Calls for Facebook to be “broken up,” as in a recent New York TimesOp/Ed, are impotent. The most relevant historical example of a government mandated monopoly break-up was AT&T/Ma Bell in 1982, where the Bell System was split into separate companies to provide local telephone service, while AT&T continued to be a provider of long distance service.
The breakup of AT&T’s Bell System resulted in the creation of seven independent companies (bold-typed below), and here’s what happened to them:
1) NYNEX was acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1996, and is now part of Verizon Communications 2) Pacific Telesis was acquired by Southwestern Bell Corporation in 1997, and is now part of AT&T 3) Ameritech was acquired by Southwestern Bell Corporation in 1999, and now part of AT&T 4) Bell Atlantic merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon Communications 5) Southwestern Bell Corporation was re-branded as SBC Communications in 1995, and then re-acquired AT&T in 2005 6) BellSouth was re-acquired by AT&T in 2006 7) US West acquired by Qwest in 2000, which in turn was acquired by CenturyLink in 2011
As we can see, AT&T eventually re-acquired most of its lost pieces, and their monopoly has been re-established on a higher level. The innovation of cell phone technology has allowed a few competitors into the market such as Verizon, T-Mobile, Centurylink, etc.
AT&T wrangled concessions in their 1982 agreement with the US government, that allowed them to enter the computer market. By the mid-to-late 1990’s this became the internet service provider & cell phone industry. The result today is that a few major technology companies control the internet & mobile communications– through shared monopoly agreements.
What millennials need to understand is that back in 1982, the touchtone telephone was the primary way people communicated news & gossip over long distances. The telephone system, which AT&T monopolized until then, was the era’s equivalent of the cell phone Facebook & internet. Of course, the only way anyone knew who to call was by having a phonebook. That’s the equivalent of Google & every other search engine today.
Eventually under capitalism, it will become one telecommunication giant in control. To the liberal reformists/apologists who always get a prominent voice in the New York Times (and all other fake media outlets) the question must be put forward, “Then what?”
Facebook is a technology platform that revolutionized media and how people interact online. It’s the users who deliver the content that drives everything. Stop censoring it, and let the users be the moderators. That’s much more democratic that Mark Zuckerberg using algorithms and an army of censors to de-platform those of us he doesn’t like.
Here’s a quote from Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes cited in the NYT Op/Ed to illustrate this point. “Mark [Zuckerberg] alone can decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use and even which messages get delivered.”
Fakebook is now a corporate dictatorship, which takes its instructions from the US deep state. This is a conscious ruling-class policy, meant to counteract the revolutionary potential of social media.
This story published by Russia Today was shared widely on social media, so I feel compelled to express myself here. Evidentially, Brazilian MMA fighter Joyce Vieira was doing a bikini photo-shoot on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, when a man later identified as Josenei Viana Ferreira, was openly pleasuring himself while watching Vieira. Thankfully, there are no photographs nor video of the alleged incident.
The upshot is, if Joyce Vieira (above) was any kind of martial artist, she would have kicked him in the balls. Then he would have gotten his comeuppance, and she wouldn’t feel powerless afterwards. When you are a poser & don’t know what to do; you feel regret, anger, and blame others instead. With that said (and since she has no idea how to handle this situation), this jerk-off should be made to publicly apologize to her face, because that is WAY out of line. Am I being fair here?
Yesterday, April 30, 2019, the Trump administration attempted to orchestrate a coup to remove Venezuela’s democratically-elected president Nicolás Maduro from power. His replacement was to be Juan Guaidó, the US puppet who declared himself president of Venezuela back in January. Trump’s cabinet members have since arm-twisted over 50 other nations into supporting this unprecedented breach of sovereignty. The prize is Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
The US Democrats have quietly approved from the sidelines, and are in complete support of this adventure. The two-party straitjacket of US politics requires obedience to the narrative that Nicolás Maduro is a “socialist,” and thus any method for his removal is legitimate. That means “maximum pressure” and “all options are on the table” type of nonsense being reported as diplomacy by the lapdog corporate media.
Maximum pressure always backfires when it is only backed by lies. This most recent Venezuelan coup attempt is stunning in its obvious pre-planning in Washington, as well as its clumsiness in execution. The chief architects of this farce are the Trump cabal, including VP Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NSA chief John Bolton. Florida’s Republican senators Rick Scott & particularly Marco Rubio have played foul roles, mostly consisting of tweeting propaganda, and making false statements to the media.
One of the most striking features of this debacle has been the swift resistance from ordinary people online. This coup attempt had serious deep state planning & coordination throughout the media, yet online commenters are pigeon-holing this Bay-of-Pigs style fiasco so fast it’s making media heads spin. The fascist elements behind this conspiracy have been knocked back fiercely, by people who are now much more politically conscious. The red-baiting “Cuba/Russia influencing Venezuela” narrative has been widely debunked already.
As a rule, intelligence agencies such as the CIA, NSA & Special Forces act covertly when interfering in foreign affairs. That’s their modus operandi, so to be discovered or “outed” during a black operation such as this is considered a disaster. These “covert” activities are now being discussed & analyzed online in real time, as this coup attempt in support of Juan Guaidó is such an overt lie that hardly anyone is fooled anymore.
Once these war criminals lose their anonymity, their power diminishes, and that’s what’s going on here. When the Venezuelan “opposition” finally gets mopped up in a few days, US intelligence agencies & their deep state benefactors will be in a much weaker position for all this. Sanctions will surely be the next strike, but the world has seen this blatant attempt to overthrow a foreign leader, and will seek ways to aid Nicolás Maduro– who is being seen as treated unfairly by the US.
For example, a key US ally, Turkey was quick to condemn this US-facilitated coup attempt. That’s how Donald Trump is making his “friends” feel, so you can imagine the opposition from proclaimed enemies such as Russia & China. John Bolton & Co. tried to re-invoke the Monroe Doctrine, and it blew up in their faces because we no longer live in the 19th century.
This gambit has Donald Trump written all over it, because it’s a reckless & stupid move; demonstrating zero understanding, an unwillingness to learn, and an absence of rationality. It’s a short-sighted, low percentage, high-cost failure– a Donald Trump trademark. If he can’t be impeached for this criminality, then US Congress must be diagnosed as dead through its complicity.
By the evening Nicolás Maduro declared to the people of Venezuela, “The self-proclaimed, Juan Guaidó, and Leopoldo López personally led the coup d’état.” This statement coincided with the Chilean Embassy in Caracas announcing that Leopoldo López, with his wife & children, had just been received as “guests” of the Chilean government. Twenty five other military officers loyal to Guaidó were compelled to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy.
Leopoldo López (right of Guaidó above) is another US-educated & CIA-recruited “asset,” meant to be a leading figure in Venezuelan politics after the regime change. Instead, he and his family had to flee to a US-protected embassy to avoid arrest by the omnipresent Maduro loyalists in the Venezuelan military & police.
From a logistical standpoint, not much else could go wrong in this ill-conceived conspiracy to overthrow Maduro. This calls into question not only the sanity, but the effectiveness of the CIA and all other actors involved.
It turns out that the US deep state can’t overthrow a democratically elected leader by means of an online & media campaign in support of a few puppets no one recognizes. This should be very concerning to the ruling elite, because this used to happen regularly in the 20th century. This once again illustrates the power of the internet & social media. This is also the reason the internet is now being so rigorously censored by big technology.
The world’s central banks, large investors & financial houses are all buying gold. This kind…
Not this kind..
“Gold certificates” are understood as worthless by serious gold investors. This is because a gold certificate has no use value, while precious metals do.
