In his State of the Union address, Joe Biden turned his back on Bill Clinton's legacy, and got aggressive in focusing on monopolies. And then, the UK dented the Microsoft-Activision merger.
Go full meritocratic & back to the people by restoring patents to pre-1995 standards, before the initial deform under “harmonization”. Antitrust comes after the harm has been done. Strong, first to invent, secret prosecution type patents are inherently anti-monopoly and give inventors and SMEs leverage to challenge incumbent and typically non-innovative companies. Until innovating is cheaper than lobbying, as it was with patents between 1952-1995, our industrial policy will lag and creatives will suffer.
Yup. Biden sounded a lot more like LBJ, HST, JFK or FDR than either Clinton or Obama. As I prepare to turn 65 my baby boomer friends liked it too. One of the more consequential SOTU's. Right now the Democratic nomination process looks settled while the GOP has stolen our usual circular firing squad. Democratic fortunes are as tied to medical science as political science.
Thank you so much for your insightful analysis of Biden’s speech! I’m starting to have a tiny bit of hope that the establishment media might finally get a clue and actually start talking about these intensely practical, human issues we all face together!
Was the 4th estate (lead by books like Big) the catalyst for this change of direction or the chronicler? It's probably some of both. But it's clear that the opportunity is emerging to press hard for as much awareness as possible of how corrosive monopolies are to everyday life.
When did we forget that this is NOT our government?
Every 4 years, the scripted theater and madcap circus enthralls us, distracts us, rowdies us up, divides and conquers us, extracts vast amounts of $$, time, energy.
But for what, actually?
We didn't vote for war in Korea. Vietnam. Grenada, the Balkans.
We didn't vote for war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Ukraine, endless genocide of indigenous people of Palestine, Congo, etc. etc.
We didn't vote to give Wall St. Billionaires TRILLIONS more, after they already had STOLEN Trillions
We didn't vote to close our factories, our jobs, our livelihoods and send them to places where slave labor is legal, and corporations are not constrained by even minimal environmental protections
We didn't vote to tie even basic healthcare services to our jobs, which big money closes and eliminates on a whim for a bonus to the bosses
We didn't vote to allow physicians and hospitals to become paid for profit drug dealers for mega pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies
We didn't vote to see our local police turned into heavily militarized, kill first ask questions later, unaccountable gestapo agents of the government, which is simply a proxy for the generational wealth that pays for policies.
We didn't vote to eliminate our protections from endless pollution, allow our food to become full of pesticides, toxins, and processed garbage, our air to be polluted, our water to be full of drugs and medicines, etc. etc.
We didn't vote for any of this. Of course, this list could go on and on, but I promised to be brief. Spare me the "Representative Republic" nonsense, it's been proven over and over again, they do NOT represent the people, and they haven't for a VERY long time.
“the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact, upon public policy.”
Princeton – 2014
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”
They represent corporations, big money. that's all. All the above and more has occurred across both democrat and republican administrations, majorities in congress, judicial liberals and conservatives. Corporations are NOT people.
So, why do we forget these facts every 4 years? Why do we allow ourselves to be enrolled in the plain deceit? It literally has not made a difference yet, nor the last 100x, but this time it will be different? SMH
So, when? When did we forget: THIS IS NOT OUR GOVERNMENT. This is THEIR Government
My subject are not regarding big business but smaller local businesses in the small rural community where I live. There is a dearth of trained service and crafts person here. Secondary schools no longer have programs to train youth who are not college bound and who may want to skilled in professions such as plumbing. So when I learned that a local plumber is training family member to continue his trade I was happy to anticipate this as progress. I needed help with a plumbing problem and they efficiently and respectfully fixed the problem. After receiving the bill which was reasonable there was the ubiquitous request to rate the service provided including a form requesting a tip for their labor. What and why does this sound like a plea to entertain the so called "developing country" economics ? Do we continue to allow the employers of huge and small companies to not pay their workers but to live as a pay as you go culture. Plus if the customer is responsible to augment a workers salary will the quality of the job be dependent on how the worker is feeling that day. There are so questions about a culture promoting the tip run income of workers. Is this a new trend in this country? Are others experiencing this request to give tip to just about everyone?
This is heartening news - and much overdue - and it owes a lot to the pressure that has been building up and given a voice by you and others. So THANK YOU!
so, right out of the box, I was almost loath to even read this. My bias is you seem to be enrolled in dc bs, imagine rhetoric actually equates to change, and such. But I read on, because I pay to read your articles, so, ya. and you do address that somewhat.
I mean why have so many workers, labor, ignorantly left the dems and and gone red? mostly, rage about the absolute betrayal of labor by dems over the last 40 years. way more significant than racism, culture war nonsense, wokism, etc.
