World War Trump

by Hall Gardner

  25. According to Trump, the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive. Jeremy Diamond, “Trump Nominees Say Climate Change Is No Hoax, but Still Invite Skepticism,” CNN, January 19, 2017, http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-picks-climate-change/ (accessed May 31, 2017).

  26. “Donald Trump at Loggerheads with Rest of G7 over Climate Change,” Financial Times, May 27, 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/d6ad0050-42cd-11e7-ab92-4c27fbc26eed (login required for access).

  27. Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order a day after pledging Pittsburgh would continue to follow the guidelines of the Paris Climate Agreement. “Pittsburgh Mayor Issues Executive Order in Response to Trump's Paris Climate Decision,” CBS Pittsburgh, June 2, 2017, http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/06/02/pittsburgh-paris-climate-executive-order/ (accessed November 15, 2017).

  28. Jacqueline Thomsen, “Pittsburgh Mayor Fires Back at Trump: My City Will Follow Paris Agreement,” Hill, June 1, 2017, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/335994-pittsburgh-mayor-fires-back-at-trump-my-city-will-follow-paris (accessed October 30, 2017).

  29. On NERA Consulting, see “Factchecking President Trump's Claims about the Paris Agreement,” Fortune, June 2, 2017, http://fortune.com/2017/06/02/paris-agreement-factchecking-trump/ (accessed November 15, 2017). See also the Heritage Foundation Report, Kevin Dayaratna, Nicolas Loris, and David Kreutzer, Consequences of Paris Protocol: Devastating Economic Costs, Essentially Zero Environmental Benefits (Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation, April 13, 2016), http://www.heritage.org/environment/report/consequences-paris-protocol-devastating-economic-costs-essentially-zero (accessed October 30, 2017).

  30. “Factchecking President Trump's Claims.”

  31. Alanna Petroff, “The Heat Is On: President Trump Says He Will Decide This Week Whether to Stick with the Landmark Paris Climate Accord,” CNN, May 29, 2017, http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/29/news/trump-paris-climate-change-business/ (accessed October 30, 2017). Tomás Carbonell, “What Do the 2016 Elections Mean for the Clean Power Plan?” Pardon Our Interruption, December 6, 2016, http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/12/what-do-the-2016-elections-mean-for-the-clean-power-plan.html (accessed May 31, 2017).

  32. International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), “Rethinking Energy: Renewable Energy and Climate Change,” 2015, http://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2014/IRENA-_REthinking_Energy_2nd_report_2015.pdf?la=en&hash=35AF7434755915D342D41966EF595175CB0AE738 (accessed November 15, 2017).

  33. Timothy Cama and Devin Henry, “Trump Takes Action to Move Forward with Keystone, Dakota Access Pipelines,” Hill, January 24, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/315852-trump-orders-keystone-dakota-access-pipeline-applications-to-move (accessed May 31, 2017).

  34. “Coal Mining: Long-Term Contribution Trends,” OpenSecrets.org: Center for Responsive Politics, https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=E1210 (accessed October 30, 2017). In 2016, general mining interests gave Republicans roughly ten times more in direct campaign contributions than Democrats, electrical utilities gave roughly two times more to Republicans; natural gas industries four times more; oil and gas industries gave nine times more, and Republicans even obtained slightly more than Democrats from alternative energy firms.

  35. Associated Press, “Trump Has Promised to Revive the Coal Industry, But His Economic Advisor Says That Doesn't Make Much Sense,” CNBC, May 26, 2017, http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/donald-trump-and-economic-advisor-gary-cohn-differ-on-coal.html (accessed October 30, 2017).

  36. Ibid.

  37. Alexander C. Kaufman, “Trump Signs Executive Orders on Keystone XL, Dakota Access Pipelines,” Huffington Post, January 24, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-keystone-dakota-access_us_58877e02e4b070d8cad57814 (accessed October 30, 2017).

  38. Ibid.

  39. Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review (2016) (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: International Renewable Energy Agency, 2016), http://www.se4all.org/sites/default/files/IRENA_RE_Jobs_Annual_Review_2016.pdf (accessed October 30, 2017); Linda Pentz Gunter, “Trump Is Foolish to Ignore the Flourishing Renewable Energy Sector,” Truthout, February 5, 2017, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/39306-trump-is-foolish-to-ignore-the-flourishing-renewable-energy-sector (accessed May 31, 2017).

