Won't Get Fooled Again?

Won't Get Fooled Again?

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss

- The Who, lyrics from Won’t Get Fooled Again

By J.M. Hamilton (11-13-2016)

If the greatest trick the devil ever played on the world was convincing the earth that he did not exist, the greatest trick POTUS – Elect Trump ever played on the American people was convincing the United States he was a populist.  You have to give the devil his due, Mr. Trump made a believer of a great many people.

Both candidates, Clinton & Trump, define the establishment.  Candidates who made their way in the world, not by the sweat of their brow or slogging it out in the trenches day after day (one paycheck away from humility), but rather, via their elite connections.  Both Trump and Hillary are mired in crimes, misdemeanors, personal peccadillos, and moral & social outrages. 

So what ultimately, was the difference between the two candidates?  Trump – like Sanders - said the system was rigged.  And a truer statement never passed through a politician’s lips.

It struck a chord.  Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand, sullied by decades of scandal, never acknowledged what the people wanted to hear.   Our POTUS-Elect acknowledged the corruption, embraced it, reveled in it, and told the American people that he was now a reformed man, who would be fighting for them.  Trump, the populist, was on the people’s side.  When FDR hired Joe Kennedy, a notorious Wall Street speculator, to head the SEC, President Roosevelt was said to have quipped: It takes a thief to catch a thief.

And under that premise - mixed in, apparently, with measures of misogyny, racism, and xenophobia - our new POTUS was elected this week.

How did the MSM, big data, and the pollsters blow this?  Quite simply, trapped in there own bubble, the elite believe their own bullshit.  In an endless feedback loop, we were told by the eminentos, and talking heads, that the alleged progressive, HRC, would win by a considerable margin.  To wake up Wednesday morning at 1:00 AM, and to see the look in the eyes of the MSM – on all the major networks – was worth thousand(s) of words.   Once again the elite and experts blew it.

Had they read J.M. Hamilton, here & here, perhaps they might have been more clued in.

The Dems failure goes back to the Clinton Administration, deregulation, the crony/insider economy, and 35 years of neoliberal doctrine - where the elite and the bigs get bigger, and everyone else gets trampled under foot.  More recently, POTUS Obama walked into the White House in 2008, running on a platform of change, and immediately set about surrounding himself with the same establishment insiders, who had brought the nation to ruin.  Mr. Geithner immediately comes to mind.  

Instead of taking care of a ruined nation and its citizens, POTUS Obama bailed out the Wall Street banks and the elite – bank bailouts that are on-going to this very day.  Under POTUS Obama the insiders became wealthier, more concentrated, and their power grew.  Entire industries are now dominated by cartel and monopoly: great for the 1%, and horrific for consumers, the free market, entrepreneurs, and labor.  Obama originally ran against job killing free trade, but quickly became – in recent years – its greatest advocate.  The President ran on pulling the nation out of a failed Iraq nation building exercise, and like Nixon before him, dallied & delayed on the troop pullout.  And today, the U.S. still finds itself stuck in the Middle East’s briar patch.  Worst of all -while the American people suffered and were evicted from their homes w/out prospects or jobs - the President wasted a House & Senate majority on the Affordable Care Act, which is crony capitalism defined. 

Obama made a deal with the devil to get ACA through.  He assured every medical cartel and pharmaceutical monopoly, that the ACA would not use government leverage & power to rein in industry monopolistic pricing power.  This year, it hit the fan.  In the midst of the election, double-digit ACA premium hikes.  Giving ammunition to Obama’s, and his surrogate’s (HRC), enemies.

Not so ironically, POTUS Trump – the great populist – appears to be already making the same mistakes as his predecessor.  Trump is already surrounding himself with Washington insiders, back-pedalling on his many campaign promises, and going full bore establishment.  (Word has it that Trump’s staff has already reached out to Mr. Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan, to head up Treasury.)  K-Street lobbyist are in overdrive and licking their chops; Mr. Trump (aka Mr. Establishment) is someone the stuffed suits & bagmen can work with.