I've read, and Ill look for references, that the dccc, 3rd way, etc, right push of dnc, was actually at least partially funded, by kock bros. that may be bs, but it certainly feels accurate.
I mean, look into the powell memo, and it's influence.
so, biden's SOTU rhetoric, while hopeful, remains to be seen if meaningful., hope and change? feels all to familiar. and sure, some of this admin's efforts look decent, but he also screwed rail workers, just a few months ago. so there's that.
this is the hard reality on the ground:
The oligarchy has now done to the US, what the US has done in other countries: regime change the government, replace representatives with puppets, only loyal to the oligarchs, turn the people into slaves, and plunder the resources
"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed." - Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VI
Most global "industries" are in fact, subsidiaries (owned and controlled) by Finance (Bankers)
It is conservatively estimated, there is MORE than $50 Trillion offshore. More wealth than the majority of nations, combined, coalesced in the hands of a few, mostly generational wealth inheriting, pigs.
Behind the curtain of obfuscation, there is no "Big Weapons (MIC)", "Big Pharma", "Big Insurance", "Big Tech", "Big Agriculture" etc etc. (Now ADD "Big Water")
The majority of transnational industries are controlled at the top, by a 100 or so straw man corporations. Monopoly.
Interlocking board rooms, shared executives, etc, etc, all legally woven through places like Panama, Cayman Islands, Ireland, etc.
I.E. Fictions. legal straw men
When you have unlimited access to source credit issuance (commercial, not sovereign), then turning fiat credit into tangible industry, physical property, and ABSOLUTE control over corrupt elected "representatives", this is a no brainer.
2010: A couple of Swiss data analysts built a DB of the 46,000 largest transnational corporations, and populated the tables with those companies c-suite and board members. the DATA, not theories, proved 97% of global mega-corporations, are controlled by the same few strawman corporate structures.
Literally, total and complete monopoly.. of Everything. Cradle to grave, servitude, to transnational corporations. Of course, it's worse today, almost 10 years later
This is the link to the actual White Paper pdf, for any skeptics:
The Mont Pelerin Society (Austria 1940's) favorite "economist" F. v Hayek proposed path of "liberty" and "freedom", 4 "planks": [intended only for the 1% (Neoliberalism)] (Buchanan, Friedman, the "Chicago School", were later disciples and advocates)
1) Deregulate global financial markets - DONE
2) Deregulate global trade - DONE
3) Create the illusion and urgency of national bankruptcy with fake (fiat) debt (thereby neuter a nation's capability to enforce laws - eliminate the people's ability to defend against being overwhelmed and consumed by the 1%) - DONE
this manufactured illusion of bankruptcy is critical path for the 1%'s agenda. the "debt" is used to justify austerity measures for the people, and to tee up, the privatization plan, which is about transforming the public debt, into private debt, where the 1% can extract usury, ad infinitum.
then lastly, the kill shot:
4) Privatize Everything. recreate us ALL as permanent rent payers of even the most basic necessities of life (Air, water, food, shelter, health care). the public debt of a nation has been effectively eliminated, transmuted into private debt (bonds); the service of which (usury) is FOREVER- Almost COMPLETE
Biden did a far better job than I expected at his SOTU address. The stuff he spoke of seemed like Fantasy Island. On everything other than anti-monopoly issues he still fails to inspire and the allegations of grift still stalk him. I won't get carried away by what I heard.
Where I live in Vietnam, prime time in the US is breakfast time, so I did not see the live state of the union event. But I watched it a day later, sitting through it with my jaw banging on the floor, clapping. It's like Joe was channeling a lot of what I have been reading for the past couple of years in this newsletter. What a delight! To say Biden has been an enormous, unexpected pleasant surprise is beyond understatement. I don't like or agree with everything he does, but it is not too soon to say he is having, legislatively, the most productive, consequential four year term since LBJ, 1964 to 1968. Most of what he has gotten through Congress is exactly what the doctor ordered. Moreover, he has for the most part appointed first rate people throughout the executive bureaucracy, and he (with Schumer's active support) continues to reshape the Federal judiciary with qualified appointments. To top it off, he has accomplished all of this in the most toxic political environment the country has faced since the 1850s. Kudos, President Biden.
If Bill Clinton had really left the building Biden would've spent some time talking about closing the southern border and social security; currently two of the biggest threats to the middle-class. Little specific (requiring actual solutions) was discussed so it appears that demented Joe (and his handlers) are just kicking the Clinton can down the road. I do like the fact that anti-trust actions have increased, but I hardly attribute that change to Biden. Try to change my mind, please.
