Midterms

Midterms 

However (political parties) may now and then answer to popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines lifted them to unjust dominion. 

-             President Washington, Farewell Address to the Nation

 

Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction (aka political parties).

-             Federalist Papers, No. 10 - Madison

 

By Gregg Wall (Nov 14, 2026)

Mr. Washington and the founders, flawed men as they were, had a great deal to say about factions or political parties, none of it kind. James Madison, fourth President of the U.S., defined factions or political parties in Federalist No. Ten, as a group of citizens – whether minority or majority - united by a common passion or interest adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent interests of the community.

I bring up factions and political parties because we certainly have gotten a belly full of political parties leading up to and after the midterms.  The midterms were not so much an embrace of Dems, so much as they were a stark repudiation of a President, who overwhelmingly failed to deliver on his promises and created new problems: affordability, corruption, extrajudicial ICE agent abuse in the pursuit of containing immigration, and ending and starting wars.  In fact, the President started a new war, which jacked up the price of fuel and every product and service relying upon fuel for delivery, manufacture, and transport. And then, Trump lied and gaslighted about all of it.

Post victory, Dem leaders, hoping that the public would forget Biden’s disastrous presidency, quickly nominated two AIPAC clones for House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer (both of whom enjoy national approval ratings lower than the President, if that’s possible). The two parties, that make up the congress also enjoy an approval rating in the teens.  The parties with their monopoly on power, and thanks to the oligarchy that owns these parties, the tyranny that President Washington spoke of and warned us of in his farewell address has arrived.  And very much as the President warned, cunning, ambitious, unprincipled men and women are burning the very rules, laws, institutions, and government by which they ascended to power, so nobody can assail their monopoly on power, no one can follow in their footsteps.

No wonder the American people hate the political class and the oligarchy that owns them, for they, collectively, are little more than tyrants.

Hakeem Jeffries, in particular, stated that there’d be no getting even, by which he meant no accountability and responsibility assigned for Trump and presumably, all the misery spawned by Trump: ICE, Wall St greed, DOGE fiasco, endless wars, violence, genocide, catastrophic debt and deficits, AI and data centers, and Trump’s seemingly endless season of corruption and cronyism.  And we can understand why, because if Dems went after the GOP, Trump, and his donors… Dems would also have to go after Dems, Biden, and donors and oligarchs common to both parties.  And of course, Dems would have to pursue the State of Israel for which the three branches of government and the Federal Reserves are all drenched in blood and murder. 

The People had six primary issues going into the midterms:  accountability for systemic corruption; affordability or accountability for price gouging monopolies and private sector utilities, private equity, O&G majors, and Wall St; Israel… accountability for the capture & usurpation of the U.S. by a foreign power; oligarchy and accountability for a class of citizens who means the American people nothing but ill will and great harm (see in particular, one Mr. Musk, who gutted the gov, destroyed the IRS and regulatory bodies, privatized the gov, and stole reams of personal information while enriching himself); AI and data centers, that is accountability for bought off state and local politicians, who have sold out communities in favor of data center monstrosities. 

Notice, accountability and responsibility are central to identifying the problem and bringing about a solution.  This part, accountability, responsibility, checks & balances, the rule of law seems to have escaped Messrs. Jeffries and Schumer.  It also escaped Hunter Biden, when a protester recently yelled for President Biden’s accountability over Gaza.   Hunter’s response was to deflect blame away from dear old dad, and said, we should focus on ending the genocide and leave it to history to resolve the responsible parties.  How convenient.  But there’s no solving the ongoing or future genocides without accountability, responsibility, and the assignment of blame to the billionaires, multinationals, war lobby, foreign governments, O&G interests, and politicians responsible.  Especially, when money, unaccountable power, resources, the transfer of obscene sums of taxpayer wealth to war contractors are central to the crime: genocide.  In fact, we can and must do both: shut down the genocide by force, economic sanctions, and ostracizing, internationally, the guilty parties; and hold leaders fully accountable.

