The TikTok charade and crypto grift
Democrats seem helpless in the face of grift and graft.
Yesterday, TikTok went dark, leaving thousands of content producers in the lurch and angering tens of millions of users. When attempting to login to the app, users got a message that read, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Please. The whole banning TikTok affair began with Donald Trump way back in 2020. He tried to ban the platform with an executive order but the federal courts said he couldn’t do it. After he left office, Republicans kept the issue alive. The bill to prohibit TikTok in the United States was written by Republican U.S. Senator and Trump sycophant Josh Hawley.
The whole thing is a grift, showing the gullibility of the American public and the impotence of the Democratic Party. Trump has clearly cut a deal with owners of TikTok to make him look like a savior. The app’s CEO is attending Trump’s inauguration with a bunch of other tech moguls. Now, the app is telling its users that Trump will save it. What a charade. Trump has played the public, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
Trump originally claimed that TikTok was “spying” on American citizens and stealing their private information. Proponents of the ban also claimed that the Chinese Communist Party was using it as propaganda vehicle. All of the claims are really vague.
My son, who is rip shit angry over the ban, argues that Elon Musk is a bigger threat to the United States than China. He’s got a point. Musk is operating as independent contractor, intervening in foreign wars and foreign policy without the oversight of anything like, say, Congress. He’s using his powerful app to spread disinformation and propaganda while collecting the same information as TikTok. Musk sees himself as disruptor who is sowing chaos and division much like Russian and China. And like TikTok, he’s in the good graces of Donald Trump.
If you need anymore evidence that Trump II is nothing but a grift, look at the cryptocurrency he launched on Friday. It went from zero to $5 billion in just 24 hours. He’s enriching himself by giving the billionaires and corporations a way to line his pockets as he enters the White House. The government is on the auction block. It’s truly obscene.
Democrats, for their part, look helpless and hapless. Nobody is calling Trump out. Nobody is asking what kind of deal he’s cut with the company and with the Chinese government. Instead, they’re going to stand by feebly as Trump heroically restores access to the app for it’s tens of millions of American users and rakes in billions of dollars from people who want access to the federal government. It’s embarrassing.
Trump is reminding us why he lost the election in 2020, but nobody seems to be pushing back this time. He’s full of performative stunts that make him look good and his opponents look weak and he’s not even president yet. He’s more blatantly cashing in on the office, in part, because the Supreme Court has said he can’t be held accountable for anything. The news media that’s not owned by the oligarchy is timid and the Democrats lack the communications ecosystem to influence public opinion. Nobody is outraged because outrageous behavior has been normalized.
An effective opposition needs to arise quickly and it needs to be far more than just mass protests. Democrats need new leaders, both in and out of office, who can connect with a broader audience than they’ve reached over the past eight years or so. The need to improve their infrastructure, expand their networks, and sharpen their messages, because we’re about to see a deluge of bad behavior that demands a harsh response and somebody has to deliver it.
There is no "the impotence of the Democratic Party"
This is a democracy and the majority determined they don't like many of the things that we stand for. Sure we can stand up holler, protest, do all those things we did in the 60s that only helped Richard Nixon get two terms, but how about changing those things for which the voters don't like us - immigration, crime , and woke.
And the party is too tame. The GOP is a bunch of anarchists, but we were ready to commit Hari Kari with Joe Biden - an octogenarian who couldnt get his words straight, and yet there was this groupthink that it was disloyal to challenge the man but for one Dean Phillips. Bernie Sanders had a New York Times Op peace two days before Biden dropped out urging him to stay in and that he could win- the progressive mindset that being right is better than winning. Biden would have been McGoverned, and even Harris, a lackluster candidate and 2020 rejected candidate with no swing state experience prevented a complete rout.
The left is always good at demonstrating and making noise but it is not what anybody pays attention to. Our best hope is that Donald will do what he is best at, screwing up, and his self concept as a Marvel Hero will be crushed by reality. In the meantime, as Thomas mentioned in that one article, let's sync the party with the American public and be the party of the Heartland rather than Brooklyn and Hollywood rather than spend the time bitching about Trump. That means accepting that people should only come here legally, that the police are the good guys not the criminals ( not condoning brutality, but safe streets are what people want), take back the parks from the homeless, and stop judging everybody by how racist and sexist they might be as opposed to what people really care about - health care, minimum wage, strong unions, balanced budget.
Glad to be a new subscriber, but I'm hoping you'll be covering NORTH CAROLINA politics a lot more. That's why I signed up. Thanks!