The shadow of Donald Trump has followed Joe Biden until his farewell address to the nation. Although the shadow has been growing to include the big millionaires who now whisper in the ear of the future president and who have a seat in his government. “In the United States, an oligarchy of extreme wealth, power and influence is forming that literally threatens our entire democracy, our fundamental rights and freedoms, and the possibility of everyone having a fair opportunity to progress,” Biden said early this morning. Thursday from the Oval Office.
The Democrat, whose presidency will be remembered as a parenthesis within Trump’s reign, has pivoted his farewell on the same concepts that he had done on previous occasions: the importance of the system of separation of powers, stopping the abuse of power and the need that everyone “has a fair chance.” The difference, this time, is that the reason for their concerns is no longer just Trump, but the power of a very specific group.
“We have seen it before, more than a century ago, but the American people stood up to the big industrialists of that time and broke the monopolies. They didn’t punish the rich, they just made the rich follow the rules that everyone else followed. Workers wanted rights to earn their fair share. They were included in the agreement and helped put us on the path to building the largest middle class and the most prosperous century that any nation in the world has ever seen,” Biden defended.
This “deal” that Biden has appealed to is the same one that Marc Andreessen, a prominent Silicon Valley investor and now Trump ally, talked about last December. In an interview with The Free PressAndreessen claimed that the “agreement” had been broken. “In the past there was an understanding in society: a technology entrepreneur would start a company, create jobs, get rich, pay taxes and then give his money to philanthropy. All with the support of the media. In the last 10 years, all parts of the “deal” have been broken: money has been demonized, technology has been demonized, and philanthropy is starting to be seen as bad,” Andreessen said.
The flip side of this demonization of money that Andreessen talks about is the proliferation of “tax the rich” (evolution of “eat the rich”) that threatens his fortune. By philanthropy, Andreessen also meant donations to political parties. Elon Musk has managed to buy his position in the government with a checkbook and invested at least $270 million in Trump’s campaign.
“We must reform the tax code, not by giving the biggest tax cuts to billionaires, but by making them start paying their fair share. We need to eliminate dark money, the financing hidden behind too many campaign contributions. We must remove it from our politics,” Biden insisted, as if giving his delayed response to Andreessen’s complaints.
Biden has also called for the need to “prohibit members of Congress from trading in the stock market while they are in office.” Musk, who will go on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, is the owner of the electric car company Tesla, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock index. Beyond this conflict of interest, Tesla and his other company, SpaceX, have received millions of dollars in federal contracts and subsidies. Now Musk is supposed to decide how the federal budget is spent and where it is cut.
The president’s total immunity
The great technological fortunes have monopolized a good part of Biden’s ads, although the Democrat has saved a dart for Trump: “We need to amend the Constitution to make it clear that no president is immune from the crimes he commits while in office. The power of the president is not unlimited, it is not absolute, nor should it be.” Last summer the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump and ruled that the president enjoys “total immunity” from official acts. Next Monday the Republican will be sworn into office and will begin four years of immunity protected by the country’s highest judicial authority.
The Democrat has cited the warning that former President Eisenhower made during his farewell speech about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. The former 34th president of the United States warned of the “potential for a disastrous rise of misdirected power.” With this reference, Biden wanted to show his concern “about the possible emergence of an industrial-technological complex, which could also represent real dangers for our country.”
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and misinformation, allowing the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. “The truth is being suffocated by lies told for power and profit,” Biden has warned.
Disinformation on networks has long played a key role in the advance of the extreme right globally. Trump has not only come to power thanks to Musk’s money, but he has also done so with the help of his algorithm. After supporting the Republican, it became evident how the X algorithm, owned by Musk, gave more visibility to pro-Trump posts. Now, shortly before the Republican took office, Mark Zuckerberg has also put his platforms at the service of the Republican by eliminating verification from Facebook and Instagram.
The other danger within this industrial-technological complex that seems to be forming is artificial intelligence, which is once again in the hands of the same technological “oligarchy.” “But unless safeguards are in place, artificial intelligence could create new threats to our rights, our way of life, our privacy, the way we work and how we protect our nation. We must ensure that artificial intelligence is safe and reliable,” he highlighted.
Beyond the warnings, Biden has reviewed the achievements of his administration, both in the creation of “17 million new jobs” and in the investment in renewable energy, and the fight to lower the price of certain covered medications. by Medicare. “It will take time to fully notice the result of what we have done together, but the seeds have already been planted and will grow and flourish in the coming decades,” said Biden, who bears the burden of not having known how to transfer macroeconomic improvements to the bandwagon. the purchase of ordinary citizens.
The president ended his speech in the same way he started it: with a metaphor about the Statue of Liberty, the flame she holds and her “universal language of hope that can be understood by those who seek freedom.” “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word. I continue to believe in the idea on which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to keep your guard. May you all be the keepers of the flame.”
The authorship of the ceasefire
Before starting his speech, as soon as the broadcast began, Biden wanted to point out that the ceasefire agreement reached in Gaza this Wednesday was thanks to his negotiation team. Hours before, the Republican had tried to take credit through a post from a Truth Social. “We have accomplished so much without even being in the White House. Imagine all the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House,” said the magnate.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans,” Biden noted.
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