America is all too happy to throw someone in jail for the smallest of infractions to feed the for-profit criminal justice industrial complex and the slave labor colonies inside America’s gulags, mostly for the crime of being poor in the United States; but notice, the elite and the billionaire class, entirely responsible for all kinds of mass murder and mayhem, rarely if ever see the inside of a courtroom.  Hakeem’s and Schumer’s jobs, if they become leaders of their respective chambers, are to continue all this: preserve a failed status quo, protect the donor class & oligarchy, maintain and preserve the two party system's lock on power, maintain and guard our disastrous neoliberal, wartime economy, and deny the American people their highly reasonable requests… all the better to keep Americans despondent, poor, on the edge of precarity, and fully exploitable. 

And the solution for the inevitable blowback?  Many of these cretins choose to live on military bases, build data centers to house the Orwellian police and surveillance state, and continue the duopoly’s authoritarian and fascist reign.  The ratchet effect is full steam ahead.  There’s no discussion of reversing Trump’s disastrous reign, nor Biden’s: tax cuts for the rich; the corporate tax code; big beautiful bill; DOGE' dismantling government; the reversal of tariffs; ending the Iran war; defending, preserving and restoring FDR’s dismantled legacy; the genocide in Palestine; rolling back AI and data centers; the Iran War.  Dem leaders, Schumer and Jeffries, will see to it that nothing really changes. 

Reminds us of Biden’s assurances to his connected and wealthy donors… what was it?... oh yes, nothing will change.

Notice, nowhere discussed, the culture wars that divide the nation…  and distract from the failed two-party system and the hideously evil billionaire class… will not be resolved.  Dems won’t lift a finger to codify women’s bodily autonomy, abortion, birth control, the Voting Rights Act torn apart by the Supreme Court, gay rights, the power of labor and unions.  After all, if these items are codified and/or made bullet proof via legislation, Americans can no longer attack each other over basic human freedoms.  Instead, Americans might focus on the source of all tyranny: billionaires, political duopoly, and private sector monopolies.  And we can’t have that.  Dems, Hakeem and Schumer, and elected politicians on the talk show circuit say, sorry, we really can’t do anything until 2028 and only if we win the presidency (Biden’s and Obama’s failure notwithstanding and despite both leaders winning the trifecta, the triple crown: the House, Senate, and White House).  A Democratic line that has been fed to the American people after every election that I can remember: Now, is not the time.  Best lower those expectations American people.  Billionaires, corporate interests, Israel, no worries, the welfare state continues for you.  Dems will see to it.  Nothing will fundamentally change for the rich, the connected, the powerful.  Odd, the Dems just won the House, the Senate, and have dirt on POTUS Epstein, which should make Trump extremely malleable, some might say compromised.  Trump even more willing to do Dem bidding than say a Dem president? 

 

 

 

Perhaps the most disturbing aspects of these midterms are the following: record voter turnout; record money spent; record fear and lies; absurd sums on money spent by the world’s richest man to purchase the U.S. government.  Additionally, voters turning out in droves to support a system of government, two major factions or political parties, and the oligarchy that have done everything in their power to capture and manipulate the U.S. government for their own interests and to the complete detriment of the American people.  

I suppose Musk buying the government is a good thing in the sense, that he and the oligarchy believe that the government, in the proper hands, can and may still defeat and thwart billionaires, concentrated wealth and power, Wall St and technocracy, and reverse course.  It’s when Musk and the oligarchy stop attempting to buy the government that we must worry?

The primary lesson here, in regards turnout, appears to be that the greater the fear, the greater the paralysis, the greater systemic failure… the more The People out desperation will vote for, and lend credibility to, two political parties and the oligarchy that have abjectly failed them, year after year, decade after decade.  No wonder the Demo Party, seemingly, doesn’t want to discuss accountability, responsibility, or impeachment.  Ironically, the public turned out to repudiate Trump, but many still held onto the belief that Dems will somehow be more rational, more thoughtful & moral.  Only, for the Dem establishment to trot out the two most reactionary party members.  That is, two republicans.  There are many ways for the American public to reverse course and take charge, limiting oneself to voting for the tyranny of oligarchy and the two major parties every other November is not on the list of answers.

