Category Archives: Capitalism

Dark Trump Takeover Scenario

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Some say the stock market will crash if Trump steals the midterms. There are many ways he could do this. Prevent enough people from voting. Have ICE seize ballots. Have Republicans just order the counting stopped or refuse to certify election results. Surround the Capitol with tanks and put the lot of them in jail. Everyone is running through possible scenarios in their heads. (Admit it, you are.)

Bailout Bubbles

I keep hearing that this stock bubble persists because traders believe Trump will bail them out if the bubble pops. Go crazy because there’s less downside risk. There certainly is reason to believe this. Just look at what happened after the 2008 crash. Look at Silicon Valley Bank. Look at etc., etc., etc. Downside risk? What’s that? We don’t GOT no stinkin’ downside risk!

Oil Companies Know

Factor that kind of thinking into the “Trump Takeover” scenario. There could be a total corruption bailout! The corporations could finally be totally “unleashed.” ALL the money at the top and NONE of that stupid trickling down!

Oil companies know. Remember how Trump promised the oil companies they can have everything they want if they help him win. Trump won and the oil companies got Venezuela and a government that is fighting green energy & CO2 reduction rules every step of the way. Imagine what the corporations can achieve with no Congress or government departments at all to worry about.

A Dark Vision

So the other argument is at lease some think there’s the possibility that the market could go insane upwards if Trump “goes the full gestapo route.” It means the big guys at the top will get all the rest of (what’s let of) the loot. Maybe markets will believe that with all constraints removed there will be be real cheap labor and no more problems with oversight of anything — for those who can pay Trump enough. Because that’s how it works when the strongman runs things.

The Final Extraction

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Extraction

Everything is extraction now. Late-stage capitalism has turned into whatever you call the billionaires (and trillionaire) owning everything and extracting all the wealth from everywhere that’s left.

Their giant multinational monopolies buy up all the businesses. All the businesses extract all the local spending and transfer it to tax havens. The governments have to “borrow” their wealth back to keep running, then extract taxes to pay interest — to the billionaires.

The Final Extraction

There are still a few things left in the world to extract. Some people still have some equity in their homes. There are still some independent farms and businesses (in hock to the billionaires’ banks.)

The billionaires are circling the rest, though.

Until Collapse

Extraction at this extreme level has to lead to collapse.

Far too oil has been extracted, in spite of the warnings. The world has passed a 1.5C temperature increase and looks like 2C is already baked in. (Sorry for that one.) The climate is collapsing in front of our eyes.

Trump’s strategic failure in Iran will collapse the world economy.

That means the stock bubble will collapse.

The AI bubble will collapse.

The world debt bubble will collapse.

What Comes Next?

What comes after collapse? Who knows?

The billionaires will be in their bunkers , their slaves wearing shock collars to keep them in line. The rest of us will be bathing in our billionaire-funded propaganda bath… Will we still blame trans people and non-white migrants for everything? Everyone will BE migrants transitioning to starvation, so who knows?

Since no one will have any wealth left maybe the psychopaths will leave us all alone and everyone will be able to start over somehow. Who knows? (Yes, that’s a Bible reference. Leviticus 25:8-13)

Smiling Politicians With Kennedy Haircuts Issue Focus-Group Words

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Fossil-fueled psychopathic planetary pollution. Sew dependence reap profit and power. Smiling politicians with Kennedy haircuts and earnest, rolled-up sleeves issue focus-group words and wet their beaks.

Temperatures ever more extreme. The land becomes brown not green. Smoke from fires clogs our lungs. Species go extinct. Crops won’t grow.

It’s OK both sides do it radical terrorists say it’s wrong. Divisions are stoked and they are conquered.

It will trickle down.

Trump Isn’t The Collapse, Trump Is A Consequence Of The Collapse

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People say America and its democracy are being collapsed by Trump. I have come to believe that what we have been calling “late-stage capitalism” was a system that had already collapsed.

Trump isn’t the collapse, Trump is the consequence of the collapse.

