Trump: “We were the richest relatively — think of this — from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest. Because we collected tariffs … we had so much wealth. Of course, now we give it away to transgender … everybody gets a transgender operation.” pic.twitter.com/OLsJKXqjYY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2025
I like how he spoke again about his love of the Gilded Age and what his administration is doing to bring it back to Make America Great Again. No one else seems to have noticed that Trump narrated The Men Who Built America series and was clearly inspired by winners like Rockefeller and Carnegie.
Note: I also like it when my predictions come true.
This should settle the H1B nonsense people are still on about. This demonstrates his position on the issue.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/02/22/trumps-eeoc-director-threatens-lawsuits-amid-h-1b-hiring/
HW, that deserves a write up, along with the Arab coalition getting together to find nother solution to Gaza in response to Trumps troll about occupying it and moving the palestinians to their countries.
Heere’s what I consider one of the most important topics…
“US is making same mistake that’s destroyed every previous civilization”
Historian Niall Ferguson claims that the United States could be headed to the same ruin of every previous advanced civilization if it doesn’t fix its debt problem.
Ferguson, the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, believes that Donald Trump’s attempts to build empire could cost the US more than its worth.
His piece titled ‘Debt Has Always Been the Ruin of Great Powers. Is the U.S. Next?’ notes Trump’s plan to annex Greenland, make Canada the 51st state, as well as his plans for peace in Ukraine and what to do with Gaza amount to expansion.
The historian claims that Trump is doing this while ‘he discerns the more prosaic operation of budgetary constraints’ and says empires from the Habsburgs to the Spanish to Bourbon France in the 18th century.
Ferguson cites fellow historian Adam Ferguson (no relation), who claims that borrowing money to pay for warfare places the burden on future taxpayers.
He says the elder Ferguson claims debt is ‘extremely dangerous…in the hands of a precipitant and ambitious administration.’
‘An expense, whether sustained at home or abroad, whether a waste of the present, or an anticipation of future, revenue, if it bring no proper return, is to be reckoned among the causes of national ruin,’ Adam Ferguson wrote.
He says that US defense spending more on debt service ($1.124trillion) than on defense spending ($1.107trillion) in 2024.
…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/us-is-making-same-mistake-that-s-destroyed-every-previous-civilization/ar-AA1zy0dc?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=a92efadaf32c41e69c2019aa691486b5&ei=19
I think I may have been wrong about Trump.
I thought he’d be another neoliberal or neoconservative.
While he’s not a classical liberal, or paleoconservative, there’s definitely some parallels with paleoconservatism.
I’d describe him as an illiberal or national conservative in the vein of Orban, Lukashenko and Putin.
While Trump is no white or Christian nationalist like Orban, unless he’s concealing it for now, he is a strong nationalist, but it’s a cultural nationalism, an American nationalism, not an ethic or religious nationalism.
Trump is like the Putin of the west, whereas Orban presides over an ethnically and religiously homogenous nation, both Trump and Putin preside over multiethnic and multireligious nations, but whereas America is a multi by immigration, Russia’s multi is indigenous.
All of this is to me a sign of where we’re headed.
I don’t think the modern left has ever been weaker since its beginnings in the 19th century.
This is a sad, weak, pathetic and stupid left, totally out of touch with the concerns of ordinary folk.
There are many reasons for this which I won’t get into for why I think that is.
I don’t think it’s an accident or coincidence, but the way the contemporary world is structured is not conducive to a strong leftwing movement.
I think if the democrats want to continue to exist in some form they will probably have to abandon the left completely, not just fiscally but culturally, jettison woke.
They will have to become center-right on both fiscal, and cultural issues, be just to the left of republicans, providing a lukewarm as opposed to a radical alternative.
I could see the republicans consolidating power for many terms to come.
I could see Trump’s leaving a lasting legacy through his allies and perhaps even a dynasty.
I think we’re headed for a multipolar world.
I think we’re headed for a more illiberal, nationalist and conservative world, but at the same time it will be increasingly high tech, dominated by Ai, drones and whoever can efficiently manufacture and use them to expand and entrench their wealth and power.
But it will be conservatives rather than liberals or progressives leading this techy world, at least for the time being.
Conservatism, unlike traditionalism, can adapt.
Conservatives don’t reject change, they’re just cautious about it.
Conservatives can adapt many of their principles to a more techy world, perhaps even all of them, loosely.
Conservatives have also taken many things from liberals, and even the left on occasion.
Things that were once considered liberal or left are now part of what we consider common sense, but I don’t think contemporary conservatives have any use for liberals or the left any more, I think they’ve learned all they think is worth learning from them and now they’re leaving them in the dust.
This may be a techy world but it won’t be feeble one, instead it’ll be dominated by savvy and strong businessmen and politicians, by strongmen, like Trump, Putin and Xi.
Liberal nations and nation blocs like Canada and the EU who previously relied on the US for protection will either have to consider a much more subservient role to the US, or will have to spend a lot more on defense and diversifying our economies so we’re not as dependent on, become more resilient and self-reliant, otherwise we could very well end up the 51st state.
