TRUMPOLITICS CIRCUS
Dr. T. Rama Prasad
January 20, 2025
The whole world has been watching for this day. It has come, and Donald Trump is sworn as the president of America. What's the POTUS going to do ? In his inaugural address, Mr. Trump has promised a burst of action and said he would issue "a series of historic executive orders" to begin the "complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense."
Some of the orders are almost certain to be challenged in court and others will be largely symbolic.
They include : close the border to asylum-seeking migrants; declare an end to birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants; involve the military in border security; declare migrant crossings along the US-Mexico border to be a national emergency, incidentally facilitating construction of a border wall between the countries; designate drug cartels as "global terrorists; create 'External Revenue Service' to collect tariffs and duties; and more than a hundred more !!!
“From mass hysteria over drones to Muskian meddling, signs are that next year Trump will bring a BIG CIRCUS to Washington & the world. Liberals ? They’ll be helpless & retreat to champagne cocktails and Eggs Benedict.”
-- Prof. Dan Cassino, TOI, Dec 25, 2024
They elected him INSPITE OF :
(1 (1) facing four criminal indictments, (2) being a convicted felon in a sordid saga of sexual involvement with an adult film star. A judge sentenced, on January 10, 2025, Donald Trump as a felon, covering up hush money payments to a porn star Stormy Daniels making him the first person with felony conviction to serve as a president. The judge could have sentenced him to up to four years in prison, but made it a case of an ‘unconditional discharge’ without any punishment. It was reported that $130,000 was paid to the actor not to tell the public about her sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. (3) being impeached twice over charges relating to the obstruction of justice and inciting insurrection, (4) routine denigration of minorities of all hues, (5) making incendiary comments and degrading women, (6) being a disruptor and political fire-starter of a grade of a poseur and a specialist in gimmickry and theatrics sans political civility, (7) issuing a self-pardon or assumption of immunity from prosecution for all culpable acts, official or otherwise, (8) pardoning his close allies accused of a variety of crimes and using the punitive power of the State’s machinery to go after the media and individual journalists who might irk him (an example is that of a senior political correspondent who apparently commented on internal anxiety over early voting numbers in Pennsylvania), and more …
He won BECAUSE OF :
(1( (1) gaining votes from Latinos, Hispanics, Black Working Class, less educated people, and Asian-Americans, and thus breaking Republican’s “White Party” image -- by promising elimination of the tax on ‘tips’, an increase in the number of tax deductions and jobs in industry across the country, (2) his hardline immigration policies of deporting all illegal immigrants which is perceived to create more opportunities for the rest, (3) the promise of containing inflation and reducing prices of common commodities, (4) the assurance to reduce the civil unemployment rate, (5) declaration to stop all the wars, (6) cleverly amplifying an existential threat to the citizens by illegal immigrants, (7) the new role played by “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” movement, (8) influence of patriarchy and racial mindset, and more …
The 2024 US election is the most exciting one for all on the planet. Until the day of election, the two candidates were poised on a razor’s edge. Strange and paradoxical as it may well be, a major section of working class tilted the balance as, for them, their wallets are more in focus than the national economy or the party. The astounding election results revealed that the election map of the country has stunningly tipped into“Deep Red Territory” ! Hats off to his political strategy, electoral wisdom, grit and determination. There is none parallel to Don ! Those who were likened to “islands of garbage” voted for them ! He has always been the Clown Prince in a populist power parody.
Many things are unexplainable – why Trump, with a tainted record, came out with flying colours ? Why ‘Biden-Harris’ lost , despite adding $ 2 trillion every year to GDP and making a 121% growth in ‘Market Wealth’ and doubling the wealth on stock market in four years, during the Biden period ??? Ordinary people may think that, in a democracy, a person with a good personal record in a party with good policies would be elected. But seasoned political analysts say that a demagogue can come to power in free and fair elections to overthrow democracy and establish a tyrannical rule, citing decline in democracy by autocratic leaders in Hungary, Turkey, Israel and some South Asian democracies. Apparently, there is a democratic flaw in the US now -- the dwindling of a socially aware and informed electorate. According to Pew Research Center, 63% of the ‘white’ voters without a bachelor’s degree (less informed) are associated with the Republican party. Trump, with a polarizing personality and an inimitable rhetoric, could resonate with millions and stitch this ‘white’ population together with a multi-ethnic working-class (again, less informed) to form a coalition which proved successful as he made strides among Latinos and African Americans, especially men. This educational divide seems to have played a role in the 2024 election.
