{"id":39080,"date":"2025-01-27T13:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T21:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=39080"},"modified":"2025-01-27T13:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T21:27:01","slug":"trump-may-have-inadvertently-kicked-off-the-next-american-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/27\/trump-may-have-inadvertently-kicked-off-the-next-american-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump May Have Inadvertently Kicked Off The Next American Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And not in the way he thinks<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>MARCUS TISDALE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAN 25, 2025 (hard-problems.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDonald Trump gave a major speech the <\/strong>first speech of his second presidency and ignored virtually every important issue facing the working families of this country how crazy is that? Our health care system is broken, is dysfunctional and it’s widely expensive. Not one word from Trump about how he is <\/strong>going to address the health care crisis\u201d – Bernie Sanders<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Trump recently signed an executive order rescinding 78 of Biden\u2019s presidential actions<\/a>, including 3 executive orders aimed at lowering prescription costs and enabling access to affordable health coverage. This is clearly a very hot button issue for most Americans. When signed, the Biden order imposed a $35 monthly cap insulin, which normally costs $5,917 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading Hard Problems! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Subscribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRug-pulling\u201d The Working Class<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The same people who voted for him, are reeling from his presidential decrees. And I don\u2019t say that for rhetorical effect, rule-by-decree is his governance style, setting new records<\/a> his first couple days in office. With a flurry of pens, Trump has undercut Biden\u2019s semi-pro working class agenda. Repealing the $35 monthly insulin cap\u2014a lifeline for millions of diabetics now forced back into the predatory free market of Big Pharma, where a single vial can cost upwards of $300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t policymaking. It\u2019s sabotage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s base\u2014working-class voters in rural towns and deindustrialized heartlands\u2014overwhelmingly supported him in 2024, believing his rhetoric about \u201cputting America first.\u201d But whose America? The cruel irony is that the voters who handed Trump power are the first to feel the knife twist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201crug-pull\u201d is both literal and ideological. Trump\u2019s campaign railed against elites and \u201cglobalist cartels,\u201d yet his first acts as president directly enriched the pharmaceutical and private insurance industries\u2014the very titans responsible for inflating healthcare costs. The math is simple: repealing the insulin cap alone puts $5,900 back into the pockets of drugmakers annually per patient<\/em>. Multiply that by 8.4 million Americans who rely on insulin, and you\u2019ve got a $50 billion giveaway to corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the Trump playbook: stoke rage at the system, then hand the system\u2019s architects a blank check. His supporters are left clutching promises as hollow as the factories he vowed to reopen. Meanwhile, the working class is gaslit into blaming immigrants, \u201cwoke\u201d corporations, or shadowy bureaucrats\u2014anyone but the man signing the orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the damage transcends symbolism. Rescinding Biden\u2019s healthcare protections doesn\u2019t just raise costs\u2014it costs lives. Studies show that 1 in 4 diabetics already ration insulin<\/a> due to price gouging. How many more will skip doses now? How many will wind up in emergency rooms, or worse? This isn\u2019t a policy dispute. It\u2019s triage by decree, with Trump playing surgeon to the very oligarchs he swore to oppose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rug isn\u2019t just pulled out from under the working class. It\u2019s being sold off\u2014thread by thread\u2014to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oligarchs and \u201cAccelerationists\u201d: Compounding The Problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe believe in accelerationism \u2013 the conscious and deliberate propulsion of technological development \u2013 to ensure the fulfillment of the Law of Accelerating Returns.\u201d – Mark Andreessen<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One of loudest members of a club of billionaire tech-influencers, Mark Andreesen, is positively giddy at the prospect of new tech investments accelerating his returns. What this means, in real terms, is investing in things that will ultimately replace workers, namely super intelligent AI. How convenient you might say, that Trump assumes office during a time of accelerated AI innovation? It is both a convenient and dangerous time to be a member of the super-elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What today\u2019s elite seek, I wouldn\u2019t call it rent-seeking. AI will undoubtedly increase productivity by a factor of at least 10 within our century. Innovating in things that increase productivity isn\u2019t bad in and of itself. But productivity gains in the last 50 years have always flowed to the rich. If you own the S&P 500\u2014and virtually all the wealthy own stocks\u2014you\u2019ve seen your portfolio swell while wages flatline. This isn\u2019t rent-seeking or rent-extraction, but something entirely new: the privatization of progress itself<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andreessen\u2019s \u201caccelerationism\u201d is it\u2019s blueprint. By pouring capital into AI tools designed to automate jobs rather than empower workers, the tech oligarchy isn\u2019t just profiting from innovation\u2014it\u2019s engineering a future where human labor becomes obsolete, and with it, the bargaining power of the working class. The timing is no accident. Trump\u2019s return to power\u2014with his disdain for regulation and fetishization of corporate dominance\u2014creates the perfect vacuum for this agenda to thrive. Deregulate AI? Slash taxes on