Thursday, March 31, 2016

#BernieOrBust


#BernieOrBust

The only Justice in this world is the Justice we fight for.

By J.M. Hamilton  4-2-2016

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes asked if they were “crazy?”  N.Y. Times columnist, Charles Blow, asserted that Senator Sanders’ supporters were both petulant and privileged, if they did not vote for presumed Dem nominee – Madame Hillary Clinton. 

But who’s really crazy, privileged, and petulant?  

Is it crazy for a democrat, liberal or independent to NOT vote for Madame Hillary Clinton, who supported exporting millions of U.S. jobs offshore, via free trade agreements?

Is it petulant NOT to support Madame Hillary Clinton, who voted for the Iraq War and is to the right of President Obama on most foreign policy issues?  Petulant behavior, arguably, is the belief that America can solve all of our foreign policy problems with guns and bayonets, the very foreign policy prescriptions that bankrupted this nation.  And some within the “Dem establishment,” such as Messrs. Hayes and Blow, maybe wondering why Neocons are lining up to support Ms. Clinton in the general election.

Gee I wonder why?

More to the point, are Senator Sanders’ supporters privileged for wanting someone who is honest and demonstrates consistency and integrity over the span of decades, as opposed to Madame Hillary Clinton, who shapeshifts with whichever direction the political wind is blowing (and is perennially under investigation)?

Who’s actually privileged and crazy?  Elite reporters insisting that the American public vote their way?  Didn’t some of these same reporters recently make the case that Black-Americans don’t vote as a block?  Yes, I believe Mr. Blow has made that argument on several occasions. 

So why would Mr. Blow expect Mr. Sanders’ supporters to vote as a block for Madame Hillary Clinton?  If it is suddenly okay to expect Mr. Sanders' supporters and Black voters, to vote in lock step…. Then I guess it allows me to raise the following question: 

How come Black voters would support the Clintons, who were responsible in no small way for: exporting jobs offshore; mass incarceration – that has preyed upon Blacks & Hispanics; gutting the safety net; and supporting a Wall Street cartel – that destroyed the global economy?

While the question is fair, it would be petulant of me – perhaps crazy - to think that Black voters are not individuals, as multivariate in their opinions as the petals on a rose, just as Senator Sanders voters are.  Each voter an individual with their own beliefs and value system.  Mr. Blow had it right the first time.  It would be fatuous to believe Blacks should vote in a unified block for Mr. Sanders (even though some within the Black community have made that case), just as it would be equally fatuous to believe Senator Sanders' supporters too, should vote as a unified block for the fatally flawed, Ms. Hillary Clinton.

One detects in Messrs. Hayes and Blow a lot of emotion… they are afraid, and they are genuinely scared that the limited social progress this nation has made, might vanish under a Trumpian presidency.

It’s a legitimate concern.  I too am a huge fan of equal rights for women, for gays, for minorities.  Mr. Sanders' supporters are also huge fans of democracy, as opposed to oligarchy.

I, and many Senator Sanders supporters, are not fans of the billionaire class that would seek to own the U.S. government for yet another four years, via their – bought and paid for - nominee, Madame Hillary Clinton.

Will Mr. Trump overturn gay rights?  Would he make things worse for women?  Would Mr. Trump ignore the needs of the poor, and working poor, any more than President Obama (aka Captain Free Trade) did for the last eight years? 

Perhaps, but it would also be the last nail in the GOP’s coffin.  The GOP is in its death throes, and Messrs. Trump’ & Cruz’ rants are little more than the Party’s death rattle.  A Trump presidency will finish the party off. 

For many liberals and progressives a completely discredited Republican party is better than a Pro-Establishment Clinton presidency.   Hillary will keep it just soft enough around the edges of her reign, particularly on social policy, so that the Oligarchy remains in power and continues to call the shots, economically and on foreign policy.  Hillary is the establishment; she’s “lose – lose”; she’s GOP.  Seething to breakout of Hillary’s shell is the Goldwater girl, the Demo-Hawk, both petulant and crazed.  And she’s bound and determined to show us just how bad of a b---- she can be.  Hillary, in her own mind, has earned it.  She’s warped the DNC, the primary system – itself, and the Superdelegate math to assure her own victory.  She never dreamed in a hundred years that a Socialist Senator from Vermont, would beat her like a gong, every step of the way to her coronation.

