are expecting tax revenue to drop by more than 10% by April 15, The Washington Post reported.

Officials said the prediction is directly linked to shifting taxpayer behavior and President Donald Trumps cuts at the IRS, the paper said.

The loss of tax receipts is expected as more individuals and businesses dont file taxes or attempt to avoid paying balances owed to the IRS. [B]The amount of lost federal revenue could top $500 billion[/b], the paper said..[/QUOTE]Oh, that's right; the missing revenue will come from the extra, extra, extra high prices the American Working Men and Women Consumer will pay for Trump's Tariff Taxes!