If Mr. Trump reneges on his pledge to the American people, he will surely be a one term POTUS.   As for the wall that Mexico will build, or throwing Hillary in jail, the latest is “forget about it,” not a priority.  Tax reform benefiting the 1% is on.  Crony-insider appointments to the Trump administration are on.  Bank deregulation – the very dereg that placed the nation into the last economic Hiroshima… On.

The return of Glass Steagall (banking regulation that separated commercial banking from bank investment houses, and prohibited commercial banks from gambling w/ taxpayer money) - a plank in the Republican platform & something Mr. Trump ran on - suddenly, conveniently, MIA.  

As further evidence of Mr. Trumps return to the establishment fold take a look at the stock market.  After the futures market went into a tailspin early Wednesday morning, when Trump’s win had become a fact - the market quickly recovered and range bound indexes, particularly blue chips, hit new highs throughout the week.  All of this after the Wall Street analysts assured us a Trump victory, a certifiable Black Swan event, would crush markets.

For many the most horrifying prospect of all, the campaign promise Trump most likely will fulfill:  Placing backward social conservatives on the Supreme Court – who will legislate Sharia law from the bench - hangs in the air like the plague.  For a taste of things to come, look to VP Pence, who is already shaping up to be the Trump administration’s Chancellor Cheney.  When the SCOTUS appointments go down get ready for a return to the Dark Ages.  We’re talking Torquemada/Scalia types. 

With the gloom of his Presidency surrounding the country, for at least half the nation & rioting in the streets, what might Mr. Trump do to increase his prospects for a second term, assuming he wants one?  Well, he could be the populist he professed to be and actually ran on.  He could turn the free market into an economy that benefits everyone, and not just the 1%.  Let’s run down the list.  These are the issues that actually appeal to many liberals, libertarians, GOP and Dems… not so much, the 1%.

1)    Free trade agreements should be negotiated, and renegotiated from a bottom -up perspective, not from the 1% - down.  And since Mr. Trump is a nationalist, presumably w/ respect for U.S. sovereignty, extra-judicial courts created to protect multinational interests – contained w/in free trade agreements - should be eliminated.  Above all, these agreements should be negotiated w/ full transparency and in the sanitizing light of day.

2)    Deregulation that enshrines existing monopolies & cartels, that leaves workers, the consumer, and the environment unprotected should be avoided; deregulation that passes social costs onto the taxpayer has become another metaphor for corporate welfare.  Some of the worst abuses in capitalism have been as a result of dereg.  (See the Clinton administration, the removal of Glass Steagall, swaps & derivatives dereg, and the resulting ’08 economic collapse).  Dereg for the sake of quarterly returns, that leaves social costs to be picked up by future generations, is a proven abject failure.  Abandon Dodd-Frank, regulation written by and for banks (causing barriers to entry), sure, but not before reinstating Glass Steagall and breaking up the Wall Street cartel.

3)    Tax Reform:  If Warren Buffett is right about anything it’s that it is obscene that he pays at a lower tax rate than his secretary.  Any tax relief/reform provided should start w/ the long-suffering middle class, who cannot escape or dodge taxes.  End the carried interest tax loophole; end debt’s tax deductibility.  Make sure that corporations and multinationals pay taxes based upon EBITA at a rate no less than the rates the middle class is forced to endure.  It’s fair; it’s appropriate.

4)    Minimum wage:  Not a favorite among libertarians and the Austrian school of economics crowd.  The reality is that corporations – who pay a non-living wage – and rely upon the state to keep their employees afloat – are socialist and relying on the state to subsidize their income statements.  In brief, corps that pay a non-living wage are subsidizing their earnings, by using the state to keep their labor pool alive.  End corporate welfare; end crony capitalism; support the minimum wage. 

5)    Mr. Trump was right to denounce the groupthink in the MSM, and threaten the proposed and actual mergers of  ATT/TimeWarner and Comcast/NBC Universal, respectively.  But the Trump administration should not stop there.  In order for capitalism to triumph over crony-capitalism, existing cartels and monopolies must be broken up.  Breaking up predatory monopolies is pro-free market, and it’s pro- labor and consumer.  Breaking up monopolies, also stimulates growth in investment & innovation. 

6)    Trump, like Senator Sanders, is correct, we need to make sure our allies are covering their share of foreign policy alliance costs.  The U.S. taxpayer can no longer foot the bill for European and allies’ defense costs.  Moreover, we can no longer afford to patrol the globe, as the world’s policeman.  These costs should be picked up by the nations and multinationals, who benefit most from trade route protection.  Time to tax countries and multinationals accordingly.  If I can give Mr. Trump one word of praise, it’s a very positive development that it appears that there will be no new Cold War (only time will tell).

7)    On SCOTUS nominees let your inner Rockefeller Republican shine through… ignore Mr. Pence and his ultra conservative social inclinations, and expand your base.   There’s nothing wrong with being popular Mr. Trump, and welcoming socially moderate members to the Supreme Court will go a long ways towards expanding your support.

On a final note, one market that took a considerable hit this week was bonds.  Institutions were dumping bonds, with huge outflows.  The expectations are that Trump's tax cuts for the rich (aka Voodoo economics), and financed fiscal deficits, will lead to higher interest rates and inflation.  Breaking up monopolies and cartels, who inherently often restrict supply to increase profits (see Big Pharma), is one way to combat inflation.  Another way to combat inflation is to have the Fed engage in another round of QE, and write off a sizable chunk of the national debt.  Many other countries, around the globe, find themselves w/ considerable debt to GDP ratios. They too, would have a vested interest in having their central banks write down a sizable portion of their national debt.

With debt written down, proportionately by country, the balance of power and the economic order would be preserved.  Moreover, with national debts written down…. conservative business, economic, and political arguments for economy crippling austerity would vanish.

With Trump’s experiences with debt, his inclinations are correct.   There must be a way to write down a colossal debt load, w/out sending the economy or the dollar into a tailspin. 

The answer is the Federal Reserve.

After all, what’s the alternative … negative yields?

This is make or break time for the Trump administration.  More than a few Americans are willing to give the new POTUS the benefit of the doubt; many, on the other hand, have already written POTUS Trump off, as an unstable narcissist, who will line his pockets while in office.

Like Obama before him, who Trump takes into his cabinet, who he allows himself to be guided by, the decisions he makes, and programs Trump pushes in the first 100 days will make or break his presidency. 

The public is in no mood to be fooled again.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

The Suspension of Disbelief & The New Right-Wing

The Suspension of Disbelief & The New Right-Wing

Some of the left’s most influential voices and groups are taking offense at the way they and their causes were discussed behind their backs by Clinton and some of her closest advisers in the emails, which swipe liberal heroes and causes as “puritanical,” “pompous”, “naive”, “radical” and “dumb,” calling some “freaks,” who need to “get a life.”

-       WikiLeaks poisons Hillary’s relationship with Left – Politico

Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, e-mailed Podesta shortly before an appearance on CNN, as she was going through some talking points about Clinton’s then rival, Bernie Sanders. “Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?” she asked. “[This] whole thing is fucking insane.”

-       Even the Clinton Campaign Was Blindsided by Her E-mail Scandal – Vanity Fair, Hive

By J.M. Hamilton (10-31-2016) 

Trick or treat?  The question is no longer rhetorical. 

What has been a treat for reporters, pundits, scribes, and MSM income statements has become a bad trick, or nightmare, for ordinary Americans.  JMH writes, of course, of the 2016 Presidential campaign, where just when one thinks it cannot possibly go any lower, or sleazier, a new revelation comes to light.  Both mainstream candidates are so mired in their own goo, hypocrisy, and revelations that – depending upon which poll you read - the majority of Americans dislike both candidates.

The latest news is that the FBI Director has - based upon Mr. Anthony Weiner’s laptop – reopened Madame Clinton’s email investigation.  Mr. Weiner is a former congressman, and estranged husband from Clinton aide, Ms. Huma Abedin.  Based upon what we know so far, Mr. Weiner is under investigation by the FBI for sexting an underage woman, when his laptop revealed emails from the Clinton State Department & her private server.  (Sounds sort of General Patraeus doesn’t it, whose affair & emails led to his downfall?)  Director Comey has been under considerable pressure for not bringing charges against Mrs. Clinton; and with the GOP led house promising to investigate a POTUS Clinton for the next four years, perhaps the Director is worried about what the House GOP might uncover? 

That last point is pure speculation on my part, as to why the FBI Director re-opened the investigation.  However, when Mr. Comey had every reason to bring the hammer down upon Mrs. Clinton, based upon the FBI’s original investigation – if for nothing else then Mrs. Clinton’s pathological and preternatural ability to lie, constantly … 

Why reopen the case now?

For oldsters who can remember, the whole sordid affair of secrecy, cover ups, pay to play, politicians believing they are above the law, and the steady drip of incriminating evidence (in this instance, courtesy of Wikileaks) has a Nixonesque quality to it.  

The whiff of Watergate is in the atmosphere.

Friday the stock market took a mild hit, and a hint of panic crept into the air.  The Establishment’s gal might be on the ropes.  Even if she does manage to enter into the White House, it will likely be by the skin of her teeth, under threat of serial investigations, and possibly, pending impeachment hearings. 

What a great role model for girls and boys.  So much for the progressive - who likes to get things done.

Which helps explain why Mrs. C has struggled so much with millennials; the youngsters know she’s a crook and aren’t buying what she’s selling.

Hillary defines a generation of corrupt politicians – willing to say anything, depending upon the audience – and far too eager to do the plutocracy’s bidding for a little payola.  Living proof, as JMH has long argued, that Americans truly do live in a one party state; or more generously, a two party state, controlled, owned, and ruled by an all-powerful oligarchy.

What’s that you say?  There’s a boatload of differences between the two major parties?  Perhaps on social issues, there are still some differences, and these social differences should not be taken lightly.  But even here, the GOP – and its socially conservative base - often finds itself reined in on social issues, by the power of the oligarchy’s purse.  If the GOP, or a Republican governor, gets too reactionary, convention business, NCAA finals, and big biz tends to leave town.  

Still disagree with me?  Okay, let's suspend disbelief for a moment, and forget the last 24 months of campaigning.  What politician am I describing? 

Generals, neocons, and MIC lobbyist have supported this candidate.  Republicans have been rallying to the candidate.  This candidate has historically been a huge supporter of free trade agreements, that have benefited multinational corporations at the expense of ordinary Americans, U.S. jobs, and the tax base.  Said candidate has been highly supportive of fracking, and hence, fossil fuels that are damaging to the environment.   Our candidate and her advisors – per a recent Politico article – has referred to liberals & progressives as: “puritanical,” “pompous”, “naive”, “radical” and “dumb,” calling some “freaks,” who need to “get a life.”  As for foreign policy, our candidate is more hawkish than the current administration, which is presently bombing no less than seven countries.  As for the Federal Reserve, our candidate believes the Fed, & its Chairperson, are beyond reproach and above criticism (despite plenty of evidence that the central bank has contributed to a massive debt bubble & enabled a multi-trillion dollar federal deficit).  Said candidate is a friend of Wall Street, and for six figure fees, soothed and assuaged bankster feelings of anxiety, post 2008 Crash. 

So rarified is the air this individual breathes, this candidate has self-acknowledged being out of touch with ordinary Americans.  The candidate in question pandered to law & order/dog whistle politics of the '90s, referring to young black men as super-predators, and supported the mass incarceration state.   Under this candidate’s political party’s watch, merger and acquisitions (M&A) soared, and in the resulting Ayn Rand dystopia, job killing monopolies and cartels now dominate industry after industry, and economic sector after economic sector.   Throughout the '90s and into the present day, this candidate’s party – thanks to support for free trade & a failure to address trickle down tax policies – helped to oversee: the destruction of the middle class, wage stagnation, and rising wage & wealth inequality.

Ordinarily, I’d say JMH was describing a mainstream Republican POTUS candidate, but no, the aforementioned candidate is one, Madame Hillary Clinton.

There’s a tectonic schism in the GOP, often described and predicted by this blog, where the Republican elites are highly disconnected with the interests of their base.  Hence, like rats fleeing a sinking ship, many GOP elite have latched onto Team Clinton and the Democratic Party.  

There’s just one problem with this strategy. 

If Dems continue to co-opt/triangulate neo-liberal economic policies, and neocon foreign policies, the Democratic base will eventually awaken from their slumber, too, and see through the same nonsense (the GOP’s base has already discovered).  That process already seems underway.

In the meantime, the U.S. is in turmoil, as are most Western democracies.  Seems that the 99% are no longer willing to sit idly by, while the elite/plutocracy write the rules  - and pig out at the government trough – solely for their benefit.   

For additional clues see the rise of nationalist parties in Europe, Brexit, and one Mr. Donald Trump.

Heh, who needs ghosts and goblins, when there’s nothing scarier than a rapacious, and nonsentient, zombie-plutocracy that governs us all?

Happy Hallows’ Eve!

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

Elites Gone Wild

Elites Gone Wild 

"More and more, people don't trust their elites. They don't trust their economic leaders, and they don't trust their political leaders," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said during an IMF panel discussion in Washington.

"In the UK, everyone from the elites told the people, 'don't vote for a Brexit.' But they did."  

-Mr. Wolfgang Schaeuble, Reuters - IMF, Global finance leaders fret over populist backlash

 

By J.M. Hamilton (10-16-2016)

That’s mighty observant of the German Finance Minister. 

And apparently he’s not the only elite that is aware.  The pitchfork and torches crowd (aka the 99%) - POTUS Obama once said he was protecting Wall Street bankers from (aka the 1%) - seem highly agitated w/ the way the elites have been behaving. 

What could have awoken the 99% from their slumber?

Was it the debt driven economy – fueled by central bank printing presses – that have enriched the financial aristocracy to the detriment of everyone else?  Or is the fact that the elites running Wall Street banks, and drug & private equity companies, are caught up in scandal after scandal involving billions of dollars, seemingly w/out repercussion, while a black teen smoking a joint gets sent to a privatized mass incarceration hell?  Maybe it’s our uber Pax Americana foreign policy that has left the Middle East a smoldering ruin, the U.S. bankrupt, and refugees by the millions flooding into Europe and Turkey?  Perhaps it’s the dubious crowd the elite likes to rub shoulders with, like Clinton Foundation contributing members (e.g. the ultra – nefarious, sleazy, & terror spreading Saudi & Qatar governments)?  Maybe it's the elite’s infatuation w/ the multi-billion dollar mass surveillance state, which has stopped zero hacking (just ask the DNC); and despite the Snowden revelations, continues to trample all over the Constitution on a daily basis?  Could it be that the 99% realize, particularly in America, that we have two bum choices for POTUS this year, provided by the oligarchy’s political duopoly?  And we can’t trust either of the mainstream candidates farther than we can throw them. 

Maybe it’s the fact the governments of Western democracies are all too often rigged, from the lowliest local judge all the way up to the executive branch?

One thing is for certain, the elite have made a huge mess of the world, and the public is taking notice.  No longer does a few letters behind one’s name, a prestigious degree, or biz or government title confer omnipotent knowledge or command immediate agreement from the great unwashed.  In fact, all too often these designations of entitlement mean you’re – in many instances – likely to be highly corrupt or a gangster (albeit one that is above the law, nor likely to be held accountable for one’s actions).

Come on.  Get up.  Walk with me…. Let’s take a little stroll, and see what could have gotten everyone so worked up.

Central Banks

Global central banksters, and the IMF, are worried that the trickle down monetary policy  - that the world economy has been malnourished on for the last eight years (and even prior) -  has gone all Japanese on them… as in lost decades, Japanese.  The central banks have fueled extraordinary sums or public and private sector debt, and the central bankster solution seems to be to print yet more debt.  Governments, and private institutions, weighted down with debt, are recognizing what a drag all this debt can be to fiscal policy, the economy, and corporate and multinational bottom lines. 

And just wait until the next inevitable recession hits.  Yowza!  

Suddenly, there’s an outcry for fiscal policy to fill the economic vacuum.  But federal and many state government’s credit lines are maxed out: with big government enriching the 1% w/ tax cuts; MIC contractors profiting from endless war; and wasting astronomical sums on the private sector that runs our federal and state governments into the ground (via the privatization model).  To sum this matter up:  The rise of a hyper-accommodative monetary policy, globally, seen over the last three decades, has consistently enriched the 1% at the expense of the 99%.  The problem is the credit lines are – in far too many instances – toast.   

And a debt bubble the size of the Grand Canyon can be seen floating this way, like a cloud of doom.

Brexit

This story is a work in progress, but the elites in Europe have so alienated the pubic, that there are mass movements throughout Europe looking to breakout of the E.U.   The U.K. was the first to bail.  The London financial elite said the British economy would tank, but an interesting thing happened.

The British stock market, the FTSE, has been on an absolute tear, upward, and economic fundamentals upon the British Isle have been very sound.  Things were looking so good that PM May recently announced dates for the formal break with the E.U…. with the result that the short sellers (hedge fund, speculators, and major banks) immediately went to work devaluing the British pound.  

The short sellers seemed to be sending a message.  To wit:  Just who does PM May think she is representing, the interests of the British people, and how dare she follow through on the referendum.  And what’s this, from the PM, about central banks creating distortions in the market place, and enriching the 1% at the public’s expense?  Doesn’t the PM know the U.K. is not a democracy?  The unelected House of Lords, a throwback to inbred aristocracy/monarchy, will need to weigh in on Brexit, both the process and the dates.  Much more to follow.

Business

Two interesting developments in the last couple of weeks, that are representative of why the general public has such derision and scorn for the biz elite:  In the midst of fraud and scandal, Well Fargo CEO, Stumpf, stepped down only to be replaced by another insider, Mr. Tim Sloan.  Turns out Mr. Sloan played no small role in the problematic cross-selling game employed to boost Wells Fargo numbers and executive management pay.   But don’t cry too hard for Mr. Stumpf.  Unlike the 5,000 and more Wells Fargo employees, who were unceremoniously terminated in the wake of the crisis, Mr. Stumpf will parachute out a rich man.  And my guess is his executive contract spells out that a great deal of his upcoming legal expense will be picked up by the bank and the bank’s stockholders. 

The only person likely to be more upset over the Well Fargo debacle, than the general public, is Mr. Warren Buffett himself.  Mr. Buffett is Wells Fargo’s largest shareholder, and for years has been bragging about the San Francisco based bank.  Wells Fargo shareholders have seen the market cap on this bank shrink nearly 60 billion dollars, since 12-29-2015. 

However, what Mr. Buffett has lost on Wells Fargo, his portfolio of businesses has more than made up for – many times over – in tax relief from our federal government.  In the wake of the news that Mr. Trump has not paid federal income tax, likely in decades, and Mr. Trump dragged Warren into the presidential debate over tax dodging schemes, came news that Warren has been a bit of a choir-boy on payment of personal income tax.  Not so, however, w/ Mr. Buffett’s portfolio of businesses, where tax avoidance schemes, after tax avoidance schemes, have been deployed to make Berkshire Hathaway one of the largest and wealthiest companies on the planet.   

In short, the billions that Berkshire Hathaway dodges, the 99% have to make up for in the form of higher taxes, increased national debt, and diminished government services.

The biz elite do it to us all: 24/7/365.

Afghanistan

The gift that keeps on giving.... 

Bloomberg did a piece this week noting that Americans have been nation building in Afghanistan for 15 years now, OBL is long since dead, and seemingly there is no end in sight. 

POTUS Obama has repeatedly reneged on his pledges to pull America out, only to backtrack in the face of hostility from the GOP and hawkish Dems, who are always pushing the MIC’s interests.  And the MIC’s interests are continuous war, never ending war… as same evens out the revenue stream and quarterly financial statements.

As for the 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, they are largely forgotten.  As there is no draft, nor higher tax to finance this credit card war, my guess is most Americans don’t even know we are still fighting in Afghanistan (which much like Vietnam before it, consists largely of taking provinces, losing provinces/cities, and retaking them again).  Seventy nations have pledged $70 billion in aid to this lost country, but much of that aid will be lost to endemic fraud, and some of it will end up in the Taliban’s hands.

As for the elites in the Congress, these cowards have not passed a new war resolution, since the original authorization passed shortly after 9-11. 

And the multi-trillion dollar question: Why is the U.S. still in Afghanistan or even Iraq?  Excluding the lie that we are fighting a war on terror (no, our military is actually busy creating future terrorists), politically, the foreign policy elite do not want to take responsibility for another failed nation building exercise; and two, these failed wars are just good business for MIC contractors.   

Too bad, the U.S. is bankrupt.

Strange Allies

The Wikileaks revelations on the Clintons and the DNC have been very revealing.  Mrs. C has been quoted on a couple of occasions, stating the Saudis and many of our so-called Gulf-Monarchy allies (like Qatar) are responsible for much of the terror in the Middle East, and the spread of what Republicans like to call Radical-Islam.  Moreover, these two nations also helped create and fund ISIS.  That’s not to say, that both the Bush and Obama administrations, too, directly or indirectly, played a role in Daesh development and growth.

It’s all part and parcel of the religious civil war that has enveloped the Middles East and parts of Africa:  Sunni V. Shia.

Despite Mrs. Clinton calling out the Saudis & Qatar as terror sponsors…. It didn’t prevent the Clinton Foundation from taking contributions from both monarchies, or Mrs. Clinton from using her role at the State Department to make sure the Saudis received billions in martial hardware from U.S. military contractors.

And now, the Obama Administration is backing the Saudi's war crimes in Yemen.  The Saudis enjoy logistical support, weapons, and last week, a Navy destroyer firing missiles into Yemen.  Seems that no matter how rogue the Saudis go, the U.S. elite have no reservations about following Saudi terrorist down the same rat hole.  All of which explains why POTUS vetoed the 9-11 victim’s legislation that – in its pre-watered down stage -  would have allowed 9-11 families to sue the Saudi government.  The popular narrative is that POTUS was looking out for U.S. service personnel by vetoing the legislation; but as Commander and Chief of U.S. service personnel, the POTUS may have been more concerned that he, and future office holders, might find themselves held accountable for war crimes.

Just how perverted is this situation?  Consider this, the U.S. is spending trillions of dollars, ruining thousands of U.S. service personnel’s lives, fighting endless wars in the Middle East (often at the behest of NATO, the oil monarchies & Israel), while the root cause of Middle East terror – the oil rich monarchies - receives U.S. weapons & military support, and access to U.S. capital markets.

The elites in the State Department, and at DOD, are clearly mad.

NSA & Yahoo

The CEO of Yahoo… Marissa Mayer, once said, “In the end, we are capable of so much more than we think.”

Who knew that for Ms. Mayer that would include becoming a Surveillance State spy.  Yet again, at the nexus of an over-reaching Surveillance State and Silicon Valley, we recently found out that Yahoo has been giving the government access to hundreds of millions of emails.  Per the Washington Post:

Now, in a move that has outraged privacy advocates, Yahoo reportedly has helped take government intrusion to a new level. Without apparent protest, according to news reports, it built a mechanism that allowed the National Security Agency and the FBI to scan all of its users’ incoming emails for specific characters or words.

That’s hundreds of millions of emails.

“This is Big Brother on steroids and must be stopped,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat sometimes described as a “privacy pit bull.” He tweeted that it was an “outrageous abuse of federal government power.”

And Yahoo’s response as to why they allowed this to happen, basically, just following orders (aka The Nuremburg defense).

Our elites are in bed w/ the authoritarian state, Orwellian named, Homeland Security, and Americans are kissing their civil-liberties and their First Amendment rights good-bye.

These government bodies (the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI) have done very little to make the homeland safe or secure from cyber attacks; and many Americans recognize the huge price tag for mass surveillance, that is the surrendering of constitutional rights & privileges (not to mention the billions of tax dollars wasted), isn’t worth the price we are paying.

 

The DNC & the Clinton Campaign

The irony is there is a relatively inexpensive cure for a great deal of the hacking that goes on over the internet, and it’s called encryption.  And more than a few would be willing to bet the farm that Hillary’s crew, and the DNC, wish their emails had been encrypted.

