Ask what your country can do for you…

Ask what your country can do for you… 

 

In more normal political times, Biden’s record during his first 100 days in office wouldn’t have inspired comparisons to FDR. But in the wake of Trump’s malignant incompetence, Biden’s success in returning government to something like functionality seems, to his supporters at least, almost worthy of Mount Rushmore.

 

-      Geoffrey Kabaservice: Consensus still eludes Biden, The Guardian 

 

By JM Hamilton (5-1-2021)

 

Biden’s first hundred days came and went this week, and it provided an opportunity to reflect.

 

The fact that Biden doesn’t behave like Trump, and is competent, is a breath of fresh air to many.  But to say that Biden isn’t Trump is very low bar by which to judge the Biden White House.  Biden’s actions, to date, from executive orders reversing Trump’s orders, to the passage of $1.9 trillion in stimulus, were largely expected. In fact, the $1400 checks were the bare minimum (essentially a band-aid for a bottom half of society that has long been neglected & abused by Washington elites and US corporations), especially with tens of millions of Americans jobless, given up looking for work, or subject to wage slavery. 

 

Perhaps the biggest surprise, so far, is that Biden appears to have stood up to the Deep State (aka the Pentagon & the MIC) and announced that the United States was finally pulling out of Afghanistan, much to America’s collective relief.  Otherwise, a great deal of what President Biden has done, in the first hundred days, is preservation of a failed status quo.  

 

There has been no New Deal type legislation that has addressed, and reformed, the massive structural defects of the US economy and political system. For several generations now, Americans have been beaten down and told not to expect much from their government.  Austerity has reigned supreme for the average American… while trillions in plutocratic welfare, tax breaks for the wealthy - and the capture of government by oligarchy - has grown ever more ruinous for the nation, its economy, and social cohesion.  Seemingly, lost in America’s rearview mirror are the creation of a middle class, the defeat of national socialism in Europe, and the development of programs like Social Security.  

 

Of course, FDR is the President who addressed the failed status quo, who took on the structural defects of the capitalist economy… by building a social safety net, creating government jobs, when the economy was on its back and subject to an exceptionally nasty Wall St crash.  FDR paved the way to demonstrate that America could be dynamic, and that government had a key role to play in the economy and ameliorating capitalism’s very worst attributes.  But above all, FDR showed that the structural defects that threated the future of the United States could, and must, be addressed. 

 

 

 

POTUS Biden’s speech this week was remarkable, if for no other reason than he announced that trickle-down was a failure.  But in announcing that the cornerstone of forty years of American economic policy was wrong, Biden also owes it to Americans to address the deep void left by republican party’s – as well as establishment dems’ - failed dogma.  And just as the neoliberal house of cards has fallen (brought low by the pandemic and bailed out yet again, by the American taxpayer), nothing short of structural solutions will take care of the problems before us. Fourteen hundred dollar band-aids won’t stop the hemorrhaging for nearly half of all Americans. 

 

What structural defects am I writing of?  For starters, let’s go with a campaign promise Biden ran on… a living wage for all Americans. How Congress cannot pass an increase in the minimum wage -- and continue to subsidize billionaire & multinational profits with taxpayer dollars, essentially keeping labor alive -- enters into the theatre of the absurd. There’s also the structural defect of America’s monopoly economy, where TBTF (too big to fail) monopolies and cartels privatize gains, while socializing losses.  

 

America’s monopoly problem was on full display this week when Big Pharma threw a fit over the possibility that Washington might share publicly funded patents with the rest of the world, so as to eliminate the existential threat that is the global pandemic.  Here on full display was a microcosm, Big Pharma, of a disease that threatens the entire US economy: that is to say, monopoly and monopsony.  Such irony, the biggest threat to Western economies and the dynamism of capitalism isn’t communism, but rather, rent seeking utilities spawned by the private sector.  Here, for all the world to see, is an intransigent, self-serving, and entitled American crony capitalism - in the form of Big Pharma.  A Big Pharma industry that is nothing more than a rapacious and venal middleman, sponging off taxpayer funded research for its very existence. 

 

And yet, not a word from the Biden Administration on serious antitrust enforcement. 