The United States is facing some of the gravest challenges in its history… the oligarchy and the billionaire class have run this nation into the ground and the people are rebelling against the established order.  Do we want a Republican in power when it hits the fan, or do we want a faux-democrat?  Do we want four more years of war w/out end under a Clinton presidency?  The resurrection of free trade ideology that is surely to follow her into the White House, biz as usual?  The Wall Street cartel calling the shots in the Clinton White House, via the Treasury and the Fed?

That answer is assuredly, NOT.

I could leave it there, but there remains one final key point.  Voter participation has been sliding in this country for a very long time.   Yes, Obama did inspire us in 2008, but well, the POTUS came up short.  He turned out to be nearly as subservient to the plutocrats as the Clintons; in fact, Obama is the modern day manifestation of Clintonian politics or GOP- Lite.  No doubt, it could have been worse under a President Romney, but we really are talking a matter of degrees.  Both Romney, Clinton and Obama, at the end of the day, serve the same master: ultra-wealthy campaign contributors, dark money, and Super PACs.




And hence, my final point is this….

When we vote, not only do we appoint somebody to office, but we also give legitimacy to our government and our democracy.

Not voting, deliberately not voting…. Sends as powerful a message as voting.  When all the candidates are bought and paid for, and when all the candidates are owned by billionaires, or are billionaires, not voting – not legitimizing – a corrupt and crony system may in fact be the best alternative.

Our system of government is rotten to its core, because it has made the graft and corruption – that we often laugh at in third world countries – legal and allegedly, legitimate in these United States.  And we only have the wealthy, the powerful, and our feckless politicians to blame for this situation; but the citizenry has to own up to it, as well. 


Mr. Sanders' supporters are smart enough and idealistic enough to know better.   The WSJ says one-third of Mr. Sanders’ supporters won’t be turning out for Madame Clinton.  And – given her character and the state of affairs in this country – that’s probably a good thing.  Why legitimize the Oligarchy?  Why legitimize the Establishment?  Why give the Queen her crown?  Why indeed?


Perhaps the journalistic establishment’s, Messrs. Hayes' and Blow's, question should be turned around.  The question shouldn’t be, why won’t Senator Sanders' supporters vote for Ms. Clinton?  But rather, why would Clinton supporters not vote for the more honest candidate, with the greatest integrity?  The candidate they actually trust?  Why would they risk turning the White House over to Trump, when they can have someone of Mr. Sanders' eminent qualifications and integrity?

Selah.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

Saturday, March 19, 2016

We Need a New App…


We Need a New App…

“Information is the most valuable commodity I know.”

- Gordon Gekko

By J.M. Hamilton (3-19-2016)

If the 2016 presidential race has revealed nothing else, it is this: the amount of money flowing into congressional and presidential races is obscene, and severely compromises even the best politicians.  Both Sanders and Trump have come out strongly against their respective opposition for being beholden to billionaires, Super PACs, multinationals, Big Biz, and 501Cs.   In essence, their anti-establishment campaigns are against a government and campaign finance system dominated by Oligarchy.

Despite all the fighting on social issues, when it comes to economic and foreign policy issues, the two political parties are very much in lock step, and one can barely see daylight between them and the establishment. 

By way of example consider both political parties’ decades long support (tacit or express) for: ruinous and job killing free trade; a regressive tax structure; mass incarceration; Wall St. and the economy's heavy dependence upon finance; the lack of social spending and infrastructure investment; a tax code riddled with loopholes, largely favoring major corporations and billionaires; disastrous M&A and combinations, leading to job killing monopolies and cartels; the offshoring of labor and the export of manufacturing jobs, as a fait accompli; and very few serious politicians question the DOD (MIC and Surveillance State), and America’s wars and military bases across the globe.  