So why this gold buying spree? The short answer is the global financial elite see the next crash coming, and are bailing out on the US dollar to hedge with gold & other precious metals. Governments see global conflict coming, and want physical gold in their banks.
For the vast majority of the world’s population, there was never a recovery from the 2007-08 economic crash. For workers it’s been suppressed wages, high debt, and an ever eroding standard-of-living. The cost-of living, particularly for housing, real food, and health care has skyrocketed.
Now, US sanctions on Iran have allowed Saudi Arabia’s barbaric monarchy to effectively control the global oil supply, so expect record gasoline prices by this summer. Oil is “black gold,” the most important commodity in modern capitalism– outside of human labor.
The US Federal Reserve’s stock market disaster of December 2018, after the beginning “quantitative tightening,” signaled the end is near. The financial markets are comparable to junkies, who need ever-increasing doses of smack (free money) to sustain themselves. They can never quit, or else they’ll die.
The Trump team now advocates more injections for corporate America, further inflating this stock market bubble. Trump’s hopes in 2020 depend on it, but it is questionable whether we will even reach 2020 before this entire house of cards collapses, and a revolutionary situation presents itself. There is mass discontent among America’s workers & youth. Everything in the media is meant to deflect from this reality.
Getting back to real gold, its demand has never been greater, and the reasons are obvious. Gold is always a safe haven for store-of-value, and never depreciates naturally. The same goes for silver, platinum, palladium, and all other precious metals.
As discussed in an earlier article, the fact that precious metals don’t tarnish, makes them useful in chip circuitry, electronics, and a wide range of technological applications. Technology is a major battlefield among competing nation states. Under US capitalism, Russia & China are considered “strategic competitors” to be crushed.
Gold is limited in supply, as there’s only a finite amount of it in the Earth, so everyone with money is looking to obtain this invaluable resource. It appears that Africa has become the major global supplier of raw gold ore. Reuters just reported on this global black market which funnels through the United Arab Eremites (UAE). For reference, the UAE is closely tied to the House of Saud– and thus Washington, Wall Street & Langley.
The environmental cost of this illicit mining & refining is devastating, and just another unaccounted cost of capitalism. Black market means no taxes are paid to the governments of these African nations on the gold that is being smuggled out. This is how 95% of Africans are being cruelly exploited & poisoned by this new age gold rush.
The World Gold Council reports that central bank gold buying is at the highest levels since 1971. Of course, this is when US President Richard Nixon (advised by Henry Kissinger) took the US off the gold standard. Gold prices had been held at $35/ounce since Breton Woods, the post-WW2 global economic agreement among the winners.
By January 1980, gold traded at $850 an ounce, proving the US had been suppressing the value of gold for decades. This had the convenient effect of inflating the value of the dollar, which held unquestioned predominance as the global reserve currency through the second half of the 20th century.
Since early 1980, monetarists such as Fed Chairman Paul Volcker have adopted the theory that stock markets are the true measure of economic health. The market crash of 1987, due to junk bonds, established the “plunge protection team” and the “Fed put” which meant big investors would always be bailed out in times of crisis. This is where the term “too big to fail” came into being.
But the crash of 2008, and the rise of China as an economic superpower has called US predominance into question. A decade later, nothing has been resolved. The US government still insists on maintaining its economic hegemony, while electronically printing trillions of dollars for their well-connected banker cronies. The result has been the inflation of the largest financial bubble in history, the stock & bond markets.
Trump’s chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow (above) is now calling for interest rate cuts, with an immediate cut of half a point. The Fed funds rate (bank overnight lending rate) is currently ~2.4%. Any Econ 101 student would surmise that if a 2.4% Fed rate is too high, then the economy is dead. Especially when ordinary people can’t get a business loan for less than 10-12%.
Consider that ~12% of student loans are now in default, as 45 million Americans carry student loan debt. Those loans start at 8-10%, and go up from there. Student loan borrowers must “carry on,” while bankers & hedge fund speculators can’t manage their businesses with overnight loans at 2.4%!
All this reaches into the murky world of financial debt, where much is unknown (by design), with modern capitalist theory always assumed to be good coin. Let’s go back to Econ 101. Currently US national debt is officially over $22 trillion. For comparison, US GDP was calculated to be ~$19 trillion in 2017.
This GDP is an over-estimate, as the DJIA, S&P 500 & NASDAQ are all littered with zombie companies that are underwater in debt, yet counted as net contributors to America’s economy. It’s estimated that globally, one-in-six corporations are zombies. Thus, negating the fictitious value of these zombies removes over $3 trillion from the current US GDP.
By definition, zombies suck up resources, while contributing nothing of value to a society. Tesla, Netflix, Uber and just about any bank you can name are real-world examples of zombie corporations.
A dirty secret among Wall Street & government insiders is that the $22 trillion of national debt is only the tip of the iceberg. The remaining 90+% is so-called “hidden debt,” in the forms of underfunded (looted) pensions & worthless derivatives.
Social Security, Medicare, IRA’s, etc., are all bills which most taxpayers expect to be paid. These are the paychecks that many, many retirees need to survive. The truth is there is basically no money left in these accounts. They are industry-termed as “unfunded liabilities.” US militarism & Wall Street speculators have drained them for corporate profits.
This money was “borrowed” by Wall Street investors and fueled the derivatives market, which is surely the largest part of this hidden debt financial criminality, with a global estimate of $1.2 to $1.5 quadrillion in toxic “assets.”
These are “futures” contracts which have no market value, yet investors will expect payment– 100 cents on the dollar. This bailout is expected to come from the taxpayers, in case you didn’t know. Except there isn’t anywhere close to enough tax revenue to pay this bill, as Fortune 500 corporations don’t pay taxes, so the US government is now bankrupt.
Once the numbers get this huge, debt service (making just the interest payments) becomes impossible through the magic of compound interest. This is where the financial system is right now, with militarism re-arming to the teeth, trade wars erupting, and central banks scrambling to buy gold and other precious metals, as everyone gears up for war.
What’s happening in investment is a global run on the only resources that truly hold value, particularly precious metals. Gold today is trading today at ~$1,275 per ounce. This is an absurdly low price in US dollars, as discussed, with the Federal Reserve electronically printing money in order to prop up its fake economy. When the crash comes, gold & all other precious metals will skyrocket in value.
Since the US abandoned the gold standard in 1971, precious metals have been manipulated downwards in price, as government policy to discourage widespread investment. Gold is physically heavy, so it is costly to transport. Obviously transportation also requires heavy security. These are the costs & risks of maintaining gold reserves.
Many countries are now calling in their gold bullion from foreign banks, with mixed results– at best. The process of transfer which used to take weeks or a few months, now takes years at minimum. No one wants to give up gold, and possession is nine-tenth ownership– as the saying goes.
For example, Venezuela’s government trying to get its gold, which is “stored” in the UK central bank. This is a sticky example of international finance & diplomacy. It is understood that if world war breaks out, all foreign gold reserves would be confiscated by that nation’s banking system.
The stock markets have boomed, as corporations in every industry (through access to unlimited cash), have eviscerated work forces, imposed wage freezes & austerity, while skimming the surplus value for themselves. There is no longer any capital investment into innovation, R&D, or wages; as money is siphoned out through QE printing for stock buybacks, then it is moved off-shore, until it can be repatriated at an ultra-low tax rate, as happened with the Trump tax cuts.
Billionaires all over the world have their fortunes hoarded in private accounts, which does nothing helpful for the overall economy. They use it to buy more stuff like art, yachts and palatial mansions for themselves. That’s what you do when you lead a fake life, chasing fool’s gold.
