The Road to Fascism…

The Road to Fascism… 

 

Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist, and authoritarian political ideology that prioritizes the nation and a charismatic dictatorial leader above all else, suppressing opposition and individual rights to enforce a totalitarian state with strong military and economic control. Key characteristics include extreme nationalism, belief in a natural social hierarchy, cult of personality around a leader, violent suppression of dissent, and the subordination of individuals to the state's will. 

 

-             Fascism, Wikipedia 

 

By Gregg Wall (8-30-2025)

 

Monopolies, neoliberalism, privatization, and private equity are the societal cancer and existential crisis of our times.  They breed fascism; they metastasize into fascism.  Once we recognize corporations as fundamentally authoritarian, dictatorial, far-right, sponsors and supportive of far-right political duopolies throughout the West, coupled with the steady erosion of human rights and civil liberties… and the astronomical growth of corporate-state controlled police and surveillance states, the for-profit explosive arms buildup in the U.S. & the West… and there’s not really much to discuss.  Is there?

 

The corporations themselves are increasingly authoritarian, eschewing capitalism – as we once knew it, eschewing competition, markets, price discovery... all of it abandoned in favor of monopolies, and oligopolies, dominating single or multiple markets, with dictatorial power over government, labor, prices, the regulatory state, supply, wages. 

 

And there’s the unyielding power corporations hold over the democratic process and political parties.  Does anyone question for a moment that banks, corporations, defense contractors, high tech, private equity, Wall St firms have come to dominate the American government, own far too often the judges & politicians, so that nobody gets out of line?  The regulatory agencies co-opted and serving the very corporate entities they are supposed to regulate and manage.  The SCOTUS now rubber stamping nearly anything Trump wants.  And it’s not just in the US, we see it throughout the West: centrist, corporately owned duopolies who consistently walk far-right political parties to power, the populist-right to power.

 

Let’s break down some recent examples: 

 

Obama beget Trump.

Biden beget Trump.

Merkel & Scholz beget the AfD.

Tony Blair & Gordon Brown… beget five Tory PMs, and now Starmer begets Farage & Reform.

Trudeau nearly beget Pierre Poilievre, but instead, we got a central banker, who ran a private equity company and was installed by Trump, Mark Carney.

Macron… lost the last election to the Left, but his “centrist party” partnered with the extreme-right to keep the Left from coming to power.

 

And the pattern repeats over and over.  Two far-right political parties (aka the duopoly) extinguish and eliminate any Left parties and in the process give the people, the voter the only option available, voting for the far-right … all in the service of fascist corporations and the neoliberal paradigm.  As I’ve written before, western democracy, the franchise has increasingly become an exercise in removing one far-right party, one corporately owned party from power… only to see another far-right party, corporately owned party come to power.  So, there is zero hope of economic & political reform and change. 

 

Couple this with corporate media, which forever drums up anger, division, fear and rage on the only issue the two corporately owned parties are allowed to disagree on --- cultural wars, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia --- and you have a public that is being shifted further and further right by the two corporately owned parties.  The culture wars, by way of Orwell, are not meant to be won, they are meant to be continuous.  With left-wing parties eliminated, both corporate parties allow themselves to be pulled further and further right-wing by their billionaire and corporate benefactors.   None of this is by accident, we see the same playbook play out in Western democracy, after Western democracy.   

 

The public is often so distracted with survival, the neoliberal economic paradigm (aka anything goes for the wealthy & powerful) such a complete failure for the vast majority, that the public rarely if ever has the time to notice, that it’s the oligarchy, the kleptocracy, the bankers, and corporations that pull the duopoly’s strings… that are walking us all to fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism.   

 

The totalitarian god… greed, money, profits. 

 

With the congress, the courts, the duopoly, regulatory agencies completely under corporate control… along with fiscal, the necro-political, and tax policies… that leaves the final frontier, monetary policy.  MMT, manipulation of short term interest rates, money supply, quantitative easing, the further introduction of private crypto interests and the normalization of same, policies against or in support of inflation, the debasement of the dollar in support of catastrophic national debt, in support of private equity, and soaring asset classes of the rich… soon to be under POTUS Trump’s control.  

