There is the Marxist idea that pre the large-scale agricultural revolution (or the neolithic revolution) ‘hunter-gatherers’ or agricultural minimalists were living in primitive communism.

Nothing could be more wrong! They lived sustainably, new nothing of systemised warfare, maintained a strong sense of egalitarian solidarity, and enjoyed a work-life balance only labouring 15-20 hours per week.

Acute stratification and classism was birthed by imperial agricultural-dominant societies which denuded the local land-base and sought to conquer new lands with the storage of grains as surplus that could be hoarded and transported to feed populations and armies.

Jared Diamond has identified this imperial domination concurrent with the rise of the ‘neolithic revolution’ as the worst mistake in the history of the human race. Nutritionally poor (with the over-proliferation of grains and cheap carbohydrates) and politically unstable and belligerent, we are still paying the vast karmic penalties for such short-sighted epistemic socio-structural error and ecologically unsound manoeuvre in human relations.

We live in primitive capitalism – primitive and plagued by inefficiency in meeting human need, and ancient cultures were not primitive. I am not saying that many elements of ‘civilisation’ are not redeemable: there are many virtues of ‘civilised’ societies, and ones that we should retain. Progressive elements to governance and governmentality, separation of church and state, and unprecedented technological innovation are to name a few of these redeemable virtues.

Let’s not be too quick apply blanket labels to entire and complex social and political systems. But there is more of a case to give the taxonomic categorisation that capitalism is in fact primitive, compared with ‘hunter-gatherer’ or agricultural minimalists than the other way around!

I understand that it may seem primitive compared with an idyllic post-capitalist society which has never been achieved yet with advanced technology. However, First Nations Peoples have already achieved really existing egalitarianism.

Also, as a side-note, the form that an egalitarian post-capitalist social system would workably look like may be at odds with the communist ‘ideals’ of dismantling private property and the nuclear family (families with two parents of any gender). Marriage, and property – if fairly acquired (and reflects inclusive use-value – a personal conception of property, not capitalist bourgeois conceptions of property), should be retained in any humane post-capitalist egalitarian society with advanced technology. Whilst I am for retaining a small state, and state sanctioned private property upheld by a police force – for various reasons¹, see Fresco and Meadow’s resource based economy without state sanctioned bourgeois private property, but with ‘access abundance’² for an alternate or slightly different view to mine: (https://www.thevenusproject.com). Fresco’s idea was that ‘people don’t want to own things’, what they want is access to them. I believe the right to exclude others from using possessions and assets should be enshrined and upheld by a small state, enforced by the legal system and a policing force, with a separation of powers.

Some food for thought!

1. One main reason is that some individuals and groups of persons, have irrevocably chosen and pledged for an absolutist evil – rejecting and repudiating good-nature and worshiping immorality instead. I note that morality and immorality are consistent in their quest for greater power, it is just the kind of power where their differences are at stake. ↩︎
2. Obviously ‘abundance’ is a relativist concept meaning that a good or service is so numerous that is freely available to all. Please see Kubler, M 1 January 2018, ‘Michael Kubler : The Price of Zero Transition to an RBE, Zday [ The Zeitgeist Movement ]’, last accessed 12 November 2024, YouTube, 9:47 – 10:28, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ogy7sCAfJY&t=608s ↩︎

Human beings are dangerous animals generally with poor emotional, political, social and intellectual intelligence but with God-like technology. So, on its face, it would seem we would need to be governed by a police force to deter crime.

I argue, what we need is a strong and well-funded Police Force who implement ‘Transformative Justice’ approaches for less serious wrongdoings, as well as the ability to use force to protect innocent others within the full purview of the criminal law. Police intervene to prevent harm(s) and are a part of the state apparatus that enforces accountability to those who harm others. Transformative justice measures, applying to aberrant behaviours without attracting a finding of criminality, should include mandatory counselling, mandatory community service, mandatory written apologies, and attendance of appointments at rehabilitation centres (but with freedom of movement: people can go home at night if they wish, for example), as well as mandatory re-socialization tertiary humanities’ courses, and thus constitute a person approach. Feelings of guilt and shame may result from the causing of harm to another or others, so a comprehensive rehabilitation approach would involve strategies for dealing with these feelings. This would entail the further investment in training of the existing police force to uphold and implement transformative justice approaches to reducing harm and for social accountability. For serious crimes – murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual cuckolding, theft and property damage, prison sentences should be mandated for these serious and acute aberrant behaviour(s). This should setup a deterrent to achieve the socially pressing goal of zero incarceration.

In the wake of over-representation of incarceration of certain racial and ethnic identities, many socialists are calling for the defunding of the police, to stop the disproportionate black deaths in public, people’s homes and in custody. This disproportionate black incarceration is a result of their disadvantaged socio-economic status afflicted by colonial and now late-capitalist relative social inclusion. I propose instead we invest more in the training the existing police force(s), including in transformative justice principles. This should be done alongside closing the gap between rich and poor – structurally assisting in dissolving crime.

Whilst we need law and order, we can achieve this with a community-minded post-carceral approach for non-serious crime(s) which should not attract a criminal record, and a penal deterrent system for serious crimes along with a libertarian socialist dynamic which would reduce all kinds of crime through a more socially nurturing and cooperative environment. Again, to stress the point – zero incarceration is the authentic social and political goal and mandate.

Currently, police officers are working class, often working exorbitant hours for inadequate pay. It’s a tough job, for certain, often being put in harm’s way and in dangerous situations. We should better invest in their training, remuneration and work-life balance for better (socially just) outcomes.

We should note that closing the wealth-gap will assist in preventing crime, structurally, as impoverishment leads to crime and recidivism.

It is argued that the police serve a tiny elite. This is true in some sense as they uphold private property rights in a capitalist economy. However, it is overly cynical to believe that the police do not serve their local communities – they do – often keeping the people in their locales safe from crime and harm. This can be socially streamlined with a synthesis of the implementation of transformative (justice) approaches, along with a penal system for deterrence.

Whilst better training of police and more funding for this training is imperative and pressing for better social justice, we shouldn’t alienate the police who are working class, and instead seek to redress the over-representation of black persons (as compared with whites) and men (as compared with women) incarcerated and instead administer transformative (justice) training for aberrant behaviour(s) as an important adjunct to the penal system applied to criminal acts (seriously and acute aberrant behaviour(s) listed above). Criminal records should perhaps lapse, for less serious crime, in some cases, after a period of good behaviour post-imprisonment.

Blue and Black lives matter.

Wind turbines, a renewable energy source, kill bats and birds. We need to design mechanisms on these wind turbines which repel and deter bats and birds to save them from premature and painful deaths. We need less anthropocentrism in the manufacture, production and design of renewable energy technologies. I also propose a probable needed reduction in human population to limit and reduce the animal habitat destruction concomitant with mining for the precious metals and materials needed for renewable energy technology manufacture and installation. Eradicating planned obsolescence and/or cost-cutting in manufacture of green energy technologies, through high quality controls, is a must. Roadkill is another pressing issue; perhaps the installation of electronic mechanisms to deter animals from being in close proximity with vehicles could be very much possible, and definitely preferable.