The day of reckoning is coming, as the political consciousness of the working masses becomes more socialist. This level of inequality, where rich & poor people are diametrically opposed under capitalism, is not sustainable. These issues have reached the point where they can no longer be ignored, as too many people are adversely affected.
The media’s fake news isn’t working so well anymore either. The primary media narrative of the past two-and-a half years in America has been “Russiagate.” What is this about, really?
The US government & national intelligence establishment has hated Russia since the Revolution of 1917, led by Lenin & Trotsky. Before then, the US never cared about Russia under tsarist feudalism, except in literature. What this means is that all anti-Russian propaganda is about ruling class hatred of socialism.
The reaction of the wealthy class to the upcoming crisis is to hoard cash, and now gold. The working class response must be to arm & organize itself with a socialist program, which recognizes that the labor power of the worker is the only true wealth a society can create.
The only political party that can lead this global revolution is the International Committee for the Fourth International (ICFI), which is represented by the Socialist Equality Parties (SEP) in nations around the world, and can be found online at the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), which publishes daily.
Every other political tendency which claims a leftist position or socialist/Marxist program is a false-flag organization that flows into liberal capitalism & Stalinist reaction. This includes all the labor unions, the DSA, and the now-defunct ISO.
The ICFI is a legitimate political party, with origins that go directly back to Trotsky’s formation of the 4th International in Paris in 1938, two years before he was assassinated by an agent of Stalin. Any attempts to organize, strike, or politically protest (such as freeing Julian Assange) should be done through (and in sympathy with) this revolutionary organization. The same applies to political contributions.
The ICFI/SEP/WSWS are unique in that they are the only political organization in the world that won’t stab the workers & youth in the back. Instead they seek to educate, unite & lead the oppressed workers of the world in a socialist revolution that will conquer capitalist tyranny, and establish an equal & free global society.
Is that anything to be afraid of? No, it’s something to embrace.
The first one got through. But the theoretical explanation of historical economic models will surely get censored by Russia Today, so why bother?
Preface: I view the Keiser Report as today’s “money talk” version of WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82). The program always begins with Max Keiser saying in one form or another, “Hello, I’m Max Keiser. Welcome to the Keiser Report.” If you’ll notice, that has a very Les Nessman quality to it. Max Keiser also has a lot of Herb Tarlek in him, with a touch of Johnny Fever.
Fans of course love Stacy Herbert, who plays the calming influences of Jennifer Marlowe & Bailey Quarters, which holds things together. The second-half interviews are hit-and-miss, just like original series.
Great show Stacy & Max! Trans·mog·ri·fy (verb): to transform in a surprising or magical manner.
To second-half guest Rick Ackerman: Hyper-inflation implies a huge financial crisis, which isn’t sustainable. At that point it’s two paths: 1) the monopolists win, or 2) there’s a socialist revolution of the masses. Hyper-inflation can’t normalize to the point where “you can take a few bills out of your wallet to pay the mortgage.”
To the commenters here: Yes, Max & Stacy check the comments. If you have something to say, they’ll even read them. Censorship is never the answer.
On Max Keiser’s idea that we are becoming neo-feudalist, that’s impossible. Feudalism was an economic system that came into being after centuries of post-Roman Empire anarchy. Feudalism was peasant (farmer) based, and its reinforcing ideology was the Catholic Church. Capitalism comes from the Enlightenment & science, and is a higher economic model, which began in England as the industrial revolution.
The reinforcing ideology of capitalism is the power of money in the form of capital. Napoleon spread it across Europe, using superior forms of violence in conquest. The one “great power” that stayed backwards was Russia, which Napoleon couldn’t conquer, due to its vastness & harsh winters. This became historically significant in 1917.
Capitalism is an urban (working class) economic model, which in its early stages allowed for mass education & ground-breaking innovation. but quickly turned into monopoly. After the Great War, America took the lead in global capitalism.
But inevitably it becomes an uncontrollable Frankenstein which consumes everything. Theoretically, the masters of capitalism seek to rule a world of slaves. This “highest level of capitalism” is unachievable, because the people of the world won’t live as slaves. They’ll die first. The only path out is a socialist revolution.
Here’s my summary of the Slavoj Zizek vs Jordan Peterson “debate,” held April 19, 2019 in Toronto.
To put it simply these two anti-Marxists rambled on with sophistries for over two hours, while never making sense to anyone, especially to those who work for a living.
As noted by Peterson in his opening remarks, tickets for this “debate” were scalping for over $1500, which means the audience was well-heeled. No one who works for a living (and is on a budget) could afford to attend this debate. The class bias of the audience was confirmed, with loud applause for every irrational comment disguised as meaningful philosophy by either individual. It more resembled a political convention, than a serious discussion, with the audience functioning as cheerleaders for their favored candidate. That is the definition of post-modernism, where nothing makes sense, and everything is subjective– including facts.
Post-modernism is the ideology of late-stage capitalism, where everything is breaking down & elite criminality pervades. Post modernism is used to fill in the cracks of society with irrationality, in order to disorient & demoralize the working masses. Enter Slavoj Zizek & Jordan Peterson.
Neither of these proclaimed “intellectuals” knows a real living Marxist, much less engages with them on an intellectual basis. Any leading member of the ICFI, which publishes the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), would make Zizek and/or Peterson look silly in a real debate. Capitalism blacklists the WSWS, in order to elevate this nonsense, and present these frauds & their elitist garbage as serious analysis.
Nowhere in this debate do the speakers discuss economic equality with any seriousness. Nor do they discuss internet censorship, militarism, and the criminal wars of aggression which are all policies of the US and every other government on the planet today. These issues are fundamental to the survival of the human race, and yet they are danced around by these intellectual impostures.
Slavoj Zizek on Hegel is painful, in how he contorts his arguments in order to separate dialects from Marxism. As anyone who has ever tried knows, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is very difficult to read. If one wants to understand Hegel’s revolutionary philosophy (dialectics), the best critiques in history are those of the Russian Marxist– Georgi Plekhanov.
David North of the ICFI has written extensively on Plekanov. Vladimir Lenin said Plekanov’s writings are the best education on the writings of Hegel, and essential reading for those who seek understanding of his complex philosophical ideas. There is no mention of any these essential references from Zizek or Peterson, who probably haven’t even read them, as neither has any real interest in truth, but only elevating themselves.
Both of these ivory tower hucksters are hung up on “hierarchies,” which is awfully convenient. Coincidentally, capitalism is hung up on hierarchies too. These “thinkers” don’t ever see beyond their own noses. Revolutions happen in history, but never in their thoughts, analysis or conclusions. Thus, when a revolutionary crisis presents itself, all this pseudo-intellectualism vanishes into nothing. The millstones of history grind exceedingly fine, and Zizek & Peterson are destined for it’s collective dustbin.
This spectacle did nothing to raise the intellect of humanity. It was really two phony emperors strutting in their underwear. With that said, Slavoj Zizek naked is another painful image, but it has value– in the negative. Physically Slavoj Zizek is a mess: overweight, slumping in posture, constantly touching his face & nose, and slobbering in his speech. If Zizek is a genius, then why doesn’t he fix his lisp, and learn to control his spitting? That’s also a measure of intelligence.
I challenge Slavoj Zizek & Jordan Peterson to address this economic problem rationally. Globally in 2019, there is now roughly $55 trillion in government-held Treasury bonds that are worthless, but counted as “assets.” Consider the global derivatives market which is conservatively estimated at $1.2 quadrillion, and held almost entirely by big banks & investment houses. That’s 20 times more “assets” that are worthless, than what the world’s governments already hold.