 

The US government has many, many structural defects, but perhaps none are as debilitating, or provides such low hanging fruit for reform, as the senate's filibuster. The senate is where all good legislation goes to die, and where a crony status quo is preserved.  We are about to find out very quickly if Biden is serious about the variety of programs, he pitched this week.  Key to getting Biden’s progressive agenda through will be the elimination of the filibuster, ending the charade of bipartisanship with a racist & insurrectionist GOP, and the administration’s ability to rein in & control bitterly partisan right-wing democrats (see Manchin, Sinema, Et Al.). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, America’s structural defects go back to an entirely corrupt congress, and oligarchs and multinationals, who have rigged the entire system in their favor.  Exceptional wage and wealth inequality, as well as the pandemic, have exposed the dry rot and decay of the US economy and the government.  It is this void, this vacuum, that must be addressed not with $1400 band-aids, but with meaningful structural reforms, both economic & political. 

 

Not that long ago, a former president – in his inaugural address – exhorted ordinary Americans to sacrifice for their country:  

 

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

 

For decades, ordinary American gave and gave… while the wealthy and the powerful stole and took. Now, to save our democracy and the United States, it’s time for ordinary Americans to ask, what their country can do for them? 

 

And it’s time for the government – with or without the assistance of the wealthy - to deliver for the American people, big time.

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021

Peace with Honor

Peace with Honor

 

Seven thousand American troops have been killed, and another fifty-four thousand have been injured, in the post-9/11 wars. 

-       Why It’s So Hard for America to End Its Wars, The New Yorker

 

By JM Hamilton (4-17-2021)

 

Somewhere in the heavens, the infernal regions, or in the ether, Osama bin Laden is looking on and thinking, Mission - Truly - Accomplished.  The 9-11 criminal mastermind’s aim, all along, was to lead America, and the West, into bankrupting Middle East wars, and OBL exceeded all expectations (after he reprised the CIA’s & Mujahideen's playbook against the Soviet Union).  Of course, OBL had a lot of help in bankrupting America…  namely, from the US Foreign Policy establishment, hawks at the DOD, armchair warriors in think tanks (who have never stepped onto a battlefield), cowards & warmongers in the Congress, and lobbyist for military contractors, who make billions off the US taxpayer.  You know, the failed American crew, who -- even now, and especially now, after President Biden agreed to pull the US out of Afghanistan this week -- will ramp up the rhetoric, to be echoed by a complicit MSM, as to all the reasons America must stay at war in Afghanistan and the Middle East. 

 

In the coming weeks and months, the warmongers and imperialists, the generals and politicians - wrapped in flags - will all tell us that we must have peace with honor, that America cannot lose face, we must protect the hard-won gains for Afghanistan’s women, and of course, they'll play the fear card … that the terrorists are winning, and the United States is setting itself up for another attack. 

 

What you won’t hear from the fearmongers and talking head experts is that America’s response to 9-11 was: little more than a profit making venture for stockholders in the military industrial complex, as well as Big Oil & Gas; America’s forever wars made the United States and its citizens less safe; and that the establishment sent America’s finest – the women & men in uniform – to die on the cross of empire and commercial/multinational interests.  Moreover, what you won’t hear is America’s response, per the usual, was exponential overkill and destined to fail.  After all, all empires eventually fall under the weight of their own hubris and megalomania.  That the US, finally, has a President in the White House that appears willing to end the Afghanistan charade, and take power back from a maniacal & unelected Deep State, is nothing short of blessing for the nation.  And a reminder, if Biden pulls it off, that miracles do happen. 

 

The JMH blog, of course, does not tow the party line, nor repeat the lies offered up by the US Foreign Policy establishment.  Lies and propaganda that are dutifully - and unquestionably - reported as fact, by far too many members of the MSM.  So here then, the counter-narrative you are not likely to read anywhere else. 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace with honor?  What is honorable about sending seven thousand US troops to their deaths in endless 9-11 wars, with another 54,000 injured & maimed, under the pretense of fighting terror, when all it took was a single round and small platoon of men to eliminate OBL?  What is dishonorable was the manner in which the American taxpayer was milked, endlessly, to finance the profit center that is the military industrial complex.  Honorable?  The US is now $7,000,000,000,000 deeper into debt, approximately 25% of the national debt.  There is no honor in bankruptcy.  There is no honor in not being able to defend a nation, at some future date, because the US Foreign Policy establishment – via fear tactics – has squandered the nation’s treasure, exorbitant privilege, and America’s goodwill abroad on endless wars.  Wars fought abroad, to enrich and provide US taxpayer funded security services for oil rich dictators & commercial interests, do absolutely zero for America’s moral standing. 