The Rule of Law had departed some time ago. The Constitutional system was nonfunctional. The economic system was rigged. The political system benefited only the wealthy and their corporations. That was collapse.

Accountability had long ago disappeared. (A pardon for Nixon? What?) Executives at corporations are never prosecuted. Instead the company itself would be fined – as if companies are sentient entities that can make decisions and do things. White-collar criminals were rarely prosecuted. This is how Trump was able to even be on the scene in the first place to run for office, instead of imprisoned for sex crimes, money laundering, fraud, etc.

The collapse was how Reagan was able to get away with the deal with Iran, and the later Iran/Contra deal.

The collapse was how the Supreme Court was able to make Bush president.

The collapse was how the Iraq War happened.

The collapse was how the climate crisis came about in the first place, how the companies were allowed to continue to put carbon into the air after scientists warned us of the harm it was causing, and how the executives at the companies that caused it got rich instead of being prosecuted.

The collapse was how tax cuts for the rich & corporations, with budget cuts for things government does to make people’s lives better happened.

The collapse was how no bankers were prosecuted for fraud after the financial collapse, and Wall Street but not the public was bailed out.

Rule of Law and accountability had long since disappeared from the United States. That was the collapse.

This wasn’t “late stage capitalism,” it was collapse.

People called these things “late stage capitalism.” This wasn’t late stage capitalism at all. We were already living with the collapse of the Constitutional system, the collapse of Rule of Law, the collapse of accountability. It was corruption taking over. It had been happening for decades.

Trump is just a consequence of that collapse.

In 2017’s Democracy and Corruption I wrote about “democracy off the rails” and democracy “corroded,” not realizing Trump was only possible was because the collapse had already happened.

Trump didn’t just come out of nowhere. The road to Trump goes back a long way. Trump comes out of a steady and intentional undermining of rule of law, norms, equality, civility and democracy.

They say these things happen slowly, then all at once. The collapse was happening for decades, then all at once with Trump.

Easier Than Governing

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Modern society is complex, vast, complicated. Governing modern society is hard. Getting it right requires a lot of hard work doing the managing, measuring, forecasting, planning, consulting, regulating, making & enforcing rules and all that boring hippie crap. Getting the details right is difficult. All of it means attending endless meetings. The skills needed take decades to master. And it all requires dedication and commitment.

Instead Of Doing The Actual Work

US Republicans and UK Tories have found a way around doing the actual, difficult work: Just don’t do it! Problem solved!

“Conservatives” espouse “The magic of the market.” Instead of governing, why not simply “unleash” the “market” to do everything.

Kill off the rules and regulations. Fire the enforcers. Skip the planning. Cancel the meetings. Demonize the “experts.” Turn it all over to “the magic of the market.”

Above all else, nurture the “market.” Allow any entity calling itself a “corporation” to engage in any scheme that can be imagined.

So Many Good Things

Protect people from disease? The market will do that.
Protect people from fraud? The market will do that.
Make sure the food is safe? The market will do that.
Maintain and improve the standard of living? The market will do that.
Provide shelter? The market will do that.

The Invisible Hand Will Do The Work

After you have dismantled the entire governing process (“the Deep State”) you can just sit back and party while everything is taken care of by an invisible hand engaging in creative destruction. The Lord will work in mysterious ways. Disruption is the key.

It’s magic!

Cash Bonus

This approach comes with a huge bonus. “The Market” rewards those who “unleash” it.

And Here We Are

And here we are. Infrastructure falling apart. Health care systems in shambles. Education systems not educating. Etc. Etc. Etc. Everywhere you look everything in society is falling apart.

Don’t forget the big one: The planet’s climate is disintegrating and could very well wipe out society itself.

The Magic of the Market at work!

What Happened To Us?

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Beginning in the 1970s a well-funded PR campaign convinced people to accept policies handing society’s seed corn and governance to the wealthy. It was called “neoliberalism.” People were told government is bad. They were told business & the wealthy were better at managing society. This campaign has been ongoing since.