A good match is found in Matt Gaetz who is nominated for the post of Attorney General and who has allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And, a patriot is seen in Tulsi Gabbard who is the nominee for the post of Director of National Intelligence and who was called a “Russian Asset” and put on a “Terrorist Watch List”. Within a day, the President-elect continued to send shock waves by picking up a vaccine sceptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is known to hold the same unscientific views on the anti-COVID effect of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as that of Trump who touted for HCQ (read my writing in the link : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/hydroxychloroquine-hcq-and-coronavirus_29.html . Like many of the Trump’s nominees, Kennedy too appears to have some skeletons in the closet, but what is rattling is the outlier stand of Kennedy on many issues relating to public health -- his declaration that vaccines cause autism, his campaigning to remove fluoride in water supply, his canvassing for consuming raw milk and his advocacy for dodgy Covid therapies, etc. His appointment alarmed some public health officials and the pharmaceutical industry as Trump had already empowered Kennedy to “go wild” in changing healthcare. During his first term, Anthony Fauci, the medical chief of the US, struggled to put across to the POTUS a scientific perspective about dodgy Covid therapies and the need for ‘facemasks’, but apparently failed to convince him. Finally, as many as more than 12 lakhs of Americans died due to Covid out of a population of only 0.3 billion, whereas only five lakhs of people died in India out of a huge population of 1.4 billion which didn’t have as much healthcare facilities as in America.
OLIGARCHY ?
Many of such of these nominations may attract the word ‘KAKISTOCRACY’ which means ‘a government led by the least suitable or competent citizens of a State’. Language mavens may proffer to use this word instead of ‘AUTOCRACY’ to describe the second term of Trump.
Are the proposals and promises by Trump practicable -- immediate deportation of all illegal immigrants, bringing down prices, creating more jobs, slapping unreasonably high tariffs, stopping the wars and ‘Making America Great Again’ ? The situation is too complex to visualize the future of the US in the next four years. Facts are twisted and distorted. Some countries may fight with the US, and some may embrace it.
At the end of the day, we should remember that there are student protesters across the US universities, and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ activists who may take to the streets to poignantly call out the moral repugnance of excesses of law enforcement against minorities and the hawkish policies in these areas. The path to 2028 seems to be paved with thorns. Perhaps, the ‘movement’ for 2028 would be named as “Make America Democratic Again (MADA)” !!!
Dr. T. Rama Prasad,
Perundurai, India
Is this “THE LAND OF THE FREE” which FRANCIS Scott Key viewed his nation in 1824 ? Why are there concerns over travel bans on foreign students that may be enacted by Trump ?
MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN ???
January 27, 2025 -- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This is a bad day for the US, OpenAI, Gemini, Nvidia, Google, Microsoft et al when a 'reasoning' model (R1) which is superior to ChatGPT is introduced by a Chinese company at a very cheap price. The American ChatGPT is currently the global leader in AI applications. The US is wowed and worried about the China's DeepSeek company which has the ability to make the expensive ChatGPT-like models at a fraction of ChatGPT's cost. The Chinese AI App must have jolted the big boss Trump who, just six days back, announced a 500-billion-dollar AI push under Project Stargate which could be billed as the next big revolution of the Anthropocene. For now, he has to forget his popular campaign slogan "DRILL, BABY, DRILL" for oil and reset it to "DIG, BABY, DIG deep into DeepSeek !" The DRILL is to pump out more than 15 million barrels of crude oil per day and to quit 'Paris Climate Pact' and to reverse climate policies and regulations.
The Chinese AI App caused US AI star Nvidia's stock to crash -- $560 billion rout; Sensex at 7-month low !!! Global markets went into an unprecedented turmoil.
-- Dr. T. Rama Prasad
The following is a list of some of my 'scribblings', including a few from the 28 articles on COVID published in a monthly medical journal in 30 months (a world record). To open them, click on any of the titles. -- T. Rama Prasad
Blog Archive
· ▼ 2017 (115)
o ▼ March (1)
o ▼ April (112)
§ OREIKLE
§ Science and Nonsense about COVID
§ WORLD CANCER DAY ..February 4, 2017
§ GRADUATION DAY -- 2018, Perundurai Medical Col...
