Author Archives: Dave Johnson

A Starmer-Mandelson Scenario

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If you are up-to-date on the Starmer/Mandelson scandal, skip to below. US readers: When Trump was about to take office (the second time) Prime Minister Starmer appointed a known Epstein associate, Peter Mandelson, to be UK’s Ambassador to the US. They said at the time they were making a smart move because Mandelson traveled in the same circles and would be able to help the UK work with the new Trump administration.

When (some of the) the Epstein files (ones that didn’t incriminate Trump) were released documents revealed that Mandelson had leaked/sold secret high-level, top-secret UK information to Epstein. Mandelson was fired and there were a lot of questions about Starmer’s judgement in appointing him.

But wait, there’s more.

Last week it was revealed that Mandelson failed the security vetting that was required before he could receive a top-level clearance. The vetting concluded he should not be appointed. The Foreign Office (UK name for what the US calls the State Department) (or have they changed the name to State of War Department?) overruled this and let him be appointed anyway. So now Starmer is in real trouble. “How could this happen?” “How could you allow someone who failed his vetting get such a high-level job?” Etc…

Starmer claims the Foreign Office never informed him that Mandelson failed the vetting… The PM appointed a guy who turned out to be, basically, a spy. So big trouble all around.

An Alternate Scenario

Try this on for size: They knew Mandelson was corrupt, likely would leak/sell secrets. They already knew before the vetting that he had Russian and Chinese military clients, and that’s why they appointed him. They knew he would probably leak or sell secrets to UK’s adversaries – the US, Russia and/or China.

Saying he was appointed because he was someone who can work with Trump was just a cover story. They really put him there so they could feed him stuff they wanted Trump/Russia/China to get. False, misleading, disruptive and wrong information.

What we are seeing now – the big scandal, the ridiculous excuses, the threat that the PM will have to resign, etc. is a dance to try to convince Russia/China/Trumpers that the stuff Mandelson was (probably) passing along was real intelligence not disinformation they fed them.

Whether this fantastic scenario is what happened or not? Who knows? But Russia and China are probably wondering exactly this now. (The Trumpers probably aren’t because they aren’t smart enough to think of this.)

The reason I thought of this was realizing Starmer and the Foreign Office etc just could not have been stupid enough to put Mandelson there knowing he was an associate of Epstein, and hide his vetting failure, and all the rest. They just couldn’t.

They couldn’t be that stupid. Right?

Campfire Politics

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I encourage people to visit Campfire Politics, a new site for progressives to visit.

Campfire Politics is a curated progressive political digest – the best thinking from across the left, delivered with a wry eye and zero patience for bullshit. Think of it as The Week, but with a backbone.

Check out the About page.

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind

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Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone
It’s just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Bob Dylan, 1965

Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

Starmer Bad

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I live in the UK now. Over here Prime Minister Starmer has a new crisis this morning. Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson as Ambassador the the Trump administration, knowing he was an Epstein associate. Then the Epstein files came out and showed that Mandelson was leaking/selling financial secrets to Epstein.

Now further revelations about Epstein/Mandelson look extremely bad. The security vetting process before his appointment had said Peter Mandelson should not get a security clearance and that was overridden. So he got the job anyway and engaged in corruption.

Starmer either knew about the denial of security clearance being overridden or didn’t know about it, so he’s either part of a corrupt project or hasn’t implemented sufficient oversight and control of his government. Either way you can’t have a PM that isn’t fighting corruption or at least making sure it isn’t coming from inside the house.

Hard To Imagine Democracy

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This post first appeared at Imagine Democracy – Imagining government of the people, by the people and for the people.

I haven’t posted here at Imagine Democracy for a while because it is hard to imagine democracy with everything that is happening. I’ve been writing a LOT over at Government Cheese: Chronicling the collapse of democracy because … the collapse of democracy.

So imagine democracy. Suppose We the People manage to get control of the United States again. What’s it going to take to get America back on its feet?

The World Will Need An Ironclad Guarantee It Can’t Happen Again

We the People are going to have to make changes that provide the entire world with an ironclad assurance that this all cannot happen again. Can. Not. The level of systemic reform required before any country, business or anyone dares to trust the US again will be enormous. The damage done by tariffs, threats, withdrawal of assistance, bombs and otherwise is just huge.

