Bits: EV update; American authoritarianism & kleptocracy updates

Torque news reports on the likely outcome of DJT's and MAGA's corrupt hostility to electric vehicles: The US’s End To EV Support Will Significantly Strengthen China’s Aggressive Moves To Dominate EV Industry And Assure Their Eventual Ownership Of The Market By The 2030s -- China’s aggressive move to EVs is increasingly moving Chinese EV makers ahead of the rest of the world particularly the US. The US is attempting to cripple this by blocking Chinese sales into the US and using Tariffs to make Chinese goods more expensive. This is likely to fail given the world’s trend to EVs and China’s economy, which rivals and may soon exceed that of the US. Part of how China got here is that the Chinese government aggressively supported their automotive market with financial help and by buying up control of critical EV materials like Rare Earth Minerals.

In recent days other sources, e.g., NPR, reported that European car makers are backing away from EVs. It really does look like China will come to grow and dominate the global EV market. What DJT is doing for his personal gain is both stupid and terribly damaging to America's long-term economy and its global standing.

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Trying to keep up with DJT's authoritarian and kleptocratic actions is like trying to drink out of a fire hose. Inconvenient fact, truth, social tolerance and the rule of law are under constant undeniable, ferocious MAGA attack on multiple fronts. 

The Democracy Docket reports: Trump’s Pick to Lead FBI Refuses to Say Who Won 2020 Election -- On Thursday, Kash Patel — DJT’s nominee to lead the FBI — sat through hours of questioning during his confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate. Throughout the hearing, Patel refused to answer, or sidestepped, a number of questions about his loyalty to Trump, how he’d run the FBI and if he’d use the agency to punish the president’s enemies, as he previously promised.

MAGA thug

That is the lying authoritarian MAGA thug that will run the FBI. The US is gonna degenerate into a corrupt police state.

DJT and most of MAGA are insanely and bitterly hostile to DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiatives. DJT has already ordered everyone under his control to completely obliterate all vestiges of DEI everywhere in the executive branch. The attacks are baseless and solidly grounded in lies, slanders and crackpot drivel. DJT is blaming the plane crash in Washington DC on DEI, but as usual without a sing shred of evidence to support his MAGA bigotry and racism. Truthout reports: Trump’s Comments on Crash Bring Attention to His Order Ending FAA DEI Policies -- Trump has never provided proof that a single DEI hire “failed to meet established standards,” one expert said

Despite critics who argue that DEI programs compromise standards and efficiency, evidence suggests that when implemented correctly, these initiatives enhance organizational performance without sacrificing competence or safety. That is an inconvenient truth that is being converted into a despicable, bigoted MAGA lie. The NYT reports: Trump Misleads on D.E.I. Policies in Blaming Biden for Plane Crash -- There is no evidence that diversity efforts played a role in the crash, and his statements disregarded his own administration’s hiring policies. -- Even as he acknowledged that he had no evidence, but was instead relying on “common sense,” he suggested that efforts to hire more people with disabilities and diversify the ranks of the F.A.A. were to blame for the accident late Wednesday that killed 67 people.

As we all know, MAGA hates abortion. A House Republican plans to write a national abortion ban law. It has 67 co-sponsors, all of which are House Republicans. The national ban law is H.R.722 — 119th Congress (2025-2026), entitled To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.

To get that law passed, the Senate would have to get rid of the filibuster. So far, that hasn't happened. Could this be the issue that kills it? Time will tell. Also note that the legal basis cited for the national ban is the equal protection clause of the 14th A. Has anyone told you that DJT and MAGA are inconsistent about the equal protection clause? For issues where equal protection opposes DJT or MAGA dogma, DJT and MAGA hate or simply ignore it, e.g., gender affirming care and DEI. In other situations, like abortion, they love it. There is a pattern of DJT and MAGA selectively applying or opposing equal protection principles, because doing so aligns with their political and ideological goals.

