Demagogue on Parade…

Demagogue on Parade…

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

-       George Washington

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

-       Alexander Hamilton

By J.M. Hamilton (2-17-2018)

The American people live in extraordinarily evil times, whereby our government has long ago stopped representing the people’s interests.

Instead, the majority of the economy’s sectors have been allowed – by our government – to metastasize into cartel and monopoly. 

In our current monopoly economy, both the consumer and labor are squeezed, via monopoly and monopsony power, respectively.  That is, w/out benefit of competition or the free movement of labor, business is able to set price – often making exceptional profits off the consumer – and able to dictate the price of labor, as they are the only game in town.  (If you think the national debt is a drag upon the economy & economic growth, think too, of the destabilizing impact a monopoly economy has upon our macro and growth fundamentals.)

Having an Oligarchy control the private sector is bad enough, but when an elite few co-opt and own the public sector as well, a safety valve is removed from the most predatory & virulent form of crony capitalism known to man.  That is, fiscal policy – in lieu of building roads and providing a safety net – has been captured to rob the Federal credit line and provide tax cuts for an elite few, or fund privatization schemes, whereby the taxpayer is scammed and robbed ad nauseam. 

Monetary policy too has been captured by the Wall Street banks, Shadow Banking, & the Private Equity barons.  And instead of being used for the common good, monetary policy has become yet another trickle-down vehicle, much like fiscal policy, whereby an elite few profit from inflated asset prices pumped up by the Federal Reserve (in the hopes that that inflated asset prices, and flush Wall Street banks, will allow a few crumbs to float down to the 99%).

Times are so grey, that entire industries - that should have already gone the way of the buggy whip – are sustained by the grace of a kleptocratic government.  JMH, of course, is writing about Big Coal & Big Oil.  U.S. government is so corrupt that antitrust laws are rarely enforced, and predatory utilities are allowed to charge outrageous fees for commodities that are anything but scarce, like Internet service providers and Big Pharma’s patented medicine trove.

But two industries, perhaps, stand above all others in the carnage and desolation that they spread: gun manufacturers and military contractors. 

The gun industry and its lobbyist, the NRA, have to answer for an ever-growing American body count, numbering in the thousands annually.  This week saw another mass killing at a Florida high school, and our purchased Congress failed the American people once again.

The reality is our Congress and President(s) – like vampires - are now bathed in countless victims' blood, cut down too early by military grade assault rifles, and in a hail of NRA sponsored lead.  And our, allegedly, democratic government, solely, is responsible for the carnage.  The Congress, which initiates legislation, is a complicit tool of the gun lobby, and continually fails to act to contain & control the death and rivers of blood.

No other country on the planet is responsible for, or suffers from, this level of mass shooting violence; no other country on the planet has a President, or Executive Branch leader, that obsesses about the stock market like ours does.  Of course, the stock market sadly explains why industries that should have already been liquidated are still around minting profits, while new technology is at the ready to render said industry obsolete.  As for guns, any leader – who had any sense of decency or knowledge of right & wrong – would demand a ban on assault rifle sales.

Crony capitalists – and Oligarchs - hate any disruptions to a never-ending stream of monopolistic profits, no matter how dated the industry, or the severity of the carnage and destruction wrought by said cartel (especially if the social costs of said deadly product are passed onto government & society).  The Oligarchy has no allegiance to nation-states, or its citizens; they only have allegiance to profits.

The ends justify the means, and the “ends” – our end – is blind idolatry of the stock market and the profits it affords the Oligarchy.

And therein lies the problem:  Our Commander in Chief is morally bankrupt, in way over his head, and entirely unfit for the job at hand.  He lies like he breathes air.  Like any demagogue he’s a great divider and superlative at stirring up his base; but when it comes to executing on his promises, he only delivers for his donors & plutocratic friends (which surprise, their interests do not align w/ the interests of: the nation, or Mr. Trump’s base, or the American people). 

Nobody believes the U.S. Chamber’s mantra anymore, that what is good for cartels, monopolies, and multinationals is good for Americans.

Scandal after scandal follows the man, and evangelicals and hanger-ons caudle our POTUS… to learn who can be the very best sycophant.  The GOP has given up any pretense of dignity and is now confirmed to be the retrograde party of homophobia, misogyny, murder, and racism (a few Dems, too, have played their part).

And so  - like the corruption surrounding ancient Rome itself -  there must be distractions, something to keep The People’s collective mind off the emperor’s ever growing list of scandals.  There must be bread and circuses to distract the vox populi from the reincarnation of Caligula, who now inhabits the Oval Office. 

