American Carnage

Carnage. American Carnage, to be specific. That’s what DJ Rump announced eight years ago to the day, and what he will deliver in buckets over the next four years. It’s deja vu all over again.

I know, I know, this blog is meant to be about Wellington and Urban Design and Architecture, and yet here I am talking about the orange Rumplestiltskin and his infantile, egotistical, narsisistic ravings once again. I’ll try not to, I promise, but it is hard to look away from a car crash in progress. Even harder to watch a helicopter and a jet plane crash in mid-air, which is what I think will happen under this second reich of the Furyer. Will America even exist at the end of this next four years? Will it have split in two? Or maybe even three parts? An East Coast collection of states to one side, California on the other side, and then a vast swathe of low-IQ idiot bible-banging states making up the Rump supporters in the middle?

Will Rump really declare war on Panama, annex Greenland for their oil and minerals, and casually invade Canada, abandon Ukraine to the Russians, order all those pesky Palistinians out of Gaza and tell the Israeli settlers to grab it for themselves? How much of it is lies, and how much is just more bluster? Does anything even matter any more seeing as we know he lies all the time? Is he lying now? Of course, you betcha he is! But which bits are lies? All of it? Or just every second word? As I write this, he is apparently making his swearing-in speech, and he has just said this: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” Well, that will simplify matters on the census form, and be a great relief to all those Trans and Intersex people out there. There will no longer be various shades of grey, from now on, there will only be black, or white. And certainly no rainbows.

But there will be tariffs, and Aotearoa will not be spared. That bullshit he spewed about how Hollywood is going to be great again? That’s a direct barbed attack on our industry in Wellywood and Auckwood, as he clearly is not a fan of Weta’s encroachments onto Industrial Light and Magic’s turf. Tariffs! More Tariffs!! Actually, I like the way that Rump is too stupid to understand how tariffs work, where he think that the offending nation pays a tax to the USA. Nope, dope, it is the people of the USA that end up paying.

He wants to stop the rising sales of EVs worldwide, but especially in ‘Murica, despite the ICE already being a sunset industry. Will we see a world in which EV technology will rule in Europe and Asia, while just the USA remains with black smokers in tractor-pulling contests and an endless supply of pick-up trucks? And which direction will NZ follow? I know which one I would like NZ to follow – but who knows what will happen. Will Elon influence Rump to eventually understand that the infernal combustion engine is dead? That Tesla rules for a reason, and that reason is electric? Currently, it seems not…:

“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it. Let me use it. We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”

“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it with my actions. Today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers. In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”

“We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the auto workers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote. I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”

“For this purpose, we are establishing the external revenue service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources. The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand new department of government efficiency.”

Well, there goes a liveable planet. Only one we have, buggered for all time.

But enough of this. I’ll try and stay focused on Wellington and its Architecture, for one more year. Welcome back, to 2025.