  40. US Energy and Employment Report (Washington, DC: Department of Energy, January 2017), https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/2017%20US%20Energy%20and%20Jobs%20Report_0.pdf (accessed October 30, 2017).

  41. Suzanne Goldenberg, “Rich Countries’ $100bn Promise to Fight Climate Change ‘Not Delivered,’” Guardian, June 29, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/29/rich-countries-100bn-promise-fight-climate-change-not-delivered (accessed October 30, 2017).

  42. Elizabeth Bast, Alex Doukas, Sam Pickard, Laurie Van Der Burg, and Shelagh Whitley, Empty Promises: G20 Subsidies to Oil, Gas and Coal Production (Washington, DC: Oil Change International, November 2015), https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9958.pdf (accessed October 30, 2017); Elizabeth Bast, Sebastien Godinot, Stephen Kretzmann, and Jake Schmidt, Under the Rug: How Governments and International Institutions Are Hiding Billions in Support to the Coal Industry (Washington, DC: Oil Change International, June 2015), http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2015/05/Under_The_Rug_NRDC_OCI_WWF_Jun_2015.pdf (accessed October 30, 2017).

  43. Bast, Doukas, Pickard, Van Der Burg, and Whitley, Empty Promises.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Jenny Rowland, Myriam Alexander-Kearns, Erin Auel, Matt Lee-Ashley, and Howard Marano, “How Exxon Won the 2016 Election,” Center for American Progress, January 10, 2017, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2017/01/10/296277/how-exxon-won-the-2016-election/ (accessed May 31, 2017). Natasha Bertrand, “Rex Tillerson's Confirmation Hearing Is Today: Here's How His Company, ExxonMobil, Could Benefit from a Trump Presidency,” Business Insider, January 11, 2017, http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-exxon-mobil-trump-presidency-benefits-2017-1?r=US&IR=T (accessed May 31, 2017).

  47. For a study of renewable energies, see Cédric Philibert, “Renewable Energy for Industry: From Green Energy to Green Materials and Fuels,” International Energy Agency: Insights Series 2017, http://www.iea.org/publications/insights/insightpublications/Renewable_Energy_for_Industry.pdf (accessed November 15, 2017).

  48. Nigel Purvis and Joshua Busby, The Security Implications of Climate Change for the UN System (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, United Nations and Environmental Security, 2004); Justin Gillis, “Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly,” New York Times, March 30, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/science/global-warming-antarctica-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise.html?_r=1 (accessed October 31, 2017); Ian Urbina, “Perils of Climate Change Could Swamp Coastal Real Estate,” New York Times, November 24, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/science/global-warming-coastal-real-estate.html?module=Promotron®ion=Body&action=click&pgtype=article (accessed May 31, 2017); Justin Gillis, “Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year,” New York Times, January 18, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/science/earth-highest-temperature-record.html?emc=edit_na_20170118&nlid=70196410&ref=cta (accessed May 31, 2017).

  49. Adam Gabbatt, “How Hurricanes and Sea-Level Rise Threaten Trump's Florida Resorts,” Guardian, September 9, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/09/trump-florida-mar-a-lago-hurricane-irma (accessed October 31, 2017).

  50. Jennifer Jacobs and Andreo Calonzo, “Trump Offers to Play South China Sea Peacemaker as Trip Wraps Up,” Bloomberg, November 12, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-12/trump-offers-to-broker-deal-to-resolve-south-china-sea-dispute (accessed November 15, 2017).

  51. Stephen Goss et al., Effects of Unauthorized Immigration on the Actuarial Status of the Social Security Trust Funds, Actuarial Note No. 151 (Baltimore, MD: Social Sec
urity Administration Office of the Actuary, April 2013), https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/pdf_notes/note151.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017).

  52. Inspector General, Status of the Social Security Administration's Earnings Suspense File (Baltimore, MA: Social Security Administration, September 2015), https://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/pdf/A-03-15-50058.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017).

  53. “War on Drugs an Epic Fail, BMJ Editors Say,” Global Commission on Drug Policy, November 17, 2016, https://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/reports/war-on-drugs/ (accessed October 31, 2017); War on Drugs (Geneva, Switzerland, Global Commission on Drug Policy, June 2011), https://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GCDP_WaronDrugs_EN.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017).