Doubt me still, notice many conservative neocons are pledging to vote for Madame Hillary Clinton, should Mr. Trump become the GOP nominee.

This is by no accident.  Very powerful and moneyed interests afford campaign contributions, and lobby both political parties for support.  Many of my friends, and especially the national news organizations, love to discuss the differences between the Dems and the GOP; but I often redirect my friends, particularly on economic and foreign policy issues, to consider that the U.S. is really under one party rule, the Oligarchy.   That is to say, the American publics’ quarrel really isn’t with the Democratic or Republican politicians, per se; but rather, the public’s beef is with the billionaire class and multinationals that own the political class.   Hence, the massive rebellion currently underway against the Establishment of both political parties, made manifest by the two outsider candidates, Sanders and Trump.

To that end, how do Americans get a handle on the billionaires and multinationals, which truly pull Washington’s strings?  This is a massive problem, calling for a technical solution, a new downloadable app.  My proposed app maybe already out on the market in varying degrees, but what I’m proposing is far more comprehensive and universal in its approach.  For starters, each place of business, product, or service would have an informational bar code, which would allow consumers and the public to understand where a business rests on a whole range of issues impacting American consumers, voters, and workers.   It would allow American consumers to make informed decisions about the products and services they purchase. 

Why is such an app so important?  JMH made the case late last year in our editorial, With friends like these…  To wit, every time Americans purchased a barrel of Saudi or Middle East oil, some percentage of their dollar was going to support highly oppressive Middle East monarchies with abysmal human rights records.  Worse still, Americans buying Middle East oil are paying for and subsidizing the spread of fundamentalist Islamic religion and terrorism.  Ipso facto, when a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative or Liberal purchases a product or service from Koch Industries, they are supporting plutocrats, who have pledged nearly a billion dollars to purchase the White House.  The Kochs, of course, are known for far-right politics, and pro-plutocracy views that are often inimical to the interests of American society as whole. 

Now, how the proposed app would work (let’s call ‘er the Polipro 1.0) is said consumers, say Mrs. & Mrs. Sally Q. Public, would scan a bar code with their mobile phone, which could provide a flood of information about the product or service, and the manufacturer(s) of same.   Say Mrs. & Mrs. Public are buying a Georgia Pacific product for their new home… Georgia Pacific is owned and operated by Koch Industries.  The Publics can scan the informational bar code, and thanks to the Polipro 1.0, out comes a wealth of information about the manufacturer and their product, so that the Publics may make an informed decision to buy that product or look for alternatives.

Mrs. & Mrs. Sally Q. Public may swing hard right, or have libertarian tendencies, and love what the Polipro 1.0 is telling them about Koch Industries and Georgia Pacific.  Conversely, the Publics may be earthy-crunchy, Social-Democrats, living in Vermont, and the Polipro 1.0 causes them to run away from the Georgia Pacific product in abject horror.  But either way, the proposed app allows consumers, and labor, to make informed decisions about the products and services they buy (or perhaps the companies they are considering working for), and whether or not they – in turn – want their money, or labor, to contribute to purchasing the White House for right-wing causes.

What might the Polipro1.0 show us, after scanning a product’s informational bar code?

1)  The name of the manufacturer, of course.
2)  How much money was contributed to the respective political parties, over the last five years.
3)  Does said manufacturer contribute to Super PACs or 501Cs?   The answer is either “yes” or “no.” Consumers might immediately question any response that remains unanswered.
4)  What percentage of the product and its components were manufactured within the United States.
5)  What percentage of said manufacturer’s income was paid in taxes for three years running, as a percentage of EBITDA.
6)  How much money did said manufacturer spend on lobbying in the last five years?
7)  What causes were lobbied for?
8)  What percentage of the manufactures global labor force is American?
9)  What is the lowest wage, per hour, paid to their employees, globally?  Does the manufacturer promote equal pay for equal work?
10)  What is the manufacturer's position on free trade?
11)   How many jobs have been offshored w/in the last five years?  What percentage of said company’s labor force offshored?
12)   Is the industry dominated by a cartel or monopoly and what is the manufacturer’s market share?
13)  Has the manufacturer been sighted for any EPA or OSHA violations within the last five years, if so – respectively – how many violations?
14)   Is said manufacturer owned by a private equity firm?
15)   Has the company participated in any financial engineering over the last five years?  Stock buyback?   Labor force reductions on the heals of said financial engineering or LBO?
16)   What is the company’s profit margin, before EBITDA?
17)   Etc., etc., etc.  Note, the Polipro 1.0 might even create a composite score for a company, based upon the aforementioned, as to how consumer, labor, and/or environmentally friendly they are.