Not only has Wikileaks revealed how corrupt the DNC is, and how it sabotaged Senator Sanders honest campaign, but some of Mr. Podesta’s emails show that Mrs. Clinton likes to talk out of both sides of her mouth ---- shape shifting her speech, her soul, and her talking points to fit her audience.   Apparently, this is such a common element of Mrs. Clinton’s thinking that when asked about it, during a recent Presidential debate, she attempted to use Abraham Lincoln as cover.  To cut to the point, Mrs. C seemed to be arguing that deceiving the public was strategic and altogether commonplace.

The problem for the public, and anyone else involved with the Clintons, is the vast majority of Americans do not trust her.  Unfortunately for America, it’s equally telling that everything HRC has thrown at The Donald - from misogyny to lying, and bigotry to womanizing – has been practiced by Team Clinton for decades.   Things were so bad at the Clinton Foundation, conflicts of interest were so inherent, that Politico reports Chelsea Clinton was attempting to undo some of the corruption at the foundation.  

The elites in the MSM have been highly complicit, in their attempts get Hillary elected... so much for an impartial and even-handed fourth estate.

One looks at the two mainstream political candidates in 2016, and all one wants to do is weep for this nation and our children’s future.

So what’s the lesson here for our so-called elites?  

Perhaps we should start with the words of Arianne Zucker.  Mrs. Zucker is the actress who greeted Mr. Trump and Billy Bush - in the by now infamous hot-mic, "locker-room talk," describing sexual assault (aka #pussygrabgate).  Mrs. Zucker said:

“My name is Arianne (R-E-on) ZUCKER (Zooker) and I am a strong, independent, hard working mother, business woman and partner to a great man. I have grown to learn that the words of others cannot effect the value of my self worth or define the content of my character. How we treat one another, whether behind closed doors, locker rooms or face to face, should be done with kindness, dignity and respect. Unfortunately, there are too many people in power who abuse their position and disregard these simple principles and are rewarded for it. In understanding the magnitude of this situation, I choose to stand tall with self respect and use my voice to enrich, inspire and elevate the best of who we are as people”.

Well said.

At the end of the day, the common thread through all the aforementioned news events is that the elite can’t be trusted.  They lie to our faces, or cover-up until exposed.  Narcissistic and nihilistic to the core, the elite eschew honesty in favor of dishonesty.  They seem to go out of their way to do the wrong thing, even when doing the right thing would – ultimately – likely prove far more beneficial/profitable to themselves, the various private & public organizations they lead, and the global economy.

Were these “leaders” always this way, is their disease congenital, or is this what is meant by the statement: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? 

How many billions and trillions have been lost and wasted because of the elite’s seemingly pathological need to deceive and lie?  How many organizations, private and public, have suffered incalculable reputational costs?  Why are free trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors; why have extra-judicial courts been set up by and for multinational interests, via these agreements; and why do first-world citizens and labor always finds themselves on the short end of the free trade stick?  How many children go to bed at night hungry, due to the global crony capitalist structure and because our western governments are rigged and exceedingly corrupt?

And what is the cure?  A religious revival is likely not in the cards but ultimately, possibly, a revival in ethics could save us all.  If religious dogma gets us there, wonderful; but surely at this point, having tried everything else… what else is left?  What do the elite have to lose?  Why not try and do the right thing, a policy of honesty and transparency?

My guess is Mr. Buffett wishes Wells Fargo had done the right thing; my assumption is HRC wishes she had played it straight w/ the American people, and had been far less Machiavellian. 

Then again, maybe the elite, above all, merely wish that they had not been caught.

P.S. 

On a final note, the elite seem to have forgotten that respect and trust are earned.  No amount of money, titles, degrees, or letters behind one’s name will afford respect, if you are duplicitous, double-dealing, and one’s guiding star is greed’s black hole.  The elite are facing blowback on an unprecedented scale, and the public is tired of being preyed upon by same.  The crème de la crème placed themselves in this position, and have only themselves to blame for the public’s lack of confidence & trust… through altruism, integrity & transparency, and simply paying their taxes, the elite can in time regain the public trust.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016