Global GDP is around $80 trillion, and can never grow fast enough to meet projected targets, so these futures are all unpayable. Unlike 2008, the sheer size of this fraud makes it impossible to be bailed out. When the next crash comes, capitalism will face a revolutionary crisis. This is the conundrum that Trump, the Democrats, and all the rest of their ilk seek to avoid at all costs, as its their heads that will roll. What do Zizek & Peterson have to say about this concrete problem? Nothing, at all.
As mentioned earlier, Zizek & Peterson are anti-Marxists, which means they are (in the final analysis) apologists for capitalism, and well-paid for their services. Their celebrity is just another extension of this vast fake economy, that rests on free money from the central banks, which is used to prop up a capitalist system that is about to collapse.
The rise of fascism is a serious political development, yet neither of these charlatans take it seriously. When ICFI chairman David North states in the video embedded above, “Fascism is punishment for the failure of workers to build a leadership,” one instantly grasps that meaning.
Intelligence is the ability to communicate complex truths directly & understandably. Those who attempt to dazzle their audiences with intellectual nonsense, are ultimately insecure in their ideas. Thus the constant nose-touching by Zizek. In the end someone who is smarter will challenge them, and eventually historical events will prove both of them wrong. That is an unavoidable historical truth.
The #MeToo Democrats have hit a snag with Joe Biden. His creepy behavior towards young women doesn’t play with his 2020 Democratic front-runner status.
Yeah, this is creepy behavior, a US VP abusing his power– no question. But that’s what he is, so what did you expect? Of course, no feminist said anything at the time, but now it’s an issue for them.
The contradictions & hypocrisy of the #MeToo witch-hunt are coming into sharper focus. The #MeToo campaign forever diminished itself during the Kavanaugh Hearings last summer, when much of the already skeptical public saw through the #MeToo lies, which served to promote an arch-reactionary judge to the US Supreme Court– giving it a permanent 5-4 hard right-wing majority.
This reactionary form of feminism is also how Donald Trump became US President, to his surprise on November 8, 2016. Today, the #MeToo campaign’s coordination with “Russiagate,” is best personified in Rachael Maddow. I admit, this video below is painful to watch, but it is instructive.
Maddow has lost over 500,000 viewers since this broadcast on March 22, 2019. That was when the Mueller Report was released, exonerating Donald Trump from any charges of “collusion with Russia.” Yet, this MSNBC air-head still holds her longstanding position on “Trump’s ties to the Kremlin.”
Both these campaigns (#MeToo & Russiagate) are linked to censorship of the internet & blacklisting of socialists, which fascists (Republicans/Trump) approve.
ICE raids that violate the human & constitutional rights of those who have immigrated to America are also systematically ignored, as are US foreign wars-of-aggression. There is no longer any hard news coming from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, etc.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered a brutal murder & dismemberment of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018.
Khashoggi even wrote for the Washington Post, but events that shock & horrify the world get buried in the US media, as Saudi oil must keep flowing, and always remain traded in US dollars. Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter, and linking crude to the US dollar makes the US-Saudi relationship “special.”
Like Israel, Saudi Arabia can commit any war crime it pleases, short of nuclear war, and not be sanctioned internationally– due to US support. This assistance from Uncle Sam comes militarily, economically & politically. These are the deep state interests, which make up the centrist faction of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats have split themselves with this #MeToo Frankenstein they created. The “progressive” faction of the Democrats are insisting on a woman presidential candidate for 2020– in Elizabeth Warren. The centrists prefer Biden.
In earnest, both factions are fascist, and offer nothing for working people & disenfranchised youth. This ideological battle among powerful Democrats promises to get ugly, in the media and behind-closed-doors. All of this reactionary filth plays into the hands of the Trump team, which is why Marxist analysis is so important.
Another critical issue that is never honestly discussed in the corporate news, is the ongoing financial crisis for ~85% of Americans. The stock & bond markets are booming for the ultra wealthy, but the real economy has stagnated. There are fewer good-paying jobs than ever, despite the great need for qualified workers everywhere.
Ailments of US capitalism include an obesity epidemic, an opioid crisis, and a lack of access to basic health care. Health care is now run by insurance conglomerates, hospital chains & big pharmaceuticals. Privatization & equity capital have gutted work forces in every industry, taking all the profits for themselves in the forms of stock options, buybacks & exorbitant bonuses. Today, per capita, fewer Americans than ever are defined as healthy.
On the macro-economic level, global debt is now $244 trillion. Global GDP in 2016 (latest figure) was $75.4 trillion. Global debt is now over 3 times global GDP, which signals a bankrupt global economy. There is no way this level of global indebtedness can ever be paid off.
Interest rates have been kept ultra-low for ten years now, so there only one direction they can move significantly. When rates rise, the interest payments of this massive mountain of debt will be unpayable. That is why the Fed, US government & big banks had to intervene in late December 2018, with its plunge-protection team which reportedly pumped over $500 billion into the markets to prevent a collapse that had started when the Fed began raising interest rates. The US dollar overnight bank lending rate is now at 2.25-2.5%, and can’t go any higher without precipitating another crisis.
The derivatives market are the best example of this giant Ponzi scheme. Derivatives are bets on future earnings of a tradeable asset. They are used in every industry, with some going 20 years into the future, or more. Most of this estimated $1.2 quadrillion market has made bets that are going to fail, yet are still being counted as assets. This is so traders (and everyone else involved including: bankers, investors & insurers) get their bonuses.
When this derivative market crashes, the world economy will instantly collapse. Such massive amounts of toxic assets can’t be covered by any of the central banks (US, EU, etc.) because they are already leveraged to the hilt. Credit will dry up, and there will be no liquidity. What’s about to happen came to be through 10 years of quantitative easing (QE), which is money printing for the rich, who then speculate in derivatives and stock buybacks to further enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else.
That’s capitalism in it’s death throes, and its contradictions are everywhere. We now have a global economy which is capable of being more productive than ever, but barely moves because: 1) there is no (very little) innovation, and 2) fewer consumers than ever can afford to buy– because of their indebtedness. Only the super-rich & big banks get bailouts and free money to waste
The most recent orgy of speculation has been in cryptocurrency, as Bitcoin trading recently went from ~$3,600 to now over $5,000– for no explainable reason. Bitcoin/crypto is likely the final frontier of bubbles before the next economic crash. Wealthy investors are looking for alternatives to fiat money, which has become devalued through inflation by money printing under QE capitalism.
Bitcoin (and any cryptocurrency) have no legitimate use value, and are massive energy wasters. They are all Ponzi schemes, marketed as the future of global currency, by Libertarian cyber-capitalists who are rabid anti-socialists.
To summarize, QE was the US Federal Reserve buying up toxic (worthless) derivatives, which have now ballooned into a $1.2 quadrillion market– meaning they’re entirely fake, and big enough to crash the global economy.
Instead of a debt jubilee for the indebted masses, which would have stimulated a real economy back in 2008-09, it’s been more easy money for the rich to speculate in fake assets. Our options now are: 1) more of the same, until world war breaks out; or 2) revolutionary socialism.
Today’s world is still shaped by the key social, political & economic world events that occurred around 1990, which were: 1) the Tienanmen Square massacre of June 1989, 2) the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and most importantly 3) the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.