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026

Billionaires

Billionaires 

 

NEW YORK — Elon Musk, the world’s only trillionaire, has quietly become the biggest known donor in this year’s midterm elections, doling out more than $276 million since July to try to save Republican majorities in Congress.

 

The numbers, first reported by the New York Times ahead of this week’s federal filing deadline, were confirmed by Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk’s super PAC.

 

-             Elon Musk quietly becomes biggest known donor in midterm contests as he tries to save Republicans, WAPO

 

By Gregg Wall (10-30-2026)

The events of the last two weeks remind us that the US is a democracy in name only, just as the US economy is capitalist in name only.  We have: a killer and malign oligarchy; two-party, game theory fraud; rampant gerrymandering – structurally established in the US Senate; rigged elections; unlimited bribes and kickbacks; round the clock day trading in the halls of congress; an evil empire, a nation covered in blood; the entire house of cards propped up on debt and deficits, thanks to a criminal central bank and exorbitant privilege. 

And, of course, the most hideous economic model ever devised… colonialism, dereg, hyper financialization, globalization, looting, necro economics, neoliberalism… which is nothing more than an unrelenting attack upon Americans by a criminal cadre of billionaires, bankers, the political duopoly, and multinational monopolies.  

With the U.S. election upon us I was reminded of all this by the world’s richest man’s presence yet again, meddling in the affairs of our democracy, or the twisted version of what passes for US democracy, where said oligarch can buy the state.

There he is ‘MeriKKKa, your tax dollars at work, effectively a man child, blowing approximately a half billion dollars, and yet no different from any other billionaire, where every whim and desire must be sated and attended to by fawning sycophants, executives, and every politician outright owned and subject to blackmail.  In all the nonsense about libertarianism and rugged individualism, America often forgets we paid for this tyrant.  Musk’s great wealth, the loans, the grants, the bailouts, the corporate welfare, no bid contracts, a stock market rigged to perfection, tax cuts, the oligarchy tax code, subsidies, carbon credits & rebates, privatization schemes that have enriched him beyond the imagination of us mere mortals…  and then there’s Musk’s ultimate purchase, the U.S. government itself (just to make sure things run smoothly, for Musk & Co.)

And so many still believe the Ayn Randian fairy tale that Musk is self-made.  Musk of course, is not only product of U.S. taxpayer dollars and the government, but of a system rife with corruption.  It begs the question, why would the world’s richest self-professed libertarian buy U.S. elections and the government?  Since obviously, Musk is a rugged individualist, Mr. Bootstraps… you know, he did it all by himself?  Because the reality is Mr. Musk owes his empire to the state, the aforementioned government contracts, government largesse, state and state policy capture (all of it, fiscal, monetary, judicial, regulatory, & foreign policy capture), and the American public/taxpayer.  Musk buys the government because it’s a sure bet: boom or bust… thanks to the FED, the money flows.

For now. 

Turns out, Mr. Libertarian is, arguably, perhaps indisputably, a socialist, a totalitarian… but only for himself… no socialism for the peasantry.  Being the world’s richest man means the public must be continually held down.  Socialism makes the laboring classes soft… isn’t that right, Elon?  In Elon World, Musk buying the United States government to feed taxpayer money and the U.S. credit line into Tesla, Space X, and inflate Musk, AI, and War stocks is all good and normal.  So, what if it feeds Musk’s avarice, insatiable megalomania, and narcissism with delusions of dark enlightenment, a Muskian Reich, and global domination.   All perfectly normal.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musk, of course, is not alone.  Oligarchy and concentrated wealth into the hands of a few is the biggest problem in the world today.  Oligarchy is the father of all the other lies and sins:  fossil fuels, endless wars & violence, the resurgence - and rapid decline - of the populist right, serial corruption in government, insider trading throughout the government, catastrophic debt & deficits, financialization, the collapse of the center, the crushing of labour & families, endless for-profit wars, an affordability & healthcare crisis, a planet in flames.  Forget the duopoly, you want to change the system go straight to the top: Musk & Oligarchy.

