Paradox of Authoritarian Regimes
To a lesser degree, he just described the Trump administration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8BhZEJcjI
Tag: trump
Markets Don’t Want More Coal. Trump Is Propping Up the Industry Anyway.
“Coal’s decline was not caused by a federal plot to transition away from coal, like Trump thinks, but rather by markets and innovation. Advancements in renewable energy technologies—which were, and continue to be, supported by subsidies—made the energy source more attractive to investors. Breakthroughs in horizontal drilling in the early 2000s brought a flood of cheap and abundant natural gas to the market. These technologies priced coal out, which lowered energy bills for consumers and significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
The energy source is also not as cost-effective as the executive order claims. Coal plants are expensive to build and operate, and transportation costs can exceed the price of coal at the mine. These economic factors have informed investors and utilities not to build coal-fired power plants—the most recent large plant was built in 2013—which has made the current fleet of these power plants less efficient than other energy sources.
To be sure, some regulatory barriers, including federal air quality standards and state-level bans, have made coal less competitive. However, “it is the market that explains coal’s decline better than regulations,” Philip Rossetti, an energy policy analyst at the R Street Institute, tells Reason.”
https://reason.com/2025/04/10/markets-dont-want-more-coal-trump-is-propping-up-the-industry-anyway/
Senate Republicans Voted Overwhelmingly To Continue Trump’s Trade War
“As a legal matter, President Donald Trump’s trade war rests on the claim that imports to the United States constitute an “unusual and extraordinary” threat requiring urgent executive action.
That’s an absurd argument, of course. The fact that Americans choose to buy or sell goods across international borders is not an emergency—it’s not even a minor worry—and certainly should not justify a massive expansion of executive power.
But Trump is going to do whatever he wants until someone stops him. On Wednesday, the Senate had a chance to do that. Instead, Republicans voted overwhelmingly to keep the “emergency” going, and thus to keep the trade war going too.
The Senate voted 49–49 on Wednesday evening to block Sen. Rand Paul’s (R–Ky.) resolution that sought to end the emergency declaration Trump signed on April 2 to impose his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/01/senate-republicans-voted-overwhelmingly-to-continue-trumps-trade-war/
Federal Judge Rules Trump’s Alien Enemies Act Proclamation Is Unlawful
“The Trump-appointed judge found that the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act “exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms.””
https://reason.com/2025/05/01/federal-judge-rules-trumps-alien-enemies-act-proclamation-is-unlawful/
5 Times the Trump Team Told Americans To Accept Being Poorer
https://reason.com/2025/05/02/5-times-the-trump-team-told-americans-to-accept-being-poorer/
The Trump Administration Is Using Tattoos, Logos, and Clothes To Identify Supposed Gang Members
“When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernandez Romero in 2024, it suspected he belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang. Yet ICE provided no “official records, media reports, and correspondence,” “intelligence information received from other agencies,” or “validation” or “confirmation” by “law enforcement, Corrections, or sending jurisdiction,” to prove that Hernandez Romero was tied to the gang.
Instead, ICE officials flagged Hernandez Romero as a potential Tren de Aragua associate based on two of his tattoos: the words mom and dad, topped with crowns, on each wrist.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/05/deported-for-tattoos/
Reopening Alcatraz Is an Expensive, Unnecessary Pipe Dream
“President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he’s ordered the federal government to rebuild and reopen the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. However, that plan will likely require a massive investment in a dysfunctional federal prison system that can barely staff the prisons it currently operates.”
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“”The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE,” the president continued later in the post.”