These events shook & shocked the world, as new markets were being opened for capitalist exploitation. This is when (& why) Wall Street speculation & US militarism started going really crazy, as they saw an open playing field. In Iraq & Serbia, for instance. The only way we can get out of this mess, is to understand how we got into it.
“We have a gentleman that likes a very strong dollar at the Fed. I want a strong dollar, but I want a dollar that’s great for our country, not a dollar that is so strong that it is prohibitive for us to be dealing with other nations.” — Donald Trump
President Donald Trump speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 2, 2019.
Donald Trump has no idea what a “strong dollar” means. Trump has always been a privileged bully, who gets to borrow money for nothing and then default, so what does he know about economics?
The US dollar has been diluted by a decade of money printing (QE) for speculators, which has now been made permanent. The Fed & big banks have injected over $500 billion into the stock markets since their swoon in December 2018, which happened as soon as the Fed tried to end QE & raise interest rates.
“Quantitative tightening” has been abandoned, and it’s back to money printing, with sustained near-zero interest rates for the banks. That doesn’t help anyone who works for a living, but it keeps this financial house of cards from collapsing– for a little longer.
The US dollar has been inflated (ie- weakened) by financial parasites, which is why foreign governments are now buying gold, to hedge against the collapse of the greenback. If you are the average person with a few thousand dollars (or less) in the bank, you take comfort in knowing that it isn’t much to lose, when the banks collapse. The US dollar’s purchasing power, in real terms, is less than ever as housing, education, and even food cost more– in term of percentage of wages spent on these essentials.
Things forever changed economically in the early 1970’s for many reasons. US President Richard Nixon & his most-trusted advisor Henry Kissinger took the US off the gold standard in August of 1971. The reason was that the US could no longer afford to be the world bank, reimbursing gold at $35 an ounce. From there the US dollar was floated, and fiat speculation was born. This unbalanced the foundations of the post-war order under Bretton-Woods.
The rise of computers & globalization, along with a loss of economic preeminence by the US, which was reeling from the costs of the Vietnam War, led to the US ruling class launching an offensive against the working class, which has only been escalated up to today. In other countries it’s called “austerity.”
The lessons for working people are that they need to organize for themselves, as government & union “leaders” have sold them out. Governments are committees of the ruling class, which are the bourgeoisie under capitalism. Political independence of organized workers is the only way to redistribute wealth against this fascist current of late-stage capitalism. Liberal reformism is dead, as it died with the hopes & dreams of Barrack Obama.
In America there is now a sociopathic President of the United States, who openly speaks against socialism with lies & threats of violence, and no voice of opposition from the Democrats or the mass media. This only proves that the Democrats, along with MSNBC & CNN, are as much fascist as Trump & his core supporters.
The Democrat version of fascism is identity politics domestically, and anti-Russia (anti-socialism) in foreign policy. Trump is a racist, so he prefers China & Latin America as the main targets of US foreign aggression– diplomatically, covertly, and/or militarily. That’s the actual difference in politics between Republicans & Democrats, which is a fake debate.
There are many financial elites who support Trump on foreign policy, because they see China, with it’s rise as a technological superpower, as the primary threat to US economic hegemony. Russia doesn’t have that technology edge, but is still seen as a threat because of its history.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was the most defining event of the 20th century, with enduring lessons for the workers of the world. It was led by Lenin & Trotsky, whose Bolshevik party captured the trust of the masses, and organized an insurrection that toppled the hated tsar & it’s feudalist regime.
Instead of moving into capitalism, Lenin & Trotsky galvanized the workers of Russia, who organized a socialist government of workers’ councils. These workers’ councils were called “soviets.” After the October (November) Revolution, Russia became a “government of soviets,” with the Bolsheviks as the majority among the workers.
The imperialists who started the “Great War” (1914-1918) recoiled at these events & reacted with horror. By 1918, “the war to end all wars” was over, but every country turned its military might onto the incipient Soviet government. Trotsky organized & led the Red Army, which ultimately defeated the traitorous “Whites,” and their imperialist backers. By 1923, all foreign troops had been defeated and the revolution was saved, but Russia had been bled white.
When Lenin finally succumbed to a series of strokes in January 1924, a factional political battle raged between Leon Trotsky, the recognized leader (along with Lenin) of the Russian Revolution, and Joseph Stalin. Stalin was better at laying traps, and making ever-shifting alliances behind-the-scenes. This talent at intrigue led Stalin’s bureaucracy to take power, and become the fascist version of socialized property relations.
Socialism never existed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), because workers never had control over production, and allocation of resources. A Stalinist bureaucracy attached itself to the Revolution, and consumed it from within. Trotsky was defeated politically by an ever-expanding bureaucracy led by Stalin. Trotsky was isolated, exiled, and ultimately murdered by a GPU agent in Mexico City in 1940.
In 1991, the USSR suddenly collapsed, and bourgeois intellectuals of the world were all speechless as to what happened. Trotsky wrote (above) in 1936, that the Soviet Union would either have a workers’ revolution and overthrow the bureaucracy, or it would fall back into capitalism. Trotsky was proven right in the negative. Today, Russians have a much lower standard of living than they did as citizens of the USSR. Bourgeois historians & economists never mention any of these historical facts or lessons.
Stalin advocated for “Socialism in one country,” as opposed to Trotsky’s “Theory of Permanent Revolution.” Trotsky was an internationalist, in the tradition of Karl Marx, who understood at this point of capitalist development (20th century), there could be only global socialism. Any genuine socialist revolution would be permanent in nature. National Socialist is what the Nazi’s called themselves, and Stalin was the communist equivalent to Adolf Hitler under capitalism.
Donald Trump is the US version of Hitler/Stalin, but notice there is no resistance coming from the so-called “left.” Bernie Sanders & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have staked out the furthest left position under two-party US capitalism. It consists of unattainable reforms, green rhetoric, and a blind eye to militarism, the expanding police state, and a criminal detention policy for refugees & their children, etc.
The main “progressive” plank of the Democrats today is identity politics, which is #MeToo feminism, Black Lives Matter racialism, and LGBT rights. These identities are used as ideological weapons, to attack artists, socialists & workers who question this system of economic inequality.
The most foul of these has been the #MeToo campaign, which has a Hollywood face, but deep state roots. It’s ideology is to attack those who expose these political & economic terrorists for their crimes. Julian Assange was among the first victims of this internationally-coordinated campaign of sexual intimidation, in the name of imperialism.
Democrats, the deep state, and their supports will only continue to double down on the #MeToo campaign & racialism– as it’s all they’ve got. Each week the New York Times published another expose’ meant to take down an artist in entertainment, etc. Pretty soon there won’t be any good performers left, which means all the movies, television & music will be fake. We’re almost there already.
The Fed will print more fake money, while Trump and his fascist crowd will continue to provoke confrontations globally, exerting “maximum pressure,” in order to create flashpoints for war & crisis. This is the only way they can stay in power, which is what it’s all about.
None of this is in the interest of the workers who earn wages to live. A nuclear winter from a war between India & Pakistan is all it takes to wipe human civilization, and we’ve gotten far too close to that. The recklessness of our “leaders” must be checked with a mass intervention to avoid catastrophe for our planet.
There is no faction among the ruling elites which prefers socialism over world war, therefore they all must go. Revolutions happen in history, and we as a civilization are long overdue. The faster we learn these lessons & organize ourselves, the faster it will happen.