I recently viewed a documentary called Bright Green Lies, which delivered some interesting and chilling analysis on the very real dark side of so-called green energy generation technologies. Whilst I remain a kind of technocratic green libertarian ‘anarcho'(small state)-private property ‘communist’ (see The Venus Project’s Resource Based Economy: https://thevenusproject.com/ for some social-technocratic ideas), there are contradictions between ecology and (even a minimalist form of) industrialism, when considering the wellbeing of all of sentient life on earth, which need careful redress and ongoing sustained political and ethical attention and transformation.

I believe industrial civilisation is salvageable if we drastically reduce human population and share wealth much more equitably, greening our activities as well as possible, in an ongoing and ever-sophisticated measure.

To grapple with the extent, scope, gravity and urgency of the problem, please understand the standpoint of ‘Bright Green Lies’ activists, who pose some really tough questions. You can rent or purchase the documentary at the links below:

YouTube:

Vimeo:

Libertarian legal mandates and constitutionally enshrined rights should be comprehensive, as well as well thought out and constructed. Authentic socialism is libertarian in character. We should strive for a state which shares political and economic power with rank and file organised workers’ councils. The crux of libertarian socialism is individual enlightenment emanating from maximizing freedoms in and for identity construction and formulations, without exploiting one another.

The harm in pornography is anonymous sexual surveillance of others who make or star in pornographic material. This is a kind of reverse panoptic power: where the many surveil (neologism: verb form of the noun surveillance) the few in voyeuristic anonymity. Hence, there is a tension between the right of an individual to star or feature in pornography versus the exploitation of pornographic actors by pornography consumers and/or by other pornographic actors. In a beyond good and evil synthesis, a gradualist policy approach to exorcising (sexual) exploitation or sub-optimality is preferable. Firstly, a protective law could be passed to illegalise acting pornographically for young adults. The brain continues maturation well into the 20s, with the male brain taking longer than the female brain. 25 years of age as a minimum legal requirement to consensually participate in pornographic acting would diminish exploitation considerably. Implementing this law and legal standard would drastically reduce exploitation of would-be younger porn-stars who have not biologically nor socially (in terms of accrued sexual meta-knowledge) matured to a humanizing degree by older porn-stars and by anonymous consumers who also may be older and have varying degrees of accrued sexual meta-knowledge: it would drastically reduce inequalities in biological and social (sexual meta-knowledge) maturation between actors and consumers. By sexual meta-knowledge I mean understandings about the nature of sexual exchanges and power dynamics and play between sexual agents. The gradualist abolition or out-growing of real pornography – pornography that technologically records and reifies sexual acts between real people shared for consumption – can be achieved with the development of virtual pornography – animations and artificial intellgience featuring sex acts of and between virtual porn-stars. This is, I allege, the ‘Buddhist middle-way’ between pro-porn and anti-porn positions. Gradually exorcising the exploitative surveillance of real porn-stars is overcome, whilst allowing for psycho-sexual growth, sating sexual desires, and fulfilling the very human need for sexual experimentation (without exploitation). The point at which virtual pornography becomes just as stimulating or even more stimulating than real pornography, is the point we may illegalise and/or just organically outgrow real pornography, its dissemination, consumption, and possession by people. I argue, at this said point in virtual pornography’s development – surpassing real pornography, becoming and rendering it entirely redundant or outmoded.

Similarly for sex work, we should first focus on mitigating exploitation in this profession, before we may socially outgrow it altogether. Sex work should be thoroughly legalised and legally regulated. As with increasing the legal age of participation in pornography to 25 years old as a minimum this could be adopted and enacted into law regarding sex work. This would promote safety and increase bodily autonomy and integrities of sex workers. Sex workers should also unionize to protect their economic interests. Exploitation is both inherent and exacerbated where there are economic inequalities between individuals and nation states. So the libertarian socialist project respects the authenticity of sex work whilst mending economic and social inequality as this will greatly diminish exploitation in this profession. Similar inequalities eliciting exploitation applicable to pornography, as discussed above, also apply to sex work.

Potential neuro-toxicity and residual neuro-toxicity of entheogen psychotropics used for recreational altered states of consciousness is a concern. Some persons may be more susceptible to cognitive damage from entheogens than others. Furthermore biological brain immaturity may predispose entheogen consumers to more neural damage than in biologically matured brains. Thus, legalisation for 25 year old’s and older, combined with moderation or abstinence in consumption may be desirable. Consumers would take entheogens at their own risk, with abstinence the safest and most encouraged option, until we know more about the brain, and entheogen effects on the brain. I suggest that governmental legalisation, regulation and manufacture such that recreational drugs such as psychedelics are only legally available for mature adults at 25 years of age or older every five years as a minimum quota, will substantially minimize their risks to residual brain functioning, allowing for their beneficial properties to users in regards to tapping the unconscious mind with spiritually nourishing, entheogenic and shamanist religiosity, and/or enlightening (peak) experience(s) benefits accrued. Use of any entheogenic psychotropic substance would exhaust each five year quota. So, users may choose marijuana in for the first five years, peyote for the second, ayahuasca for the third for example, or just keeping with the one drug for each five year period, from the 25 years of age legal cushioning restriction. Minimalist and careful consumption in this way, circumvents a lot their risks to brain health. It is well worth the endeavour of designing synthetic entheogens that could be provenly safe for use in the future. Legalisation promotes individual responsibility re entheogen consumption for mature adults.

The common themes for pornography, sex work, and entheogens are liberty, but for biologically mature adults – 25 years or older – as the conditional humanizing, humane promoting, and damage minimization caveat.

We have so far to go until we can authentically call ourselves ‘civilised’. With frontal lobes which take 25 years to reach biological maturity, and with social maturity ever-so elusive in our species, we need to turn to multi-disciplinary tertiary education to refine our minds and emotions.

At present we are ‘dangerous monkeys’: glorified primates who have the audacity to step outside of a reasoned ecological footprint through overconsumption (albeit the most wealthy of us have the largest and most disproportionate ecological footprints) and overpopulation.

We live in a virulent socially-pathogenic world with short-term rewards for behaviours which entail large-scale detrimental externalities thanks to a primitive system of exchange and production – i.e. capitalism.

Post-modern alienation is a bi-product of neoliberal capitalism, which accentuates specialisation and over-work at the expense and cost of universal polymath education and a work-life balance. Irrational cultural norms and (irrational) social facts are prevalent, and indicative of our crudity and infantilism. Of course these are sweeping generalisations and there are a lot of positives to garner a sense of self-esteem in the wake of it all.