The ultra rich, of course, believe they are above the law, above taxation, above the people.  You and I will own nothing, and we’ll damn well like it and they, of course, will own everything.  Their right-wing and proto feudal beliefs (aka the privatization of power) … wearing the mask of markets, technology, & futurity… are an abomination.  The façade… the markets, technology, the MSM and social media, and the left/right political continuum… will not absolve the predatory few from the disaster of their making.  They, the oligarchy, are most certain of their future, even as a tech bubble grows and staggers towards possibly unwinding, the debt crisis becomes more manifest, food prices and the price of life become untenable and unaffordable, the oligarchy becomes more obscenely rich, and the students globally grow more restive and drift into open revolt.  In Musk’s and the oligarchy’s haste to destroy democracy, install a dictatorship of capital, crush the currency’s purchasing power to hide catastrophic debt, dismantle the very institutions that offer a buffer between themselves and catastrophic poverty, they’ve overlooked history.  Turns out, the younger generation have gotten a whiff of the oligarchy’s future and see no reason to go silently into slavery, endless & unrelenting necro economic and political violence, and that good night.

Here, Toqueville is instructive and provides cautionary analysis.

Toqueville in his book, the Old Regime and the French Revolution, wrote about the public rebelling against the King, who had bankrupted France and foisted unseemly taxes on the peasantry, while letting the clergy and nobility off the hook for taxation.  Moreover, in King Louis XVI’ and predecessors’ consolidation and concentration of power, the monarchy had destroyed the institutions that protected peasants from the profiteers, speculators, and the rich... protected the price of their daily bread... therefore, the peasantry and the philosophers & writers of that day reasoned, why not destroy the King and monarchy?  Louis XVI’s antecedents, especially the Sun King, had consolidated power and therefore, liability.  Lousi XVI had run up the debt further funding the American revolution, heavily taxed the peasantry, while royalty, nobles, and clergy lived in decadence and indulgence.  The peasantry, the 99%, were isolated, cut off, and preyed upon, by the first and second estate. 

The French youth, like today's youth, were just crazy enough, naive and poorly educated enough, to believe they could do just that, destroy the King and create a better world.  And so, they did.  Le reste appartient à l'histoire.

It all sounds very familiar, does it not, with the situation Americans and the West often find themselves in today: out of control elites, great wealth & privilege, hideous and unfair taxation, DOGE dismantling the state and jobs, the consolidation of power and privilege, skyrocketing food prices, unprecedented inequality, and a powder keg.  Today’s oligarchy should be careful, very careful of what they wish for.  They just might get it.   

When a single individual or a cadre of oligarchs, can destroy well established buffers between the public and themselves -- say crony democracy, no matter how flawed -- and said oligarchy can egregiously tax the public to pay for massive wealth transfer, from the public to themselves -- when Mr. Musk can buy the government and set policy: America is no longer a democracy.  Today’s oligarchy is not only a danger to humanity and the planet, they are a menace to themselves.

Therefore, Musk and the oligarchy consolidate both power and liability.  Liability that I don’t believe the billionaire class has fully thought through or underwritten.  I really hope de grandes ambitions don’t work out for the privileged and powerful.  These things have a nasty habit of self-correcting. 

As for We, The People:  Nous sommes l'État.

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026

IMF

IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 191 member countries. It does so by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation, which are essential to increase productivity, job creation, and economic well-being. The IMF is governed by and accountable to its member countries. 

-       IMF, What is the IMF

 

City lobbyists have been out in full force, warning the government that higher taxes could force banks to throttle lending, hitting the economy and even forcing some lenders to move jobs and operations abroad.

-       Target pensions or welfare, not banks, IMF tells John Healey, Guardian

 

By Gregg Wall (10-17-2026)

 

For those knowledgeable about the IMF, this story may sound familiar; for those unfamiliar with the IMF, you’re not alone, but now is a really good time to get to know this institution.  

The IMF monitors nation-state finances and often gets involved before and after a financial crisis hits.  It is dominated by the United States.  Some have called the IMF an enforcer for multinational Western banks & capital and a tool in the service of debt, exploitation, and subjugation.  While others - banker types & the establishment – argue, via proactive monitoring and guidance, the IMF ensures growth, financial harmony, and free trade between nation states. The IMF is called the “lender of last resort.”  In that regard, think of the IMF as a Federal Reserve or central bank for nation-states and the global economy.  A life preserver, if you will, for a top-down economic model. 