DJT and MAGA have their own brand of wokeism. A NYT opinion by Tom Friedman comments: Trump Is Going Woke -- I understand that Donald Trump was elected to better manage our borders and curb left-wing wokeism. But have no illusions: Trump’s right-wing wokeism — impugning electric vehicles and renewable energy because they don’t conform to MAGA ideology and aren’t manly enough — is as devoid of common sense and not remotely in the national interest as any left-wing cultural wokeism. Most important: If Trump’s all-in-on-fossil-fuels, “drill, baby, drill” rallying cry — at the dawn of this era of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, batteries and autonomous cars — really becomes our strategy, it will not make America great again. But it will definitely help make China great again. .... China is also not so silly as to treat one form of electricity generation as more conservative, liberal or Maoist than another. In the end, the outputs are all just electrons.

See, it's that darned identity politics stinking the place up again. Identity politics on the left or the right, can be viewed through the lens of "wokeism." Obviously, they are different kinds of wokeism. They manifest differently due to their different ideological underpinnings and goals. The left's version seeks to dismantle systemic inequalities through awareness and activism, falsely criticized by DJT and MAGA as radical leftism and tyrannical socialism. By contrast, the radical right's MAGA version often aims to preserve or reclaim a sense of identity against perceived threats to justify toxic beliefs like White Supremacy, bigotry and Christian theocracy. Some argue that the left's identity politics is a means to an end, aiming for universal justice, but the right's version often treats identity as the end goal, promoting particularism over universalism.

 

And DJT is gonna fix that deplorable

situation by screwing them a lot more!

Another thing that DJY and MAGA elites hate is worker protections. Project 2025 was clear that the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) had to go or at least be neutered. On the first day of a new Trump presidency, Project 2025 calls for the dismissal of Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB General Counsel, who is considered one of the most pro-worker general counsels in recent history. That would significantly neuter the direction of the NLRB's enforcement activities. But DJT has gone well beyond merely firing one NLRB lawyer. 

Reuters reports that he has completely shut down all NLRB activities: 

Trump paralyzes US labor board by firing Democratic members -- DJT fired two Democratic officials at the National Labor Relations Board, a major shakeup that will bring hundreds of cases accusing companies of unlawful labor practices to a standstill and paves the way for Republican control of the agency. Trump removed NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, both appointees of Democratic former President Joe Biden, from their posts late on Monday, according to an agency spokesman, who said no reason was given. .... The removal of Wilcox, whose term was not set to end until August 2028, is unprecedented and may violate federal labor law. Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the agency's five-member board, said in a statement that she would pursue "all legal avenues" to challenge her firing. .... The board already had two vacancies, so the removal of Wilcox leaves it without a quorum of three members to issue decisions even in routine cases. The board reviews rulings by in-house judges in cases brought by the general counsel. Until it does, those orders cannot be enforced. Hundreds of cases are pending before the board, including ones involving Amazon.com, Tesla, Walmart, Apple, and dozens against Starbucks as it faces a nationwide union campaign.

We can all clearly see where labor protections are going. The NLRB is officially dead. 

As we all know, DJT, MAGA elites, demagogues, tyrants and kleptocrats in power love to whitewash inconvenient history as much as they can get away with. They can get away with a lot. The Daily Dot writes: Trump DOJ scrubs entire Jan. 6 Capitol riot database from the web -- Trump continued his campaign to scrub government websites of content he dislikes. -- The removal of the content comes just days after President Donald Trump pardoned anyone for “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” Under the Biden administration, the web hub for the Washington, D.C. District Attorney’s Office housed a repository of more than 1,200 Capitol breach cases, which included PDFs of the case filings for each defendant. The office also periodically released data on new arrests and case resolutions, and information about how to provide tips to the FBI. As of Tuesday afternoon, this content was removed. The URL for the case database now leads to a “Page not found” placeholder.

Sadly and frighteningly, Meta/Facebook paid DJT to settle a stunningly frivolous lawsuit that DJT filed against the company. DJT alleging the non-crime of "wrongful censorship." The NYT writes (not paywalled): Meta Agrees to Pay Trump $25 Million to Settle His Lawsuit -- President Trump had sued Meta and other tech firms in 2021, arguing that he had been wrongfully censored by them. -- Meta said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay President Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit he filed over the suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Apparently, Meta had far more to lose by winning than a paltry $25 million payout in losing. 

Lies, crackpottery, authoritarianism &

kleptocracy comin' atcha hard and fast!

Enjoy!