 

Afghanistan women… will forever have my empathy and sympathy.  But before the US can go gallivanting around the globe - like a nation-state Don Quixote - it must first save itself and not the least among us, American women.  Last I checked, the US is in the middle of a She-cession, that is an exceptionally nasty recession aimed at women.  Last I checked, domestic abuse is on the rise. Gender pay disparity, along with wage and wealth inequality, is both abysmal & sickening (as is the patriarchy that profits from overt sexism and underwrites it). 

 

But where are US war hawks’ concerns for American women, when they shed crocodile tears for Afghanistan women… ?  

 

Answer: Nowhere to be found, just as the warmongers will not bring up any concern for the women trapped in the multitude of dictatorships America arms to the teeth every god damned day. 

  

And the fear card… nothing sucks Americans into an unaccountable, money pit war like the fear card.  And if there isn’t a legitimate enemy or foe, the establishment will manufacture one in a false flag event:  See Gulf of Tonkin, see WMD in Iraq, and see the budget crippling & wholly disproportionate response to OBL. 

 

Of course, the biggest threat to America’s freedoms comes from no outside Army, or band of terrorists, but rather, from billionaires, war profiteers, C-suites, the American war lobby, Wall Street, and politicians… all of whom appear perfectly willing to bankrupt this nation with never ending corporate welfare, tax avoidance, and war. 

Lincoln said it well: “At what point then is the approach of danger expected?  I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

And another President, Madison, nailed it: “Of all the enemies of public liberty war is, perhaps, the most dreaded… War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debt and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

 

And yet, that’s exactly what failed neocons have delivered to America, continual and aimless war, and indentured servitude for all citizens (via the national debt).  And a 2001 AUMF ensures a complete lack of accountability.  The 2001 AUMF, an unaccountable Congress, Presidents who kicked the can down the road… now, these are things Americans should genuinely fear. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So how to put an end to the insanity that is the twin evils of endless war (have you noticed, always against nations with no real ability to defend themselves, that is nations without nukes) and nation building?

 

While I would never want to see a United States without its own currency, I often wonder if an America without the world’s fiat currency might make for a less warlike country and a safer world.  No exorbitant privilege means no unlimited war budgets, it’s really that simple. It means the neocons & vampires are contained by the power of the purse. And that would be a good thing, since our elected leaders, presently, clearly have zero self-control when it comes to waging war. 

 

The US should join the International Criminal Court, posthaste, and let the chips fall where they may.  A couple of presidents in the docket, and future American leaders may think long and hard about when to pull the trigger on another war. 

 

The authorization for use of military force needs to be passed by Congress, by a recorded vote, per politician, annually. No more coasting on a two-decade old authorization. 

 

Eliminate profiteering from war.  The US government should buyout the defense contractors, eliminate MIC stocks, and the running of the arms industry should come under the exclusive domain of the government.  Given the incompetence demonstrated by the private sector, the government surely couldn’t do worse, and the moral hazard would be mitigated. 

 

Last but not least, Americans deserve a study on how it came to be, that the US is armed to the teeth, with a military budget that exceeds the next ten nations combined… and yet, Americans are afraid of their own shadow?  And how, America has come to dishonor its soldiers with endless wars and failed nation building?  A citizen draft and compulsory two years military service - for all twenty-one-year-old Americans - may provide additional assistance in ensuring peace with honor for future generations.  (If compulsory service is good enough for Israel, it's good enough for the United States.)

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021

The Private Sector: A Bad Return on Investment

The Private Sector: A Bad Return on Investment

 

The U-6 rate, also known as the underemployment rate, declined to 10.7% from 11.1%. It is often thought of as a more inclusive measure of unemployment than the headline figure because it also accounts for those who stopped looking for a job because they were discouraged about their prospects and those working part-time but desiring a full workweek.