The reason everyone should get to know the International Monetary Fund (IMF) better is because nation-states, particularly Western nations, are up to their eyeballs in national debt.  A growing fiscal crisis has set off austerity, economic malaise, riots, subpar economies in many nations, as social services are cut and taxes are raised on the public, but not on corporations and the extremely wealthy.  We can see some of the fallout in France presently, with students in the streets, and growing public demonstrations everywhere against the rollback of state services and a seven years long affordability crisis.  Historically, we often hear of the IMF’s ministrations within Global South countries, but I fear we are going to be hearing about IMF involvement and budgetary takeovers within Western democracies and increasingly so.  Usually, the IMF steps in over matters concerning balance of payments, capital flight, devalued currency, explosive growth in government spending, unsustainable debt & deficits, tax avoidance … all with debilitating impact upon an economy.  The IMF will often offer a bailout or debt relief, conditionally upon neoliberal reforms, cracking down on labour and social services, austerity, cutbacks to state service.  

Notice, all IMF reforms are a direct attack on families, citizens on the margins of society, labour.  Notice, the IMF never suggests taxing the wealthy, the powerful, the rich, who have often looted republics (via crony government and crony economy, in the run up to the crisis, banana republic - style).  Notice, the IMF insists upon control, fiscal domination, and necro-neolib reforms in exchange for financial assistance to the state in crisis; but, notice again, when politicians are giving money away to bankers, multinationals, war contractors… in the name of illusory growth, "national interest," & purported preservation of jobs…  in the run up to the crisis, there are no similar terms, conditions, and claw back features for bailouts and welfare.  Notice, there is no continuous analysis and accounting as to whether not the actual promised economic growth and jobs growth materialize, when politicians and the rich collude to steal taxpayer money.  The IMF has no similar restraint and reservations, about holding the looted, troubled state accountable, in exchange for IMF assistance, that is the government is subject to continuous economic metrics and scrutiny.   (An IMF hostile takeover is as if JP Morgan or Barclays… evil bankers… have descended upon the U.S. Congress and Parliament in the UK and grabbed the power of the purse.)  Observe, there is no holding the politicians and oligarchs responsible for the crisis accountable, only the citizenry pays the price and we quickly see why the IMF is called the enforcer for capital and greed.  Please observe further, IMF reforms and currency devaluation often bring about an even greater crisis & hardship upon the citizenry, greater poverty & suffering, and subject the country to further looting of public assets & privatization scams by international bankers, oligarchs, and private equity, so loans can be paid off.  That’s because the IMF is looking out for banksters, bondholders, capital, and greed.  We can also point out, there’s no IMF equivalent looking out for labour, the public, ensuring living wages, crushing outrageous Wall St greed and outrageous wealth transfer and inequality, nor fighting against concentrated wealth, power, and monopolies.  Why is that? 

At issue in the UK: After 46 years of Reagan and Thatcher, supply-side neoliberalism, and trickle-down tax cuts for the rich… entirely predictable, many Western nation-states find themselves tapped out, deep in debt.  Credit markets have noticed and bond yields, the cost to borrow, are soaring.  Today, we’ll focus on the UK and PM Burnham, who has acknowledged that neoliberalism has failed the UK and has called for greater social spending to address decades of harm, more in line with Keynesian economics.  Wealth and wage inequality, where private and public resources are syphoned off to a growing and worrisome oligarchy and behemoth banks and multinationals, are highly damaging to economies and a key source of civil unrest. 

In the UK, the Chancelor of the Exchequer (in the US we call this the Treasury Secretary) had dialogue with our friends at the IMF.  Mr. Healey let it be known that the British government is interested in raising taxes on the large banks to end austerity and begin rebuilding the social state, in line with PM Burnham’s proposals.  