 

Given the chaos of the first seven to eight months, along with Trump’s first term, can you imagine how Fed Chairman Donald Trump is going to work out?  

 

One thing is for sure, zombie enterprise, private equity, commercial real estate, the neoliberal economy, and Wall St need another monetary bailout or fix… a monetary fix mainlined into the Street, empire, and the government.  Along with congress.  One of many problems is DOGE failed to deliver; in fact, DOGE likely made it worse, and Congress added further jet fuel to the debt and deficit fire with the Big, Beautiful Abomination. 

 

The FED, of course, is far from holy… it’s neither autonomous nor apolitical…  it’s always had its fingers on the economy and scales in favor of a failed status quo, in favor of the establishment, the libertarian economy, Wall St bailouts, private equity, financial engineering, financed wars & tax cuts for the rich, endless rivers of debt, exploding money supply, the creation of an insatiable oligarchy, a grossly inflated & manipulated stock market, financial warfare against America’s enemies, the failed duopoly, and every evil known to humanity.   

 

Remember this, we’ve been on the road to fascism, and we’ve arrived.  We’ve met the enemy and it’s really no surprise:  billionaires, greed, libertarians, dereg, monopolies, big business, the war lobby, the two major parties, for-profit medical care, the campaign finance system, SCOTUS, the regulatory state – as it exists, Wall St, the deep state, military contractors, central bankers, the empire.   

 

And they are stealing us blind.  They do it every day: 24/7/365. 

 

The American & Western economies are so far gone, profits can no longer be left to the vagaries of competition, markets, price discovery... capitalism. That's all unacceptable. 

 

Monopoly of essential goods and services, privatization of essential public services... like medicine and healthcare... guarantee profits (barring collapse of the entire system).  And all are highly detrimental to a functioning economy and government.  

 

Hence, America's march to fascism: hegemonic corporate control... with CEOs and oligarchs dictating prices, supply, gov policy, the complete lack of regulatory oversight, and wages. 

 

Welcome to Totalitarianism.  One can smell it in the air, that is the breeze of abject tyranny.  What the oligarchs, w/ an Orwellian twist, call "freedom"... that is, their freedom to control, dominate, and exploit, manipulate, and mold citizens throughout the West. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025

 

The Battle for Alberta & Canada

The Battle for Alberta & Canada

 

Many in the audience jeered at the videos that introduced each of the topics, particularly the section on leaving the Canada Pension Plan in favor of an Alberta plan. Some even pushed back at the premise of the panel. 

 

"Alberta doesn't really want you doing this right now," one man said.

 

-             Tensions high at town hall as Alberta Next Panel faces polarized crowd in Edmonton, CBC News

 

By Gregg Wall (8-16-2025)

 

In many ways the battle for Alberta is no different than the political duopoly battle we see in the United States, between Dems and GOP, and the United Kingdom, between Labour and Tories or Nigel Farage’s Reform party.  The playbook and arguments are very similar and the manner in which voters get sucked into binary narratives, polarization, and tribalism are all very familiar.  Here in Alberta, there’s perhaps a little more at stake in terms of the United Conservative Party’s (UCP) desire to privatize Medicare and import America’s failed for-profit care model.  America is fighting for Medicare for All, whereas in Alberta, the UCP are fighting to destroy it.  Despite a litany of failures and broken promises, Alberta premier Dani Smith’s MAGA base of rural political support, often referred to as Maple-MAGA, appears willing to turn a blind eye, not only to the province’s declining fortunes but their own.

 

Soaring inflation; sky high rents; “free market” utilities (their freedom to rip-off Albertans); attacks on public education; the aforementioned assault on public healthcare, including charging Alberta for COVID vaccine (call it double taxation as Canadians pay for Medicare, annually, at tax time); soaring insurance premiums; privatization scandals; crony-investigations that go unresolved; foodbank foot traffic that has doubled in five years; nearly 33% of Calgary is food insecure, thanks to some of the lowest minimum wages in Canada… just to name some of the Ultra’s Corrupt Party’s growing cacophony of apathy, failures, and mismanagement. 