Why would any country agree to any kind of arrangement with the US without some kind of ironclad guarantee? This is real. Right now the EU is talking to the UK about deals opening up more trade, and a few other things. In those talks the EU is asking for the agreement to include reparations payments if the right gets control of the UK again and undoes these agreements – again.

Even domestically. Suppose you’re thinking about joining (or rejoining) the Dept of Justice. Without such a guarantee you are not only facing the possibility of being tossed out in 4 years if the nutcases get control again, you are also facing the possibility of being indicted for trying to help the country recover! Suppose you’re a scientist thinking of coming back to help fight the climate crisis. Same deal. You could get indicted for that – or worse – if they get back in.

That’s a lot of work there to undo the ways the system is rigged against the public. How do you get government back under the control of We the People? Most important: Get money out of the election system. Ban it. Ban corporate money from being used for any purpose other than running the corporation! Getting the money out might give the public a chance to start righting the ship.

Get rid of the Electoral College – it’s a leftover from the slave-state system. Make the Senate represent their share of the population instead of two senators for a state with the population of one county in a state like California! Bring in some kind of preferential/ranked-choice voting system to stop current vote for the lesser-of-two-evils system. Get corporations under control – re-regulate them and put “stakeholders” on Boards. Completely reform and expand the corrupt Republican Supreme Court. Somehow restore an honest system for the public to get reliable news & information that stops the ability to propagandize the public. (Maybe a super and expanded version of Public Broadcasting? Govt funding for news outlets and local news outlets?) Implement ironclad ways to make sure democracy is understood, respected and protected, including a Department of Democracy.
 
So many things will have to be done. But seriously why should anyone trust the US “system” again without this level of real reform?

After what happened with Japan and Germany this is the level of change that had to happen. Complete transformation. It didn’t happen after the Soviet Union fell, and look where they are now!

What Can Be Done?

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

America’s “system” brought THIS to the world. What can be done and how soon?

Pope Leo criticized the Iran attack. The Trump admin summoned a representative of the Vatican to let them know, “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

“One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France.”

And today “Our great Military is … looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest.”

How Did We Get Here?

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

Let’s just say the Iran situation calms down, Iran sets up the toll system and the US just … leaves. Then the world has to sit and wonder what Trump does next. It could be literally anything. Back to Greenland? Cuba? Canada? Take the UK?

How did this happen? The disppearance of rule of law, international law, norms … we are now all at the whim of one madman with incredible power. The entire world!

After WWII the world tried to set up some structures to prevent another catastrophe. The US set up the regulatory state to prevent another depression and make people’s lives better. It was all systematically dismantled, piece by piece, with the effort hidden behind a fog of propaganda called “free speech” and based on “making some money.” Now a few people have all of the power and most of the wealth.

Will the world recover and do better next time?

A Progressive Populist Agenda

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Here’s a first stab at some ideas for a post-Trump agenda that would actually be popular with the public.

Democratic “We the People” Government is based on the reality that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights. Government therefore must protect and serve the people of the nation and planet by supporting and assisting in making all people’s lives better and supporting an economy that grows prosperity through investment in public goods and sustainable businesses that work for the public good, while always protecting and restoring the environment.

To this end it is in government’s interest to Work With Other Nations in a cooperative effort to accomplish these goals for all humanity. All human beings are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights.

To achieve this from the ruins of the present system:

Vast personal wealth damages society and causes moral harm to the individuals possessing it. Redistribute Extreme Wealth through very high wealth taxes, very high top bracket income tax rate until societal wealth distribution is much “flatter.” (“Get the money from where the money went.”)

Climate Reparations and other reparations where wealth was accumulated through harms, exploitation, fraud, intentional addiction, etc.

Free Public Energy. Provide a baseline amount of free electricity to people and businesses. Transition completely to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Free Mass Transit – Put the word ‘Public’ back in ‘Public Transit’.

Universal Public Healthcare – Finally join the rest of the world.

Free Public Education through college.

Provide a Guaranteed Basic Income as well as guaranteed jobs in public service. Give people who seek jobs the opportunity to do jobs that need to be done.

Corporations exist to serve the public interest. Strictly Regulate Corporations. Reform corporate governance with Board representation by all stakeholders. Diverse – 50% women, racially diverse. Encourage and assist smaller, local businesses. Note- regulations exist for the good of the public, so government will provide funds and assistance toward compliance.

Limit Corporation Profits with excess going to the government (public). The purpose of a corporation is to aggregate private capital to accomplish things the public wants done. Corporate employment should be rewarded according to contribution. Profits from ongoing operations should be reinvested with excess to public. Reward for capital risk and contribution would come from a low rate of taxation of long-term capital gains.

