Sunday, April 6, 2025

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 81st Edition. Protests and Golfing.

Lex Anteinternet: Protests spread to Wyoming.:   The "Hands Off" protest is a nationwide movement.  And it's showing up even in Casper, in central Wyoming.

Protests spread to Wyoming.

 


The "Hands Off" protest is a nationwide movement.  And it's showing up even in Casper, in central Wyoming.

Protests did occur yesterday in Casper, and apparently in a host of other cities, including Rock Springs.  Based upon the article in the Tribune, the Casper protests suffered from the common problem all left of center protests in Wyoming tend to, which is rather than be focused on the immediate topic, they featured every left wing cause going, which is exactly why the left has no pull here.

Apparently there were large protests across the country, showing widespread discontent with Trump.  Even some Republicans who have backed Trump all along, like Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro are calling his tariff policy into question.  Some of them are being surprisingly blunt, calling the tariffs basically dumb.

Here's the thing, however.  Trump, born into wealth to the degree that he can repeatedly fail and not feel the effects, doesn't care.  He has the supreme confidence of a man who is not introspective, and frankly, by all evidence, not very smart.  He's believed in tariffs for over 40 years, having a shallow understanding of the economy, and not even grasping that the economy 40 years ago had real problems.

The US has lost its manufacturing base, but not to the degree people like Trump believe.  Quite a bit of it fully remains.  Many of the "lost" industrial jobs in heavy manufacturing were lost to automation.  Those behind Trump understand that, and they don't seem to care that their concept of "returning" jobs to the US means taking jobs from real human beings overseas.

The ultimate irony of all of this is that the tariffs real goal, for those who aren't as dense as Trump seemingly is, was happening anyway.  As world trade increasingly globalized roboticization was occurring anyhow, and as that occurs other factors, such as transportation, begin to factor heavily.  So the tariffs simply disrupt the economy, destroy wealth, and probably actually slow that evolution. 

Meanwhile Trump goes golfing, seemingly not caring what he's doing to real people, and not needing too, as he lacks the empathy, understanding, and financial exposure that would require him to.  His wealthy backers and racial rearward looking functionaries continue on in their destructive march.  

It's more than a year away until the mid terms.  Ted Cruz predicted a bloodbath at the pools in 2026 if things go badly.  And that's the ultimate irony.  Trump was elected, basically, as people didn't like the social views of the left and didn't believe that he believed the rest of the nonsense he spouted.  People tend to vote with their wallets.  

Trump isn't going to change direction.  Like many old people, his ideas are fixed in the distant path, when they actually might have made some sense.  It's a common failing of the old.  The nation is going to go into a heavy duty recession, the Republicans are going to get slammed in the 2026 election, and the left will be resurgent.  A weary nation will, at that point, not care much about men wearing dresses and the like, and for that matter, the left may have made a slight course correction.

No comments: