Macron Fails to Look in the Mirror

Macron Fails to Look in the Mirror

“I do not want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers. I do not want to belong to a generation that will have forgotten its own past or that will refuse to see the torments of its own present,” he said. “I want to belong to a generation that has decided firmly to defend its democracy.”

-Leaders worldwide are falling for a ‘deadly illusion’ – Washington Post

By J.M. Hamilton (4-28-2018)

French President Emmanuel Macron – former investment banker - visited the United States this week, and gave a speech before Congress (the speech was both elegant & entertaining).  He recently gave a very similar speech before the European Parliament, in which he railed against the decline of democracy, free trade, and multilateralism (And perhaps a little more circumspect or less overt, many European leaders have lamented the decline of the US empire and rising talk of US disengagement w/ the world).

As reported in the Washington Post: 

(Macron) declared that Europe is being torn by the rise of “national selfishness and negativity”and a growing “fascination with the illiberal.” 

And he’s right.  To some degree centrist parties have had it handed to them in Germany, Italy, and yes, even France (where Macron road an angry wave that eviscerated France’s two centrist parties).  In the US voters in 2016 turned to POTUS Trump, and Senator Sanders, and rejected establishment candidates but for one.  (That Trump has reversed himself - on many populist issues - and has adopted the US Chamber’s, and Biz Roundtable’s, agenda is another story.)

Where Macron, and centrist parties, fail is in naming the reasons why citizens throughout the West are rejecting: free trade; establishment political parties; neoliberalism; and w/in the U.S., our global empire.  Nor does Macron offer solutions to the rise of nationalism, and voters turning to far right political parties, and in no few instances embracing Green Party and socialist politicians (who certainly have better ideas & solutions, than the discord, division, & hatred offered up by the fascists, and the status quo afforded by establishment political parties).

Mr. Macron is dead wrong.  We are not sleepwalking away from democracy, we know full well why democracy and neoliberalism are failing.  And the answers are simple… indeed, right before Mr. Macron’s nose, if he only cared enough to look or provide a honest appraisal.  Then again, when Mr. Macron refers to democracy, perhaps he’s referring to the current rigged system, where politicians are owned and respond almost exclusively to the billionaire class.

The bottom line is centrist parties - along w/ democracy, itself - have been captured throughout the West by an unscrupulous billionaire class, and owned politicians, in turn, have failed the people.

Economically, corporations and multinationals have been allowed to consolidate so that Western economies are dominated by oligopoly and utilities.  These utilities - w/ the help of “democratic” government - have crushed labor, wages have stagnated, and far too many people live a precarious day-to-day existence.

Likewise, few Americans have any vested interest in our global empire, aimless wars w/out end, and failed nation building.  Moreover, one cannot pick up a paper - or examine the news flow - w/out reading how yet another defense contractor is shafting the American taxpayer again, w/ cost over runs, fraud, and weapons systems that don’t work. 

In the US, the plutocracy has voted themselves tremendous welfare, in the form of tax relief, while sticking the tab to future generations and an ever-shrinking middle class.

No wonder voters throughout the West have had it with neoliberalism, which is shorthand for socialism for plutocrats: bank bailouts; crony government; free trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors that lead to the offshoring of labor and tax avoidance; capture of fiscal, monetary, & trade policies; and the monopoly – rip off - economy.

Guess what Jupiter?  Until Western leaders take that honest self-assessment and act to make our economies - and governments - work for the people, desperate citizens will reach further left & right (beyond owned centrist parties), reject multilateralism, and seek to close open borders at a time jobs have become scarce and the living experience for far too many in the West has become hopeless.  As for Macron’s dream of greater pan-European control by the EU, the people no longer trust their own national governments.  They certainly aren’t going to want to report into - or cede greater authority to - a government in Brussels.  An EU government that is greatly removed from the accountability of the common citizen.

Western leaders - and governments - aren't falling for a deadly illusion.  They're falling over barrels of money and billionaires.

Multinationals are said to prize stability… great for operating margins and hitting analyst expectations.  

It should come as no surprise then, that Western citizens also pine for stability; that is to say, a steady paycheck that pays a living wage, and the absurd notion - particularly w/in the US - that they not go bankrupt from medical expense.  But democratic governments - coopted and owned by the wealthy, along w/ globalization & technology run amok - are proving anything but stable for the 99%. 

Which means the world the 1% have created - for themselves - is unstable for the kleptocracy.