Fri 08 Mar 2019 09:50 AM EST : Keiser Report Update:
Max is correct in that the dollar is being inflated, not burned, by QE & 0% interest rates for big banks & financial speculators. His analogy of a Tomahawk missile for the US government burning money is more correct than Stacy’s. The US economy is war-based, as the military is now considered its primary strength, with the decline of the greenback. The Afghanistan War is now the longest running US war in history, and imperialism has lost again. But there is too much invested in the ideology of war for US elites to admit defeat, therefore the charade goes on for a bit longer…
War & police-state measures with mass censorship are seen as the only option for the ruling class in this late stage of capitalism. A Tomahawk missile built by Raytheon costs $1.4 million each. When it blows up, all its “value” is instantly exploded. By any reasonable measure, the cost of a Tomahawk missile exploding in a home, neighborhood, or business district would be recorded as a net loss for any nation’s economy.
No one ever discusses these actual costs in the “authorized” media. In America, elite Republicans & Democrats manipulate the numbers & facts through the corporate media, to turn reality on its head. Every “issue” & “debate” is fake because of how it’s framed, which is always in the interest of the richest class.
Precious metals & crypto-currency are the two hottest investment markets right now. The stock markets are all being propped up with central bank money & interventions by Plunge Protection Teams, which indicates they are bubbles about to burst. Bonds are also high-risk for default, and mostly junk. The US dollar has no real backing anymore, as most of its manufacturing has been outsourced to China & the third world. This creates a demand for gold, which is considered a safe haven for investors.
What is gold? Gold is a precious metal that has high malleability, ductility, conductivity of electricity, and is resistant to corrosion. Gold has been used in jewelry, art & dental restorations for millennia. That is real world use-value for gold, which cryptocurrency doesn’t have. That is why gold is stable, and coveted in times of economic uncertainty. The earliest forms of money were gold coins.
All crypto-currency is “mined” by super-computers at a high cost of electricity. The most popular crypto is Bitcoin ($3,400) now trading at over $600 below average unit cost ($4,060), as reported by Bloomberg news a week ago. What other use-value does crypto have? There obviously is none, so therefore no one can honestly explain crypto-currency as anything but a giant financial swindle.
Gold survives the “acid test,” which is in fact where the term came from. Bitcoin is “mined” by supercomputers that use a massive amount of electricity to create just one unit. Theoretically the cap amount is 21,000,000 bitcoins, with ~ 4,000,000 still to be created. That’s a lot of electricity for a superfluous accounting tool. There are over 1,500 crypto-currencies currently being traded globally, to give you an idea of the scale of waste going on here.
Electricity is created by raw materials that are mined, such as coal, gas, oil & uranium. Thus electricity has a cost, and with global warming, it can only go up in the future under capitalism. What this means for all crypto-currencies, is that their production costs will only increase. The only way electricity will stabilize is when solar power becomes the norm, and this can only occur through a political revolution.
All crypto depends on electricity, which is a driver of cost & value in today’s world. The internet depends on electricity, and all crypto is developed & traded online. A huge spike in electrical prices will instantly kill all crypto-currency value, as it will skyrocket the production cost (and then price), while offering no extra use value.
It can be argued that crypto-currency inherently has no use value, in a global economic sense. It’s purpose is to hide transactions, avoid taxation, and allow anonymous usership. This is a political-economic problem that Libertarian computer programmers tried to solve through mathematics. They’ve failed because their equations break down in the face of class relations, which dictate that the ruling class control all levers of power- especially money.
Crypto-currency was innovated as a hack, to end-run the US & global banks. That won’t be happening, because the puppet-masters won’t allow it. The only way to gain true monetary freedom is to transform society with a socialist revolution in permanence. That’s why Trotskyist Marxism is stable, as compared to any Libertarian capitalist ideology.
A more practical method to gain financial security is for the masses to appropriate the banks & all government institutions– most importantly the media, military & police– then these here-to-fore instruments of class war can be brought under democratic control. Only a socialist revolution can bring a true “government of the people.” Currently we have a plutocracy, a government of the rich, and it’s always been that way.
The American Revolution of 1776 was bourgeois in character. America was then a British colony, striving for independent nation status. Today the United States is a failed nation-state (like all the rest), whose masses are striving (whether they know it or not) towards socialism.
The level of mass political conscious is the “great unknown,” but the youngest generation has surely given up on capitalism. Most see no future, just more Bitcoin-like gimmicks. The rest are learning the hard way that things won’t improve without facing reality, and dealing with it in a rational & scientific manner.
Accounting tricks like crypto-currency, and the fervent support they garner from like-minded intelligentsia, reveal their poverty of thinking. Most of these self-proclaimed “cypherpunks” have never considered the true cost of mining one ton of coal, etc; in terms of environmental degradation, or health impact on the laborers. These costs don’t show up in their spreadsheet analysis, so they can carry on in blissful ignorance of the facts, and create new algorithms to reflect their versions of “reality.” They’re so smart, and some of them– very rich.
I’m not “smart” like them, so I have to work for a living. As a professional dentist for 25 years, I’ve restored many teeth with gold restorations. Gold crowns on back teeth have the best wear & bio-compatible characteristics for oral health & longevity. Most patients prefer porcelain restorations these days, because of improved color-matching aesthetics, but gold still has its uses. Relieving pain while restoring health & looks has value, and it always will. I’m not seeing any market for crypto-restorations in dentistry. Do you?
Final Thoughts– February 7, 2019 ~3:45 PM ET : Who is going to recognize any form of crypto-currency during a world war? That’s the acid test for capitalist currency. Precious metals have monetary basis. Currency backed by a functional economy & government has value. Crypto is none of that. Marxists are materialists, and that means we see through the hype.
Sat 09 Feb 2019 11:00 AM EST
If bitcoin is going to “decouple” from all other alt-coins, then bitcoin is the leader, and all other crypto is dead. My reply to Jack Dorsey, “I only have Facebook, and so do many others. Does that mean Twitter is superfluous?”
Dorsey says the bitcoin community is a “global experiment in trust.” When it comes to the value of money, it takes a whole lot more than a small community of trust to back it– in the real world. If only the alt-coin programmers & CEO’s had some identifiable substance of value behind their products, then we would be impressed.
By “real world” I mean global acceptance of its value & stability. Bitcoin & cryptro have been around for only 10 years, and there is still too much uncertainty & volatility. Keep in mind, the crypto-currency market has had tens of billions of hot US dollars pumped into it, and it is still nothing close to stable, much less verifiable.
Why is bitcoin trading at $3,600? Answer: Because it costs a lot to produce. That’s an expensive accounting ledger. I recommend blockchaining anonymous Quickbooks accounts to any global currency. That would be a lot cheaper. The concept of a single global currency is progressive, but it will only happen through revolutionary socialism.
Censored comments on above: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not a socialist, she’s a Democrat. Trotskyists won’t let that line be blurred.
I’m a fan of this show because Max Keiser gives us the inside story & details. He & Stacy are capitalists, so revolutionary socialists can’t fundamentally agree on crypto due to politics. Everyone thinks they’re correct on politics, so debate is futile. World events will prove who is correct.
Marxists understand the revolutionary potential in crypto-currency, which is its threat to the international banking establishment. The political problem is: every nations’ banks are intimately connected with a government, military & deep state. They’ll take away your internet. Then what do you have?
Keep reporting the crypto story from the inside, Max & Stacy! Real socialists respect differences in politics, when learning expertise from others who know their field. Marxists understand that putting politics aside (once mastered), is a good way to learn– all around.
Below is a current list of the top-20 cryptocurriences. Anyone can see that Bitcoin (BTC) is in a class by itself, as far as asset price. Bitcoin is the only alt-coin that even approaches meeting its cost of production, which says something profound about the whole crypto market.