§ "AHIMSA"
§ OMICRON
§ QUOTES
§ POLLUTION, Disease and Deepaavali
§ DOCTORS' HANDWRITING MATTERS
§ To live in INDIA or ABROAD ?
§ KMCH
§ FISHES
§ SUNDAY LUNCH ... Dec 3, 2017
§ BAHUBALI
§ DIABETES
§ MY ART
§ CANCER
§ DOGS
§ GOD-MEN
§ CODUP
§ LOCKDOWN MEDICINE -- too toxic ?
§ YOGA
§ HCQ, IVERMECTIN, CORONAVIRUS and FRAUDS
§ SWINE FLU -- A (H1 N1) influenza
§ PERUNDURAI MEDICAL COLLEGE & SANATORIUM campus
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and PLANTS
§ GIRL CHILD : GOLDEN CHILD ; WOMEN POWER
§ ALLERGY, ASTHMA, COPD and ILD
§ RAPE
§ MARKETING TRICKS & INNOVATIONS
§ MODERN MEDICINE -- the Good, the Bad and th...
§ RAJYALAKSHMI & International Women's Day 2024
§ SHIVA, KRISHNA, Ramanuja & Ramanujan
§ OUR LOVE STORY & good old days
o ▼ May (2)
· ▼ 2019 (1)
o ▼ January (1)
· ▼ 2020 (3)
o ▼ February (1)
o ▼ April (1)
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and RADIOGRAM
o ▼ June (1)
§ CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
· ▼ 2022 (1)
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2023 (17)
o ▼ January (15)
§ TUBERCULOSIS -- drug-resistant
§ HEART
§ INDIAN IMMUNITY, BCG and COVID
§ WOW !!!
§ COVID vaccines -- Safe or Unsafe ?
o ▼ August (1)
§ RAMAYAAN
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2024 (1)
o ▼ May (1)
Blog Archive
· ▼ 2017 (115)
o ▼ March (1)
o ▼ April (112)
§ OREIKLE
§ Science and Nonsense about COVID
§ WORLD CANCER DAY ..February 4, 2017
§ GRADUATION DAY -- 2018, Perundurai Medical Col...
§ "AHIMSA"
§ OMICRON
§ QUOTES
§ POLLUTION, Disease and Deepaavali
§ DOCTORS' HANDWRITING MATTERS
§ To live in INDIA or ABROAD ?
§ KMCH
§ FISHES
§ SUNDAY LUNCH ... Dec 3, 2017
§ BAHUBALI
§ DIABETES
§ MY ART
§ CANCER
§ DOGS
§ GOD-MEN
§ CODUP
§ LOCKDOWN MEDICINE -- too toxic ?
§ YOGA
§ HCQ, IVERMECTIN, CORONAVIRUS and FRAUDS
§ SWINE FLU -- A (H1 N1) influenza
§ PERUNDURAI MEDICAL COLLEGE & SANATORIUM campus
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and PLANTS
§ GIRL CHILD : GOLDEN CHILD ; WOMEN POWER
§ ALLERGY, ASTHMA, COPD and ILD
§ RAPE
§ MARKETING TRICKS & INNOVATIONS
§ MODERN MEDICINE -- the Good, the Bad and th...
§ RAJYALAKSHMI & International Women's Day 2024
§ SHIVA, KRISHNA, Ramanuja & Ramanujan
§ OUR LOVE STORY & good old days
o ▼ May (2)
· ▼ 2019 (1)
o ▼ January (1)
· ▼ 2020 (3)
o ▼ February (1)
o ▼ April (1)
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and RADIOGRAM
o ▼ June (1)
§ CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
· ▼ 2022 (1)
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2023 (17)
o ▼ January (15)
§ TUBERCULOSIS -- drug-resistant
§ HEART
§ INDIAN IMMUNITY, BCG and COVID
§ WOW !!!
§ COVID vaccines -- Safe or Unsafe ?
o ▼ August (1)
§ RAMAYAAN
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2024 (1)
o ▼ May (1)
No comments:
Post a Comment