Category Archives: Government and Governing

The Old Enemies Of Peace – Welcome Their Hatred

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

In 1932 FDR campaigned asking for help so he could win and “restore America to its own people.” After taking office his administration began working to help the population start to recover from the ravages of depression caused by unregulated banks and stock market speculation. Campaigning for reelection in 1936 he delivered his final campaign speech at Madison Square Garden. He talked about the changes his government had made, and the struggle that lay ahead to continue with that struggle. He described the struggle he and the public faced, saying,

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

The old enemies of peace are back. Business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism and war profiteering.

Let’s welcome their hatred and send them off.

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.

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.

AI Is Still Just A Confirmation Bias Machine

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It used to be that when I used AI I found that it would give me obviously wrong answers to questions about things I had some knowledge about. Later new versions would arrive and I would give it another chance. I found that it was getting better. While still giving incorrect information, it would offer some things that were useful that I might not have considered. But nuance and context were simply not there. So I thought it was useful for bouncing some ideas off of, as long as I was very careful to double-check what it was telling me. I understood that if I went pubic with any conclusions based on AI I was risking my reputation.

AI Got Better

Lately it has gotten much better. It can go into some depth, with some nuance and a bit of understanding of context. It seems to be giving fairly comprehensive answers that look right. I could draw some conclusions from this if I accepted what I was seeing.

BUT then I notice the information in the response is not quite right. So I point this out to the AI, offer some more sources to check, and it updates its answer. The update provides responses that look even more informed, with additional nuance and context, but lead toward different conclusions from its previous response. If I dive into those responses they still aren’t quite right, leaving out inputs that would alter the response.

I find I can continue this cycle for some time. Each time I get informed responses that look good, and from which I can draw conclusions. If I’m not careful and skeptical I am risking drawing the wrong conclusions. If I am public with those conclusions I am risking my reputation.

This Is Just Confirmation Bias

I have realized that what I am experiencing, even with the greatly refined AIs that are out there now, is a confirmation bias machine. I can continue to refine my prompts and the AI will continue to refine its responses, until I am satisfied with what I am seeing and draw conclusions. But I could also continue this cycle. Until I am satisfied with what it is telling me.

This isn’t about being right, it’s about seeing responses that satisfy people that they are correct. But all AI is doing, still, is telling people what they want to hear. It’s just doing a better job of it! AI is not “getting better.” It is getting better at making you think it’s getting better. This is about accepting conclusions, not about drawing correct conclusions.

And THIS is what investors and businesses and governments and others are already using to gather information and come to conclusions and act.

Risking the World

The Fox News hosts running the US government are using drawing conclusions based on what AI is telling them. I would be risking my reputation if I accepted that. They are risking the world.

American Media Asymmetry

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There are things the American public just can’t be told. Here are a few examples.

Universal healthcare, like Medicare-for-All, would dramatically reduce American healthcare costs.

Cutting government spending usually just shifts costs onto the public or other government departments, and almost always increases those costs well beyond what was being spent before the cuts.

Immigrants are good for the economy — and also are human beings.

Taxing the rich to get money FROM the rich would mean the govt stops “borrowing” from the rich and forever after paying interest TO the rich. (It could also begin to address the problem of inequality if taxation levels are high enough.)

Renewables like wind and solar reduce energy costs while oil companies create life-threatening pollution and receive massive subsidies.

Joining a labor union brings tremendous benefits to workers. It increases their pay and benefits. It helps prevent mistreatment on the job.

These are just a few of the things you don’t hear in American “news” outlets.

American Manufacturing Was Sold Off For Profit

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China didn’t “take” America’s manufacturing jobs, greedy American investors and executives sold America’s farm and ate the seed corn. Same in the UK.

Paul Waldman writes about woodworking tools, in A Trump Tariff Case Study: Can the U.S. Again Be the Power Tool King? at The New Republic.

My DeWalt 20-volt cordless drill/driver combo set is a beaut—powerful, smooth, comfortable in the hand, and not too expensive; I got it on sale for about a hundred bucks. It’s also a tribute to the wonders of the transnational supply chain, its components traversing the earth before they came together and found their way to my door. The drill and driver were made in Mexico, but their batteries were made in China, as were the battery charger and the handy tote bag that came with it. DeWalt, a brand familiar to every woodworker and DIY enthusiast, is a division of Stanley Black & Decker, a global conglomerate headquartered in Connecticut that owns brands including Craftsman, Porter-Cable, Bostitch, and many others.