Now, I know what my readers are thinking?  Why would companies surrender such information, as it may lead to deleterious sales figures and impact profit margins.  Some information, on a specific product, may thrill a GOP or Dem shopper, but turn off an independent or liberal or v.v. 

The answer is, especially for publicly traded companies, a great deal of information may already be in the public domain; and thanks to Google, a great deal of information may also be available on privately held companies as well.  If a company wasn’t forthcoming with a product’s informational bar code, the consumer might immediately assume the manufacturer or service provider has something to hide, and look for product or service alternatives.  Companies doing business with other companies may choose not to do business with Company X because of the amount of money Company X contributed to perceived conservative and/or liberal cause(s)?  




Up until now, the Oligarchy – that owns and operates this country - has remained in the shadows.  American consumers have made the Oligarchy very powerful through its labor, purchasing power, and nescience.  A very real app like the proposed Polipro 1.0 would remove the Oligarchy from the shadows; and the app would likely, in the long run, make billionaire business owners, conglomerates, and multinationals think twice before contributing to their pet right-wing or left-wing causes.  The Oligarchy might also think twice before buying off the Congress, to the detriment of the American people.

Our friends in Silicon Valley need to get on it.  The spin off benefits, and revenue generating capacity, from such an app are enormous.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Everything is Awesome…



Everything is Awesome…

“As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do,” Buffett wrote. “That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.”

-       Bloomberg Business News, Buffett Fires Lucky-to-Be-American Letter at Politicians

By J.M. Hamilton (3-5-2016)

Cue the happy music, perhaps the Lego Movie theme song, Everything is Awesome, is most appropriate…

For Rex Buffettus (aka Mr. Warren Buffett) has descended from Omaha’s Olympian heights to let us mere mortals know that all is right with the world, particularly America and the American economy. 

Enough with the doom-saying politicians the multi-billionaire opined in the release of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report, and in subsequent interviews (presumably taking aim at the wildly popular – and populist - presidential candidates, Messrs. Sanders & Trump).  And shucks, I guess when Berkshire turned in a record year – all is right in the world, owned & operated by Plutocrat, Inc. 

Per the Guardian:  The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported a record full-year profit of $24.08bn, up 21%, while operating profit rose 5% to a record $17.36bn. Fourth quarter profit was up 32%, and operating profit rose a larger-than-expected 18%.

Nice.  Very nice. 

One supposes – when you’re a billionaire – and the entire economy is rigged in your favor, and you own the Congress, and presidential candidates and Presidents… it’s all good.  Best to quash populist outrage lifting up presidential candidates, Sanders & Trump, and spread the word, America is purring like a well oiled machine… just let us billionaires continue run things and make record profits.  And so the propaganda campaign continues -unabated, as does Mr. Buffet’s support for presidential candidate Clinton, and before that, President Obama.

There’s just one problem.  The fairy tale Mr. Buffet is spouting isn’t true, and the candidates and populist politicians he decries are popular for a very good reason.  The American public is many things, but they are not stupid; the American public knows they have been taken for a ride by the likes of Mr. Buffett and the billionaire class, and they and their children have suffered, and will continue to suffer for it.  Establishment candidates, particularly the GOP, and Ms. Clinton too, are under fire as never before.  Indeed the establishment itself is under fire for running this country right into the ground.

Here’s some inconvenient facts, Mr. Buffett, and friends, would like for us to ignore:

Depending upon what statistics you go by, somewhere between one in four and one in five American children are born into, and exist, in poverty.