And so, our Commander in Chief has called for a military parade. 

Now, military parades, generally, fall into two categories: as historically conducted in the U.S., they are often used to celebrate the conclusion of a successful military campaign or war.  Whereas in emerging markets - inhabited by authoritarian, or totalitarian dictators – military parades are often conducted out of fear… fear of the leadership’s inferiority, fear of foreign powers & outsiders, and even fear of the despot’s own people.  In the latter parades, the celebration – if any - is not about war’s end, but rather, to call attention to the preening peacock on the reviewing stand, the imperious head of state and the awesome power they wield.

Rather than celebrate war's end, military parades – conducted by authoritarians & totalitarians – put The People on notice: We are on a permanent war footing; the threat is both constant & real; and the deprivations and sacrifice you suffer – citizen – is because the world (or some foreign power) is against you and your family.  In these regimes, the media is often state controlled, so that there is one official narrative or party line.

For the dictatorial regime, guns & murder always come before butter, and the people often starve as a result.

Bread & Circuses or a Fear Based Totalitarian Cult?

Hmmm.  Which type of parade might Mr. Trump have in mind?

Last JMH checked, the most powerful nation on the earth – the last remaining superpower -  hasn’t won many wars as of late.  It's been widely noted, young U.S. soldiers fighting today in Afghanistan were in disposable diapers when the war began.  What does it say that the most powerful nation on earth can’t win a war against a ragtag resistance?  What does it say that the U.S. would be foolish enough to attempt a nation building exercise w/in the graveyard of empires?

Our defense contractors are one of the clearest examples of the abuses heaped upon the U.S. economy by cartels & monopolies: manufacturing products and services that don’t work; a perennial lack of innovation w/ military products designed to fight the last war; and always and forever, the ubiquitous cost over-runs.  Will Trump’s parade celebrate the MIC’s abundant failures?

Perhaps, Mr. Trump wants to celebrate our all volunteer fighting force, who – all too often - join the military in the hopes of ultimately being able to afford a college degree, w/out suffering a debtor's existence for life.  (Note, as reported in the Military Times, the soldiers who responded to a survey voted overwhelming against Mr. Trump’s proposed carnival).

Given how poorly paid our soldiers are, I’m sure they’d prefer a raise, instead of a parade.

Maybe Mr. Trump wants to call attention to the wholesale sellout of his campaign pledge to end failed nation building?  Mr. Trump wasn’t in office a full year before he let the generals con him into another Afghanistan surge.  Heh, but this time we’re going for the Big Win.

Right.  War has become just another profit center for the Kleptocracy, and if it bankrupts the nation so be it.

I know, we are celebrating our overextended military empire, consisting of 700 to 900 military bases scattered around the globe?  (While one in five U.S. children live in poverty.)

Perhaps it’s the fact that the last two Presidents ran on campaigns of ending wars, only to ramp up existing wars once in office.  So much for the foreign policy establishment’s worries about an isolationist POTUS Trump.

No.  At the end of the day – the parade Mr. Trump wants increasingly feels like the type of military parades authoritarians and totalitarians throw, and for the aforementioned reasons that dictators throw them (mainly out of fear; as a distraction; the Dear Leader's self-aggrandizement; and a reminder that the nation and the people are now on a permanent war footing).  Hence, the need to waste at least half of discretionary Federal spending on an un-auditable DoD/MIC, while children and families suffer austerity (and are crushed by an ever concentrated monopoly economy).  

Never mind that the terrorists shooting up the U.S. are typically white, male, American, and armed w/ military grade assault rifles.

What Mr. Trump seems to have forgotten, or yet to learn – many of our foreign policy experts & military leaders haven't learned either – is that there’s more to being a superpower than spending obscene amounts of money on offensive weapons systems that do not perform.

Maintaining superpower status requires a fiscally solvent government (not one that is indebted to its enemy, China).  Retaining a strong military means not letting generals, and military contractors (or alleged allies) dictate U.S. foreign policy, or engage the U.S. military in each & every provocation around the globe (contrived or real).  It means cutting and discarding the fraud & waste surrounding weapons systems – and military contractors – who consistently fail to deliver. 

Being a superpower requires a sound currency that is not manipulated by a Federal Reserve, manned by Wall Street banksters.  It means keeping a lid on wage and wealth inequality, and making sure the economy benefits all – not just an elite few – so that our military force has a continued and vested interest in fighting for this nation and her ideals.  (Moreover, it's in our national security interest to break up cartels, monopolies, and TBTF institutions, or when a monopoly or utility is important enough to maintain, carefully regulate said monopoly or utility.)

