America is Back?

America is Back?  

 

“At every point along the way, we are going to make it clear that the United States is back and the democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and issues that matter most to our future,” Biden said.

-       Biden’s message as he lands in Europe: America's back, Politico

 

By JM Hamilton (6-12-2021)

 

Oh, thank god… America is back… per POTUS Biden, while on G7 holiday in Europe. And there is little doubt that, for Europe at least, the Sugar Daddy and Chief is back.   Just ask French President Macron. 

 

But while America maybe back in Europe, not unlike Santa, spreading free defense spending & good cheer…  America is considerably less back in, well, America. 

 

In the United States, Biden’s campaign promises have stalled out in the assisted living facility, known as the US Senate, thanks to right-wing Dem senators, Manchin and Sinema.  And, of course, some blame certainly rests with the senate majority leader, Schumer, who can’t keep his caucus in line long enough to see Biden’s mandate through into law.  How convenient… the second the nation must pass bills and legislation to help the United States’ failing infrastructure, the American people suffering through a pandemic & wage slavery, pass a Green New Deal, or tax increases upon robber barons… and magically, the congress grinds to a halt.   

 

It appears that the congress’ corporate sponsors - and K-Street - aren’t accepting of the campaign promises Biden was elected, by the majority of voters, to enact. 

 

It is incompetence hour, and all of this seems vaguely familiar, like the newly elected Obama administration wasting precious time, burning up the legislative clock, on the ACA (aka Obamacare, aka corporate welfare for the healthcare industry). 

 

Examples of the Biden Administration's failure are everywhere, despite controlling not one, but both houses of Congress.  

 

Can you imagine what it’s going to be like after the midterms? 

 

Of course, nothing quite spells out failure like the recent bipartisan bill to spend $250 billion on corporate welfare.  Wow.  The two parties are at war, but the second there’s an opportunity for corporate pork, or taxpayer dollars being wasted on the billionaire welfare state, then the two parties come together for a group orgy and roll around in the corruption and fraud.   

 

The Senate is going to thwart China’s hegemonic ambitions with 250 billion dollars in a - no strings - corporate giveaway, on top of the trillion spent annually on US defense spending. (China spends about a fifth of the money the US does on military spending.)  Of course, not a word on breaking up – or holding accountable - the US defense cartel of companies (i.e. MIC), that are well known for cost overruns and products that don’t work.  The centerpiece of the bill includes billions and billions to bribe American computer chip manufacturing back onto US shores, and back into building chips.  Apparently, bad things happen, not only when America’s corporate aristocracy offshores labor & the US economy to China, but also, when globalism and neoliberalism offshore critical computer chips to a totalitarian regime… or a small island – Taiwan – that the aforementioned communists lay claim to. 

 

There’s even $10 billion is welfare for one of the richest men in the world, Jeffrey Bezos.  

 

Now, we are truly saved.  Yeh, bipartisanship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are roughly six months into the Biden administration and all America got was this stupid G7 T-shirt, that the president will bring back from Euroland holiday, and the $1.9 trillion stimulus package.  The stimulus was chock full of one-time goodies (some of the aid was repealed by White Supremacy party governors to compel workers to return to the slave wage economy, the pandemic economy), but with limited shelf life and zero long term structural reforms. 

 

Exactly, how the oligarchy likes it. 

 

Bipartisanship is nothing short of insane.  Here’s a party, the GOP, that is fully dedicated to the POTUS’ ruin, that has a long history of obstruction, that shut down President Obama, and yet, there’s Biden insisting upon bipartisanship… that, like the filibuster, is nothing less than a ticket to failure & the GOP’s agenda, perpetuation of a White Supremacy/Monopoly economy status quo.  

 

And yet, establishment Dems are insisting, killing precious time: Let’s get together with the political party that is coup-coup for fascism and Donald Trump.   The same party that a few short weeks ago rejected an investigation into its involvement into the January 6^th attack on the capitol, and continues to wage war against America, and democracy, by passing voter suppression laws in GOP held states. 

When the GOP senate voted against the January 6^th commission, they, preemptively, took the fifth amendment.

At the end of the day, the Dems are, allegedly, the responsible party in the room, or so we thought.  The party Americans elected to straighten up the disaster left by Trump and the GOP.  

 

What do you do when the parents are enabling the GOP & ongoing insurrection?  Fire the duopoly? 

 

Yup.  Mr. Macron is correct… America is back all right, but for how long?

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021

Canada and Third Parties… A Lesson for the United States?

Canada and Third Parties…  A Lesson for the United States? 

 

"These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — only to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time," he said in a press conference on Friday.

 

"You don't need an AR-15 to bring down a deer."

 

-       Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 kinds of assault weapons, BBC

 

 

By JM Hamilton (5-29-21)

 

I had the privilege of moving from the United States to Canada in January of 2020.  My reasons for doing so were numerous, but primarily it was to soak up Canada’s beauty and to gain a step, or two, on climate change (that is, to remove myself from hotter temperatures as well as the States’ increasingly dark trajectory). 

 

As an economics & political observer my timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as the pandemic hit North America one to two months after my move.  Here, in real time, I was able to analyze and observe two countries, Canada and the United States, and the respective governments’ responses to that pandemic. 

 

As I’ve written on more than one occasion, COVID has revealed a great many things about the state of democracy, economics, and the health of respective governments… and, as better days appear to be on the horizon, COVID will, likely, continue to reveal much more. 

