Money Coup

Money Coup

 

On Wednesday, many chief executives had, once again, had enough. The National Association of Manufacturers called on Vice President Mike Pence to consider invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution and remove Mr. Trump from office. Many executives — including Mr. Cook of Apple, Mr. Dimon of JPMorgan and Mr. Schwarzman — denounced the violence, lamented the state of the country and called for accountability.

But after four years of much talk but little action, their words rang hollow.

“When people make political decisions for business reasons,” said Mr. Walker, “it can have heinous social consequences.”

 

-       After Riot, Business Leaders Reckon With Their Support for Trump – New York Times 

 

By JM Hamilton (1-9-21)

 

The curtain finally came down on POTUS Trump’s four-year, deadly, circus this week.  Trump’s base of support, goaded on by the dictator wannabe, attacked the US Congress in the hopes of intimidating, or forcing, lawmakers into not certifying president – elect Biden.  Among the collateral damage – including irreparable harm to the myth of America, as a beacon of democracy – was a Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt.  The Washington Post reported that Ms. Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran, had at one time supported President Obama, but had become an avid Trump supporter. 

 

Lost in the broken glass and tear gas, at the nation’s capitol, was news that the NY Stock Exchange had decided to delist Communist China telecommunication companies – linked to the People’s Liberation Army – only to reverse itself and move to maintain the listings.  A day later, the exchange reversed itself, once again, and finally, delisted the communist state-owned enterprises.  That Communist China (a country that has increasingly felt emboldened to strike out at many of the democratic & human rights principles Western democracies, allegedly, hold dear -- and with great impunity and seemingly, w/out repercussion) had state enterprises listed on the American exchange to begin with…  speaks directly to the myopic thinking surrounding the defacto Profit Motive First policy, that has betrayed the United States and the American people for the last forty years. 

 

The story of American crony-capitalism coddling a communist dictatorship, of course, reminds us of Mr. Trump’s first foreign travel, as a newly minted President nearly four years ago. At that time, with a platoon of corporate CEOs & C-suite toadies in tow, the American contingent inked trillions of deals, as well as, memorandums of understanding for future deals with the Saudi government.  American corporate overlords, on the junket, were said to be elated.  Any concerns or issues with the Royal House of Saud’s support for terrorism, human rights abuses, misogyny, and war atrocities w/ neighboring Yemen… apparently, given zero thought.  The bottom line after all, had been served. 

 

With Trump attempting his own beer hall putsch this week, Hitler style, many of the billionaires & CEOs – who had long supported Trump with mind numbing sums of cash and soothing words – found themselves running for political cover.  As reported in the New York Times, many Americans – including corporate brass & politicians - are beginning to ask why the crème de la crème of corporate America supported such a nasty creature, as Donald Trump.  And we know why, Trump has proven useful – despite running as a populist for the people – at delivering vast sums of corporate welfare for the rich and the powerful: trillions in tax cuts; deregulation – which always shifts known costs onto the backs of ordinary Americans; the plundering of public lands; and American labor's evisceration.  When it came to looting the government and the US taxpayer, on behalf of the 1%, Trump delivered. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of this points out the obvious… when the MSM discusses & writes about Trump’s attempted coup this week, they are really talking about his enablers & ownership, the American – and arguably, foreign - oligarchy. The very same economic royalty, who have conducted class warfare - and a money coup - against the American people for the last forty years.  The CEOs, billionaires, and Wall Street financiers who will happily do business with communist totalitarian regimes, as well as, authoritarian Middle East dictatorships.  Apparently, there is no country – or ruler - so repugnant that American billionaires & CEOs won’t get down in the blood & the mud with, in order to ink a deal.  

So it should come as no surprise then that these same robber barons would be willing to finance and support authoritarians & fascism in the US, so as to further their financial empires.  

 

Perhaps my tweet, the day Congress was sacked, sums up the plight the US democracy project, nearly 250 years old, now finds itself in:

 

As I watch events unfold, we see no billionaires or monopolists in the mob. 

 

However, this riot is exactly what neoliberalism & oligarchy funded & begot, often by plutocratically controlled propaganda arms masquerading as MSM news orgs: extremism, disinformation, insurrection, faction, and human misery & poverty befitting an emerging market nation. 

 

Can’t but help notice the Dow is up 481 points.  Our elected leaders should be proud, they did the donor class’ bidding & guided the nation directly to this moment. 

 

This week will long be remembered: as the inflection point, where the vile ramifications of America’s neoliberal money coup came knocking on Congress’ front door. 

 

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021

An American Christmas Carol…

An American Christmas Carol… 

 

“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!" "Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?” 