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“The federal penitentiary on San Francisco Bay’s Alcatraz Island opened in 1934 as a last stop for the federal prison system’s most troublesome and violent inmates. But it lasted less than three decades due to the exorbitant costs of operating an island prison. It closed in 1963.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/05/reopening-alcatraz-is-an-expensive-unnecessary-pipe-dream/
Trump’s Foreign Film Tariffs Could Stick Us With Nothing but Disney Movies
“Tariffs on movies produced overseas might drive Hollywood to film more intensively in the United States, but it also makes it more difficult and expensive for American audiences to see movies made by foreign companies. Films from South Korea, India, Europe, and elsewhere compete with the U.S. film industry in terms of culture, ideas, and sometimes politics. Tariffs on overseas productions could effectively trap us with the products of Hollywood and reduce its need to adjust to the tastes of the viewing public.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/07/trumps-foreign-film-tariffs-could-stick-us-with-nothing-but-disney-movies/
Trump’s ‘They Can Have 5’ Moment is an Attack on Capitalism
“Americans produce a lot and consume a lot. We have among the highest average incomes and we buy a lot of stuff. We derive pleasure from acquiring and using material things, whether they’re toys, clothes, video games, or cars. If 37 dolls make you happy, and you have the means, then go out and buy 37 dolls. It is not a question of whether we need them or not.
Trump’s comments are an explicit rejection of materialism, abundance, and capitalism itself. I much prefer the Trump who was obsessively tweeting about stocks going up in his first term. Not only is Trump not tweeting about stocks, but he seems entirely indifferent to the prospect of a recession.
In other comments, Trump has said that prosperity can be achieved through tariffs—which is obviously untrue—so it seems likely that he’s willing to trade off some short-term economic pain for potential long-term gain. But as any student of economics will tell you, the tariffs are all pain, and even if the president doesn’t expect a recession, we are probably going to get one.”
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“There doesn’t seem to be as much visceral outrage at Trump’s assertion that American girls can make do with less. Yet, if there is a greater good here, Trump has been unable to articulate it. If the tariffs are in place simply because Trump romanticizes the late 1800s and thinks we can finance government spending with tariff revenue, then we are doomed.
This rhetoric from Trump has a great deal in common with Bernie Sanders’ anti-capitalist worldview. Between the tariffs, the increasingly progressive income taxes, the incompetent attempt to cut government spending, and the explicit anti-materialism, Trump is off to a bad start with capitalists.
In the past, those with a desire for free-ish markets would generally vote Republican. At least in the past, the Republicans were pro-growth. What does it mean when both major political parties are anti-growth and anti-materialism? What does it mean when the political apparatus of a country is wholly aligned for it to fail?”
https://reason.com/2025/05/07/trumps-they-can-have-5-moment-is-an-attack-on-capitalism/
Trump Gets Bored With the War in Yemen
“the Houthi movement, one of the two rival governments in Yemen, has not attacked commercial ships since the beginning of Trump’s term, when Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza. (The Houthis had started the attacks in November 2023, demanding such a ceasefire.) Trump began an air campaign in Yemen three days before the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire broke down. The new Yemeni ceasefire is simply a return to the status quo ante bellum, at least with regard to shipping.
Although no American troops have died during Trump’s war in Yemen, the campaign has been incredibly costly for U.S. military preparedness. The military spent $1 billion in just the first three weeks, a U.S. official told CNN. Last week, the U.S. Navy accidentally dropped a $64 million fighter jet into the sea. It lost another one to a landing accident on Wednesday; the jet was returning to its carrier after the ceasefire was announced. And it’s not just about the financial price tag. The Department of Defense warned Congress behind closed doors that it was “risking real operational problems” due to being stretched thin by the Middle Eastern war.
Significantly, Trump seems to be extracting the U.S. from Israel’s war. Asked whether the deal included a Houthi-Israeli truce, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters that “this is about the Red Sea, the attacking of ships.” Israel was reportedly not even informed of the deal beforehand. After the deal was announced, Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat said that the attacks on Israel would continue and warned Israelis to “stay in your shelters.” Trump told reporters at the White House that he “will discuss that if something happens with Israel and the Houthis.”
Just three days ago, Houthi forces hit the international airport in Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile, wounding six people and shutting down all of Israel’s international air traffic.””
https://reason.com/2025/05/07/trump-gets-bored-with-the-war-in-yemen/