In fact, democracy, free trade/globalization, the foreign policy establishment - that applies the US military as a one size fits all solution to every global problem – may have sewn the seeds of their own destruction, because it only works for the few.  Crony democracy is no substitute for democratic institutions and political parties that look out for the people.  Cheap goods dumped on US shores - brought to you by globalization and monopolies - aren’t worth a nickel to citizens, who don’t possess jobs, or who possess jobs that fail to pay a living wage. 

As for war w/out end, in case Mr. Macron failed to notice, the US is bankrupt.  America can no longer pick up the foreign policy/national security tab for Europe.  It is worth noting, US involvement in the Middle East has created a refugee crisis that Europe will be dealing w/ for decades to come.

Within the US, there’s a lesson for the Democratic Party.  To wit, keep pandering to banksters, the tech giants in Silicon Valley, and the military industrial complex, and the blue wave you’re likely to ride in November may break early and recede.  Leaving failed GOP-Lite economic policies exposed, gasping for oxygen, and stranded on the beach.  It’s not enough for Dems to be liberal on social issues.  They are going to need to find ways to make the economy, & government, work for the people again, and that likely means upsetting some members of the oligarchy/donor class.  

Quelle horreur!

As for the malaise Macron correctly identifies but then fails to address, thank you establishment political parties.  Thank you kleptocrats that own and operate decaying democracies throughout the West.  

You broke it… now its time to own it, and fix it. 

If you think authoritarian or totalitarian regimes are the way to go…look at what they do to billionaires in Saudi Arabia.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018

Monopsony Power Crushes the First Amendment

Monopsony Power Crushes the First Amendment

“I was fired from my job because my employer feared unconstitutional retaliation,” Ms. Briskman said Thursday afternoon. “But on a larger scale, I feel that our democracy is being threatened.”

Her lawyers assert that Ms. Briskman’s gesture was “core political speech” protected by Virginia law and the Constitution. She is seeking $2,692 for two weeks of severance she said she was promised but never received, as well as compensation for legal fees.

“Criticism of our leaders should be encouraged,” Ms. Briskman said Thursday on Twitter. 

- Woman Who Was Fired for Giving Trump the Middle Finger Sues Former Employer - NY Times

Apple’s Global Security team employs investigators who have previously worked in the U.S. military, U.S. intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency, and law enforcement agencies like the Secret Service and the F.B.I.

- APPLE MEMO URGING EMPLOYEES NOT TO LEAK . . . LEAKS – VF HIVE

By J.M. Hamilton (4-15-18)

Monopolies exert ruinous power over the American economy, politics, and the nation’s fiscal & monetary health.  Indeed, many American monopolies & cartels have market caps, and generate revenue, that exceeds many nation states’ GDP.  And their unbridled power only seems to grow.

Beyond the macro concussion is the equally troublesome impact monopolies hold over everyday Americans, and their Constitutional freedoms.  As noted in my last piece, monopolies and cartels fuel: wage & wealth inequality, political instability, crony government, economic stagnation, and a lack of innovation & growth.  

In Wage & Price Controls, written last year, it was noted that monopolies not only exert extraordinary power over the consumer, the economy, and our government…. But they also exert exceptional power over labor and third-party contractors/suppliers (aka monopsony power).

Federal Reserve Chairs - rubbing their temples - have been left, allegedly, wondering why the trillions in free money pumped into the economy (mainly as a form of Wall Street bank welfare) has not “trickled down,” and has not led to a pick up in wage growth.  The fact that many multinationals force their employees to sign non-competes, and in some instances collude - not to compete for labor - within a given industry, never seems to have dawned on Fed eminentos, as to the reason for the lack of wage growth.  And then there’s the obvious: w/ fewer corps or multinationals w/in a given industry, or fewer publicly traded companies, an employee can be blackballed, and basically excluded from all future opportunity.  See the NFL and the black lives matter protests.

In short, given that our government is owned and refuses to enforce antitrust laws (and said laws are completely out of date), the private sector exerts tremendous leverage over the American worker.  In essence, multinationals may, and sometimes do, demand that US labor do their bidding and adhere to their every command.

And corporations and multinationals are growing bolder, not only in setting expectations in the workplace, but even in dictating an employee’s afterwork behavior and communications.

Sinclair - a growing right-wing cancer w/in the propagandized news media sector - recently made all its affiliates read the same hard-right editorial.  Sinclair is seeking to consolidate local media coverage, so that its right-wing views are spread in a homogenous manner throughout American society.  But it’s not enough for Sinclair to control its employees while at work, Sinclair also wants to control its employees’ after-hours behavior.  As recently noted in the Huffington Post:

Sinclair’s employee handbook, provided to HuffPost, states that the company “may monitor, intercept, and review, without further notice, every employee’s activities using Company’s electronic resources and communications systems.”