Over the last seven years the poverty rate has doubled, per Mr. Dividovitz in a recent Bloomberg Surveillance interview with Mr. Tom Keene.

The number of food stamp recipients has exceeded 45 million Americans four years running, according to the Department of Agriculture.  For the math challenged that’s somewhere between one and ten and one in fifteen Americans, whom are either the working poor - or the unemployed - who are dependent upon government assistance just to survive.

U6, which not only tallies up the government’s official unemployment statistic, but also includes underemployment, and those who have given up looking for employment, has been 10%, and often considerably higher, for much of President Obama’s two terms in office.  President Obama inherited this mess, but many of the President’s pro-plutocratic policies did little to ameliorate these high unemployment conditions.  In short, President Obama was too busy adopting – or surrendering to - economic, trade, regulatory, and tax policies that benefited his wealthy campaign contributors.  Administration policies that are all too often antithetical to the interests of the American people. 

Wages have been stagnating in this country since the ‘90s.  This is by no accident, blame:  M&A, private equity, the financial crisis created by Wall St. banks, cartels and monopolies, free trade agreements, globalization, automation, robotics, and a feckless Congress, run by owned politicians.

Wage and wealth inequality are at highs not seen, since the last Gilded Age.  Many have cited the statistic that 99% of all new income in our society is going to the 1%, and Mr. Buffett wonders why Messrs. Sanders and Trump are very popular.

Yup, per the folksy, grandfatherly, Mr. Buffet – the smiley face of crony-capitalism - everything is just peachy keen, and indeed, Awesome.  Get out those pom-poms Mr. Buffett and cheer a little louder and we just might believe you.  NOT. 

At the end of the day, Mr. Buffett is a hypocrite.  Where most billionaires wisely live in the shadows – many eschew the limelight for very good reason – Mr. Buffett has taken it upon himself to be the yell-leader, not for capitalism, but crony- capitalism.   That dichotomy is very important, because capitalism – when actually practiced – is market driven, w/ necessary government intervention.  Government intervention, when appropriately applied, insures: competition in the market place; strong aggregate demand, via fair wages and benefits paid to American workers; and consumers and employees benefit from many competing entrants/businesses into the market place, keeping prices in check. 

On the other hand, crony-capitalism, whom Mr. Buffett is the godfather of, is the antithesis of capitalism or the anti-capitalism.  Crony-capitalism is in bed with government, in fact - owns government, and seeks: monopoly and monopolist pricing concessions; it advocates top-down free trade agreements that exploit low wage workers - globally, to the detriment of American workers; crony-capitalism exploits tax policy for its own ends, leaving the 99% to pick up the tax tab; it engages in regulatory capture so that businesses' social costs are picked up by the taxpayer and society, and it loves rigged courts; and crony-capitalism oversees the redistribution of wealth – via the aforementioned, and through the Federal Reserve – from the 99% to the 1%.

As Mr. Buffett once infamously noted:  Class warfare is practiced in America, and my side (aka the Billionaire Class) won.  J.M.H. has taken on Mr. Buffett’s hypocrisy before, read here and here.

Mr. Berkshire Hathaway’s special blend of fiction is worth revisiting and expanding upon, because if our elected officials truly want to turn this economy around (or prevent a political revolution), than here’s a brief tutorial(Note, some of these points are duplicated from my write up of last year, entitled: False Gods)

1)   Mr. Buffett has been said to lament the tax rates he and other plutocrats pay (which are often non-existent to exceptionally low), versus the tax rates, say his secretary pays.  But then we learn that Mr. Buffett helped finance Burger King’s recent tax inversion or tax avoidance scheme.  My guess is this is just the tip of the iceberg in Berkshire’s efforts to keep their conglomerates effective tax rate well below his secretary’s tax rate.

2)   Mr. Buffett said that the plutocracy has been engaged in class warfare against the poor and the middle class for sometime, and that his side won.  And yet, if anything, Berkshire Hathaway’s lobbying efforts have picked up steam, particularly under the Obama Administration.  Looks like Berkshire’s class warfare is not about to let up anytime soon.