And speaking of ideals, a superpower that fails to live by its proclaimed democratic principles will eventually be hollowed out, chewed through w/ corruption and mismanagement… until ultimately, out of desperation & frustration, the voters adopt the ideals of authoritarians and despots (see the West’s growing right-wing populist revolt).

Finally, the nation needs to make sure that our troops receive adequate pay and services, and are treated w/ the greatest admiration and respect (no matter how sordid or vacuous the wars are they are forced to fight)… not trotted out as a performing circus for a Commander in Chief, who has more ethical problems than the nation can count.

Our founding fathers warned us about such characters…  men who wrapped themselves in flags and proclaimed themselves to be the sole arbiters of national patriotism.

But given that Emperor Trump is presently buck-naked, what else is there for him to wear but a flag, a parade, and pseudo-patriotism?

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018

Persecuted are the Truth-tellers

An earlier version of this piece stated that Ms. Reality Winner sent NSA information to The Guardian. In fact, she sent this information to The Intercept.

Persecuted are the Truth-tellers

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

-       George Orwell

You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.

-       Senator Daniel Moynihan

By J.M. Hamilton  (2-4-2018)

What does it say about a country that ostracizes and persecutes those who tell the truth?

As important, if a country or society ignores or rejects truth, what is its foundation built upon?  And how long can such a foundation hold?

Our society looks up to patriarchal figures – men of financial accomplishment or w/ professional designations – and it nearly takes an act of the Goddess above, before we will believe the allegations and the corruption that all too often falls upon such men.

To be sure many men, and women, obtain some degree of success in this world, w/out sacrificing morals or societal standards; but as of late, it seems increasingly rare, particularly for the most powerful among us.

Day by day another man of accomplishment or stature seems to fall, often over allegations concerning their abuse of power, or a private or public trust.

The last several months have been very revealing – not just about the dry rot surrounding the US power structure – but, as important, about how the United States crucifies, and often ignores, those who are brave enough to come forward and tell the truth.

Let’s examine several recent examples:

Many people probably don’t know who Rachel Denhollander is, but she is one of the first women, if not the first, to come forward against the serial pedophile, Doctor Larry Nassar.  Mr. Nassar is all over the front pages presently for molesting scores of young women athletes.

And how did society treat Ms. Denhollander for demonstrating this courage?  We don’t have to wonder, the NY Times recently published her account.  This is what Ms. Denhollander endured and suffered, in her own words:

I lost my church. I lost my closest friends as a result of advocating for survivors who had been victimized by similar institutional failures in my own community.

I lost every shred of privacy.

When a new friend searched my name online or added me as a friend on Facebook, the most intimate details of my life became available long before we had even exchanged phone numbers. I avoided the grocery stores on some days, to make sure my children didn’t see my face on the newspaper or a magazine. I was asked questions about things no one should know when I least wanted to talk.

And the effort it took to move this case forward — especially as some called me an “ambulance chaser” just “looking for a payday” — often felt crushing.

Yet all of it served as a reminder: These were the very cultural dynamics that had allowed Larry Nassar to remain in power.

Based upon societal reactions one might think, for a moment, that Ms. Denhollander was the person committing monstrous abuse on a massive scale, against minors.  More unsettling still, Dr. Nassar was investigated many times prior to his recent conviction, and the authorities and investigative bodies always gave the psychopath a pass (because who is one to believe, a teenage, or young, girl, or a respected member of the medical community?).

Mses. Rose McGowan & Uma Thurman are better known, and their narratives surround the notorious Hollywood mogul, Mr. Harvey Weinstein. 

Mr. Weinstein abused his position as a Hollywood producer to, allegedly, sexually assault – and sometimes rape – actors by the dozens.  All throughout Hollywood the code of omerta was maintained for decades; or conveniently, the assaulted women would no longer get movie or television roles, or job offerings would suddenly drop off.  Mr. Weinstein, of course, couldn’t have possibly assaulted this many actors w/out a great deal of help, from attorneys, investigative agencies (who  dug up dirt on the victims for purposes of blackmail), and assorted assistants.

A lot of people were in on this lie, but nobody came forward.

Ms. McGowan recently shared w/ ABC, what she thought of the artificial and superficial reaction the Hollywood elite had in response to Mr. Weinstein and the #metoo movement.

“It felt like people were dancing on our graves. People in fancy dresses, like, black of course, posing and living it up on the red carpet,” McGowan told ABC News "Nightline" co-anchor Juju Chang. “The black stupid clothes that the stupid men wore. It's a lie, and I knew they were going to trot the activists out there for PR.”