 

And then, there’s the simple matter of Dani and UCP reversing themselves on the very issues that nearly cost them the ’23 election: sovereignty, an extra shiny new layer of police state bureaucracy (you know, to soak up high unemployment), the attempt to strip the Canadian pension and start an Alberta pension (so UCP can dump money into a lethal fossil fuels industry), and lest we forget, the aforementioned pledge that Alberta will maintain Medicare and Albertans will never incur out of pocket medical expense.  All this, conveniently, Dani and the Ultra Corrupt Party have brought back with a vengeance.  You know, to rally the MAGA faithful, the separatist zealots, the freedom convoy clan, the crew that’s willing to join America tomorrow, despite Trump’s own catalogue of failures.  Gee some of this sounds familiar… soaring inflation, a failure to honor promises, endless gaslighting and lies on how great Trump is, a complete failure to end wars & genocide.   America’s own problems with homelessness & growing poverty, medical bankruptcy, privatization of the state and catastrophic national debt & deficits... very familiar.  But this is who Maple-MAGA looks up to in Alberta and w/in many of the rural areas of BC, Sask., and Manitoba.  Of course, Cons on both sides of the border not only like to discount and ignore their leadership’s glaring deficiencies, endless lies & omissions, but they like to play up their Dear Leader’s fictional achievements… and if all else fails, attack Ottawa and the Liberals.  

 

What’s most interesting about the MAGA-Maple crowd is their nearly rapturous love, bordering on mania, for the Canadian fossil fuels industry who shows them absolutely nothing but contempt.   Maple-MAGA’s endless love affair for an industry that is presently burning Canada to the ground; that has gutted half its workforce over a relatively short span of time (w/ more layoffs on the way); an O&G industry that pays notoriously stingy royalty payments (payments that will undoubtedly decline, maybe even vanish, as the oil glut worsens and the global economy crumbles under Trump’s tariff shock); an O&G industry that buys off governments, installs corrupt politicians; the very industry that expects unlimited welfare & socialism from the state but uses the press organs and its obscene wealth to preach the failed gospel of libertarianism & bootstraps.  But to hear the UCP cult tell it, evil Ottawa is holding the industry back and if only the sacrament of the devil… oil & gas… were allowed to flow freely, all of Alberta’s problems would be over: jobs would rain down from the heavens, and the rugged Western Canadian would show the East Coast Canadians, once and for all.  Sheer madness.

 

These oil & gas industry cucks really love to get their panties in a bunch over the, on average, $20 billion in taxes they pay to Ottawa annually (net of payments received from Ottawa in return).  Conveniently forgetting that their beloved, the Oil & Gas robber barons & utilities, are the recipients of billions and billions in direct and indirect subsides, as well as, externalities paid for by the Canadian taxpayer and general public.  Subsides, externalities, and welfare to O&G that grossly exceed the $20 billion paid into Ottawa.  Trudeau even built them a taxpayer funded pipeline… isn’t the far-right Liberal party nice?  It's really quite the freak show.  In fact, it’s all enough to blow one’s faith in humanity.  And I’m not entirely sure why or what if anything can be done about it, other than to stop voting for mainstream centrist politicians, boycott multinationals, boycott corporately owned parties, organize, strike, and insist upon more direct democracy.  All this explains why conservatives, libertarians, and the oligarchy love to attack college, well-funded public schools, education, science, books, and learning.  After all, a well-educated public is a threat; after all, a well-educated public… not necessarily as measured by degrees, but as measured by critical thinking and knowledge… is a threat to abjectly failed libertarianism.  Which explains why UCP, Canadian Cons, and the Donald all attack education and learning.  A libertarian/laissez-faire ideology that is in reality, and ironically, rejected by the O&G industry and oligarchy, which lives on endless market manipulation, socialism, and welfare from the state.  Oil production costs are among the highest in the world in Fort McMurray, if not the highest, and the profits are realized in the United States, not Canada.  The entire oil sands project is obscene, benefiting the rich exclusively. Certainly, not the Cons and the UCP cult, who pine for the industry’s expansion as North America and the world burns.

