The Political Center is Extreme…
“I was appalled to
learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent
suicide while in federal custody,” Mr. Barr said. “Mr. Epstein’s death raises
serious questions that must be answered.”
By JM
Hamilton (8-10-2019)
As I
write this, news has come out on the final curtain call for one Mr. Jeffery
Epstein. The notorious Mr. Epstein,
equal parts Jay Gatsby, Icarus, and serial pedophile. The dossier Mr. Epstein
compiled, or little black book, which was supposed to save his tail, in the end
became his noose. Mr. Epstein flew too
close to the establishment… lured billionaires, royalty, and presidents into
his dark web… his wings melted and now is no more.
Dead
men tell no tales, and they give no testimony either. And the lives of the ruined & scarred
children? Collateral damage?
And so,
the complete mosaic of sordid & unseemly stories rests for eternity w/ Mr.
Epstein’s corpse. The jigsaw puzzle has been spilled onto the floor now, never to be fully assembled. The establishment breathes a collective, albeit tentative, sigh of relief.
Why
should anyone be surprised. It’s unimaginable that Mr. Epstein died of suicide, just as its unimaginable that in
today’s surveillance state, there’s no video recording of Mr. Epstein’s final
moments (or perhaps there is but not for public viewing).
Hitler
had some of his attempted assassins strung up by meat hooks & piano wire
and is said to have filmed the executions for his own personal amusement. How did Mr. Epstein go again?
The
establishment plays by different rules then you and me, and somehow gets away
w/ portraying their actions, as normal, enlightened, the only path forward, and
even heroic. Sure, some minor tinkering around the edges
from time to time, but real substantive change… that’s a problem. Real change interrupts profits flow. (Therefore, we get industries that should
have been retired decades ago, operating to this very day, like Big Oil.)
But
political centrism (i.e. the ideology of the political duopoly) – the so-called
pragmatic approach - is anything but normal, enlightened, and the opposite of heroic. That is to say,
centrism is corrupt, cowardly, and evil.
Which
is exactly where we are going today. The
extremism surrounding the political center, which has moved so far to the right
that arguably it more closely resembles a cult or atavistic endeavor at
dominance among societal classes. Class warfare… the rich cornered the market centuries ago. In surveying today’s economy, one wonders: how far have we really come from feudalism?
Hmmm.
How indentured these United States, and to pay for what: endless war, tax cuts for the wealthy, Wall
St & kleptocratic bailouts, the multi-trillion dollar derivatives &
swaps industry utilized to insure - and gamble upon - debt that will never be repaid? Survival of the fittest? Maybe so, but perhaps, only if the fittest
are homicidal maniacs w/ no conscience and no remorse.
But
enough w/ the dark tangents. Let’s focus on the extremism surrounding centrism.
Economic
The
dominant players in the economy like to wrap themselves in the mantle of
capitalism and free markets… but when they aren’t reducing companies to rubble
w/ too much debt or running a Ponzi scheme – a la Wall Street, they’re
running monopolies and utilities. How
hard is it to run a monopoly? How hard
is it to leverage a healthy company’s credit line to the point of exhaustion, so
as to pay for unearned dividends and stock buybacks? I believe, once upon time, they used to call
these activities, “stock manipulation.” Retailer after retailer – at one time, a prime source of employment – run into the graveyard
by private equity firms and hedge funds.
And some say, private equity saves businesses. Far from it, private equity is the greatest plague to ever walk the earth, a destroyer of both business and opportunity.
And we
wonder why pension funds are no more, wages stagnate, and America is dead
last – in terms of upward mobility – among Western democracies. RFK once said that GDP growth, as a metric on the economic health of the nation, was no way to run an economy. The same can be said of the stock market as
an index of economic health & general prosperity. We know there are alternative ways to run an
economy, like a middle class – an expanding middle class – driven economy.