He writes about how tools once made in the US by American companies are now made elsewhere by international companies, why this is, and what it might take to bring the factories back. He nails it, just spot-on: Manufacturing ecosystems, the cost of bringing it back, the jobs that were good in the past. “(M)any started as American companies but are now part of multinational corporations.” “Unfortunately, there are serious impediments to achieving reindustrialization on a large scale, and Trump’s policies are just about the worst way to go about it.” “We could rebuild those manufacturing ecosystems in the U.S., but we can’t just wish it into existence.” “In fact, this entire debate seems animated by a vision of a bygone time.”

Yep, he nails it. And, as we all know, it’s not just woodworking tools. It’s the same story for … everything.

Same In The UK

It’s the same here in the UK as well. Jaguar/Land Rover are now owned by an Indian company. Trains, water, Royal Mail, British Petroleum (BP), British Telecom (BT) and many other iconic, privatized “British” brands are no longer British-owned. All were sold off to international “investor” conglomerates so a few already-wealthy people could get even more wealthy, under an economic “ideology” (free markets) that was really just a cover story for selling the farm and eating the seed corn. And the public, struggling to get by, now flails around hoping Trump (and here, the Trumpy Reform party) will make good on his promise to “fix it.”

China Did Not “Take” Those Industries

“China” (generic term for “somewhere else”) didn’t “take” those industries. American and British “investors” and executives did that – literally sold out their countries – enabled by US/UK governments run by politicians elected with money that those executives and “investors” took out of their companies to buy the politicians, so they could personally obtain great wealth. They did it because they wanted cheap labor and a way around the pollution and worker safety rules that democracies insist on.

“China” understood what they were seeing and planned and executed a strategy to build their industrial base – as a country. They set up manufacturing zones and put in place everything needed — from local financing, to a modern power grid, to roads, to training centers, to supply chains, to places for workers to come live. Everything.

It was a “public/private partnership” between American executives and the Chinese government. Those exectives also took that ecosystem apart in the US, piece by piece, and it can’t easily be put back together. They sent away the “institutional memory” and “ecosystem” of supply chains and training centers… much like how the Trumpers are now doing the same to the US government itself.

Beyond Neoliberalism

Last week I stepped back into a past life and attended the opening of the “Beyond Neoliberalism” conference (https://beyond-neoliberalism.org/) because it was literally right down the street here in Cambridge UK. Oddly America-centric (and attended by lots of Americans I used to know) it began with a rousing 2.5 hour panel discussion (mostly Americans) on Industrial Policy under Biden. They said a lot of the things you nailed down in your piece.

Biden tried with his IRA to the extent the “system” would let him. Obama tried in tiny ways with his Smart Manufacturing “hub” concept, setting up labs – like a sensor testing lab in Lorain, Ohio around community colleges that would train people to work in the labs, etc. Same with a 3-D printing hub in Youngstown.

They tried. They failed. Now the US has Trump and likely soon the UK will have Farage.

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

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

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.

China Didn’t Take American Jobs

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Trump says other countries took advantage of the US. He says they “took” manufacturing and jobs from the US. This is just not what happened.

American Companies Did This

American democracy gave workers good wages and protections. It passed laws restricting the ability of companies to pollute.

“Investors” and executives running Amereican companies wanted more money. They wanted bigger profits, and saw America’s unions and resulting good wages and benefits as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves. They saw democracy’s protections and regulations and pollution controls as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves.

American investors and exeucites found a way around the borders of American democracy. The companies moved manufacturing to lowest-common-denominator places: lowest wages, minimal protection of workers, low regulation, allowing pollution etc. American companies did this, not evil foreign plots to take American jobs and companies.

The weaknesses of American democracy allowed American companies to move jobs out of the US. Those companies used this as a lever to force wages, taxes and regulations down INSIDE the US. This is a lot of what led to the inequality the US has now.

And they used the great profits to buy politicians who moved American democracy out of their way.

Foreigners didn’t do this to the US, American companies were allowed to do this.

THAT is what needs fixing. The weakness of American democracy, allowing government to be controlled by wealthy interests did this. The only way to undo this is to fully restore American democracy.