 

 

“If they would rather die,… they’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

 

-       A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens 

 

By JM Hamilton (12-26-2020)

 

There may never be a more popular book written about predatory capitalism.  Written at roughly the close of the first industrial revolution and the beginning of the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens' book, A Christmas Carol, has it all: a greedy – banker – miser, ghosts and more ghosts, brutal poverty, a Christmas backstory, rapacious capitalism, denial, a love story gone bad, and of course, hope & redemption.  Published in 1843, the book is as resilient & relevant in its messaging today, as it was throughout the 19^th and 20^thcenturies.  And the author, Dickens, had real life experiences with poor houses, poverty, and crushing labor practices with which to draw upon. Experiences that became a familiar theme within the Dickens’ canon.

 

Christmas Carol came to mind because I found myself wondering, what would happen if the three ghosts visited the personification of America today?  What if the three ghosts visited the Ebenezer Scrooge of our times, Donald Trump… the billionaire president, who campaigned on helping ordinary Americans, but in reality, only helped himself and his ultra-wealthy donors?  Trump is also something of a businessman, whose parsimony & venality – like Scrooge - was, and remain, legendary.  

 

Would Roy Cohn, lawyer & mentor, now deceased, visit Trump like Jacob Marley?  Or maybe Trump’s idols would come calling… say Nixon or Reagan, wreathed in chains, dragging cash boxes, and shrieking & screaming warnings.  

 

What of the first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past?  Would the ghost show Trump America’s ill-fated founding… complete with indentured servitude, slavery, and the slaughter of indigenous Americans?  Would the apparition take Trump to the slaughter of vast herds of buffalo with a singular purpose, to inflict genocide & starvation upon the original Americans?  Would Trump and the great spirit visit Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears?  Perhaps the Ghost of Christmas Past would show Trump slaves with severed limbs … limbs severed by their masters, so that they could no longer run away.  Maybe the ghost would hook Trump up with Christians – who fled England to avoid religious persecution – only for these same zealots to conduct their own jihad, upon entering the New World? 

 

Surely such a spirit would fly Trump back to the early industrial revolution with child labor, mangled limbs, obscene work hours, even more wretched working conditions, and of course, wealthy New England textile owners counting their profits. 

 

And the Ghost of Christmas Present?  Obviously, such a ghost would want to show Trump the refrigerated morgue trucks, and the thousands and thousands of American dead… thanks to Trump and the US Congress playing down the pandemic, or failing to adequately warn Americans (Congress, of course, was too busy managing their stock portfolios; besides notifying Americans of the coming plague might have harmed their trades).  Would the ghost break through to Trump after visiting the tear-stained cheeks of brave frontline healthcare workers, as they attempt to save lives, while worrying about the health of loved ones and their families? 

 

Might the Ghost of Christmas Present show Trump vast billionaire fortunes compounded exponentially to obscene valuations, as taxpayer funded backstops, debts, and welfare for the rich are being laundered in the stock market (thanks to Federal Reserve & congressional policy)?  And in the process bequeathing ordinary Americans endless decades of austerity, poverty, and foreclosure upon the American Dream.  Meanwhile, tens of thousands of small business owners watch their hopes vanish, and burn, from lack of support from the US government during the pandemic.  

 

Would Jack Ketch, and his good buddy, US Senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, both be lurking near?

 

And who can forget the twins, contained within the Ghost of Christmas Present’s great coat: The phantom wraiths, Ignorance and Want.  Forever stamped upon a, seemingly, cursed America … always trillions for empire and endless war but never enough money for an affordable & quality higher education.  And always, a bull market in extreme poverty, no less so than in Charles Dickens' England.  What is the number?  Twenty?  Twenty-five percent of American children living in poverty & despair (the modern-day equivalent to Tiny Tim on an industrial scale)?  

 

All of this misery & suffering is nothing less than a public policy failure, orchestrated by an oligarchy looking to rid itself of surplus labor & population? 

 

And the final apparition, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come… pointing to a darkened grave, unkept, unloved, & un-mourned?   

 

America’s fate?  

 

The United States’ riches looted by a rapacious oligarchy.  Her vast potential squandered upon endless wars and war profiteers.  The nation’s exorbitant privilege wasted upon endless Wall Street bailouts & colossal debts used to finance tax avoidance by the exceptionally wealthy.  

 

America’s epitaph: Privatized profits – for a privileged few; Socialized losses – a burden carried by all Americans, but the privileged few. 

