We live in interesting times… Much of it self-inflicted!
There’s so much evil to unpack, as a result of America possessing the world’s fiat currency, that I’ve just scratched the surface. The spillover effects and impact of exorbitant privilege, from the dictators we prop up to the bloodshed, human rights abuses, & repression America supports, both domestic & foreign… in the furtherance of commercial dominance, to the make the oligarchy richer still, in the name of profits, and in order to be the world’s banking, corporate, and military hegemon sickens the soul.
- Exorbitant Privilege- JM Hamilton
By Gregg Wall (12-24-2023)
When historians look back, 2023 may prove to be an inflection point like no other in recent years, save 2008. And it can be argued that the sins of 2008… endless welfare for bankers, billionaires, and multinationals, and the resulting transfer of wealth… materialized in 2023 with a vengeance.
This was the year when elites laid it all on the table: their contempt for democracy; their animosity towards labor and the public; their dedication to endless war and mass murder. To break it down further:
It appears that Trump, a man dedicated to authoritarianism and dictatorship, as of this writing, will be the Republican nominee. Biden, with extraordinarily bad polling, has dismissed rivals and declared there will be no primary. America is essentially looking at a retread of the 2020 campaign, at a time that America needs so much more than the reactionary, status quo policies both candidates are willing to offer. Call it democracy’s death rattle and the rise of oligarchy. Hell, they’re not even going through the motions anymore. Both Biden and Trump, Dems and GOP, showing authoritarian tendencies; both parties have zero respect for the American people. And despite a difference in style, in terms of outcome & substance, there is little difference between how either man will actually govern. America is looking at two entirely corrupt & evil political parties… all pretense about the lesser two of evils has disappeared into Biden’s genocide.
As for elite contempt for consumers, labor, and the public… this was a year like no other. Prices continued to climb, compounding upon the inflation (aka price gouging) seen in ’20, ’21, and ’22. The elite & Washington solution to supply-side price gouging, as in prior years, was not to go after greed, monopolies, and Wall St., but to continue to attack consumers & labor (who are one in the same… something U.S. antitrust law conveniently forgets). But the U.S. economy is so encumbered by private and public debt, it appears that the Federal Reserve will pull up short on its inflation fight, by declaring victory based upon a specious core inflation number. Gaslight, lie, repeat: Isn’t the Biden economy wonderful? Easier money, which led to the consolidated economy, may return in 2024, but that doesn’t mean dereg, greed, neoliberalism, and the nation’s monopoly problems will be resolved (far from it). In short, even if greed takes a vacation, the factors that have set off record profits and labor lining up in breadlines… consolidation, gov & regulatory capture, laissez-faire, monopoly, and Wall St speculation… remain and are alive and well.
As for endless war and genocide? Biden and his handlers, and donors, appear to be willing to risk all… American prestige and arguably, national security itself… by supporting genocide and mass - child - murder inside Gaza. America’s reputation is drowning in blood. And the elites in Washington appear to be at least forty years behind the times. Israelis are no longer an oppressed people but, backed by the U.S., are a superpower in their own right. Their treatment of the Palestinian people in 2014 was wretched… today, America’s and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people are war crimes. The majority of Americans want no part of it. They are sick of wars, a wartime economy, and the resulting austerity. And Biden and the Democratic party, the GOP establishment as well, have demonstrated a total disregard for the will of the American people. Try as they might, genocide - and Israel as a victim - simply does not sell (especially since Netanyahu funded and supported Hamas). Why is the American taxpayer fighting these wars again? Putin is no more a threat to the United States, than Hamas is. Oh, and the Ukraine, just another war revealed for what it is, a fraud, another of America’s for-profit wars.
These failures combined, the contempt for democracy, the slow rolling emergence of a totalitarian state, an oligarchy, a two-party system that is little more than a front for controlled opposition, and a U.S. economy now dependent upon debt & war… all point to a shift that Americans will have to deal with in the coming years. The sooner, the better.
Nor is this inflection point limited to America. Throughout the West, center-left and center-right political parties are unwilling to challenge 43 years of failed Reagan & Thatcher, neoliberalism, supply-side and trickle-down fraud. The beating incumbent parties – in North America and Europe - are taking right now is extraordinary; and yet, not a word on addressing corruption, endless war, economy & job killing utilities, and oligarchy that are responsible for the public’s complete dissatisfaction (nor do opposition parties have anything to offer). As centrism & corporatism fail humanity, the world is drowning in fossil fuels flooding and flames.
The billionaire response, the oligarchy response? If we are to judge from Mr. Zuckerberg: Dig deeper moats, build stronger fortresses and bunkers; but under no circumstances pullup from an economic model … the greed-based international order… that has completely failed the world.
The only positive in 2023 is the resurgence of labor, of unions, and the beating back of boardrooms, C-suites, and kleptocrats. It’s about time.
Happy New Year.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023
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