I think Trumpism epitomises the ‘dangerous monkey’ phenomenon. To have such power and wealth, and yet to be so maniacal and to be such a megalomaniac is archetypical of grandiose and deluded dangerous primates who try to measure their superiority in terms of the myopic obsession with technology and language, and his superiority over other human beings by the wealth he largely inherited.

What’s the antidote? Holistic multi-disciplinary tertiary enlightenment in at least a third of the population! Then we can say we are enlightened primates with emotional prowess to go along with our awe-inspiring technological feats.

Multi-nationals and wealthy capitalist globalists treat people’s lives as opportunity to enforce indentured forms of labour through owning assets outside of personal use-value. Owning assets inside of one’s own personal use-value would include owning one’s own house and car for instance. Indentured labour arises where an external person’s asset portfolio encroaches on the use-value of a person’s legitimate ownership of land, housing and personal belongings, where they live.

Free market competition is thus a rigged game with a small minority of wealthy globalist oligarchs owning vast amounts of capital profiting from indentured labour of those who don’t own their own ‘use-value’ assets. Free market global competition is thus not an even playing field especially with the institution of familial inheritance.

Foreign ownership is one form of enforcing indentured forms of labour, instead of workers co-owning the means of production where they work, or a person owning the roof over their head in terms of the real estate market. Thus, these people are forced to pay rent to wealthy capitalists for where they live or take out loans and pay the banks a premium, which allows wealthy peoples to profit from a form of indentured labour.

Within countries there is also currently mass indentured labour as wealthy domestic peoples own assets that also encroach on the use-value and free and legitimate buying power from rightful individual sacrifice and effort of peoples in the workplace.

In developing countries a strikingly severe form of indentured labour is sweatshop labour, where people are forced off their land in subsistence living and must migrate to cities to work in factories for a pittance – dismal wages. They own very minimal use-value assets or belongings as these have been appropriated by, in many cases, rich capitalist foreigners and domestic capitalists.

Surplus value extraction from workers must be seen as indentured labour also.

Capitalist globalization, foreign ownership, and asset accumulation beyond use-value within countries give rise to indentured forms of labour, and are all a feature of capitalist economics that must be challenged by a sophisticated socialist movement, in the vein of Michael Albert’s participatory economics which gives a strong and cogent vision of a post-capitalist future without indentured forms of labour.

Social and community housing projects within capitalism are progressive and allow for disadvantaged peoples the affordability to have a roof over their heads, and should be encouraged and supported. However, ultimately we should see individual land and house ownership as economic rights, and pay out the existing owners the market value for the housing they own in excess of their own use-value. Owning two landed properties should eventually be the upper limit on house/land ownership.

I don’t endorse terrorism in any way. The way to change the world is through peaceful self-transformation and peaceful collective political organisation/organising.

September 11 was a tragic event, where innocent civilians were indiscriminately targeted.

What was the political and politico-spatial intent and effect(s) of the attack, particularly concerning the twin towers World Trade Center?

What were the effects of not only the attack, but the dissemination of images and footage of the attack across the world by media and news organisations, on the subconscious political minds of people all across the globe, where images and footage of the attacks were liberally and extensively circulated?

What, I argue, was implanted in the collective unconscious of the world’s people, was the symbolic castration of the (epi)centre of transnational capitalism – its twin phallic symbolic power centre (one phallus symbolizing hegemonic transnational capitalism and the other overtly patriarchal (read as ‘male dominant’) transnational capitalist class (‘TCC’ (Sklair)) power) (a sideways note: matriarchal power is inherently more covert and emotional) – the twin towers located in (transnational) capitalism’s centre and main capitalist mega-city: New York. New York is where the highest concentration of headquarters of the world’s largest transnational/multinational corporations are based and actions, agitations and manipulations in global markets, coordinated: the site of the most concentrated machinations of capitalist empire. The World Trade Centre towers were symbolic of capitalism’s patriarchal transnational capitalist class globalizing power, across the world, subordinating social and political space to its hegemonic centre in this symbolic power. The subconscious symbolic political meaning, as a twin-phallic symbol, was that of cooperation and narrowly-overtly patriarchal hegemony of the male dominant TCC and its transnational capitalism globalizing order: one (phallic tower) for male dominance and the other (phallic tower) for the transnational capitalist form of dominance.

Due to this post-modern hyper-reality simulacra (Baudrillard) of media dissemination of the destruction of the twin-towers, (transnational) capitalism, and its political, economic and social reproduction, entered into a new phase: capitalist psychosis. I argue that the monophasic and disenchanting (Weber) regimentation of capitalism has lost its stranglehold of political legitimization at the level of the unconscious. This concurs with Saniotis’ theory in ‘re-enchanting terrorism: jihadists as “liminal beings”’ that jihadists attempt to re-enchant the world in a religious imaginary (against the disenchanting practices of global capitalism, whose religion is increasingly that of conspicuous consumerism and acute global wealth disparities and exploitation).

I define monophasic capitalism as a social phenomenon which stifles socially-minded intrinsically motivated creative labour resulting from excessively obedient work in the capitalist hierarchy in the workplace, as well as from chronic over-work of the populace.

Capitalism as psychosis is the disconnect with and contradiction of key capitalistic values: amassing wealth does not buy happiness or satisfaction, and there is the shattering of people’s expectations and dreams promised by capitalism’s hollow ideological propaganda as compared with the harsh social and political realities which everyday people face instead, in a struggle to maintain a semblance of existential control. Social manipulation has become far more flagrant, obvious, abstracted and ubiquitous in marketing and advertising campaigns and in market-share maximization. People have lost faith in the major party duopolies, suspicious of corporate corruption and lobbying in the representative democratic political process. The majority of people in the world now understand, that something is terribly wrong with national and global political landscape(s). Corporatism (the logical corollary of capitalism) has been exposed for what it is – a delegitimization of transnational corporate capitalism catapulting the psyche of the populace into a psychosis, where their values are being torn apart in social squabbling and conflict which capitalism creates: ironically contradiction, and the fragmentation of social space due to collective psychosis, is the main unifying factor we witness in the realm of social values and praxis. Our waking and sober dreams are becoming more and more not based in reality: now more than ever, it is the illusion of control which fuels capitalist reproduction.

I am in no way saying that the this makes the end of capitalism inevitable, just that its promises are and have become increasingly largely socially and politically illusory.

A recent human history – its genesis and origin in the large-scale agricultural revolution – has witnessed an explosion in human population; a massive increase in animal (enormous emissions) and plant agriculture (often destroying naturally occurring carbon sinks in poly-cropped and prairies’ soil(s)); industrial exploitation of intensely carbon emitting fossil fuels; chaotically designed and unsustainably expansionist urban sprawl and burgeoning cities and mega-cities; mass deforestation; and a vast increase in wealth stratification, which impedes global cooperation on mitigating anthropogenic climate change, as the wealthy tend to want to keep their enormous carbon footprints.