And Ms. Thurman had this to say, for Maureen Dowd at the NY Times:

She (Thurman) thought she could confront him and clear it up, but she took Herman with her and asked Weinstein to meet her in the Savoy bar. The assistants had their own special choreography to lure actresses into the spider’s web and they pressured Thurman, putting Weinstein on the phone to again say it was a misunderstanding and “we have so many projects together.” Finally she agreed to go upstairs, while Herman waited on a settee outside the elevators.

Downstairs, Herman was getting nervous. “It seemed to take forever,” the friend told me. Finally, the elevator doors opened and Thurman walked out. “She was very disheveled and so upset and had this blank look,” Herman recalled. “Her eyes were crazy and she was totally out of control. I shoveled her into the taxi and we went home to my house. She was really shaking.” Herman said that when the actress was able to talk again, she revealed that Weinstein had threatened to derail her career.

So we know how society responds to truth-tellers, but how about state organs – with totalitarian tendencies – w/in the U.S. government?

Enter Reality Winner ...   Ms. Winner, some may remember, served her country in the U.S. Air Force and at the NSA as a contractor, before sending NSA information to The Intercept.  For her act of truth-telling, also known as whistleblowing, Ms. Winner has been charged with violating the Espionage Act for allegedly releasing national security information.  In our opaque government, nearly everything is marked “secret” or far too often designated a matter of national security.  

If your looking for honesty or transparency, there’s very little to be found at the NSA. 

And yet, the U.S. Congress just re-upped on mass surveillance, by extending again, Section 702 of the FISA Act (which basically means the surveillance state can read your online activities w/out a warrant). 

Constitution and civil liberties be damned.

But I digress.  Kudos to Trevor Timm, who recently wrote a piece for The Intercept, aptly comparing the treatment a patriot, like Ms. Winner, is receiving, versus Mr. Trump’s wealthy former campaign manager, Mr. Manafort.

One needs only glance at recent headlines — and the case of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was charged with conspiracy and money laundering, among other counts — to see how absurd it is to deny Winner bail. Manafort, whose alleged criminal endeavors involved foreign government patrons, has millions of dollars at his disposal and was the owner of three passports. Not only did Manafort get bail, he was given permission to spend Christmas in the Hamptons.

Winner, on the other hand, is incarcerated indefinitely for, as officials have said, allegedly mailing an NSA document about Russian election hacking to The Intercept. (The Intercept had no knowledge of the source’s identity.) It’s an injustice that is not only out of step with precedent, but also creating an undue burden on her defense team. That’s why they’re taking these steps to appeal the bail decision again.

Other galling examples of the boot heal of American society and government stomping on the face of truth-tellers, include Chelsea Manning & Edward Snowden.  Their only, respective, crimes were revealing how the military industrial complex abuses its power and the war machine (against civilians and reporters), and how the surveillance state spies – not just on foreigners – but Americans.

And what did we do to these two patriots?  We locked up Ms. Manning and threw away the key (until POTUS Obama commuted her sentence).  Mr. Snowden is, of course, in exile. 

To date, no one has ever proved that the documents released by Ms. Manning or Mr. Snowden has in anyway harmed the U.S. (nor has anyone ever proven the efficacy of the NSA or unlimited warfare).  And yet, their service to the American people was both incalculable & invaluable.  In fact, if government was truly transparent – “transparency” is very hot w/ the Republican Party, presently – we would never had heard their names: Manning, Snowden, or Winner.

It is because our government is captured by the wealthy and well-connected – and operating in the shadows and against the interests of ordinary Americans – that there is a need for truth-tellers, and that these truth-telling women and men should be celebrated.  It is because industry has been consolidated to such a degree that moguls, like Mr. Weinstein, are able to act in an abusive manner towards labor with reckless abandon.

This is what this nation does to those who dare tell the truth.  We lock them up, or make examples of them.  

In short, we make their lives a living hell (which, surprise, discourages others from telling the truth).

Think about that for a moment.  By persecuting the truth-tellers, we enable corruption, and we help maintain a corrupt power structure that plays by its own unstated rules.

By attacking those who tell the truth, we protect a lie…. But not a single lie, many lies.

And a country based upon a foundation of lies, and opaqueness, will not long endure.

Our complete lack of appreciation for the truth, and those bold enough to tell the truth, is not a symptom of this nation’s problems… it goes to the very heart of why the United States is in the situation we are in today: a bankrupt empire; with an overextended military & a surveillance state run amok; and a thoroughly unaccountable Kleptocracy calling the shots.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018