Above all Trump respects strength, that’s why he’s moving closer to Putin and away from Canada and the EU.
He will not coddle weakness.
In this new world social, geopolitical and economic Darwinism will reign.
The reason why I say Trump isn’t a paleocon is he isn’t principled enough, he’s too much of an opportunist, a pragmatist and impulsive.
And he’s too modern, too contemporary, not an old fossil like Pat Buchanan.
Instead Trump fits with other contemporary figures like Berlusconi, Lukashenko, Orban and Putin.
They can best be described as illiberal and national conservatives or populists.
HW I from Western PA, the Gilded Age did not improve things for the working class here .The super wealthy From Pittsburgh only look out for themselves,
UPMC took over the Steele tower,
Is Musk going to fix healthcare,
Seriously it can Steele your money and it will!
Joy Reid’s MSNBC Show Canceled in Major Shake-Up
It will be replaced by a panel show
……nytimes
*tsk*
“We were the richest relatively — think of this — from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest.”
Oh God. Trump’ inner New York Fat Cat is coming out. These ideas of how beautiful the years 1870-1913 were, are the ideas of that Fat Cat Old Banker in its “Its A Wonderful Life.” In reality, some of the worst years in the country were from during that period. This period saw our cities like New York City transformed from American ones into ethnic ghettos complete with the Mafia, a state they never really recovered from.
https://youtu.be/eF1eAhi1Cv8?si=Y7OFewb6qNrTFWMZ
For example, the median household income of that period of Ellis Island immigrants, Mafias, Legalized Prostitution, Opium Addiction, Rat infested Stockard Meat in Chicago, Chinese tunneling under San Francisco, Road Agents out West, Railroad Barons running our first crime syndicates, Pinkerton Men hunting down Hunter’s ancestors for aiding Confederate Outlaws, and Secret Service agents running ops in weird places in the Wild Wild West wasn’t that great. They were about $103,000 per household. During the reform period from between 1913-1950, including a Great Depression and World War household income increased. They increased the most between 1950-1975. That is when they reached to about $135,000. Today, they are back down to $107,000 per year. We already live in the Gilded Age and Wild Wild West. It just has more Mexicans in it.
https://youtu.be/xuCuf5tvTqE?si=OloqN60DJZjUDH2S
Today, since the height of that period in the early Cold War, our income has gone down back to where they were in the Gilded Age. That household income was equivalent to $101,000 and its gone up to a mere $107,000 and declining. Inequality is as great today as that period. We aren’t going into Gilded Age 2.0, we already live in it. If we continue on this path we will all be immiserated.
https://youtu.be/6po3A6-Sigo?si=5pGq74HwbwiD8b-r
In reality, the greatest wealthy period of independent American history was 1790-1860. That was when it was about 200-300k per household. In fact, the greatest period was when we lived in the British Empire before independence when it was upwards of 400-500k per year. If we only lived in that period of British Protestant Empire of Liberty. Even Black Slaves had it better sans the freedom than they have it now.
https://youtu.be/-q9E2SLucsw?si=31fmH_-RE2KP6Men
The costs of Liberty often mean you will have less material comforts with more responsibility. I know these Antebellum and British Colonial figures seem fantastic. Especially when one considers many people lived in log cabins. But consider, the Log Cabins were very well made, were made from timber which was free, the land was practically free, the community helped build the cabin for free, with tools that were the highest quality in the world, and the land would grow enough to feed the family and provide a nice income to buy the highest quality textile and household goods in the world.
One could literally go out to the edge of an expanding frontier with his extended family, found a spouse, together build a home for practically free and grow crops to sell on the international market thru the British Imperial Mercantile system for a hefty profit. Or stay in cities which were well planned, well made, and work in artisan, craft, or cottage industries as an apprentice before opening up ones own trade and live an easy, independent businessman, Middle class life. And if one lived in the South and inherited a class of hereditary servants that were worth capital and loyal to the family, things were even better. And if you were one of those “slaves,” and you had a decent master, things were better as well.
https://youtu.be/GSnzucnunRo?si=jq1HAwLWhC3KDezd
Technology, engineering, and advanced tools, etc have been perfected and expanded and built upon previous levels to give us a well coddled urban civilization. Today, we aren’t independent owners, but almost all are wage slaves. You are not going to go get land for free, build a home for free, and have an occupation that provides a relatively high level of standing. You don’t make 8-13 children, most who live to childhood, and give them a good standard of living on our income today. This is why economists agree the greatest income level and the least inequality among White people was during British Colonial and Independent Antebellum America.
The Gilded Age was an advanced period of industrialization. It is true that our urban areas went from mostly wood to mostly stone and steel. But, the income people earned barely recovered from the Civil War ravages and never recovered to what they were before the war. Since then there has been some expansion. It is true that was caused mostly by tarrifs. Our income has sunk since free trade. We are now at Gilded Age levels of income and income inequality. We need to get back to Antebellum income levels. Gilded Age levels is a low barometer to shoot for.