Introduction

This blog post is not an exhaustive exposition unpacking Trump’s politics, but rather covers and explicates some key facets thereof I have been privy to, through some research conducted in diverse media and publications. Initially, it will ask a series of pertinent questions, more so than statements of fact (finding), in signposting. It will then proceed to answer some of these questions and address further issues pertaining to Trump’s politics, with a more expansive analysis. The questions that remain unanswered are strategically left open for the reader to make up their own minds, and for further engaged research thereon. I encourage the reader to ‘read with three eyes’¹ to critically unpack the narratives I deploy herein.

Questions

2020 Election

Firstly, I have not done any research into the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and that Biden and the Democrats cheated in the election. Was it Trump’s narcissistic petulance and adamance not to concede victory to the President-elect Joe Biden? Did Trump make these alleged fabrications that the election was ‘stolen’, with his full knowledge that they were false? Were these comments on Trump’s Twitter account incendiary? Did they cause, or significantly contribute to, a paranoiac far right ultra-nationalist attempt at insurrection, and/or mobilisation of conservative activists believing they were disenfranchised in suffrage rights for that election? At the least, it would seem Trump has plausible deniability in the face of accusation he incited a coup and occupation of Capitol Hill. The January 6, 2021 ‘insurrection’ falls short of a coup since the rioters and occupiers did not have military backing. However, it has resulted in five deaths. Could this have been easily avoided if Trump ‘admirably conceded victory’, instead of trump²eting his divisive rhetoric? Is bad sportsmanship a tragic understatement of Trump’s rogue behaviour? Could the allegation and arraignment of election corruption legitimately constitute defamation of election workers with a legal course of action as recourse?

If right-wing Trump voters feel that the 2024 election is rigged against them, is there a chance of a violent revolution or even a civil war? Let’s hope we don’t have either of these.

It does not seem likely that even ‘a Democrat majority’, if achieved, will successfully contain the situation as the alienation and division is so widespread? These contradictions of U.S. nationalism and late-capitalism could only be resolved by left-wing and workers’ organising, which would result in a left-wing decentralization of political power? What do conservatives and hard right activists say to ‘socialism with a small state’?

In the meantime, should we expect protracted internal political turmoil, discontent and polarization of voters in the U.S.?

Censoring Trump

Were Trump’s comments on Twitter enough for him to be legitimately banned/censored? Would not a more targeted form of censorship be preferable than a blanket ban on all his tweets? I would argue this would be preferable. I am not privy to his exact tweets that resulted in the banning of his account. However, there was a pattern of abuse, by Trump, of the platform, in his Twitter account³.

Trump as ‘Rogue Conservative’

When late-capitalism mixes with reactionary patriotism (as if an idyllic time of U.S. capitalism has been lost, when in fact, it has never been delivered?) and celebrity cults of personality, is this what we are left with in the country with the strongest military power on earth? Is Trump venerated because of his maniacal? stance against ‘fake news’ and the ‘corrupt liberal establishment’? Is he a champion of appealing to conservative, ultra right-wing and libertarian anarcho-capitalist ‘conspiracy theorists’? Do liberals too quickly dismiss ‘conspiracy theories’, and is this a form of ‘scientific’ elitism?

Trump Politics and Group Psychosis?

Do spectacle and farce not do this predicament adequate explanatory justice? Is this an era and/or political reproduction of mass delusion⁴ on a scale almost never seen before, with the exception of Hitler’s so-called ‘national socialism’ and Stalin’s perversion of ‘socialism in one country’?

Political Nostalgia for an Idyllic Past?

Is Make America Great Again (MAGA) a dangerous catch-cry and slogan because tacit in this narrative is the allusion that there was a prosperous and happy time that has been systematically subverted, stolen, thwarted and robbed from the U.S. citizenry? Are corrupt liberals and leftists, to blame? As scapegoats? Hence is there an illusory feeling of disenfranchisement of Trump’s supporters? Albeit U.S. capitalism has changed over time, did the idyllic ‘love-story’ of capitalism⁵ really exist?⁶ How does that sit with phenomena like the great depression? What if this idyllic time simply did not exist, and is a cultural myth along with the American Dream⁷? Has not the U.S. always had acute racial, gender and class divisions and internal contradictions? Perhaps the U.S. was substantively and objectively greater when it had progressive income taxation over 90% from the period between 1944 and 1963⁸, and where a working class family could get by on one wage? Certainly, this is not what Trump is proposing! Thus, ‘MAGA’ could be just as fictitious and vacuous⁹ as Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’¹⁰.

Big Government as Scapegoat?

Is a blatant and unrelenting distrust of government and especially big government rife amongst Trump’s Republican voter base justifiable? For Trump’s conservative voter base, freedom is unequivocally equated with free markets. Is this really a progressive conception of freedom? What do conservatives say to the critique of human rentals¹¹ as politically and socially coercive? What do they say to market socialism?

They – government skeptics – are absolutely not totally without reason, as the U.S. has a virulent infectious malady of political lobbying and corporatism, which has perverted their free market (e.g. bailing out banks that were ‘too big to fail’), and corporatist interests devising military foreign policy (Bush and Cheney neo-cons) in the Iraq 2003 invasion for instance. Is ‘big government’ and/or corporatism to blame here? Or is it an inevitability of capitalism itself?

Trump as Nationalist Capitalist Populist Demagogue?

By appealing to the genuine disenfranchisement and alienation caused by gross inequalities and sub-optimality within U.S. culture and economics, does Trump divert and appropriate these sentiments into and for a narrowly demagogic cult of personality, divesting them of their real progressive potential? Is not Trump deploying, strategically, a buffer against genuine class consciousness of the majority of his voter base?

Trump’s Brand of COVID Hysteria?

And what of Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic? Has the well-being of citizens been both flouted and compromised, demoted in favour of the interests of short-term profits? Do lockdowns cause more harm than good? Is it even within the prerogative of government to shut down economies, and mandate social distancing, mask wearing and vaccination? Should the health of society be vested in the individual to make enlightened choices, where they can assess government recommendations themselves? Is Trump a conservative (right-wing) libertarian? Or does he cynically manipulate them?

Energy Policy

Is Trump’s stance on energy independence too nationalistic – ‘using fossil fuels at home’ – too reactionary (in a nationalistic way)? The U.S. could achieve substantial energy independence and security, through a diversified portfolio of renewables, as well as incorporating nuclear fission.

Russian Invasion of Ukraine

In something of a cognitive dissonance has not Trump made contradictory remarks regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Is this reflecting a broader pattern of behaviour of Trump’s in the making of contradictory stances on political issues – espousing statements that constitute political flip-side polarities?

Initially Trump’s rhetoric re the invasion of Ukraine was praising “for Russian President Vladimir Putin”¹², and even constituting a narrative of adoration – very insensitively remarking that Putin was “a genius”¹³. Would Trump attempt to manipulate the historical anti-war sentiments / positions of many U.S. voters, who would like to believe that the Ukrainian war is not a problem to U.S. nationalist interests? Would Trump, if he is re-elected President in 2024, make a deal with Putin to partially partition Ukraine to Russia? If so, would this not embolden other imperial expansionism of (some) other world leaders?