Nationalize AI. Control & develop it to serve the public interest.

Nationalise or Regulate Social Media and other “network effect” technologies like internet search as public utilities.

Restore the Natural World.

Outlaw Corruption. To ensure government continues to serve the public, we must develop systemic mechanisms and institutions to fight corruption and the influence of other corrupting interests, including anti-democracy ideologies.

Iran Failure Shows What The ‘Deep State’ Was FOR

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Understanding things like the Strait of Hormuz and guiding policymakers on how to work with countries like Iran is what the Deep State was about.

The Strait of Hormuz is narrow and the Iranian side is mountainous, with cliffs at the shore.

Something like 25% of all oil, 20% of liquefied natural gas and 30% of urea and phosphate fertilizers passes through the Strait.

Iran could always have closed the Strait at any time. A single Iranian in a speedboat with a shoulder-launched missile can fired at a supertanker. Missiles could be fired from those cliffs or mountains. There is no level of naval escort or minesweeping or air power that ensure this cannot happen without invading. But invading and clearing the Iranian side would be a long, tough operation requiring a major invasion force.

But Iran has kept the Strait open, until now, because it needed the trade that went through and because closing it would trigger a massive military response. Trump took these reasons away and Iran responded by closing the Strait to any shipping from and to “the Enemy Bloc” – the United States & Israel and their allies, and others providing support for this war on Iran. And now the only way the Strait can be reopened is a major invasion — or by giving Iran what it wants. And Iran isn’t ready to even say what it wants.

The Deep State

The US government, its military and diplomatic corps had, over the decades, built up a “bureaucracy” of experts and diplomats and military strategists who studied and understood that and worked with that and helped policymakers plan around this understanding. Trump called these experts and institutions the “Deep State” and has worked to dismantle it all since retaking office.

Understanding things like the Strait of Hormuz and guiding policymakers on how to work with countries like Iran is what the Deep State was about. It is was government is. It is experts who know things and say, “If you to this, then here are the probable results.” They analyze problems and proposals and say, “History and data tell us the best approach to X is Y.”

The Deep State also existed to look at problems like healthcare, occupational safety, pollution, financial regulation, climate, seat belts, drugs, etc, and suggested the best approaches to developing policies, regulations and laws, diplomacy and all kinds of other things government does.

The Deep State advised that vaccines prevent serious epidemics. They advised that burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon into the air would eventually cause an extremely threatening climate crisis. The Deep State advised not to make war on Iran because they will close the Strait of Hormuz and throw the world into possible depression.

And that’s WHY they were eliminated from government. Because the experts said don’t let corporations pollute, don’t let the finance industry commit fraud and stop the oil companies from putting carbon into the air. Etc. So those industries and the billionaires who profit from them paid politicians to get rid of those experts.

Regulations Are Written In Blood

They say every regulation is written in blood because they come from the lessons learned when terrible mistakes are made, and try to prevent those terrible things from happening again. The Deep State’s understandings and protections and advice took decades to build. It only took a few months to destroy. It’s not coming back any time soon.

There will be blood.

Atari’s Collapse Is A Metaphor For The Iran War

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The Promise Of Easy Solutions Is An Easy Sell To The Uninformed

Back in the early days at Atari we had that original 2600 game machine. It had really clunky graphics. (Remember Pong?) Pixels were very large, big rectangles. A soccer ball would just be several rectangles pasted together moving around the screen. It was the way the machine worked, the hardware. It was just the way it was. But “marketing” (Warner Bros executives) didn’t understand the tech they were in charge of, and were always complaining about us game designers, demanding we “make the ball round.” They regularly threatened to replace us if we couldn’t make the ball round. They were convinced we were holding out on them. (A dozen or so of us were making the company millions. Originally we were not paid much at all, they were cleaning up.)

AI Sold As The Big Solution

In a Volts interview with David roberts, Cory Doctorow (“enshittification” guy) talked about how corporate executive types see AI as the solution to their big problem – employees. They see AI as the opportunity to finally not have to pay or deal with people anymore. (The capitalist ideology that businesses exist not to serve society, but to make them money, period.)

Cory Doctorow

… AI companies are much better at convincing your boss that they have a chatbot that can do your job than they are at making a chatbot that can actually do your job.