 

 

 

None of this is to say, Liberals and Ottawa haven’t done significant damage to their relations with rural voters and their derision from the conservative community isn’t earned.  Liberals, after all are the mirror image of the conservative party on the economy,for the most part, and play opposite rolls on culture wars and social issues (Libs, Dems, and UK Labour have all continually drifted further right, with no left-wing parties to anchor them and only right-wing parties to drag them further away from the public and labour).  Liberals and conservatives fully embrace top-down economics, deregulation, globalization, and neoliberalism … they’ve flooded Canada with immigrant labour for the benefit of commercial enterprise, while making no effort to maintain healthcare, housing, and infrastructure.

 

That’s right, Trudeau hate has been replaced by Carney hate.  And Carney is already giving Canada issues to be angry about: a failure to rein in corporate greed, high unemployment, a depressed Canadian dollar (that only exacerbates the inflation crisis, but is a Canadian exporters dream), endless kowtowing to Trump (turning Canada into a vassal state), Carney’s refusal to address the conservative provinces’ channeling federal dollars into privatized medical care and charging Canadians for healthcare services (most likely in violation of the Canada Health Act); and then, there’s the simple matter of a burning Canada (All Summer Long).  Carney has gone silent, only offering band-aids to put out fires, but making zero effort to address the arsonist, fossil fuels.  And let’s not forget the private equity chair’s countless conflicts of interest.  One would think our newly minted leader, as the former head of GFANZ, would take advantage of the disaster/opportunity of Canada burning all summer, the second worst inferno season so far, to take on the fossil fuels industry.   But Carney is more of a wallflower, a banker, a caretaker for a dying, failed neoliberal status quo… that is to say, he falls flat... hanging his hat on the trade war and the erratic and scary Trump to keep his approval rating propped up. Trump, of course, is a constant reminder that he got Carney elected, and so Carney obviously feels some obligation to Trump?  No?  Which may or may not explain Carney’s reluctance to take Trump on.  From Carney backing off on the highly modest digital service tax, to a failure to retaliate on tariffs with export taxes on energy… even proceeding to buy the pathetic American F-35 (?)… Carney, so far, is getting mauled by Trump.  And so far, his political base of support holds with their support, unwilling or simply too tired to hold the private equity chairman accountable, responsible.

 

As for the economy and failed neoliberalism, the former private equity chair isn’t going to change a thing… relying more on choreographed events, omission, platitudes, and silence… to avoid discussing the very real bread & butter issues that will likely drive Canadians into the arms of conservatives by the time the next election rolls around.  Soaring inequality, an economy that only works for a predatory few, declining public services, low wages, and unaffordable housing, unaffordable LIFE could impact the future permanence of the Liberal party.

 

 

 

I’d like to think the West – America, Canada, and the EU -- somehow pulls up from its nosedive. That somehow the public sees through the failed political duopoly, the endless class warfare, and given time, I think it’s entirely possible for that epiphany to occur.  We are, however, running out of time, running out of runway.  Wouldn’t it be great: if empathy and love ruled over humanity’s heart, instead of division, fear, greed, hate, and all too often nescience? 

 

But given our failed duopoly leadership, the billionaire class, and special interests, that doesn’t appear likely any time soon.  Labour and a public faced with manufactured precarity, scarcity, and declining standards of living appear to have little chance to learn about the many ways they are attacked by the West’s failed duopoly and the oligarchy they report into… and many, like Alberta’s UCP faithful, simply do not appear to show any interest in learning, instead wallowing in a sea of anger, denial, ignorance, dismissing any information that doesn’t fit their narrative as “fake news.”  Their entire identity appears to be wrapped up in a deadly and lethal industry and hating Ottawa.  Ironically, the solutions… education, technology, and resources… are all at our fingertips, but our leadership is often too corrupt to use them for the betterment of humanity and seem intent on cordoning off education from the public (with increasingly insurmountable barriers to entry, primarily college tuition & whitewashing curriculum).  Gen Z is now dumping college for the trades, perhaps a smart move in the Age of AI.  Meanwhile, political leadership, Cons and Libs, ride the beast, divide and conquer… distract, manipulate, and dissemble (or just passively ignore massive human suffering, pretending it’s not there or acceptable collateral damage for a libertarian economy).  And leadership, all too often, especially conservatives, feed their base of support a steady diet of bile, fear, grievance, and hatred -- victim status and rage -- while doing absolutely nothing to improve the lot in life of the Canadian people (instead, preserving a failed economic paradigm and enriching themselves and the 1%).  What a world, so much energy directed at attacking each other, instead of our oppressor: political duopolies and the multinationals & oligarchy that owns them.