Healthcare CEO Killed

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United Healthcare apparently was the worst of the insurance companies for profiting from systematically denying claims. You pay an insurance company to cover you if you get sick, then when you get sick they refuse to cover you. As Bernie said about Wall Street, the business model is fraud. Except Wall Street takes away your house and life savings. Health insurance companies take away your health and sometimes your life.

These companies continue to be allowed, even encouraged to operate this way. Everyone knows this is because they pay politicians to do nothing that might keep the profits rolling in. Everyone knows this.

Top executives who pay politicians have impunity. Everyone saw this with Wall Street, when not one Wall Street executive was prosecuted after financial fraud caused the 2008 crash. (The ‘W’ administration got more than 2600 convictions of bankers for the S&L Crisis and 1706 bankers went to prison.)

Even when government is obviously and visibly absolutely corrupted, and refuses to prosecute the most horrific, egregious crimes, giving citizens no justice and no recourse, it remains wrong to “take the law into your own hands.” 

Even when the entire system is corrupted and everyone sees executives enriching themselves at the expense of the public and the planet, and “public servants” refusing to do anything about it and then when they leave “public services” they get lavishly compensated “jobs” or “consulting fees” “speaking fees” or “book advances” or other methods of payoff, it still is wrong to “take the law into your own hands.”

HOWEVER,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

PS Trump SAID he was that, but he ain’t that.

Campaign Donations Should Be ‘Secret Santa’

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Campaign “donations” to fund politics are necessarily and obviously corrupting. Massive amounts are “donated” with the clear expectation of receiving something in return. Normally that is called “bribery” but the corrupt recipients of the bribes call it “free speech.”

And everyone knows this. Everyone sees the political finance system as corrupt. Everyone.

“Public financing” is one proposed solution. Campaign donations would be banned. Government finances political campaigns. But aside from the complexity of such a system, there are legitimate “free speech” arguments that people should be able to support candidates and parties they favor.

Secret Santa Donations

Here is an alternative that preserves “free speech.” Set up a “Secret Santa” system that prevents recipients from knowing where donations come from. You want to help a candidate or party? Fine! Sure, give all you can. But don’t expect anything in return because they won’t know where the money came from!

The point of a Secret Santa donation system is to stop the obvious bribery. So of course for this to work it must be difficult and illegal for donors to tell who they donated to and how much they gave, and for the candidates or parties to find out where money comes from.

Democracy Was Lost Decades Ago

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1) Trump got 2 million fewer votes than 2020. This election turned on the 12 million who voted for Biden in 2020 but not Harris. I guess there’s historical value in finding out why they didn’t vote. Gaza was clearly one factor in this. I’m not saying it was all Gaza but Michigan would have gone to Harris except for Gaza. This is very clear when you look at Michigan’s vote count, Fewer than 100,000 votes would have given Michigan to Harris. But this doesn’t account for the 12 million nationwide.

2) As I wrote, this was inevitable Dems have been fighting a holding action for decades, and the dam broke. I wrote about how this loss is the culmination of the long-term, strategic, billionaire/corporate-funded “Conservative Movement” plan that has played out since the 70s. The Master Plan podcast does an excellent job of showing how this played out. If you want to know what has happened, please listen to this podcast. You can’t fight that with short-term efforts at election time. The country was lost long before this election.

3) I think if there is a root of this loss during the Biden admin it was that big Build Back Better bill was split in half, with the social spending split from the infrastructure part. The Chamber of Commerce wanted the infrastructure part. Biden promised not to allow that part to pass without the other part. They passed the first part. Manchin/Sinema worked with the right to kill the social spending. Progressives refused to vote for one but not the other, then corporate Dems used that as a cudgel to defeat progressives.

That social spending was what would have made people FEEL that the economy was working for them. That’s why the Chamber got it knocked out of the bill.

4) But really it is #2, which many of us “dirty hippies” have been warning about since the early 2000s at least, trying to get ANYONE to set up a counter-effort. Democracy Alliance was an attempt…

5) I do not see a way to overcome this. The world has entered a new era of oligarchal control. Democracy was defeated some time ago. Just look at all the studies showing that literally nothing has been passed in the US without the support of the wealthy, regardless of population support.

6) If it is as bad as we think the “blue” states will have to decide their own way forward apart from the rest of the country. California and others should become countries and try to fight off what is happening.