Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 4,078
The US has descended into a lawless kleptocracy...
if you thought the us was a shining city on the hill...think again,,
Amid the administration’s grotesquerie of self-enrichment, Trump has spent his second term adjusting trade policy in bespoke ways that just so happen to reward political allies and donors. Some examples:
This is all happening amid a bacchanal of influence-peddling among those seeking tariff exemptions – and the frenzy has enriched Washington lobbyists and law firms, particularly those with close ties to Trump and his inner circle.
And that’s just what we can see; it says nothing about a broader chilling effect among huge corporations self-censoring opposition to Trump’s authoritarianism as they beg him for tariff exemptions. As Politico reported, the largest and most powerful corporations “have largely stayed out of the legal fight challenging the levies, opting instead to quietly lobby against the policy for fear of angering a vindictive White House”.
That’s why the legal conflict over Trump’s tariffs has largely been left to smaller companies too under-resourced to try to buy their way into the palace and participate in Trump’s “kiss-the-ring” process.
www.theguardian.com
comrade stalin
moscow
if you thought the us was a shining city on the hill...think again,,
Amid the administration’s grotesquerie of self-enrichment, Trump has spent his second term adjusting trade policy in bespoke ways that just so happen to reward political allies and donors. Some examples:
- The Washington Post reported that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, dumped $1m into Trump’s inauguration, cultivated relationships with Trump officials, and “refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television” – just before securing tariff exemptions for his company’s products.
- ProPublica reported that the administration approved a tariff exemption for a thermoplastic made by a company “owned by a pair of brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes”.
- A tariff exemption for electronics conveniently benefited Tesla and, by extension, its CEO, Elon Musk, who bankrolled a multimillion-dollar campaign to re-elect Trump.
- The sugar behemoth Florida Crystals, which has lobbied on tariff policy, gave $2m to the main pro-Trump Super Pac, Maga Inc, ahead of Trump slapping tariffs on imported sugar. Reynolds American likewise delivered $2m to the same Super Pac while successfully pushing Trump to crack down on imports of Chinese tobacco products.
- Trump relaxed export controls on the microchip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) after the company gave $1million to Maga Inc.
- Trump reduced tariffs on Vietnam and removed that country from the United States’s export controls list after the Hanoi government approved his family business’s $1.5bn golf course and real estate project.
This is all happening amid a bacchanal of influence-peddling among those seeking tariff exemptions – and the frenzy has enriched Washington lobbyists and law firms, particularly those with close ties to Trump and his inner circle.
And that’s just what we can see; it says nothing about a broader chilling effect among huge corporations self-censoring opposition to Trump’s authoritarianism as they beg him for tariff exemptions. As Politico reported, the largest and most powerful corporations “have largely stayed out of the legal fight challenging the levies, opting instead to quietly lobby against the policy for fear of angering a vindictive White House”.
That’s why the legal conflict over Trump’s tariffs has largely been left to smaller companies too under-resourced to try to buy their way into the palace and participate in Trump’s “kiss-the-ring” process.
The supreme court has struck a blow to Trump’s corruption machine | David Sirota
The supreme court has deferred to executive power for decades. Its decision on tariffs is a long-overdue warning
comrade stalin
moscow