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025

Exorbitant Tyranny

Exorbitant Tyranny

 

President Donald Trump said Jerome Powell should follow in the footsteps of Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler and resign from the central bank, ratcheting up his feud with the central bank chair.

“‘Too Late’ Powell should resign, just like Adriana Kugler, a Biden Appointee, resigned. She knew he was doing the wrong thing on Interest Rates. He should resign, also,” Trump said on social media.

 

-             Trump Says Powell ‘Should Resign’ Like Fed Governor Kugler, Bloomberg

 

Gregg Wall (8-2-2025)

 

America’s long-standing allies, in Canada, Europe, and throughout the world, must be looking at Trump and the United States in an entirely new light.  Trump, unable to shake his Epstein problem, has been on tear, attempting every maneuver to demonstrate he’s still in command, powerful, and remains unphased by reality and the growing concerns about his erratic behavior and governance.  Just this week Trump slammed the EU with 15% tariffs, India with 25%, and Canada … a nation that America actually runs a trade surplus with (sans Canadian oil & gas) … with 35% tariffs.  There appears to be no rhyme or reason to any of this, other than Trump is clearly angry and wants to look authoritarian.  What’s new, as noted in Bloomberg, about the recent round of tariffs is Trump is calling out governments on their domestic, foreign, and internal affairs.   Trump continues to attack Canada on the fiction that is fentanyl flowing through America’s northern border; Trump is upset with India over its oil trade with Russia; and Brazil and BRICS are receiving special attention for being… well, BRICS.  Trump has gone into full megalomaniacal mode and is angry at the entire world, apparently for failing to recognize his greatness.  Clearly, none of this is good for the United States, its economy, the American dollar, the nation’s relationships, and certainly not good for the American people, who will be paying for Trump’s glorious tariffs.  The very same Americans that have been slammed by corporate greed, Wall St and monopoly price gouging, since Trump’s first term (starting late Winter/Spring 2020, as COVID hit). 

America’s allies, many dependent upon the United States for defense and many with US troops… ahem, occupying their countries (see the EU, Germany, South Korea, and yes, the UK)… stare at their shoes, navel gaze, and go along with whatever Dictator Trump commands, no matter how deranged and harmful to international trade, their own nations, and the American economy.  Given Trump’s highly erratic behavior, the stated goal of returning businesses and factories to US shores -- for Trump’s, Amerika’s Golden Age -- remains ever more remote.  Businesses don’t want to deal with insanity.  Why would they?  It’s not healthy for profits.  Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are tapped out, unable to afford the basics, and the BLS reported & revised job creation numbers down significantly.

Trump is so over the top that Congress has fled for the summer – before they did something wild, like actually govern, and American courts are ignored by the Administration in one of three rulings.  And what I like to call the fourth branch of government, the Federal Reserve, has come under a never-ending stream of Trump vitriol and personal attacks.  Which brings us to exorbitant privilege.   Many may wonder why the nations of the world would cower, eyes cast down, quiver like beaten dogs, praying - perhaps - the humiliation of Dictator Trump’s global reign of terror will soon end… which brings us to the source of Trump’s and America’s power.  No, sorry… it’s not Trump’s brains, divine intellect, masterful powers of negotiation, or his elevated emotional intelligence.  No Trump’s power comes from what has been referred to by many as exorbitant privilege and the role the U.S. dollar plays in global trade.   Exorbitant privilege translates into the ability of the U.S. government to print money, seemingly endlessly, to pay a trillion plus per annum for a DOD & MIC that can’t be audited, to fund and finance the U.S. empire and place approximately 22,000 troops in South Korea, 55,000 in Japan, and 35,000 on German soil.  Exorbitant privilege means endless war waged against the world on behalf of banks, defense contractors, multinationals, Big Oil & Gas, and Wall St. profits… it means the power to dictate and enforce economic sanctions, often as deadly as any standing army.   Exorbitant privilege (EP)… being the global international currency … means America can throw its weight around the globe, seemingly with impunity and w/out repercussion. 