FYRE: The Greatest Festival That Never Happened (2019), is available for streaming on Netflix. This is one of two recently released documentaries on the epic fail of the Fyre Festival, which was scheduled to take place on a remote Bahamian island over two weekends in April/May 2017. The other is Fyre Fraud (2019), available on Hulu. The reason the Fyre Festival never actualized is because it was a scam from the start, and a metaphor for an entire “fake economy” that defines America & capitalism today.
The Fyre Festival, along with American politics is a hustle, led by sociopathic liars who throw money around, and hype themselves endlessly as the second coming, while delivering nothing. The resemblances between Fyre-brainchild Billy McFarland, and Donald Trump are remarkable. They look the similar physically– fat & stupid, with fake everything for everyone. They surround themselves with beautiful women, excess & celebrities, to boost their owns egos & images. And finally, they are both out-of-control, sociopathic liars, who never deliver on anything they promise.
McFarland’s partners in crime for the Fyre Festival were rap mogul Ja Rule & Jerry Media. They struck gold when they gathered the world’s top supermodels in the Bahamas in late 2016, for a promotional video shoot– shown above. In the Netflix documentary, someone aptly points out that there were actually two Fyre Festivals; the promo shoot with the models– which was great, and the actual event five months later– which was a disaster. The fact that the first is (and will always be) more celebrated, says a lot about this fake world we live in.
This is a Bizarro universe where supermodels & online “influencers” are all-important, as facts & reality don’t matter. What these manipulators actually produce is nothing of value. But their importance remains paramount– we’re told. That’s why Kendall Jenner was paid $250,000, for one social media post promoting the Fyre Festival (without disclosure).
Supermodels & other top social media influencers that were paid to promote this catastrophe included: Alessandra Ambrosio, Hailey Baldwin, Rose Bertram, Hannah Ferguson, Bella Hadid, Elsa Hosk, Chanel Iman, Giizele Oliveira, Emily Ratajkowski, Lais Ribeiro, Amanda Riley, Shanina Shaik & Paulina Vega. Afterwards, all of them have quietly deleted their posts relating to the Fyre Festival, most without comment.
The reality is, that it’s impossible to deliver a “luxury music festival,” on a remote tropical island with no infrastructure, running water, or electricity. When supermodels are paid to hype this garbage, and it reaches the level of media buzz it attained, then we as a society have a serious issue with controlling our sexual urges. That’s what drove Fyre, and it led to disaster. The millennials who bought into this fantasy, really need to look at their own culpability. You can only be lied to, if you want to believe the lie.
Videos with supermodels, selling people their dreams, is as old as MTV at least– yet the scam still works when updated. Why? Because people are blind to what they desire the most. People want (more than anything) to be part of the “in” crowd, and hang out with beautiful people & celebrities. This is a sickness many people have, in which they are telling themselves they can only be “somebody” if they are at a certain event with “cool” people.
This is a pathological & elitist outlook, which denies oneself its own potential to be beautiful & important. That mentality has been beaten into Generations’ X, Y & Z; as image is promoted as everything– especially on social media.
When reality finally bites, insanity & barbarism ensues, because no one is fact-checking. Both documentaries reveal how negative social media comments & whistle-blower websites were censored, as part of the Fyre promotional campaign. That’s because the truth will collapse this fake economy, exposing these “elites” as con artists. This mirrors the US government’s ongoing campaign to censor the internet, in the name of neo-McCarthyism.
America’s fake government is now personified by President Trump– the quintessential sociopathic conman. This isn’t sustainable, and it can’t be reformed, as the Democrats allowed this to be. Both Democrat (DSA, Greens, etc) & Republican (Libertarian, Tax Reform, Tea, etc) parties, along with their staunchest supporters always work together behind closed doors, to sell out the working masses. It’s fake “events” like the annual Super Bowl & Fyre Festival that keep people distracted & mollified.
As of this publication, there are still 800,000 federal workers, who aren’t being paid, and it’s been over a month. Over half of them are being required to work, most notably (so far) the TSA workers, who screen all passengers & baggage in our airports. TSA screeners are fake jobs too, meant to keep us safe from the terrorists who masterminded 9/11.
Those who fly (at all), despise the post-9/11 screening process, as it’s simply an edifice for a police state. It doesn’t make us safer, it just concentrates power into the hands of unaccountable madmen & fascists. One can’t attempt to bring a bottle of water on board, without a TSA screener tripping every alarm, as they confiscate your beverage. The “suspect” then gets a warning, and a canned statement, “You can purchase another one on-board.” Can you see how all this ties in? It’s not hard, if you look.
The reason many of the TSA screeners are working for free, is to keep their bullshit jobs. Most of these airport rent-a-police aren’t qualified to deal with a serious terrorist threat. But that’s not why they are there. The TSA was created and vastly expanded after 9/11, as cheap government labor to secure an objective for the ruling apparatus, which is to be able to lockdown any airport at any time. That’s concentrated power, and the deep state is a “who’s who” of mass murderers & fascist sociopaths, who take this as their divine right.
The mainstream answer to the government shutdown (and everything else) will ultimately be to allow Trump to declare an “executive emergency,” which doesn’t exist in reality, in order to get funding for “border security,” which both Democrats & Republicans support. This will further concentrate dictatorial authority into the hands of the US President, which Trump likes. Impeaching Donald Trump for his destructive recklessness & lack of compassion is off-the-table in this world of fake politics.
Since Donald Trump has boxed himself in with his government shutdown crisis, he goes ahead using (abusing) his Presidential power to create more chaos as a diversion. That’s the deal with this Venezuelan coup attempt Mike Pompeo & company are trying to pull off at the moment. This is the most brazen and unlawful example of election interference that anyone has ever witnessed, yet it’s framed a legitimate diplomacy in the US corporate media.
Government Shutdown Update: Friday 25 Jan 2019 03:30 PM EST
Reuters: Trump announces deal with lawmakers to end government shutdown
The deal is described as “a tentative agreement with U.S. lawmakers for three weeks in stop-gap funding that would end a partial U.S. government shutdown now in its 35th day.” News opinion polls now show public disapproval of Trump near 60%. with a majority of Americans holding him most responsible for the shutdown. Trump still reserves the right for himself to exercise “emergency powers” to get his wall, and powerful Democrats support him on that.
February 15, 2019 is now the next government shutdown date, and (most likely) we’ll be right back here again. This “deal” is a band-aid to stop the hemorrhaging. The only thing furloughed & compelled-to-work government employees care about is when do they get paid again? Back pay & lost wages are also a big issue for them. Trump’s presidency is on-the-ropes, as he & his advisors are stalling for time, until they can assume control with fascist methods.
“The workers of Matamoros will never go back to paying 4 percent union dues. You can’t have a rich union and poor workers.”
Here’s some more real news, you never hear on CNN or Fox. There are currently over 70,000 striking auto workers at the Matamoros plants in Mexico, at the US border. These strikers have defied their sellout unions, and are already affecting US production plants, but it has received zero mass media coverage in the US, for all these reasons. The reality & issues are too great for the elites to admit to, so they instead bury their heads in the sand, and hype more fake news & phony events.
Fact checking for a music festival starts with the band lineup. Fyre touted second-rate & nobody acts. Major Lazer is a DJ/producer with just two albums to his credit. Disclosure is an electronica act, also with only two records. Blink 182, the “headliner,” is a dinosaur B-list alternative rock band. Hip-hop pretenders Migos, and Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music crew, aren’t the kind of acts that one travels thousand of miles (and pays thousands of dollars) to see perform. Have you even heard of any of the rest?