Are subsequent contradictory ‘strong-man’ comments made by Trump directed against Russian imperialism in Ukraine excessively inflammatory and incendiary? Do they cause real concern for a provocation for an outbreak of nuclear war if he is re-elected in 2024? Trump stated to the effect that “Putin took advantage of Biden’s being “weak” to attack Ukraine”¹⁴.

The Wall at the Southern Border

Is there, at least a small amount, of tacit racism in building a wall at the southern border but not the northern border? Trump alleges that Mexico, as one example, is intentionally dumping its ‘undesirables’ – Trump has stated that criminals and peoples with severe mental health conditions are pouring in through the southern border.

Conclusion of Question Section Remarks

These are complex and politically dialectical questions and research questions, often disturbing to the psyche both at the individual and collective level, that I will endeavour to answer in due course, with the assistance of other analysts, of course.

My Provisional Answers to Above Questions of Trump, and More

Border Controls and Immigration?

Trump alleges that Mexico, as one example, is intentionally dumping its ‘undesirables’ – Trump has stated that criminals and peoples with severe mental health conditions are pouring in through the southern border – offloading them on to the U.S¹⁵. But further to this, Trump alleges that it is not even just mass illegal immigration from South American countries, but mentions Africa and from ‘everywhere’ [in the world]. Trump’s ‘everywhere’ here includes, presumably non-exhaustively: Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, and South America. Trump alleges that this mass illegal immigration is constituted, by a high proportion, of these alleged undesirables. In the following interview, Musk comments that he believes that most illegal immigrants are hard-working [honest] good people. Trump (purportedly) disagrees:

17:12 – 32:48

Trump alleges that other countries are dumping ‘undesirables’ in the U.S. through the southern border, and that these ‘undesirables’ are threatened with their lives by their native / origin countries to not return to them.

Whilst I do believe in and support some kind of border controls, these controls are fettered by two important social imperatives:

1. The U.S. must take in its fair share of refugees genuinely fleeing persecution and for full citizenship rights assimilation into host country; and
2. All First World countries need to, as in is incumbent in good faith, facilitate a level of immigration of very underprivileged peoples from Third World and Developing World countries. This is for two reasons: only fair given the realities of inter-nation state economic inequalities, and First World nations presently and historically are caught up and implicated in the reproduction of the economic exploitation of acutely underprivileged people from Third and Second World nations.

It is only natural and fair that assimilates keep a connection to their native cultures and ways of being in the world. However, a level of integration into host country customs and values is desirable; it may be helpful for social cohesion and collective belonging identity. For example assimilation should operate in respecting, for example, the separation of church and state in First World nations. This – a level of assimilation – should not be mandated at the level of law or the state, but a duty of assimilates to observe respect for say ‘cultural Christianity¹⁶ customs’, even if it is at an arm’s length. For example, a deep respect for Indigenous knowledges, and/or religious customs, such as Christmas, for examples, should eventuate, even if they choose not to fully identify with or celebrate themselves. Multiculturalism works both ways however: citizens born in host country should delight in the opportunity to enjoy and learn about other cultures, brought to its shores and lands. Both the host, and the assimilate should not impose their distinctive cultural mores on each other, but to explicitly learn from each other’s cultural ethics.

It seems, on these points above, Trump drives a reactionary rhetoric appealing to a xenophobia in an insidious right-wing populism. He should be pledging to alleviate the exploitation of average working class people, who still lack access to universal healthcare, not a capitalist nationalism.

Trump and Deportation

According to Trump, under his and his administration’s watch, “we will have the largest deportation in the history of this country”¹⁷. I contend, that this will do injustice to uproot peoples from their livelihoods and their home-making activity. Trump’s policies will have anti-social outcomes. I am happy for him to have a ‘strong-border’ with the above qualifications, but to enforce a privileged in-group politics against those who have already made a strong socio-political investment in a new host country is unjust. It would do these people an injustice. Trump should look forward, not backward. This is to do things positive. Citizenship can be granted based on socially positive behaviours and contributions. Trump should embrace a larger conception of an United States in-group, and concern himself with the welfare of all its citizens and citizens to-be. This would mean, at the least, a green new deal, as a stepping stone for more progressive restructuring such as market socialism for workers and promoting small business. On most of his policy dictates, Trump is a dismal failure on most sophisticated and nuanced formulations of social justice.

Trump On COVID-19

Trump, at some point, extolled ‘the virtues’ of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19 viral disease. This is interesting, as there is a study which yielded the finding that ivermectin inhibited SARS-CoV-2¹⁸ replication, in vitro (outside the body)¹⁹. Bear with me: I do not know yet of any studies proving treatment with ivermectin in the human body would yield inhibition of viral replication; and I am not yet certain whether ivermectin is safe for human use, and/or how much an appropriate dose may be.

He later praised Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson claiming credit for their development “on his watch”²⁰. Aligning with his right-wing libertarian voter-base, Trump “has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates”²¹.

To my knowledge, the COVID-19 vaccines may have been rushed to the dispensary, probably due to the sheer urgency of the situation. I’d like to quote Dr. Michael Mosley on this:

“In normal times creating a safe and effective vaccine takes at least five years [my emphasis added] because they have to go through rigorous testing and lots of regulatory hoops. 95% of potential vaccines fail.” ²²

The steps a normal vaccine has to go through, as Mosley identifies, includes: the exploratory state, the pre-clinical stage, phase I trials, phase II trials, and phase III trials²³.

March 17 2020, “Pfizer signed a letter of intent with BioNTech to co-develop a potential COVID-19 vaccine”²⁴. Amazingly, at January 25 2021, less than a year later, the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine, in Australia (my home nation). Were corners cut, or were processes just streamlined through better cooperation and leveraged from pre-existing testing re mRNA vaccines? However, as Pfizer alleges, there were unprecedented levels of cooperation “across companies and across countries”²⁵.

To my mind, COVID-19 lockdowns gave unprecedented powers for government to interfere in the market economies.

I believe governments in their proper power latitude and jurisdiction, perhaps, should only be able to give recommendations for containment purposes, such as isolating, mask-wearing, vaccines, and social distancing. This is particularly so when there is such a dire need for poleis of peoples to think for themselves. In this way, I am staunchly ‘individualist‘, and libertarian. Ironically, social pressures from enlightened and concerned individuals in of the citizenry creates social pressure, ‘to do the right thing(s)’.

COVID-19 is and was a mortality threat to peoples with pre-existing severe infirmity and to very old seniors. Perhaps, government mandating could have been applied in a more targeted way to protect these vulnerable demographics? I still think the citizenry should be able to act in an enlightened way in assessing government recommendations for virus containment.