3)   Mr. Buffet has called the Federal Reserve the greatest hedge fund around.  Mr. Buffet would know, since he and his companies have been one of the largest beneficiaries of the Fed’s actions.  Actions that have done little to turn the economy around, and have harmed the middle class.

4)   Warren has called derivatives and swaps financial weapons of mass destruction.  And yet, Mr. Buffett’s companies play with these weapons and have profited from them immensely; these weapons are also largely reinsured by the American Public (meaning the taxpayer does not profit from these instruments of mass destruction, but is called upon to pick up the pieces, when they go off – see the 2008 financial crisis.)

5)   Many of the monopolies and oligopolies Mr. Buffet’s conglomerate holds are able to make exceptional amounts of money, because the products are well known, and often enjoy relatively inelastic demand.  Meaning Mr. Buffett can set price.  In such a market, it does little harm to Mr. Buffett’s profits, and certainly less harm to the businesses themselves, to pay his employees a living wage.  And yet, Mr. Buffett has been quoted recently as stating that higher minimum wages will harm the working poor.  His statist solution: Have our bankrupt federal government expand the tax credit for the working poor.  In this manner, Mr. Buffet’s monopolistic profits go untouched, and the working poor continue to be the State's wards.

6)  In Berkshire’s most recent financial report, Mr. Buffett is said to have spent 10% of his cover letter defending the business practices of 3G.  3G is the private equity firm that gutted takeover acquisition, Heinz’, labor pool (despite up front assurances that said labor gutting would not transpire).  Mr. Buffett also defended his 3G partnership with Clayton Homes.  Clayton Homes is known for engaging in predatory lending practices, generally aimed at defrauding minorities.  3G’s tax inversion deal, between Burger King and Canada’s Tim Horton, was in part financed by Mr. Buffett.   Wall St. banks, private equity, and hedge funds are among the top dangers to America and Americans today, and Berkshire Hathaway is in deep with these segments, either holding stock and/or partnering with said institutions.

7)  Mr. Buffet expresses concerns about climate change in his annual report, and pushes back on calls for Berkshire to elaborate on how climate change would impact his insurance empire.  But Mr. Buffett may have other reasons for pushing back on calls for expanding upon the risks climate change poses (like protecting some of his investments that are directly correlated with contributing to the destruction of the planet). Among them:  Mr. Buffett’s choo-choo, BNSF, hauls enough coal per annum to supply electricity to one in ten U.S. homes; and Mr. Buffett, who has a controlling interest in an outdated NV utility, has lobbied hard to remove solar subsidies for NV homeowners.  Having failed before, Warren recently decided to take another plunge into Big Oil.  That’s mighty climate friendly of Mr. Buffett, and highly self-serving.

8)  There’s another reason why Mr. Buffett wants us to believe the economy is going very well for us all, and her name is Ms. Hillary Clinton.  His support for Ms. Clinton means a third Obama term, and the continuation of government, tax, regulatory, and free trade policies that have so richly benefited Berkshire Hathaway.  The Clintons and Obama have been on the receiving end of ramped up Berkshire campaign contributions, and the Clinton Foundation, directly or indirectly, has received money from Mr. Buffet’s family.  Hillary is so politically malleable, and has such a long history of saying one thing and doing another, that she provides the perfect political front for Berkshire’s business interests.  



However, it is Ms. Clinton's, indeed the entire political establishment's, malleability and double dealing against the American people (where the ends – personal enrichment - always justify the means – screwing Americans over) that has led to the political upheaval that Mr. Buffett now decries.  


The billionaire class has acted with preternatural greed, and, perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, perfected malice towards the American people.  Responsible billionaires would police themselves up, before this political revolution takes a nasty turn for the worse.

My guess is… it’s too late.  Many Americans have had enough of billionaires, and more Americans have had enough of class warfare perpetrated by billionaires.   Now, it will take a miracle for a GOP establishment candidate to receive the nomination; and Ms. Clinton’s nomination, if it happens, is likely to be corseted in ignominy and continuous investigations.

Go team, Buffett!  Yeah.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016