Scott Boehmer

Tag: Donald Trump

  • When Trump Invades Canada

    Get the women and children and the maple syrup to safety.

    Julie Nolke, Canadian

    When Trump Invades Canada (Julie Nolke)

  • A Second Gilded Age

    Now, more than a century later, America has entered a second Gilded Age.

    Monopolies are once again taking over vast swaths of the economy. So we must strengthen antitrust enforcement to bust up powerful companies.

    Now another generation of robber barons, exemplified by Elon Musk, is accumulating unprecedented money and power. So, once again, we must tax these exorbitant fortunes.

    Wealthy individuals and big corporations are once again paying off lawmakers, sending them billions to conduct their political campaigns, even giving luxurious gifts to Supreme Court justices. So we must protect our democracy from Big Money, just as we did before.

    As it was during the first Gilded Age, voter suppression is too often making it harder for people of color to participate in our democracy. So it’s once again critical to defend and expand voting rights.

    Working people are once again being exploited and abused, child labor is returning, unions are being busted, the poor are again living in unhealthy conditions, homelessness is on the rise, and the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else is nearly as large as in the first Gilded Age.

    So once again we need to protect the rights of workers to organize, invest in social safety nets, and revive guardrails to protect against the abuses of great wealth and power.

    Robert Reich

    From the Robber Barons to Elon Musk: Will History Repeat Itself? (Robert Reich)

  • Silicon Valley Heads to Mar-a-Lago

    When Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago on the evening before Thanksgiving, he and other guests reportedly stood with hands over hearts while listening to a recording of the national anthem sung by people accused of January 6–related crimes. Whether Zuckerberg knew who the singers were is unclear. But the scene was uncanny given that January 6, when it happened, was a bright-red line for the tech industry. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch banned or suspended Trump, and companies such as Amazon paused donations to election deniers. Now, with the arrival of Trump 2.0, that red line has been erased entirely.

    Lora Kelley

    Silicon Valley Heads to Mar-a-Lago (The Atlantic)

  • Why Billionaires Obey in Advance

    The Trump administration is being actively taught right now that it can expect the full cooperation of the leaders of industry. Why are they offering themselves without being asked? Because that’s what they’re trained for.

    The myth of the moral billionaire has dogged me my entire career. For years I’ve been reassured by people inside and outside the power structure of Silicon Valley that the moral judgement of people at the top of major companies was so reliable that it required no real oversight.

    Jacob Ward

    Why Billionaires Obey in Advance (The Rip Current)

  • Rules of Engagement

    1) When somebody hurts you, tell them. When somebody steps on your toes, let them know that they stepped on your toes. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    2) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your pain, set a boundary. If somebody has proved themselves less safe than you thought, but you still think it’s safe to do so, tell them that you’re going to have to withdraw in some way from them. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    3) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your boundaries, leave. If it’s not safe to tell them, or you’re not sure if it’s safe, withdraw from them without telling them. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    A. R. Moxon

    Rules of Engagement (The Reframe)

  • Wind the clock

    What you don’t do is give up. The outcome of this election has exposed to many the realities we didn’t want to see, of just how many people around us openly embrace hatred and bigotry and authoritarianism. Standing up to that can be scary and even dangerous, but it is also right. Beliefs are the things you stand for even when it’s scary, even when it’s hard, even when there might be consequences. And the less danger you, personally, face for standing up for what you believe, the more obligated you are to do it.

    Molly White

    Wind the clock (Citation Needed)

  • American Reality

    The shining possibility of an America living up to its ideals feels washed away by the dark reality of the America that is.