capital gains? Ignore antitrust laws? It\u2019s a billionaire\u2019s fever dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is an economic paradox: AI could generate enough wealth to end poverty, shorten workweeks, and guarantee healthcare for all. Instead, it\u2019s being weaponized to cement a neo-feudal order. Consider the numbers. Since 1980, corporate profits tied to automation and offshoring have risen 400%, while the average worker\u2019s share of national income has plummeted. AI will supercharge this asymmetry. When a single algorithm can replace 10,000 jobs, who benefits? Not the nurses, teachers, or factory workers whose livelihoods evaporate\u2014but the shareholders and CEOs who own the code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t capitalism. It\u2019s a coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019re witnessing is the birth of an automated oligarchy<\/strong>, where wealth isn\u2019t merely extracted from labor but engineered out of human irrelevance. The elite no longer need to exploit workers\u2014they can erase them. And with Trump\u2019s complicity, they\u2019re racing to do exactly that, all while dangling the lie of \u201cinnovation\u201d as a justification. But make no mistake: when productivity gains flow only to those already at the top, progress isn\u2019t a rising tide\u2014it\u2019s a boot on the neck of the many, polished by the few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtesy: Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Revolution That Never Was, And How it Could Happen Today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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America has faced a period of revolutionary angst in our recent history. In the 1930\u2019s. The 1930\u2019s was a time of profound economic suffering and setbacks. Out of this time of troubles emerged an incendiary figure named Huey Long\u2014a firebrand Louisiana senator who channeled the fury of the impoverished masses into a movement that terrified America\u2019s plutocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long\u2019s \u201cShare Our Wealth\u201d program called for seizing fortunes from the Rockefellers and Carnegies, capping personal wealth at $50 million (roughly $1.2 billion today), and guaranteeing every family a basic income, free education, and pensions. He didn\u2019t just critique inequality; he threatened to dismantle it. \u201cThere\u2019s enough in this country for everybody to eat,\u201d he roared, \u201cbut some people are getting all the gravy.\u201d Though Long\u2019s autocratic tactics drew condemnation, his message resonated because it acknowledged a truth today\u2019s elites deny: crises lead to revolution, not tweaks. The New Deal itself was a compromise forged to stave off Long\u2019s radical vision\u2014proof that systemic change only happens when power fears the alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal emerged not out of altruism, but from relentless pressure by organized labor, grassroots movements, and a public pushed to the brink. Today, we face a similar inflection point: a healthcare system that bankrupts families, an economy where productivity gains flow solely to shareholders, and a technological revolution poised to erase millions of jobs. Yet where is the New Deal for our time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s rollback of Biden\u2019s healthcare protections\u2014like the $35 insulin cap\u2014exposes a chilling truth: the working class is not just ignored but actively undermined. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley\u2019s oligarchs, emboldened by accelerationist ideologies, pour billions into AI designed to displace workers, not uplift them. Andreessen\u2019s vision of \u201caccelerating returns\u201d is a euphemism for accelerating inequality. When he and his peers speak of \u201cprogress,\u201d they mean profit margins\u2014not better wages, not universal healthcare, not a safety net for those whose jobs their algorithms will devour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not mere neglect. It is a calculated dismantling of the social contract. Over the past 50 years, productivity has soared by over 250%, yet worker pay has stagnated. Why? Because the gains have been hijacked. The S&P 500\u2019s climb to record highs isn\u2019t a sign of broad prosperity\u2014it\u2019s proof of a rigged system. The top 1% now own as much the the bottom 90% combined<\/a>, and AI\u2019s rise threatens to turbocharge this divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the lesson from the 1930s: Crisis breeds possibility. The New Deal didn\u2019t spring from Washington\u2019s benevolence; it was wrested from power by strikes, sit-ins, and solidarity. Today\u2019s movements\u2014Medicare for All activists, unionizing Amazon workers, climate justice organizers\u2014carry that same spark. The difference is scale. To confront oligarchic power, we need a mobilization that matches the enormity of the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the oligarchy knows what\u2019s best for their long terms interests, it should not be radically undercutting our economic system or \u201caccelerating\u201d a system that only works for the top 1%. We can come to a kind of social compromise, a new social contract. If nothing is done, we could see civil unrest on a scale that would make 2020\u2019s BLM protests and 2008\u2019s occupy protests, look like children playing with firecrackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s silence on these issues is a loudspeaker for his priorities. But the louder message is: The working class built this nation. It\u2019s time to rebuild it for everyone. The 1930s taught us that despair can be a catalyst. The question is, will we let this moment slip into complacency\u2014or ignite it into transformation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revolution isn\u2019t coming. It\u2019s already here. The only thing missing is us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And not in the way he thinks MARCUS TISDALE JAN 25, 2025 (hard-problems.com) \u201cDonald Trump gave a major speech the first speech of his second presidency and ignored virtually every important issue facing the working families of this country how crazy is that? Our health care system is broken, is dysfunctional… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39081,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39080\/revisions\/39081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}