Under the lockdowns, workers and small business owners, were generally hurt, whilst somehow, generally big business made even more profits. This points to a transfer of wealth under the COVID lockdowns.²⁶

Foreign Policy: Palestine and Ukraine

Trump’s position on Palestinian peaceful protestors to deport them is heavy-handed. And, his staunch stance for continuing to provide military ‘aid’ to Israel, which is directly fuelling a genocidal war-machine, is appalling, but not dissimilar to other bought-and-sold U.S. politicians across both major parties by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (‘APAIC’) lobby group. He, in an unsophisticated and crude manner, wants to deport these activists, many of whom are championing the legitimate Palestinian cause grounded in international law and decrees: the U.N. has sanctioned that East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip, and the West Bank are Palestinian territories²⁷. Trump is politically in bed with Netanyahu despite his international arrest warrant, issued by the ‘ICC’ (International Criminal Court). Perhaps, many activists for Palestine are offending laws against unauthorised encampments, but this should not attract severe penalties, especially not deportation.

He wants to make a ‘deal’ with Putin to partition parts of Ukraine to Russia, attempting to meddle with Ukrainian sovereignty. This may threaten the geopolitical ‘efficacy’ of NATO and/or embolden land territorial expansionist conquest in particular.

Global and Nation Inequality

Trump’s politics on international and intra-national inequality are dismal. He is obsessed with narrowly self-interested ‘deal-making’, with his boss big business background – the dual-pinnacles of which was The Art of the Deal book published in 1972, and The Apprentice inaugurated in 2004, wherein he made the economic fate of employees (“contestants”) into a shallow form of Reality TV entertainment, a vicarious and socially detached form of late-capitalist consumerism. He makes a mess of nationalist politics, where he is not for the average voter/person with an ostensible ‘America First’.

Intention for Installation of Trump Loyalist Government Workers

Trump wants to politically purge government workers, and install in their place, politically myopic Trump loyalists. Leeja Miller, a U.S. legal and political commentator, has made a video exposing this disturbing attempted power-grab by Trump:

6:05 – 6:29

Trump on CBDC

One thing Trump may get right is for a decentralised currency, possibly rightfully sceptical of a centralised Central Bank Digital Currency (‘CBDC’). This scepticism is particularly rightful insofar as a CBDC might be rolled out as a part of a plan to create a cashless society; a cashless society undermines the ability for locales to operate more independently of the state.

Trump On Climate Change

Trump is blasé on climate change mitigation measures. He can be quoted saying he believes it to be real, but that he is not convinced it is human-made or anthropogenic²⁸. This is really worrying, and ties in with an overly simplistic ‘Christian’ world-view. The explosions in human populations, along with the agricultural revolution and even more so with the industrial revolution, has radically increased carbon emissions, which are scientifically implicated in climate change. That’s an Occam’s razor.

Trump On Critical Race Theory

Trump wants to blanket ban Critical Race Theory from its rightful educational platform and edifice, not just in schools: “Trump proposed a “ban on taxpayer dollars going to any school district or workplace that teaches critical race theory””²⁹. Ironically, this is a form of censorship that, in theory, does not sit well with Trump’s so-called libertarian stance. I do not contend that Critical Race Theory has 100% explanatory power, but it has important theoretical ‘revelations’ on the state of racial patterns of privilege and exclusion, that can be utilized, deployed along with an array of other relevant theories of humanity, to form more accurate world-views, typically for tertiary students studying social science, and adult peoples.

Trump On Gender and Transgender

Trump turns his back on transgender rights which need protection, particularly Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (‘BNST’) brain based (youth and adult) transgenderism (see Professor Sapolsky’s work on bringing this to the attention of the global populace)³⁰. Appallingly, Trump claims ‘there are [only] two genders”:

This is undoubtedly a reaction against the scientifically uninformed medical interventions of non brain-based transgenderism of youths. This has entailed unwarranted surgical mutilations, puberty blockers and hormone ‘therapies’. There is no doubt, however, that the “two-genders” crude artifice and trope is designed to appeal to, and capture of the votes of, “Adam and Eve” Christians.

Christian or Christian Populist?

Trump cynically purports to represent the Christian faith solely to win more votes? He is famous for saying that he – Trump – is not really the guy in charge, rather it is the (Christian) God and Jesus Christ ‘our saviour’. This, for U.S. Christian voter base, is seen as humbling quality of their President to-be, rather than a cynical ‘populist’ power-grab.

Universal Healthcare and Welfare?

Trump opposes socialised universal healthcare, favouring a privatised system: he has a track-record of attempting to repeal and/or water-down the Affordable Care Act (‘ACA) legislated in the Obama years. Does this appeal to right-wing libertarian voters who are genuinely frightened by a top-down ‘medical tyranny’? In some ways, it is paranoiac to be frightened by socialised healthcare, I believe. Was the conservative opposition to “Obama-Care” partially based on the corporatist influence of big business insurance collusion in the proposed scheme?

Before Trump was elected in November 2016, a panel of experts from The Commonwealth Fund, warned of his legislative proposals re healthcare if enacted in Congress, entitled in somewhat of an Orwellian double-speak: Healthcare Reform to Make America Great Again. The panel concluded fourfold on Trump’s proposed reforms:-

“The policies would increase the number of uninsured individuals by 16 million to 20 million relative to the ACA. Coverage losses disproportionately affect low-income individuals and those in poor health. Enrollees with individual market insurance would face higher out-of-pocket spending than under current law. Because the proposed reforms do not replace the ACA’s financing mechanisms, they would increase the federal deficit by $0.5 billion to $41 billion.”³¹

Trump plans to ‘clamp down’ on welfare even when increasing automation of production should be socially mandated to decrease the working week and allow for an unconditional safety-net of an universal basic income. Trump isn’t for rolling out a UBI (‘Universal Basic Income’), nor for reducing the working week; these are more and more feasible given the technological advances, including in artificial intelligence, in automating production.

Trump’s rhetoric is in boasting that he gets people off of welfare³², not extending it as a universally enjoyed and unconditional right. Even with a UBI meeting people’s basic needs, if people want to live very well and live the high life, they are still going to have to work. This is aside from the naturally motivated impetus to find meaningful and socially demanded work, genuinely helping to meet human needs, for the social contribution it has for society, greatly giving increased self-esteem for the individual.

We want a universal job guarantee, against the capitalist reserve army of labour, for full employment – minus the disability precluding a graduated ability to work.

Refreshingly, Trump has pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare: “[u]nder no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security”³³. Has he changed his position to a polarity again, attempting to catch more votes?

A Straw-Man Enemy?

He name-calls the Democrats, a centre-left Party, “radical leftists” and their voter-base as “cultural Marxists”³⁴ – empty scaremongering rhetoric which also doesn’t match with reality. Whilst segments of the Democratic Party’s faithful voters do subscribe to, perhaps, anti-nationalism, wholly unfettered multi-culturalism, an excessively forceful strident anti-Christianity atheism, and a usurping of the two-parent nuclear family, this is not consistent with the majority of the centre-left Democratic Party voter-base.