Some
of us remember the GI Bill that kicked it all off, Post WW II; some of us
studied history and remember FDR and his proposed economic bill of rights. Of course, the plutocracy has done everything
in its power to insist upon austerity, burying the economic bill of rights and doing its best to dismantle the social safety net, ever since.
The
binary economy - de rigueur among the billionaire class - has to go.
Political
Centrism
presumes that money will always be in politics, politicians will always be paid
for, and democracy is often the choice between the lesser of two evils. The political watchwords of today are
“capture” and “redistribution of wealth.”
Regulatory,
fiscal, monetary, judicial and foreign policy capture, by an elite few, so as
to enrich an elite few at the expense of many.
Redistribution of wealth – a perverse socialism – from the 99% directly
into the hands of the 1%. It’s all highly toxic stuff. And yet, from the elite we get hand wringing
over the potential moral hazard surrounding socialism.
The donor
class should know… they’re both addicted and experts on the redistribution of
wealth, from you and I directly into their offshore havens, or one of the
biggest havens of all: America. And the
political class – legally on the take – nods, aids, and abets. That socialism
works – when administered by a responsible government – and to ameliorate
capitalism’s worst effects – is indisputable, as best illustrated in Canada and
Scandinavian countries, today.
It’s
called the mixed economy, stupid.
This
is the political centrism that we are told is pragmatic, utilitarian, and the
norm: austerity for the 99%, and the rigged economy - w/ guaranteed profits - for
the 1%. And of course, socialized losses
when it hits the fan.
We are
told that the radicals are folks like AOC, Gabbard, Sanders, and Warren.
We are
told that the richest nation on earth can’t afford:
·
Universal childcare and
Pre-K;
·
Peace and a peace
dividend (that terrorism is perennially on the march, and so over 50% of this
nation’s discretionary budget – a greater allocation than the G10 combined –
must go to military spending);
·
Medical care (instead
of being a human right, is a privilege);
·
We are told that
antitrust enforcement will dampen animal spirits and economies of scale… when
the complete reverse is true: monopolies kill economic growth, initiative, jobs
(define diseconomies of scale), and opportunity;
·
Fair trade (and that
trade agreements must be dictated and negotiated by multinationals and
monopolies behind closed doors, away from public oversight and where labor has
zero seats at the table);
·
We are told that a
living minimum wage is unacceptable, while corporations & multinationals utilize their employees' food stamps as a direct, and indirect, subsidy to
their bottom lines;
·
Free college education;
·
We are told the
Federal Reserve can print money to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, credit card
wars, and Wall Street bailouts; but that MMT - to fund a better standard of
living for all - is a fantasy.
·
We are sometimes even
told that gays, minorities, and women must patiently wait their turn for real
change to come in society because we might upset rural whites, who – already
stressed economically - are put off by social change (why they just might go on a killing spree). When the 99%’s real
oppressors are the robber barons, who own the economy, the government, and the
MSM.
Et
al., et al.
This
all appears contrived. The elites, and
their centrist ideology, don’t want to see ordinary Americans enjoy the very
same benefits/welfare the plutocracy takes from the state daily: whether it be
liquidity pumped into markets, courtesy of the Fed (the very markets the private sector has
bailed on); or a free tax ride (via a byzantine tax code, favoring – you
guessed it – the aristocracy).
Talk about your free lunch.
Talk about your free lunch.
And
the elites can’t figure out why there’s so much pushback against centrism. Why the GOP establishment was rejected in
2016. Why HRC lost in 2016. Why young people/voters, increasingly, are
not put off by socialism. Why
progressives are ascendant in the Democratic Party, while the centrists &
faux-progressives – Unca Joe, presently, notwithstanding – circle the drain.
If the
people at the top don’t figure it out, and soon, Newton’s Third Law suggests that serious blowback is headed their way.
There is little doubt of capitalism’s appeal, when it works for
everyone. However, what is suspect and
increasingly under scrutiny is crony-capitalism, and the political centrism
surrounding it.
Copyright JM
Hamilton Publishing 2019