  54. Jeffrey A. Miron, The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, February 2010), https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/miron/files/budget_2010_final_0.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017).

  Miron's report estimates that legalizing drugs would save roughly $48.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $33.1 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government. Approximately $13.7 billion of the savings would result from legalization of marijuana, $22.3 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $12.8 from legalization of other drugs. The report also estimates that drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $34.3 billion annually, assuming legal drugs are taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $6.4 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana, $23.9 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $4.0 billion from legalization of other drugs.

  55. Kitty Holland, “Decriminalization of All Drugs for Personal Use Considered,” Irish Times, April 18, 2017.

  56. Robert A. Levy, “Reflections on Gun Control by a Second Amendment Advocate,” National Law Journal, February 11, 2013, available at CATO Institute, https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/reflections-gun-control-second-amendment-advocate (accessed November 15, 2017).

  57. National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Opioid Crisis,” last updated June 2017, http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis (accessed November 15, 2017).

  58. Kim Stephens “Trump's Tweets Return to Haunt Him. Again,” News.com.au, January 23, 2017, http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/donald-trump-mocks-protesters-four-years-after-unsuccessfully-calling-for-protests-against-barack-obama/news-story/e114739c33fabb80fd34fef91ce238fa (accessed May 26, 2017). Many of Trump's tweets were later deleted.

  59. Drew DeSilver, “Trump's Victory Another Example of How Electoral College Wins Are Bigger than Popular Vote Ones,” Pew Research Center, December 20, 2016, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/20/why-electoral-college-landslides-are-easier-to-win-than-popular-vote-ones/ (accessed May 26, 2017).

  60. Richard Dawkins, “Can the Electoral College System Be Reformed?” Richard Dawkins Foundation, February 9, 2017, https://richarddawkins.net/2017/02/can-the-electoral-college-system-be-reformed/ (accessed May 26, 2017).

  61. Carol Orsag, “A 38-State Nation,” The Thirty-Eight States, http://www.tjc.com/38states/ (accessed May 26, 2017), originally published in David Wallenchinsky and Irving Wallace, The People's Almanac (New York: Doubleday, 1975). This was proposed in 1972 by C. Etzel Pearcy. Other proposals reduce the number to ten to twelve states, but that might give too much power to certain regions.

  62. While one might think politicians would not want to give up power, the highly bureaucratic French were able to reduce the number of regions in mainland France from twenty-two to thirteen in the period 2014 to 2016. “La carte à 13 régions définitivement adoptée,” Le Monde, December 17, 2014.

  63. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Avon, 1993). See my critique of Fukuyama's work in Hall Gardner, Crimea, Global Rivalry and the Vengeance of History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

  64. For a brief history of the concept of workplace democracy (what the French call “autogestion”) which can take different forms from employee management and control to employee stock ownership without control, see Markus Pausch, “Workplace Democracy from a Democratic Ideal to a Managerial Tool and Back,” The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal 19, no. 1 (2013), article 3, http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/19_1_3_pausch_workplace-democracy.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017). For a brief positive description of a generally not well-known form of shared-capitalist management that can function effectively, see Jerry L. Ripperger, “How Employee Ownership Benefits Executives, Companies, and Employees,” American Management Association, http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/how-employee-ownership-benefits-executives-companies-and-employees.aspx (accessed October 31, 2017). See more detailed analysis, Douglas L. Kruse, Richard B. Freeman, and Joseph R. Blasi, ed., Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-Based Stock Options (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), available online at: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8085.pdf (accessed October 31, 2017). I was national office manager of the Association for Workplace Democracy (AWD) in Washington, DC for two years in the early 1980s, which produced the journal Workplace Democracy. Unfortunately, AWD soon died out in the Reagan period, but many of its practical proposals are still relevant in today's socio-political and financial crisis.

  POSTSCRIPT: IT CAN HAPPEN HERE

  1. Trump: “I'm not isolationist, but I am ‘America First.’ So I like the expression. I'm ‘America First.’” David E. Sanger and Maggie Haberman, “In Donald Trump's Worldview, America Comes First, and Everybody Else Pays,” New York Times, March 26, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy.html?_r=0 (accessed October 31, 2017).