The screenshot above is a damning exposure of the music industry. The biggest act, Blink 182, didn’t pull out until the last minute, as shown in their infamous tweet. Note their complicity in this fraud, by not telling their own fans that the Fyre festival was now known to be a humanitarian Super-fund site. Instead, Blink 182 apologized in couched language to mask the truth. What were they paid, I wonder? Bullshit act, like all the rest that were “booked.”
What’s most disturbing about these documentaries is the lack of awareness & remorse from everyone involved at the planning, promotional & management level. Billy McFarland & Jeffery Atkins (AKA– Ja Rule) are conman & street hustler. They deserve no legitimacy, just like the rest of this fake economy. They should be sent to prison for a long time, just like the rest of these fascist elites, who produce nothing, and only take for themselves.
The rest deserve some other form of comeuppance, which hasn’t arrived yet. That will only happen when younger people start becoming more socially & politically conscious. It has to happen, otherwise history will continue to repeat itself with this kind of ugliness. That is the deeper message in these two timely documentaries.
Australian Open (Women’s) Update: Sat 26 Jan 2019 ~ Noon EST
Does chemical enhancement count as fakery? I think so.
Serena Williams looked beastly hideous (again) during the 2019 Australian Open, where she cracked in the quarterfinals. She foot-faulted on her 1st serve at match point, and the replay shows it. She has a history of being called for that, only this time she quietly accepted it, like you’re supposed to, instead of blowing it up and using it as an excuse for losing. Naomi Osaka, the 2018 US Open winner, was shamed by Serena’s meltdown.
Serena Williams wasn’t cheated here, she cracked. That is a term tennis players use for what happened to Serena, leading 5-1 in the 3rd set, serving at 40-30. The lines-person called “foot-fault” immediately & loudly, meaning Karolina Pliskova heard it & ignored the serve, so that wasn’t an “ace,” as some have insisted. Pliskova cracked Serena by upping her game and making Williams move, until she rolled an ankle because she’s carrying too much weight. That’s one way to crack an opponent who has that vulnerability.
There is no dishonor in cracking, as compared to her malicious outburst towards a respected chair umpire during & after the 2018 US Open finals. Serena Williams never even apologized for that, or issued any kind of public explanation, outside of wanting to “put it in her rear-view mirror.”
She’s won 23 Grand Slams, and probably won’t win anymore. People need to accept that, as supporting her brand of racialist & feminist hate isn’t healthy. There’s a lot to like & dislike about her career. In this social media age, there’s nothing fans despise more than liars & their apologists
The only chance Serena Williams has at another major is 2019 Wimbledon, where her serve is dominant. Her Achilles’ Heel is her reduced mobility, which shows up against top opponents who can handle her serve. She has no chance of winning another French Open, and Naomi Osaka is now the “Queen of the Hardcourts.”
Naomi Osaka defeated Petra Kvitova (above) in a thrilling 3-set finals match, to win the 2019 Australian Open. This is what everyone wanted to see & remember. It feels a lot more REAL. No losers here, just huge kudos to both!!
Here’s some nefarious advertising for you. Naomi Osaka & Kei Nishikori are featured in this Japanimation cartoon titled ‘The Prince of Tennis,” sponsored by Nissin instant noodles. It’s received a lot of flak over “whitewashing” their caricatures, which led to the ad being taken down. People aren’t tolerating this fakery anymore, and they are better than ever at spotting it.
Osaka who is Japanese-Haitian replied, “I’ve talked to them. They’ve apologized. I’m tan. It’s pretty obvious. I don’t think they did it on purpose to be whitewashing or anything, but I definitely think that the next time they try to portray me or something, I feel like they should talk to me about it.”
Sat 26 Jan 2019 03:05 PM EST
Fake Money-Bitcoin Update: As reported by Bloomberg news, the production-weighted cash cost to create one Bitcoin averaged ~ $4,060 globally in the fourth quarter, according to analysts with JP Morgan Chase. Chinese miners pay ~ $2,400 per Bitcoin, by leveraging direct power purchasing agreements with dirty electricity generators.
All that leads to this question: With Bitcoin trading ~ $3,600 as of this publication, how is the cryptocurrency market sustainable in light of these realities?
I’ve heard way too many interviews with the cool, smart guys in crypto-currency who point to how Bitcoin “solved the double-spend problem.” Most of these Gen-Y & Z wanna-bees have been insulated from reality their entire lives, especially with their expensive bourgeois education in economics, which isn’t worth one read of Karl Marx’s Capital (1867).
These trendy young entrepreneurs live in cocoons, and understand nothing beyond their limited realm. The environmental cost of the Bitcoin/crypto-currency bubble impacts everyone. On the hard economics side, Bitcoin is trading at $500 below unit cost. The only way that happens (and is sustained), is through massive market fraud.
These comments were deleted by Russia Today’s moderators (censors). They pertained to the latest Keiser Report, “Should individuals campaign to get corporate rights?” (E1331).
I’ve learned that you can’t post any Trotskyist analysis on Russia Today. They are very sensitive about that.
Posted (& deleted on) Saturday evening, 1-12-19: I appreciate this show because I’m not a Wall Street insider, and Max Keiser has real world experience. Stacy Herbert is more scripted & cooler-headed, which balances things nicely.
But when it comes to politics they are both lost. There is 0% chance that Alexandra Ocasio Cortez will be US President in 2024. America will either have: A) fascism, which is where we are almost at now; or B) a global socialist revolution in permanence (Trotsky), which is what humanity needs to survive.
Alexandra Ocasio Cortez’s brand of liberalism died with Obama, and then Bernie 2016. Get control of your dick, Max, as that’s what’s driving her ratings, and you’re just feeding the machine. The rest of Washington is too ugly to look at, much less talk about, so Alexandra Ocasio Cortez is the much-needed D.C. poster-girl, who distracts the masses with her physical beauty & perceived innocence. It won’t last, trust me.
Posted (& NOT deleted on) Sunday morning, 1-13-19: Those who claim that cryptocurrency will lead to a transformation of society though a “peaceful revolution” have a poor understanding of history, politics, and the nature of money. The global banks which control the levers of power, will not give it up nicely. [Added here] No devil ever cut off his own claws, to quote Trotsky.
Posted (& deleted on) Sunday morning, 1-13-19: The basis of value for money is in commodities produced by human labor. Money represents an amount of congealed labor which produces a necessary commodity. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is produced by supercomputers, and is useless in the big picture. Its only value is for people who want to hide illicit transactions, avoid taxes, etc– which exposes its fraudulent nature. Cryptocurrency, and the “freedom” its proponents are selling, is a Ponzi scheme.
Update Finale: Mon 14 Jan 2019 05:30 PM EST : A US President takes an oath “to defend the Constitution.” This founding document of our republic authorizes spending to be mandated & approved by Congress, and also contains a 13th Amendment, which criminalizes slave labor. When half of the 800,000 shut down government workers are told to work for no pay, because they are “essential,” then that’s slave labor.
Donald Trump should have be impeached by now for this attack on the US working class, its government agencies & the Constitution, but bilateral collaboration between Vichy Democrats & Nazi Republicans has saved his seat in the Oval Office– for now.
How much more of this will unpaid government workers take? The power of the working class is never seriously discussed in the bourgeois media, but it is now being fiercely debated behind closed doors (always!) in ruling circles across the globe.
Workers globally need to unite, raise their political consciousness, and speak & act in their own interests. The US two-party system is dead, and needs to be overturned. Only a socialist revolution led by the most advanced elements of the working class can achieve this.