What Kind of Corporate Tax Rate?

He wants to further axe the corporate tax rate³⁵. Will this have inequality and anti-social outcomes? I need more research into this. Whilst decreasing the tax rate on small business may have progressive outcomes, a blanket decrease on corporate business tax in general may be punitive to workers and small business, through atrophying wealth redistribution in the forms of cutting public expenditures for government programmes which aid all peoples but in particular ‘the lower’, working and middle classes. Certainly, big business is almost invariably incorporated, where as sole traders and partnerships (typically smaller businesses) may not be (incorporated). Would Trump make back the revenue lost from tax breaks through tariffs?

Trump(ism), A Fascist Tinge?

Trump is a populist with an increasingly cult-figure fascistic tint, as chiefly evidenced by his vacuous political war cry of “Drain the Swamp”. ‘Make America Great Again’ appeals to those which neoliberalism has excluded, only to try to replace it with a conservative politics to deny profit-sharing and market-socialist prerogatives, and the need to abolish human rentals (Ellerman).

Trump On Tariffs

Trump pledges to impose further tariffs on Chinese imports. This will hurt the consumer, with higher prices, but assist (some) domestic producers. Will tariff money increase public revenues, in turn to be spent on public programmes?

On Law and Order and Policing

Trump blatantly disregards the appalling levels of structural class and racial intergenerational disadvantage, which (anti)socially coalesce in an over representation of the prison population of men from ‘lower’ socio-economic classes and black men. Trump’s call for law and order, without redressing structural exploitation patterns, is then thoroughly justice-blind. Furthermore, whilst I am for law and order, along with class reparations through more equitable wealth redistribution(s), I do not support Trump’s plan to grant police immunity³⁶.

Trump On the Right to Bear Arms

In his book – The America We Deserve – published in 2000, Trump wrote “I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun”³⁷. He has since rolled-back some of the imposed limitations re mental health conditions and gun eligibility.

It is clear that the second amendment provides for the Constitutional inalienable right of the citizenry to bear arms. A ‘founding father’ – James Madison – who wrote the second amendment, I argue, would definitely not have foreseen the advent of automatic weapons. However, a 19th century prominent U.S. legal scholar may have disagreed. Here is a quote from his book Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States:

“1. The right of the people to keep and bear arms. The object of this clause is to secure a well-armed militia. It has always been the policy of free governments to dispense, as far as possible, with standing armies, and to rely for their defence, both against foreign invasion and domestic turbulence, upon the militia. Regular armies have always been associated with despotism. But a militia would be useless unless the citizens were enabled to exercise themselves in the use of warlike weapons. To preserve this privilege, and to secure to the people the ability to oppose themselves in military force against the usurpations of government, as well as as against enemies from without, that government is forbidden by any law or proceeding to invade or destroy the right to keep and bear arms.”³⁸

I aver, that even the use of words ‘warlike weapons’ does not adequately prove beyond a reasonable doubt / scepticism that the founding fathers would have believed in the citizenry’s right to own and yield automatic weapons; would not the right to bear small arms still allow for the efficacy of a citizens militia, capable as a power-break on any centralised use of military deployed by an otherwise tyrannical government, in keeping with the prime purpose of the right to bear arms³⁹?

Trump On Capital Punishment

Trump has been consistently for capital punishment, and “[d]uring his term as president, Trump resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus, executing 13 people in the last six months of his presidency, the last of which was just four days before his term ended”⁴⁰. The two principal reasons I oppose capital punishment are as follows:

1. Judges are not infallible and there is the potential for judicial mistake; and
2. It seems hypocritical for the state to proclaim ‘[t]hou shall not kill’ and take a life or lives itself.

On Trump and Men and Women

Trump is much more popular with men than women, generalising⁴¹. Is this partially explainable by Trump being, more so than his Democrat adversaries, anti-abortion in the spectrum⁴²?

Concluding Remarks

Have I left anything out? Damn straight I have! Whilst I welcome critiques of the Democratic Party, as this Party are elitist and increasingly deserting the working class and downtrodden, Trump ‘conservatives’ need a genuine and open serious look at themselves (and me too, which is ongoing for everyone); I’m happy for a bona fide enlightening dialectic between all that is ‘Trumpism’. If you want an in-depth dialogue with me, simply send me an email at henrywilloughby@hotmail.com and I will endeavour to get back to you ASAP! This is a work-in-progress. Apologies that I have not yet had the time to give the same level of analytical attention to Trump’s ‘adversary’ in Kamala Harris. I hope you may have gleaned some positive information from this blog entry, moving forward. I hope it will be useful in building a coherent movement for progressive change.

