Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

Hm, this livestream is going in and out already. Just me?

Here's where you can stare in frustration at the malfunctioning live feed of Trump's energy speech:

The YouTube comments scrolling past the live feed are ... quite something.

Make America Late Again, amirite?

BREAKING: there is now an unexplained crowd of white people on the stage where Trump is soon to speak.

He's here! It's all happening.

This is ... not an energy speech.

Trump now arguing that coal mining is a delightful job that people love to do.

Trump now claiming his 'many Muslim friends' thanked him for proposing a ban on Muslims.

'To me, a market force is a beautiful force.'

Trump wants the Keystone pipeline, but he wants a better deal -- 'a piece of the profits for Americans.'

Facepalm forever.

'We're the highest taxed nation, by far.' That is flatly false, not that anyone cares.

75% of federal regulations are 'terrible for the country.' Sigh.

Elizabeth Warren has clearly gotten under Trump's skin.

'Hillary is going to abolish the 2nd amendment. I'm just the opposite.' My head hurts, y'all.

'I know a lot about solar.' Followed by several grossly inaccurate assertions about solar.

Apparently the NYT is embarrassed it ever called Trump a sexist and the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.

I can't believe I just got suckered into watching a Trump press conference.

And now I'm listening to bad heavy metal as I wait for the real speech. This day has become hallucinatory.

Speech finally getting under way. Oil baron Harold Hamm here to introduce Trump.

Oh, good, Hamm explained energy to Trump in 30 minutes. We're all set.

Here's ND's own Kevin Cramer, representing the oil & gas industry. Thankfully, he's gonna keep it short.

What even is this music?

Trump loves farmers. 'Now you can fall asleep while we talk about energy.' Wait what.

Trump now repeating Clinton coal 'gaffe,' a story the media cooked up & served to him. Awesome, media.

Honestly, Trump sounds like he's reading this speech for the first time. Like he's reacting to it, in asides, as he reads it.

Trump promises 'complete American energy independence -- COMPLETE.' That is utter nonsense.

This is amazing. He is literally reading oil & gas talking points, reacting to them in real time. We're all discovering this together.

Clinton will "unleash" EPA to "control every aspect of our lives." Presumably also our precious bodily fluids.

Trump is having obvious difficulty staying focused on reading his speech. He so badly wants to just do his freestyle-nonsense thing.

"America first! America first!" Yup, still creepy.

Can't stop laughing. He's reading this shit off the teleprompter & then expressing surprise & astonishment at it. Reading for the 1st time!

He can't resist. Wandering off into a tangent about terrorism. Stay focused, man!

Oh, good, renewable energy gets a tiny shoutout. But not to the exclusion of other energies that are "working much better."

We're gonna solve REAL environmental problems. Not the phony ones. Go ahead, man, say it ...

(1) Rescind all Obama executive actions. (2) Save the coal industry (doesn't say how). (3) Ask TransCanada to renew Keystone proposal.

(4) Lift all restrictions on fossil exploration on public land. (5) Cancel Paris climate agreement. (6) Stop US payments to UN climate fund.

(7) Eliminate all the bad regulations. (8) Devolve power to local & state level. (9) Ensure all regs are good for US workers.

(10) Gonna protect environment -- "clean air & clean water" -- but, uh, not with regulations!

(11) Lifting all restrictions on fossil fuel export will, according to right-wing hack factory, create ALL THE BILLIONS OF US MONIES.

Let us pause to note: this is indistinguishable from standard GOP energy policy, dating all the way back to Reagan. Rhetoric unchanged.

EVERY SINGLE idea of Clinton's would destroy jobs. Just like NAFTA "destroyed this country."

"ISIS has the oil from Libya." Clinton has personally made the Middle East "more unstable than ever, ever, ever before."

Notable: not a single mention of climate change, positive or negative. Just one passing reference to "phony" environmental problems.

On the real, I feel genuinely sorry for the people who are fed this stuff and believe it.

Now we've veered off into a weird law-and-order riff (based on the demonstrably false premise that violent crime is rising).

How many people in Bismark, ND, live in fear of violent crime or terrorism? I mean really.

Speaking directly to people in poverty: "They give you nothing. I will give you everything. I will give you what you've been looking for."

"I will give you everything." That's just the core of the demagogue's appeal, isn't it?

"I'm prepared to kick the special interests out of Washington DC," he says, just after reading an oil & gas wishlist.

Lesson from Trump energy speech: though political press & establishment really want to frame Trump as something new & different...

... the fact is, he's mostly pushing standard GOP policy with a heavily populist, demagogic rhetorical overlay.

It's no wonder the GOP establishment is coming around. They're realizing he's the same plutocratic wine in a new bottle.

For the record: there is no way to be dependent on fossil fuels and "energy independent." Oil is a global market.

Nor is "energy independence" a coherent or desirable end-state. Dependence on fossil fuels is the problem; interdependence is just life.

And now I have officially thought about Trump's energy speech more than he did. Sigh.

It's like, Trump is doing all the things the GOP has been trending toward for years -- but openly, w/out the veneer or the cover story.

Racial dog whistles? No, just racism. Recycling & rephrasing oil & gas talking points? No, just literally reading them aloud, straight.

It's all of the American right, w/ none of the respectability politics that the media & VSPs helped the GOP slather over it.