 

 

-       Job Growth in U.S. Topped 900,000 in March as Hiring Broadened - Bloomberg

 

By JM Hamilton (4-3-2021)

 

One of the key investment ratios of finance -- so as to determine whether or not an investment is producing a reasonable return, vis a vis, competing or alternative investments -- is the return on investment ratio (or ROI).  Adjusted for inflation or the time value of money, financial types might look at a real return on investment ratio or net present value analysis. 

 

JMH brings this up because it crossed my mind recently, who is looking out for the taxpayers’ ROI?  It’s a very serious question, because since the 2008 financial crisis, and going back to 9-11… the US taxpayer has dumped trillions into Forever Wars and Wall Street bailouts.  More recently, Congress passed $4.4 trillion in Wall Street welfare, under the CARES Act, March 2020. 

 

So what exactly have Americans received with the trillions they’ve invested in Endless War, Wall Street crises, corporate welfare, and tax cuts for the rich?  The simple answer is: not a hell of a lot.  In fact, such welfare has been highly detrimental to the nation, national security, the economy, and American labor/consumer.  By way of example, has US national security been made any more durable by dumping trillions into the Middle East and Afghanistan, or our global empire?  The simple answer is assuredly not. 

                                                                                                            

Has Wall Street in any manner become less dangerous, any less leveraged, as a result of the 'no strings attached,' taxpayer funded welfare, showered upon banks, financiers, insurance companies, and hedge/mutual funds?  

 

Again, no. 

 

Tax cuts, worth trillions, showered upon billionaires and multinationals?  Did the recipients create more jobs, more opportunity, enhance the US economy, give their employees a long overdue raise … again, the answer is no. 

 

So what did Americans receive for the trillions wasted on the wealthy… well, they received: catastrophic national debt; debt, which is in turn, used by hypocritical & manipulative members of congress to withhold social spending directed at the public, in the name of austerity & budget control; we’ve seen gross wage and wealthy inequality… and wage stagnation; Americans have seen one in five children living in poverty; a decaying infrastructure; and the bottom half of American society living at a sustenance level of existence. 

 

Instead, the wealthy spent government/taxpayer largesse on: financial engineering; M&A/consolidation; stock buybacks; and feathering their own gilded nests. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reform?  Forget about it.  Wall Street is still neck deep in gambling with trillions and trillions in swap and derivatives; and there’s no sign that war profiteers need to worry one iota about POTUS Biden pulling out of Afghanistan or the Middle East. 

 

And, perhaps more detrimental…. Americans have to bribe monopolies with taxpayer dollars, the very companies often minting billions in profits, to do the right thing.  Whether its state aid to bribe Big Pharma into manufacturing taxpayer funded, vital vaccines, or a backdoor bailout for the airline industry, under the guise of saving jobs. Obamacare – not living up to medical cost containment expectations?  That’s okay, Congress will bailout failure and rapacious healthcare insurance companies, under the smokescreen of helping the uninsured buy healthcare coverage from the same unsavory US healthcare insurers. 

 

Despite endless failure, endless bailouts & corporate welfare, notice that nobody in power ever addresses, or questions, the failed neocon/neoliberal/globalist paradigm.  

 

It’s a racket, and many Americans have grown numb to it, because we’ve come to expect that the private sector is on welfare.  Americans expect that the wealthy are looting the Federal government, and that nobody in government – especially our elected leaders - is watching the government till on behalf of the disenfranchised voter.  Americans have come to expect that multinationals – who are the beneficiaries of the crony-economy & massive theft – are also exporting jobs and the US economy offshore.  American Private Equity destroys the economy, jobs, indeed, entire industries... is that a good return on tax dollars used to bailout the industry, under the CARES Act?

 

The private sector has become so lethargic, concentrated, greed based, & myopic … that it’s just assumed that the FED’s printing presses will be switched on, automatically, at the first hint of trouble, so as to spend trillions on Wall Street & C-suite robber barons, and in order to finance America’s Forever Wars.  Meanwhile, Americans receive a fourteen-hundred dollar check. 

 

But if we are truly honest, it’s time for Americans to realize that the trillions they are dumping on the private sector is an exceptionally bad investment… an investment that is bankrupting the nation, rewarding failure, encourages the private sector's shakedown of the public, and yields an extraordinarily poor rate of return for this and future generations.

 

The assumption that the private sector is a good public sector investment … has been crushed by the pandemic & climate change. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021