Domestically, EP translates into a Congress that never has to budget (see Omnibus spending measures and CRs), it means seemingly endless Wall St bailouts, financed tax cuts for the rich… EP means a currency that props up and supports the failed libertarian economy, the deregulated, monopoly economy and the resulting fallout with greater and greater government spending.  Whether or not the dollar will continue to support the ever-growing ranks of indigent Americans with Medicare and SNAP remains to be seen.  EP, the stock market, and Wall St, along with deep pools of liquidity, have minted the world’s largest number of billionaires and the curse that comes with oligarchy.  EP means hyper-financialization, private equity, zombie enterprises.  EP papers over crisis after crisis without a spoiled American elite ever being held accountable for serial mismanagement or gross incompetence.  Just have the Federal Reserve print up a couple of trillion… better make it four trillion… and it’s all good.  EP means there’s no regrets, except from the American people, who have seen EP help ensure that the entire mirage of neoliberalism, supply-side, trickle-down, and the obscene transfer of taxpayer wealth continues on.  Seemingly, without end.  No other nation could get away with this, not for this length of time.  EP funds the mafia state, all manner of corruption, and limitless lies.  And what do Americans receive… the bill, the IOU, the national debt, some $41 trillion, including Trump’s first term bailout of Wall St.  We get a dollar that has fallen 11% in value, during Trump's first six months in office.  

EP guarantees endless socialism and state welfare for the 1%, and limitless bootstraps and poverty for the majority of Americans.  The wealth transferred to billionaires and Wall St. by EP helps ensure that congress and the duopoly remain purchased and owned.   It guarantees the oligarchy’s mandate, after every election, no matter which party wins.  The American voter reduced to little more than a rubber stamp every other November.

 

EP has been very, very good for America’s friends and allies, until it’s not.   EP means free defense; it means a juiced stock market for foreign heads of state and the global oligarchy to invest in.  And as the BOC, BOE, ECB, and BOJ have adopted & maintained ultra-accommodative monetary policy, it means financialized economies throughout the West, it means money printing and financial engineering throughout the developed world, phony duopolies, rotted out deregulation, globalization, and neoliberalism reigns.  EP means Uncle Sam is sitting by our allies’ side… forever the paternal partner, kind, and generous… until an ogre like Trump comes along and EP is no longer the world’s friend. 

That’s when exorbitant privilege becomes a big, big problem. In the hands of a Trump exorbitant privilege becomes Exorbitant Tyranny.  All the sudden those U.S. troops sitting in your country, the fact that the EU has no or limited military, and a maniacal Trump comes to power… and exorbitant privilege, more appropriately Exorbitant Tyranny, takes on a whole new meaning.  Out of control Trump isn’t just America’s or the American people’s problem, he’s the world’s problem.  So compromised and criminal, he’s capable of just about anything.

 

Perhaps it’s not such a good idea for one nation, one individual, particularly one so unhinged, to possess that kind of power???  Absolute power might go to one’s head, hence the demand for Jerome Powell's head.  And trust me, I understand… who knew something seemingly so harmless, like fiat currency, in the hands of a madman…  could be so dangerous?  As an increasing number of Americans, at least the bottom 60%, suffer continuously under America’s political duopoly, who knew Exorbitant Tyranny could fund a genocide, where women and children are slaughtered daily with American bombs and technology, indeed – American dollars?  Who knew Medicaid in America and USAID globally could be cut back significantly, in some cases shut off, by the whims of one individual and the oligarchy that supports the president?  Ah yes, the oligarchy, what does all this say about the billionaire class that brought Trump to power?  America’s friends and allies however, never seemed to care about any of this, as long as Dems and GOP leadership offered them a free ride on defense and were kind.

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025