1. This phrase I borrow from Professor Saniotis in his teaching re critical reading skills, where I was first exposed to this concept. ↩︎
2. Please excuse the pun! ↩︎
3. See Allyn, B and Keith, T 8 January 2021, ‘Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump, Citing ‘Risk Of Further Incitement Of Violence’, National Public Radio, last accessed 28 October 2024, https://www.npr.org/2021/01/08/954760928/twitter-bans-president-trump-citing-risk-of-further-incitement-of-violence ↩︎
4. See Frances, A 2017, Twilight of American Sanity. A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump, Harpercollins, New York. ↩︎
5. See Capitalism: a Love Story. (2009). [DVD]. Directed by Michael Moore. United States. The Weinstein Company. ↩︎
6. Certainly, it is common knowledge that U.S. domestic ‘manufacturism/manufacturing’ has become increasingly off-shored, with a concurrent rise of the U.S. domestic ‘service industry’; there is also a dismantling of the post-war job continuity: having the same job for the duration of one’s life is now only for a small minority, with most forced to change jobs often throughout the life-course: we may call this ‘job-flexism’, and is part and parcel of the imposed neoliberalism on most people. However, these are not uniquely political to the U.S. ↩︎
7. With humour, the late George Carlin says: “[i]t’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it!”, see John Lockwood’s YouTube channel video uploading of George Carlin’s monologues – ‘Why Don’t I Vote? I’ll Let George Carlin Explain It To You’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4Z1lLUMfw at 7:29 – 7:34. ↩︎
8. See Luscombe, Mark 3 December 2022, ‘Historical income tax rates’, Wolters Kluwer, last accessed 9 December 2024, https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/whole-ball-of-tax-historical-income-tax-rates#:~:text=The%20top%20income%20tax%20rate,decline%20began%2C%20ending%20in%201987. ↩︎
9. Obama’s rally cry turned out to be fictitious as well as vacuous when he proceeded as a thoroughly Manchurian candidate once in power, elected into office. ↩︎
10. From Cogswell, D and Butzer, C 2012, Unions For Beginners, For Beginners LLC, Hanover, New Hampshire, p. 155: “Obama…promised to restore law to government, close Guantanamo prison camp, to end the war in Iraq, to stop torture as a U.S. policy. But once he got into office he appointed prominent Wall Street and financial industry kingpins to most of his cabinet posts, and one by one turned his back on most of the promises he had made during the campaign.” For more detailed information on this treachery of promissory progressive reforms, bait and switch, by President Obama, see pp. 155-157. ↩︎
11. See https://www.abolishhumanrentals.org/ ↩︎
12. Ulmer, A 27 February 2022, ‘Trump condemns Russia invasion; hints again at 2024 presidential run’, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-condemns-russia-invasion-says-he-prays-ukrainian-people-2022-02-27/ ↩︎
13. Ibid. ↩︎
14. Ibid. ↩︎
15. See Hindustan Times, August 2024, ‘Full Trump-Musk Interview: Assassination Bid, Iran-Israel, Russia-Ukraine, Kamala-Biden, US Election’, YouTube, 17:12 – 32:48, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUlDHBKR-fM&t=1745s ↩︎
16. See LBC Channel, 1 April 2024, ‘Richard Dawkins: I’m a Cultural Christian’, YouTube, last accessed 1 November 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=COHgEFUFWyg ↩︎
17. Ibid, at 32:10. ↩︎
18. “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus that causes the disease known as coronavirus disease 2019”,
    https://www.bcm.edu/departments/molecular-virology-and-microbiology/emerging-infections-and-biodefense/specific-agents/sars-cov-2-and-covid-19#:~:text=Severe%20acute%20respiratory%20syndrome%20coronavirus,in%20which%20it%20was%20identified. ↩︎
19. Caly, L, Druce, J et al. 2020, ‘The FDA-approved drug ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro‘, Antiviral Research, Elsevier, Vol. 178, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011?via%3Dihub ↩︎
20. NBC News, 24 December 2021, ‘Trump renews praise for Covid vaccines, ‘one of the greatest achievements of mankind’, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-renews-praise-covid-vaccines-one-greatest-achievements-mankind-n1286551 ↩︎
21. Ibid (same as above footnote). ↩︎
22. Mosley, M 2020, COVID-19. What you need to know about the Coronavirus and the race for the vaccine, Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited, p. 130. ↩︎
23. Ibid (same as above footnote), pp. 130-131. ↩︎
24. Pfizer, ‘Shot of a Lifetime: How Pfizer and BioNTech Developed and Manufactured a COVID-19 Vaccine in Record Time’, https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/shot_of_a_lifetime_how_pfizer_and_biontech_developed_and_manufactured_a_covid_19_vaccine_in_record_time ↩︎
25. Ibid (same as above footnote). ↩︎
26. See Kinder, Bach, and Stateker 21 April 2022, ‘Profits and the pandemic: As shareholder wealth soared workers were left behind’, Brookings, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/profits-and-the-pandemic-as-shareholder-wealth-soared-workers-were-left-behind/; see also Bartik, Bertrand, cullen and Stanton July 10, 2020 ‘The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations’, PNAS, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2006991117. Both these sources are U.S. microcosms of global trends in wealth inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health measures. ↩︎
27. “Palestinian territory…encompasses the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip”: United Nations, 19 July 2024, ‘Summary of the ICJ Advisory Opinion- Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’,
    https://www.un.org/unispal/document/summary-of-the-icj-order-icj-19jul24/#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20its%20territorial,Jerusalem%20and%20the%20Gaza%20Strip. ↩︎
28. See Montalbano, V, Cheeseman, A and McDaniel, J 10 Septamber 2024, ‘Donald Trump’s climate policies, explained’, last accessed 1 November 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/presidential-candidates-2024-policies-issues/donald-trump-climate-change/ ↩︎
29. See Brewster, J 18 June 2021, ‘Trump Says Critical Race Theory Borders On ‘Psychological Abuse”, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/06/18/trump-says-critical-race-theory-borders-on-psychological-abuse/ ↩︎
30. See Sapolsky, R 2018, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, Vintage, London, p.215n. ↩︎
31. Saltzman, E and Eibner, C September 2016, ‘Donald Trump’s Health Care Reform Proposals: Anticipated Effects on Insurance Coverage, Out-of-Pocket Costs, and the Federal Deficit’, The Commonwealth Fund, https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/documents/___media_files_publications_issue_brief_2016_sep_1903_saltzman_trump_hlt_care_reform_proposals_ib_v2.pdf ↩︎
32. See Robertson, Lori 9 March 2020, ‘Trump’s Welfare Claim’, last accessed 27 October 2024, https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-welfare-claim/ ↩︎
33. See Stein, J, Von Dongen, R, Rivera, A, Cheeseman, A and McDaniel, J 10 September 2024, ‘Donald Trump’s economic policies, explained’, The Washington Post, last accessed 1 November 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/presidential-candidates-2024-policies-issues/donald-trump-economic-policy/ ↩︎
34. For a Biblical take on the term “cultural Marxism” and some of its varied attachable meanings, see Got Questions, ‘What is cultural Marxism’, last accessed 27 October 2024, https://www.gotquestions.org/cultural-Marxism.html ↩︎
35. See Wamhoff, S, Davis, C, Ettlinger, M, Frankel, E, Gardner, M, Hendricks, G, and Hughes, J 7 October 2024, ‘A Distributional Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan’, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, last accessed 1 November 2024, https://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/#:~:text=Trump%20has%20proposed%20lowering%20the,make%20their%20product%20in%20America.%E2%80%9D ↩︎
36. In the abstract, policing is one of the most virtuous, meritable, commendable, honourable and venerated, professions, along with farming and the military. Whilst I support liberal funding for police departments, as well as greater remuneration for officers, I don’t support Trump’s plan for instituting police immunity from prosecution. See Binion, B August/September Issue, ‘Trump Wants Police To Be Above the Law’, Reason Magazine, last accessed 2 November 2024, https://reason.com/2024/07/28/trump-promises-police-immunity-from-prosecution/ ↩︎
37. Trump in Zurcher, A 3 October 2017, ‘How Trump turned against gun control’, last accessed 29 October 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41478293 ↩︎
38. Pomeroy, J 1868, Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States, Hurd and Houghton, New York, p. 152. ↩︎
39. See Citizens Rule Book: A Palladium of Liberty, Bill of Rights, Article II, p. 50. ↩︎
40. Watts, D 24 October 2024, ‘Harris and Trump differ widely on gun rights, death penalty and other civil liberties questions’ The Conversation, last accessed 29 October 2024, https://theconversation.com/harris-and-trump-differ-widely-on-gun-rights-death-penalty-and-other-civil-liberties-questions-240762 ↩︎
41. See Golbeck, J 24 October 2024, ‘US election: why more men say they will vote for Trump’, The Conversation, last accessed 1 November 2024, https://theconversation.com/us-election-why-more-men-and-fewer-white-women-say-they-will-vote-for-trump-241721 ↩︎
42. Ibid. ↩︎

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