The handbook goes on to state, “To be very clear: you should not have any expectation of personal privacy in any communication using Company owned equipment.”

Sinclair isn’t alone.  Apple came out very hard against its employees' First Amendment rights, and threatened to fire anyone - who exercised freedom of speech and acted in their capacity as a whistleblower - in regards corporate misdeeds.   Bloomberg, who broke the story, noted the following:

The Cupertino, California-based company said in a lengthy memo posted to its internal blog that it "caught 29 leakers," last year and noted that 12 of those were arrested. "These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere," Apple added. The company declined to comment on Friday.

Indeed, throughout Silicon Valley major players like Facebook and Google, whose motto used to be “don't be evil,” have taken similarly draconian measures against freedom of speech.  Even going beyond statutes - in some instances -  in making coercive threats that are neither supported by the law nor the Constitution.

Monopoly and monopsony power in action.

And therein lies the rub.  While it can be easily argued that employers should hold lawful and reasonable expectations - concerning an employee’s work place communications and behavior - those expectations should cease when an employee has punched out for the day.  That is to say, as long as an employee is not engaged in illegal acts outside of work, the employer's hold, say, and surveillance over an employee’s non-work hours should be nonexistent.

However, increasingly it seems, employers not only want to control their employees during work hours, but dictate behaviors and communications outside of work itself: under penalty of facing unemployment and greatly diminished job prospects w/in said industry.  And as we heard from Mr. Zuckerberg last week, employers & multinationals have the power to know exactly what their employees' communications and behaviors are 24/7/365.

It turns out Facebook, per Mr. Zuckerberg, not only hoovers up data when you are logged onto Facebook - but also when you’re logged off Facebook, or even if you're not registered, or signed up, for Facebook.  Add in your banking activities, the government surveillance state, internet service providers, and travel records… and there is literally nothing employers don’t have the ability to learn about their employees' behavior outside of work.  

Per Bloomberg, multinationals feed the deep state/surveillance state information, and the state in turn feeds the multinationals data and information.  Insidious.

Where does it end?  With AI, automation, and globalization threatening jobs, employers have more leverage over labor than ever before. The NY Times noted, as far back as 2012, that some employers were increasingly so bold as to tell their employees how to vote. Georgia Pacific - owned and operated by the Koch brothers - was a case in point.

It’s no accident that w/ greater concentration of wealth and power into fewer hands that more Americans are taking to the streets in protest than at any other time, since the Vietnam War.

Therefore, employees need protection - not only from the state’s panopticon - but as important, from personal life intrusions directed by multinationals and the private sector.  

So how exactly to go about it.  Well for starters:

1.   Elect politicians willing to break up cartels and monopolies.  This not only diminishes concentrated economic & political power, but spreads that power among more competitors, and provides labor with more employment options.

2.   Place into office politicians willing to roll back deep state power, as well as, the wholesale mass surveillance intrusion social media actors, like Facebook, have come to exemplify.  Very few have a problem w/ law enforcement surveilling bad actors, as long as a warrant is obtained; but the assumption that all Americans are guilty - and worthy of round the clock surveillance - is both unconstitutional and unacceptable.

3.   Finally, it’s time for both a UBI, as well as, an economic bill of rights to guarantee all Americans economic wellbeing, and their freedoms, from coercion executed by a kleptocracy acting in bad faith.  If workers can lean upon a UBI, or a job guarantee provided by the state, they are less prone to having - or allowing - their freedoms to be infringed upon (by monopolies & multinationals & the billionaire class).

Americans are under economic & political pressures as never before… and monopolies increasingly are the reason why Americans are feeling crushing economic & political oppression.  Whether its the private sector capturing the state and our politicians, or monopolies running the economy for their own ends, suppressing wages, or dictating after hours behavior (monitored w/ the aid and assistance of the governmental and private sector surveillance state)… it’s time for Americans to stand up and demand safeguards and protections, both economic & political. 

The very health of our democracy depends upon systemic reform.  Tech is highly seductive... until one learns it's a tool that can be aimed at one's civil liberties, and utilized to confiscate same civil liberties, as well as, harm the means to earn a living.  Corporations overseeing the private lives of their employees - via the surveillance state - risk playing god, and clearly, are a threat to the First Amendment, if not the Constitution.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018