The IMF response was altogether predictable: taking the side of antagonistic & inharmonious capital and greed, it recommended class warfare.  That is don’t tax the rich, instead slash and burn public services, austerity for the public first, higher taxes upon “the poors.”  The IMF, predictably, repeated the same Thatcher lies.  To wit, higher taxes on the top could be harmful to growth, lending, and the economy.  Banks, themselves, opined (even Jamie - Bailout Queen - Dimon) and as billionaires frequently do, threatened to move jobs and operations… the typical behavior we’ve come to expect from greed, CEOs, oligarchs, and capital.  As noted in the Guardian, when it’s time to bailout these institutions & oligarchs with public money, the government bends to banker/oligarch will, the entire banking crisis is paved over with a tidal wave of taxpayer cash, and in the case of the US, no accountability or responsibility are ever assessed or assigned.  In fact, many of the culprits grow richer from the bailout itself.  That is, the rich grow obscenely rich and the bottom 90% pay for welfare for the rich with austerity, lower real wages, wage slavery, soaring prices, and higher taxes (see Trump’s tariff taxation).

So, banks, billionaires, and the IMF … and this is often true throughout the West… believe society is something to prey upon, something to feed off, like a vampire, but when it comes time to support children, families, and society this greed collective shuns any and all responsibility (despite making huge profits).  Keep in mind, these banks make their money by creating money/currency out of thin air and charging usurious rates… any chimpanzee can do it.  I don’t want to belabor the point, but we all need to get the know the IMF better, because not only does the IMF offer advice but it takes over the fiscal and tax affairs of nation-states, like Greece after the 2008 crisis and Goldman Sachs sold some curious derivatives that obscured Greek debt (until it could be obscured no more).  What’s the old saying?  Baby, you may not do politics, but politics ultimately will do you.  To that adage we could add:  Baby, you may not do the IMF, but IMF will surely do you and then some.  Except for the rich and bankers of course… magically, they’re off limits. 

Before I close, it’s not just banks and billionaires… monopolies have huge power over nation-states and governments.  Screaming all manner of insanity about growth, the economy, threatening to exit a country if their every whim is not met, and doing incredible damage to economies, creating abject inequality and economic calamity for families, labour, social cohesion, children, and the future with their greed-first ideology. 

So, what’s to be done?  Nationalization is one immediate solution.  The State could set up its own bank or set up retail and commercial lending at the central bank, the BOE.  Take a metaphorical chainsaw to the private sector and greed, especially on something so essential as banking.  I’ve long argued that any essential goods and services have no business being in the hands of capital and greed, as it immediately lends itself to rabid exploitation and moral hazard.  A government willing to set up banking services could cut the legs out from under the private sector and tell them, they better leave the UK.  The casino most of the larger banks have become are often more of a liability and a distraction from the real economy, that is to say, far more trouble and risk than they are worth.  A state bank would also be far better conduit for accommodative, expansionist, and restrictive monetary policy, than the private sector.  What we see from bankers, billionaires, CEOs running essential goods and services is pure conceit, that is the power mad arrogance of bankers and the oligarchy are entirely out of control.  Nation-states can fight the battle alone or better still, they can collude, gather as a unified front against corporate power & greed’s tyranny.  Imagine the EU beefing up their tax collection services to include armies of tax attorneys and accountants to run down billionaires offshore, Bermuda, Belgium, tax havens, wherever a billionaire bunker can be found.  If the EU and UK wanted to get entrepreneurial it could set loose mercenary battalions of attorneys and accountants (coupled with the power of AI) on billionaires and multinationals, who avoid and dodge taxation.  That is, place a financial bounty on each oligarch’s head for successful criminal and civil prosecution and a cut of the tax proceeds collected.  The creativity here is limitless.  Think Blade Runner for accounting and tax nerds, retiring oligarchs instead of replicants?

Ultimately, what’s clear is fascist corporatism, greed-first, the endless growth paradigm, globalization, and oligarchy rule are complete failures, especially in terms of a guiding economic ethos, generating empathy & support for an increasingly impoverished world, and as a governing ideology.  Remember, they are all hypocrites, perfectly fine helping themselves to state money and credit lines, while condemning socialism for the 99%.  

What’s clear: corporate fascism as always has failed, as has hatred and contempt for humanity.  Perhaps, it’s time for the IMF to remember this and get on board... redirect its efforts to helping humanity, not a privileged few. 

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026