David Roberts

It is the AI industry’s one really transcendent, amazing, and admirable success.

Cory Doctorow

Oh, they’re pushing on an open door.

David Roberts

They have bamboozled the entire executive class.

Cory Doctorow

But they’re pushing on an open door. Bosses are insatiably horny for firing you and replacing you with a robot. And they will — literally, Elon Musk does demos of robots that can work in factories that are literally a guy in a robot suit. And bosses all over the world get, like, horrible priapism and have to go to the emergency room. Right? Like, this is — there is nothing easier than selling a boss on automation to fire workers.

I think about this when I see stories about these companies trying to force everyone to use AI… the employees see that it just doesn’t work like the promises say it does but the executives don’t really understand the tech they are in charge of so managers are all ordered to get it working so they can get rid of all the employees. The managerial/executive/finance class have all been sold by AI hype and are convinced the glory days are soon here.

Iran War Sold As The Big Solution

Now to the war on Iran. After Venezuela the Fox News hosts running the government thought they had the easy solution to the problem of the existence of “other cuntries.” In Venezuela they just “decapitated” the pesky leadership, stole the oil for themselves, and left the resulting mess behind. In a week. The Trump admin didn’t (care to) understand the world they are in charge of so they (literally) pulled the trigger thinking they could do the same with Iran.

Atari’s Collapse, AI And Iran

In 1983 Atari’s executives got sold on “ET” being the cure-all blockbuster game. They manufactured several million more ET game cartridges than there were game consoles to play them on and “stuffed the channels” – sold them to outlets all over the world for eventual sale to nonexistent customers. This ultimately collapsed the entire game industry.

I think Atari manufacturing more cartridges than there were game consoles to put them into is a metaphor for what’s happening with AI — and Iran.

PS Atari “marketing” was always bothering us to come up with a game titled, “Death From Above.”

Corruption Leads To Corruption Leads To Today

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

Some time back I listened to Ezra Klein interviewing journalist Anand Giridharadas, The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power, discussing how the networks Epstein set up worked. It was just so enlightening and I’m still thinking about it, seeing it everywhere…

Of course there were the people, like Trump, who were part of raping young girls, attending the parties, etc.

There were the people who did not engage in the worst but benefitted from the connections Epstein offered. They knew about the worst because he had already been convicted the first time, but they benefitted from the connections and that was what mattered to them.

Earlier than that there were people who saw it happening, knew about the girls and the parties and just thought boys will be boys and laughed. That’s what women and girls were for! It’s just the way it is.

There were lots of people who participated in letting Epstein off that first time. There was the entire crowd at the DOJ who stepped in and took over the prosecution and let him off easy and ordered everyone to keep quiet about it! There were the people who saw this happening and said nothing. This was how things were done and that’s the way it is and if you want your career you’ll keep your mouth shut. And so they kept their mouths shut.

An Entire System Of Corruption

After all, everyone knew that corporate executives and the very wealthy and certain politicians and powerful people like them were above the law. That’s the way it is and if you want to keep your career you’ll sign the NDA and keep your mouth shut.

This was just one part of an entire system of corruption and acceptance of and expectation of corruption built up over the years and it was of a part with the entire system of letting fraudsters and money-launderers and corporate criminals and an entire class of predators get away with harvesting the public for profit. No prosecutions of executives for anything, ever. Polluters. Tax dodgers. Bank executives who crashed the economy with fraud. “Lobbyists” who exist just to pay off politicians. Government regulators who keep their mouths shut and don’t make waves or rock the boat, then leave government and are given lucrative jobs or contracts or “speaking fees” thanking them for their service to the system of corruption.

And a corrupt Supreme Court that has now legalized that system of bribery. Every day that all just got worse and worse until we have what we have now – a King and his family and the fascists around them raking in billions and billions.

The Dirty Hippies Who Refused To Participate In The Corrupt System

What stood out to me was there also were people who were repelled by it and wanted nothing to do with it and refused to benefit from the connections, favors & gifts and other things Epstein was dangling. They told associates to keep away from him and keep him away from anything they had to do with. Those are the ones the Trump admin is going after now because of that, prosecuting, etc. They are the “dirty hippies” who protest and show up at marches. They are the people who try to protect their neighbors from being taken away by masked thugs in unmarked vans.

So I recommend listening to:
The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power
The journalist Anand Giridharadas examines the power and influence that Jeffrey Epstein brokered and that the latest batch of Epstein files puts on display.