Reagan & Thatcher were swept into power. The implemented “shock doctrine” tactics to transform their economies away from benefitting the public toward benefitting the wealthiest. Public assets were privatized – turned over to the wealthy. Investment in infrastructure, education, research & social betterment (society’s seed corn) was cut, and continued to be cut. Government protections of the public and the environment (“regulations”) were removed.

Taxes on the wealthy and their corporations were also dramatically cut, eventually resulting in massive inequality and division.

The political influence of massive wealth dramatically increased. Now governments are only able to operate if wealthy interests allow it.

And here we are.

COP28

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COP28 stands for the 28th year of the “Conference of Parties” to climate change. THIS COP called for a transition away from use of fossil fuels in its final report.

It took 28 YEARS before a climate conference said that burning fossil fuels and allowing the resulting carbon pollution to be dumped into the air was a problem!

What does that tell you?

(Hint: It tells you that fossil fuel companies have been able to use their vast resources to influence and control governments around the world.)

They Can’t Get Pilots Or Doctors

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Being an airline pilot used to be a good job with good pay and good benefits. Pilots were respected. Young people would sign up for the Air Force to get pilot training hoping they would have great career opportunities later.

Then the airlines broke the unions. Some of them used bankruptcy laws. Some of them just broke the unions. HAHA Showed them who is the boss. Investors raked in the bucks that pilots used to be paid. So now being an airline pilot is a shit job with low pay and long abusive hours. Don’t even ask about the benefits.

And guess what? There is a shortage of pilots. the Air Force is has a pilot shortage and recruitment problems because young people know better than signing up for a shitty career.

And the investors who raked in the $$? THEY DON’T CARE. They’re gone, living it up on the money they “earned” in a system that encourages people to do what they did.

Now Let’s Do Doctors

Being an airline pilot a doctor used to be a good job with good pay and good benefits. Pilots Doctors were respected. Young people would strive to get into medical school.

Then medical corporations took over…

Housing

People used to be able to rent or buy a place to live. Then, during the Great Recession, “private equity” companies bought up as much housing as they could. Now they rent those homes out at ridiculous rates…

You get the picture.

Looting Is Our “System”

This is the result of very short-sighted thinking. There is no planning for the longer term or the public good here. This is about a few people making the most money they can as fast as they can and never mind the consequences.

Is this how a sensible democracy would operate. Of course not. The people doing the looting and raking in the $$ are able to do this because the public has been persuaded that this is the best way to do things. You wouldn’t want “big government” or “union bosses” doing “planning” deciding how to do things, would you?

So our society collapses before our eyes.

Corruption And Consequences

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Silicon Valley Bank fails…

Corruption allowed the finance industry to operate outside of sensible government oversight, even as the world has experienced the consequences of this over and over again. So here in Silicon Valley and around the world, tech employees are waiting to find out if they’ll get their paychecks or get laid off next week. The world is wondering if contagion will spread that fear. Again. (Last time, because of corruption, not one banker type was held accountable. Not one.)

Also here in Silicon Valley it is raining harder than almost ever – except for a couple weeks ago. Flooding everywhere. I mean, torrential, incredible rain pouring down right now. This is because corruption has caused governments to allow the industry causing this to keep putting more and more carbon into the air even as we all know what the consequences will be.

The news lately has been about train derailments devastating localities. This happens because corruption allows wealthy rail-owners to keep governments from making them operate safely.

Inequality is now completely out-of-control. 60% of Americans now live paycheck-to-paycheck, not even able to raise $500 to cover an emergency like a car breakdown. The government doesn’t raise the minimum wage or otherwise address this because of obvious corruption. Million upon millions are spent convincing these people to blame government for this and vote for those backed by that money, and abolish democracy. “I am your retribution.”

The Supreme Court “rules” that this is all OK. Any amount of secret money is allowed to influence elections. People trying to fix this face millions of dollars spent smearing them in LOCAL elections. This Supreme Court we have is the way it is because of corrupt money spent to put them there.

Is there a common theme here?