ANDRE LEVINE—In the White House now, the mark of energy sector capitalists is everywhere. It would give Trump too much credit to say that he agrees with, or even cares about, their arguments, such as they are. What he cares about is their money. And so he acts against market “logic.” This is bad news, of course, because his policies are even more harmful than those that market logic would dictate, but, in at least one respect, there is a silver lining. Trump’s whims are dealing free market theology a blow – not a mortal blow, the doctrine is resilient — but a serious defeat nevertheless. To the extent that this makes Republicans like Ted Cruz apoplectic — and disquiets Mike Pence, the next catastrophe in line — then bravo Trump. This may not be much of a saving grace, but it is better than nothing at all.
Daily Archives
June 8, 2018
PAUL STREET—But after you’ve bemoaned the terribleness of Trump for the ten thousandth time, are you ready to get serious about the systemic and richly bipartisan, oligarchic context within which Trump has emerged? “The Trump administration,” Chris Hedges reminded us on Truthdig two weeks ago, “did not rise… like Venus on a half shell from the sea. Donald Trump is the result of a long process of political, cultural and social decay. He is a product of our failed democracy…. The problem is not Trump,” writes Hedges. “It is a political system, dominated by corporate power and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we don’t count”
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DAN STEINBOCK—During his first day in the office, Trump killed the US-Asia Transpacific Partnership (TPP), set aside the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and pledged to bury the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) unless the terms are more favorable to America. In view of the Trump administration, America’s old engagements are history. Either these deals are re-negotiated, or they will be rejected.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—We Australians do not have a very clear sense of ourselves; if we did we would never have stood for Assange’s persecution in the first place. We tend to form our national identity in terms of negatives, by the fact that we are not British and are not American, without any clear image about what we are. A bunch of white prisoners got thrown onto a gigantic island rich with ancient indigenous culture, we killed most of the continent’s inhabitants and degraded and exploited the survivors, and now we’re just kind of standing around drinking tea as the dust settles saying, “Hmm… well, we’re not stuck-up like the Brits, and we’re not entitled like the Yanks.”