 

The fate of all empires, an unmarked grave and an unread footnote contained w/in a dusty history book.  Would POTUS Trump be moved?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, the best part of A Christmas Carol is that Scrooge does feel remorse, he reaches for redemption.  And he does appear capable of turning it around with genuine acts of kindness.  But not before Scrooge embraces denial and excuses, and he pushes back against a, seemingly, endless tide of apparitions, facts, and history. Like Scrooge, in order for America to redeem itself, it must confront its ignominious past and present; it must permanently retire the myth of American exceptionalism and seek out rebirth and redemption w/ genuine acts of aid, contrition, and redemption, particularly for the least among us. 

 

America must turn its back on a predatory version of capitalism & neoliberalism that has repeatedly failed, that only affords state aid and extraordinary welfare for the exceptionally wealthy, & ruin and scraps for everyone else; America must become a country where we look out for one another… and our government’s efforts are pivoted & redirected towards that endeavor.  

 

What Dickens’ book most reveals is how capitalism has changed very little, since early Victorian times; and in fact, if anything, it is growing far more abusive, and driving an ever-growing body count.  

 

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2020

How many Americans have really died from COVID-19?

How many Americans have really died from COVID-19?

 

 A new model from the COVID-19 response team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that coronavirus cases are probably more than 10 times higher than the total tally in many parts of the country. 

 

-       US coronavirus cases are probably 10 times higher than the official numbers, more and more research suggests

 

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.

-       Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of Coronavirus Data

 

By JM Hamilton (12-12-2020)

 

I was watching CTV News, here in Canada this week, and a guest was on that stated – per the CDC – the number of COVID-19 deaths is likely seven times greater than the government’s official tally.  Simple math, assuming 300,000 reported dead, presently, tells us that the number of American COVID fatalities appears to be closer to 2,100,000. 

 

Of course, this got me scrambling, and if the mortality rate is consistent, what the gentlemen on the news broadcast stated appears to be correct.  For there is story after story on the web, from credible news organizations, confirming that COVID numbers, per the CDC, are grossly underreported.  Read here, here, and here. 

 

Of course, we shouldn’t be entirely surprised… we read a story this week - in the Washington Post - indicating that the State of Florida invaded a scientist’s home for reporting out unflattering COVID data. Florida is run by Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.

 

What we appear to have, in the United States, is Federal & State governments – run by Republicans – who are at war with the truth.  We also know Trump, earlier this Fall, stripped the CDC of COVID data gathering capabilities.  What better way to cloud the lies and incompetence of this Administration’s handling of the plague, than to change the direction of data flow & gathering, mid-pandemic?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yet despite all of this, we had Republican after Republican playing down the pandemic, doing their billionaire and multinational donors bidding and attempting to keep economies open.  Try as they might, hospitals have begun to overflow again this Fall and business is booming for mortuaries and morgue trucks.  The American economy, inversely correlated w/ the rising body count, is stumbling again.  And given how the government is underreporting COVID fatalities, how good was the economy really doing this Summer?  How real was the strength of the economic rebound reported by the US government?

 

All this brings up other issues, like the moral collapse of American society … where the President and the Business community lie constantly, seemingly without repercussion.  Yes, we can rejoice that Trump will be exiting the White House – not soon enough – on January 20^th (sadly, only to have another liar take his place); but there is the issue at hand, which is Trump – despite everything – received seventy-four million votes.   

 

That’s an amazing quantity of votes in favor of a man responsible for an estimated 2.1 million American dead.  Granted, the US congress also bears responsibility and is equally complicit.  Congress won’t even pass economic aid for unemployed Americans. All this, so that Nike can go on selling sneakers, and the airlines can, attempt, to fly the friendly skies. And Zombie companies can continue to attempt to make interest payments, etc., etc.  Forget the show, the economy must go on.   

 

There’s something else very much a part of America’s moral collapse, as mentioned above… namely, the credibility of US government statistics and economic data.  If we have leaders, from both parties, that are willing to deceive Americans for economic & political gain, costing millions of American lives in the process…  how credible are the government’s economic numbers?  

 

For instance, the Federal Reserve was given $4.0 trillion in funny money – conjured up with derivative instruments, under the CARES Act – to backstop markets; and yet, none of that $4.0 trillion shows up in America’s national debt numbers.  How accurate is the FED’s balance sheet?  How reliable are the big four accounting firms?  How credible are public & private financial statements?  And on and on. 

 

It's not just the government & politicians, but the moral collapse of the nation comes directly from business elites, who run the country and own the politicians.  So back to the question at hand: How many Americans died of COVID-19?  

 

Answer: Who the hell knows, because the American government's credibility is shot. 

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2020