The Arts... Damage Assessment

Art In An Age Of Trump and Techbros

Interesting article in Variety the other day, “John Lithgow Says Donald Trump’s Second Term Is ‘Pure Disaster’ for Arts: ‘First There Was Coronavirus, Now There’s This’” by Alex Ritman. In it, Mr. Ritman reports on Lithgow’s response to Trump and his enablers virtual shutdown of art in this country–as evidenced most recently by the White House’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

It is a fascinating article, and you have to agree with Mr. Lithgow. But you also have to understand the mindset of the current White House and the people who run it. For the businessmen, tech bros, engineers, and “poorly educated” MAGAheds, the demise of the arts is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, it is praiseworthy. For them, Art was something that college-educated, decadent, effete coastal dwellers did. It wasn’t something that Real Americans did. It didn’t increase shareholder value. It didn’t fix trucks and hammer nails. It didn’t code billion dollar applications. It was…suspect.

And so, in The New World Order, we may expect more of this. There will be less public art…or any sort of art…and more crudity. We will have a society built to reflect the aesthetic values of boors and billionaires.

Which is to say, none at all…

Billionaires…The Genuine Despots

When I was a teenager I read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I thought it was an okay fantasy, but not one you should take seriously.

But, there was a scene that stuck with me. In it, one of the main characters considers a villain who wants to increase taxes. The good character then envisions the villain as an oriental potentate, eager to stab a peasant just to gain a few more grains of rice.

And, of course, here we are, decades later…and there is something ironic about that image in Atlas Shrugged. To wit, it wasn’t the nasty old socialists who fit the image of the oriental potentate, but rather the billionaire bros who today run the government through their orange tool. It is they who fill the role…as they kill social security, medicaid, and much else, and thus condemn the aged and the infirm to slow starvation.

All for just a few more pennies in their own pockets… for a microscopic increase in their already obscene fortunes…which neither they nor their remotest descendants  could ever hope to spend.

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker

Stagflation, the economy that dare not speak its name

 Here’s an interesting article on CNN’s website, So, what is stagflation, anyway, and why is it so scary?  by Elisabeth Buchwald. In it, Ms. Buchwald first defines “stagflation” – which is the dangerous condition that occurs when prices are increasing but the economy does not grow – and then explains why the Federal Reserve is trying very hard not to use the term. It seems that the markets are starting to show signs of stagflation (mostly because of Trump’s tariffs and other dumbass measures), but the Fed won’t use the terms for fear of spooking the markets even more than they are spooked already.

But, let us admit it. Stagflation is coming and it may be the new norm. That’s because under Trump, the public regulation of corporations is going to be largely jettisoned. That means that we’ll see more monopolies. Which means in turn that businesses will be able to increase prices without restraint while having no motivation to innovate or otherwise undertake the sort of investments that would grow the economy. In other words, all the conditions for permanent and universal Stagflation are present and obvious.

Thus, if we are honest and foresighted, we will say that despite the Fed’s best efforts, Stagflation is the future…whether the Fed says the word or not. And that’s because it is at the very heart of the Trump/billionaires’ program for the economy. And it is not an accident. 

Rather it, like the impoverishment of the middle class, is a goal. Part of the plan…

To extract all that can be extracted from our wallets. And giving ever less – eventually nothing – in return. 

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker

Again, Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon is, of course, no fan of Elon Musk, whom he understandably despises for taking the role he’d planned for himself, that is, all-powerful head-of-government to Trump’s largely symbolic position as head-of-state. Or, if you prefer a chess metaphor, magisterial Queen to his impotent King. 

Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Bannon has equally little love for the tech company CEOs and other powerful men who make up Trump’s government. In a recent CNN interview, Bannon said that Musk and other tech “oligarchs” will abandon Trump and the MAGA movement as soon as they can profitably do so. 

It is intriguing that I disagree with Mr. Bannon on so very many things…but, now and then, I found myself admiring his political sagacity, for in this he is undoubtedly correct. The oligarchs will turn on MAGA at the first available opportunity. They are not even wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are simply wolves counting on the sheep to somehow pretend that they are shepherds.