 

And while I’m no expert – not even close – on Canadian politics and institutions…. I feel like I’ve learned enough on a macro basis to comment or offer some comparisons vis a vis the United States. 

 

First, unlike the United States, Canadian democracy is thriving and running very well. Canada has a vibrant and very healthy political system, with parties that run the gamut from Greens all the way to Conservatives. In the middle, we have several national parties, not the least among them: Liberals, The New Democratic Party (NDP), and Bloc Québécois.  I say, ‘middle’ but the Liberals and the New Democratic Party are progressive, and put America’s Democratic party to shame (both as functioning political parties and their ability execute, act rapidly, and get things done). Presently, Liberals and the NDP form a coalition (or minority) government, under Canada’s parliamentary democracy. 

 

Canada’s pandemic response was nothing short of spectacular.  Perhaps, second best after New Zealand and PM Jacinda Ardern’s response.  Canada didn’t hesitate, it acted. Unlike the Unite States with its endless haggling and failed two-party system, the Liberal government’s response was a work of art.  Among other programs, Liberals and the NDP offering a UBI for Canadians put out of work by the pandemic, along with aid to small businesses and large businesses alike.  In fact, Canada spent the most, comparatively, among its G7 peers, and it certainly could afford to do so because it had the lowest debt to GDP ratio… and holds an identical debt to GDP standing today.  In fact, S&P just confirmed Canada’s AAA credit rating. 

 

In its most recent budget, the Trudeau government is not standing down, it’s ramping up state spending: with green initiatives (green hydrogen captures my attention); national childcare programs that will unburden women and put them back to work (should they so desire); and Liberals are looking to increase the federal minimum wage to $15, and peg annual increases to inflation (essentially, taking future minimum wage hikes out of parliament’s hands).  Again, Canada’s government can afford to act aggressively, because unlike our southern neighbor, Canada doesn’t have a rabid – Wild West – banking system requiring continuous bailouts.  And unlike the United States, Canada doesn’t do endless wars… Wall St bailouts and Endless Wars have caused the US’ national debt to spiral out of control. (To such an extent, that a 4.4 trillion dollar bailout for Wall St, under the CARES Act, wasn’t added to America’s national debt, but rather, was called a ‘loan’…  the FED’s bloated balance sheet notwithstanding.)

 

I’m partial to Trudeau and the Liberals … they stand for women’s rights, gay rights, and are pushing the country in the correct direction on first nations and minority rights. The Liberal government legalized cannabis, which has been a godsend for jobs and provincial tax revenue.  After a sluggish start, the Liberal government is blowing away the majority of other G20 members in placing vaccine jabs into Canadian arms.  

On trade agreements, the Liberal government has entered into revised agreements, with a more nuanced perspective in favor of Canadian labor, and it favors a global minimum tax for tax dodging multinationals.  And in terms of making Canada safer, after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia, Trudeau outlawed automatic weapons.  

 

Zero drama, outlawed, done, finito: Mic drop. 

 

You can’t make this stuff up.  And as for my beloved United States… unmitigated chaos, a government in serious dysfunction & entirely corrupt, a billionaire welfare state, systemic looting by the oligarchy, a population riven in two, and racial problems on an unprecedented scale.  Congress shrugs and plays its Washington games.  And a newly elected POTUS, who talks a great game, but is chronically handicapping himself by reaching out to a political party – the GOP – that is hellbent upon Biden’s destruction.  

 

Trust me, on any number of fronts, I want to see the United States turn it around; not the least of which, I don’t want to see hell come spilling over the Canadian border from the South. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, the Liberal party is no Democratic party.  PM Trudeau is his own man, and the Liberals, again, are genuinely progressive, indisputably successful.  Their instincts, generally, are to do the right thing.  But where Canadian democracy triumphs, and where the United States is clearly failing, is in the introduction of strong viable third parties. 

 

Here, the NDP should take a bow.  It’s one hell of a wingman.  And as a progressive wingman, Jagmeet Singh, not unlike an angel, sits on Mr. Trudeau’s shoulder encouraging the PM to adopt a more progressive path (it’s already in Trudeau’s DNA to do the right thing for Canadians). 

 

Personally, as a progressive, and when we see the United States without a national progressive party, and the Democratic party constantly failing the United States (constantly bailing out billionaires, while one in four American children live in poverty) … the importance of third parties cannot be underestimated. 

 

And the NDP, with nearly 18% national support (based upon current polling), is a credible threat… if say, some future Liberal PM was to start to lean too far right, too centrist, too corporate, too bellicose.  

 

The NDP is such a positive influence, I believe it impacts Canada’s Conservative party… imagine an American conservative leader asking his party to acknowledge climate change.  Not happening. 

And that’s perhaps my biggest takeaways:  Democracy is alive and well in Canada; the government is genuinely concerned about Canadians; the government executes & functions; and – crucially – Canada’s multi-party-political system is an insurance policy against the corruption, the heinous actions, the abject irresponsibility, and callous disregard for citizens (we see exhibited everyday by the FAILED TWO-PARTY SYSTEM within the Unites States).  

 

Third parties are desperately needed competition against an American political duopoly.  A duopoly that serves – exclusively - itself, billionaire ownership, and multinational ownership (and to the exclusion & complete detriment of the nation’s long term & citizens’ interests). 

 

Selah.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021