  2. Ibid.

  3. “George S. Patton's Speech to the Third US Army,” Patton Museum of Calvary and Armor, March 24, 1944, https://web.archive.org/web/20060616031308/http://www.knox.army.mil/museum/pattonsp.htm (accessed October 31, 2017).

  4. Sanger and Haberman, “In Donald Trump's Worldview.”

  5. After dropping “30 or so atomic bombs…strung across the neck of Manchuria,” MacArthur planned to introduce half a million Chinese Nationalist troops at the Yalu and then “spread behind us—from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea—a belt of radioactive cobalt.” MacArthur was certain that the Russians would have done nothing about this extreme strategy: “My plan was a cinch.” MacArthur was not removed from duty because he advocated the use of nuclear weapons, but because he could not be fully trusted to carry out orders that might involve their use. See Bruce Cumings, “Why Did Truman Really Fire MacArthur?…The Obscure History of Nuclear Weapons and the Korean War Provides the Answer,” History News Network, January 10, 2005, http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/9245 (accessed October 31, 2017).

  6. Sanger and Haberman, “In Donald Trump's Worldview.”

  7. Trump's November 2017 offer to negotiate disputes between China and its neighboring countries over the South China Sea could prove positive, as would a settlement between the United States, Japan, and Russia, if Trump is truly willing to lead the negotiations. See chapters 9 and 10.

  8. Guillaume Bouzard, “Inquiétude à la Maison Blanche,” Le Canard Enchainé, January 25, 2017, p. 4.

  9. David Horsey, “Trump Leaks State Secrets and Self-Incriminating Boasts,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-trump-leaks-20170516-story.html (accessed November 16, 2017).

  10. Tatiana Schlossberg, “What Is the Antiquities Act and Why Does President Trump Want to Change It?” New York Times, April 26, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/climate/antiquities-act-federal-lands-donald-trump.html (accessed October 31, 2017).

  11. Presidential Documents, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” Exec. Order No. 13, 783, 82 C.F.R. 16093 (March 28, 2017), Federal Register 82, no. 61, March 31, 2017, http
s://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-03-31/pdf/2017-06576.pdf (accessed November 2, 2017).

  12. Timothy Cama, “Trump to Reconsider Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Ban,” Hill, November 1, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/358311-trump-admin-to-reconsider-grand-canyon-uranium-mining-ban (accessed November 16, 2017); Joanna Walters, “Grand Canyon at Risk as Arizona Officials Ask Trump to End Uranium Mining Ban,” Guardian, June 5, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/05/public-lands-uranium-mining-arizona-grand-canyon (accessed October 31, 2017).

  13. Nina Bahadur, “18 Real Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said about Women,” Huffington Post, October 10, 2016, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/18-real-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-women_us_55d356a8e4b07addcb442023 (accessed November 16, 2017).

  14. John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: A Symbol for an Age (New York: Oxford University, Press, 1962).

  15. In contemporary circumstances, many Native American peoples will be impacted by mining interests the more that federal lands originally set aside by the Antiquities Act are opened, as has also been the case for the Keystone pipeline. See chapter 10.

  16. Donald Trump, “Transcript of Trump's Speech in Saudi Arabia,” CNN, May 21, 2017, http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/21/politics/trump-saudi-speech-transcript/index.html (accessed October 31, 2017).

  17. Trump's alleged statement that he expects “loyalty” from the FBI director James Comey, but who promised “honesty” in return, has not only been interpreted by critics of Trump as obstructing justice, but also as undermining the FBI's relative independence. Katie Bo Williams, “Comey's Dramatic Account on Trump Rocks Washington,” Hill, June 7, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/336848-comeys-dramatic-account-rocks-washington (accessed October 31, 2017). Trump's lawyer, has, however, denied that Trump ever told “Mr. Comey, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’ in form or substance.” “President Trump's Lawyer's Statement on Comey Hearing,” CNN, June 8, 2017. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/08/politics/marc-kasowitz-statement-trump-comey/index.html (accessed October 31, 2017). If Comey's position can be somehow verified, the incident raises the threat of “loyalty oaths” as during the early Cold War McCarthy period.