Go full meritocratic & back to the people by restoring patents to pre-1995 standards, before the initial deform under “harmonization”. Antitrust comes after the harm has been done. Strong, first to invent, secret prosecution type patents are inherently anti-monopoly and give inventors and SMEs leverage to challenge incumbent and typically non-innovative companies. Until innovating is cheaper than lobbying, as it was with patents between 1952-1995, our industrial policy will lag and creatives will suffer.
Yup. Biden sounded a lot more like LBJ, HST, JFK or FDR than either Clinton or Obama. As I prepare to turn 65 my baby boomer friends liked it too. One of the more consequential SOTU's. Right now the Democratic nomination process looks settled while the GOP has stolen our usual circular firing squad. Democratic fortunes are as tied to medical science as political science.
Thank you so much for your insightful analysis of Biden’s speech! I’m starting to have a tiny bit of hope that the establishment media might finally get a clue and actually start talking about these intensely practical, human issues we all face together!
Was the 4th estate (lead by books like Big) the catalyst for this change of direction or the chronicler? It's probably some of both. But it's clear that the opportunity is emerging to press hard for as much awareness as possible of how corrosive monopolies are to everyday life.
Great work Matt!
When did we forget that this is NOT our government?
Every 4 years, the scripted theater and madcap circus enthralls us, distracts us, rowdies us up, divides and conquers us, extracts vast amounts of $$, time, energy.
But for what, actually?
We didn't vote for war in Korea. Vietnam. Grenada, the Balkans.
We didn't vote for war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Ukraine, endless genocide of indigenous people of Palestine, Congo, etc. etc.
We didn't vote to give Wall St. Billionaires TRILLIONS more, after they already had STOLEN Trillions
We didn't vote to close our factories, our jobs, our livelihoods and send them to places where slave labor is legal, and corporations are not constrained by even minimal environmental protections
We didn't vote to tie even basic healthcare services to our jobs, which big money closes and eliminates on a whim for a bonus to the bosses
We didn't vote to allow physicians and hospitals to become paid for profit drug dealers for mega pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies
We didn't vote to see our local police turned into heavily militarized, kill first ask questions later, unaccountable gestapo agents of the government, which is simply a proxy for the generational wealth that pays for policies.
We didn't vote to eliminate our protections from endless pollution, allow our food to become full of pesticides, toxins, and processed garbage, our air to be polluted, our water to be full of drugs and medicines, etc. etc.
We didn't vote for any of this. Of course, this list could go on and on, but I promised to be brief. Spare me the "Representative Republic" nonsense, it's been proven over and over again, they do NOT represent the people, and they haven't for a VERY long time.
“the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact, upon public policy.”
Princeton – 2014
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page - Pg.575
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
They represent corporations, big money. that's all. All the above and more has occurred across both democrat and republican administrations, majorities in congress, judicial liberals and conservatives. Corporations are NOT people.
So, why do we forget these facts every 4 years? Why do we allow ourselves to be enrolled in the plain deceit? It literally has not made a difference yet, nor the last 100x, but this time it will be different? SMH
So, when? When did we forget: THIS IS NOT OUR GOVERNMENT. This is THEIR Government
If corporations are people, then why don't the pay the same taxes I do?
My subject are not regarding big business but smaller local businesses in the small rural community where I live. There is a dearth of trained service and crafts person here. Secondary schools no longer have programs to train youth who are not college bound and who may want to skilled in professions such as plumbing. So when I learned that a local plumber is training family member to continue his trade I was happy to anticipate this as progress. I needed help with a plumbing problem and they efficiently and respectfully fixed the problem. After receiving the bill which was reasonable there was the ubiquitous request to rate the service provided including a form requesting a tip for their labor. What and why does this sound like a plea to entertain the so called "developing country" economics ? Do we continue to allow the employers of huge and small companies to not pay their workers but to live as a pay as you go culture. Plus if the customer is responsible to augment a workers salary will the quality of the job be dependent on how the worker is feeling that day. There are so questions about a culture promoting the tip run income of workers. Is this a new trend in this country? Are others experiencing this request to give tip to just about everyone?
This is heartening news - and much overdue - and it owes a lot to the pressure that has been building up and given a voice by you and others. So THANK YOU!
so, right out of the box, I was almost loath to even read this. My bias is you seem to be enrolled in dc bs, imagine rhetoric actually equates to change, and such. But I read on, because I pay to read your articles, so, ya. and you do address that somewhat.
I mean why have so many workers, labor, ignorantly left the dems and and gone red? mostly, rage about the absolute betrayal of labor by dems over the last 40 years. way more significant than racism, culture war nonsense, wokism, etc.
I've read, and Ill look for references, that the dccc, 3rd way, etc, right push of dnc, was actually at least partially funded, by kock bros. that may be bs, but it certainly feels accurate.
I mean, look into the powell memo, and it's influence.
so, biden's SOTU rhetoric, while hopeful, remains to be seen if meaningful., hope and change? feels all to familiar. and sure, some of this admin's efforts look decent, but he also screwed rail workers, just a few months ago. so there's that.
this is the hard reality on the ground:
The oligarchy has now done to the US, what the US has done in other countries: regime change the government, replace representatives with puppets, only loyal to the oligarchs, turn the people into slaves, and plunder the resources
"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed." - Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VI
Most global "industries" are in fact, subsidiaries (owned and controlled) by Finance (Bankers)
It is conservatively estimated, there is MORE than $50 Trillion offshore. More wealth than the majority of nations, combined, coalesced in the hands of a few, mostly generational wealth inheriting, pigs.
Behind the curtain of obfuscation, there is no "Big Weapons (MIC)", "Big Pharma", "Big Insurance", "Big Tech", "Big Agriculture" etc etc. (Now ADD "Big Water")
The majority of transnational industries are controlled at the top, by a 100 or so straw man corporations. Monopoly.
Interlocking board rooms, shared executives, etc, etc, all legally woven through places like Panama, Cayman Islands, Ireland, etc.
I.E. Fictions. legal straw men
When you have unlimited access to source credit issuance (commercial, not sovereign), then turning fiat credit into tangible industry, physical property, and ABSOLUTE control over corrupt elected "representatives", this is a no brainer.
2010: A couple of Swiss data analysts built a DB of the 46,000 largest transnational corporations, and populated the tables with those companies c-suite and board members. the DATA, not theories, proved 97% of global mega-corporations, are controlled by the same few strawman corporate structures.
Literally, total and complete monopoly.. of Everything. Cradle to grave, servitude, to transnational corporations. Of course, it's worse today, almost 10 years later
This is the link to the actual White Paper pdf, for any skeptics:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf
The Mont Pelerin Society (Austria 1940's) favorite "economist" F. v Hayek proposed path of "liberty" and "freedom", 4 "planks": [intended only for the 1% (Neoliberalism)] (Buchanan, Friedman, the "Chicago School", were later disciples and advocates)
1) Deregulate global financial markets - DONE
2) Deregulate global trade - DONE
3) Create the illusion and urgency of national bankruptcy with fake (fiat) debt (thereby neuter a nation's capability to enforce laws - eliminate the people's ability to defend against being overwhelmed and consumed by the 1%) - DONE
this manufactured illusion of bankruptcy is critical path for the 1%'s agenda. the "debt" is used to justify austerity measures for the people, and to tee up, the privatization plan, which is about transforming the public debt, into private debt, where the 1% can extract usury, ad infinitum.
then lastly, the kill shot:
4) Privatize Everything. recreate us ALL as permanent rent payers of even the most basic necessities of life (Air, water, food, shelter, health care). the public debt of a nation has been effectively eliminated, transmuted into private debt (bonds); the service of which (usury) is FOREVER- Almost COMPLETE
Biden did a far better job than I expected at his SOTU address. The stuff he spoke of seemed like Fantasy Island. On everything other than anti-monopoly issues he still fails to inspire and the allegations of grift still stalk him. I won't get carried away by what I heard.
I have no idea who is pushing for monopoly enforcement in an administration that sold the first amendment to Albert Bourla.
Where I live in Vietnam, prime time in the US is breakfast time, so I did not see the live state of the union event. But I watched it a day later, sitting through it with my jaw banging on the floor, clapping. It's like Joe was channeling a lot of what I have been reading for the past couple of years in this newsletter. What a delight! To say Biden has been an enormous, unexpected pleasant surprise is beyond understatement. I don't like or agree with everything he does, but it is not too soon to say he is having, legislatively, the most productive, consequential four year term since LBJ, 1964 to 1968. Most of what he has gotten through Congress is exactly what the doctor ordered. Moreover, he has for the most part appointed first rate people throughout the executive bureaucracy, and he (with Schumer's active support) continues to reshape the Federal judiciary with qualified appointments. To top it off, he has accomplished all of this in the most toxic political environment the country has faced since the 1850s. Kudos, President Biden.
That old Democratic Party poster is great.
It's almost like messaging is easier when you've actually done things for people.
If Bill Clinton had really left the building Biden would've spent some time talking about closing the southern border and social security; currently two of the biggest threats to the middle-class. Little specific (requiring actual solutions) was discussed so it appears that demented Joe (and his handlers) are just kicking the Clinton can down the road. I do like the fact that anti-trust actions have increased, but I hardly attribute that change to Biden. Try to change my mind, please.