Back to the Future Dystopia

As the calendar turned from 1967 to 1968 in what were very tumultuous times, the Star Trek TV franchise on 12 January aired “A Piece of the Action” where “The Enterprise visits a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture, with Runyonesque dialog and costumes,” as Wikipedia reminds us. The behavior of Donald Trump and the Outlaw US Empire have brought that episode back to mind because what’s being engaged in is a classic Mafia Shakedown in the so-called trade deals being extorted from the EU, South Korea and Japan primarily but also other nations with India being the latest target. A Mafia Shakedown is a situation where protection money is demanded from a business owner if s/he wants the business to remain viable and sometimes included threats to the life of the owner as well. And this sort of extortion would continue on a weekly or monthly basis. If the gangland turf control changed, the new boss would renew the same old demand. Thus, the term “Piece of the Action”—a cut of the business proceeds. And the terms of the “deal”—the amount to be paid to avoid the penalty—could change on a whim, which is exactly what we see Trump doing to every nation that agreed to be bullied. Those nations that have stood up to the bullying know they can afford to lose access to the US market, which is the main threat Trump’s using. In many cases, a nation’s exports are subjected to tariffs while an additional demand to “invest”—pay tribute is a better term—to Trump in the billions of dollars in hopes of keeping your tariff rate low. As we’ve seen with the example of the “deal” extorted from Japan, Japan essentially has no control over the monies it gives to Trump, nor is Japan likely to see any of it returned as “Hollywood-Pentagon” bookkeeping will be used to ensure no profits are made thus no reimbursement of the billions provided. Here’s how Dr, Michael Hudson described this criminality:

Trump used a similar bait-and-switch shakedown policy against Japan, threatening to create commercial chaos in its economy by imposing steep tariffs on its trade with the United States if it did not pay $550 billion in protection money for Trump to invest in projects of his own choice, keeping 90% of the profits for himself after Japan was reimbursed for its capital advance. The Japanese version of the original agreement indicated that the profits would be split 50/50, but the U.S. drafted a final version saying that that split would only govern the initial reimbursement of investment by Japan, not the profits.

Such was Japan’s desperation–-and abject surrender to U.S. demands, German-style–-that it accepted Trump’s tariff deal of “only” charging Japanese esports 15% instead of 25%–-the same deal that he had made with Korea. Japan was given only 45 days to pay up. The resulting slush fund was a political godsend to Trump, who is now able to use it as bait for his leading campaign contributors and supporters, while using the more than half a trillion dollars to help finance his budget’s tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans.

Trump also demanded a kickback on Japanese investment in U.S. steel production by Nippon Steel’s $15 billion purchase of U.S. Steel. The U.S. Government received a free golden share of the company’s stock to ensure U.S. control over the company’s operations. [My Emphasis]

Hudson’s essay also describes how Europe and South Korea were attacked in similar manner. Throughout September, Dr. Hudson’s appeared on a very large number of interview shows to augment the essays he writes and posts to his website. The posted transcripts also link to the videos and usually trail the original video by about one week. The most recent video transcript is from 16 September, “Late-Stage Barbarism Meets a Mixed-Economy Bloc,” where Dr. Richard Wolff also appears in the chat with Nima. Dr. Wolff offers a somewhat different explanation that coincides with what I wrote about Europe’s status in relation to the Outlaw US Empire shortly after Russia commenced its SMO—that Europe was now a colony of the Empire, a status to which President Putin agreed in a speech I reported upon at the time, “Putin Agrees: Europe Has Lost Its Sovereignty,” 17 June 2022. Here’s how Dr. Wolff explains the issue:

The problem of the United States is, it’s not in a position to get the lackeys it’s had since the end of World War II — Western Europe, Japan, and so on — to do what it needs to have them do. Michael is right. They should all now become colonies. And colonies, let me explain. Colonies, in the following precise sense: They are being charged to do business in the United States. You want to sell in the United States, you’re going to have to work out with the importing company, if you yourself don’t import into the United States. You’re going to have to pay a fee. It’s an entrance fee to the American economy. That’s what a tariff is. If you sell in the American economy, you’re going to have to pay the American government a fee.

And the American government is so desperate, it says: Either you pay it — the company abroad coming in — or the American importer pays it. We don’t care. We are equally burdening you and the American — that’s not something the American government wants to do. It wants others to pay, but it can’t get that. So it has to do a deal which hurts its own so-called program: Why in the world would you come here, if one of the things you’re going to have to do, as a business, is pay real high tariffs, which could be raised at any time, on the imported portion of whatever it is you produce here, which, at least for the years ahead, is going to be significant?

No, I think what I see is a declining empire no longer able to control huge parts of the world — China, India, Russia, BRICS — and therefore having to eat its own colonies — to savage Canada and Mexico, its major trading partners — doing God knows what kind of damage to those societies. [My Emphasis]

Pay the boss or we’ll destabilize your economy. The only difference is there’re no drive-by shootings with machine guns—yet. Instead, Trump kills unknown people traveling in speed boats off the coast of Northern South America taking to a new level the extrajudicial murders began by Bush in Afghanistan and continued by Obama, and followed on by Biden. And of course, there’s the genocide both he and Biden support in Palestine. So, if you’re lucky, you said no to Trump’s gangster foreign policies. Here’s Dr. Wolff’s remark at the end of his first segment of the chat:

And here’s a last point: a friend of mine is an industrialist in Europe. I can assure you, he understands perfectly what’s going on. And in my latest conversation with him, where I said: Is there any way that you might actually move your production to the United States? He said, laughingly: Are you crazy? And I said: Well, why? He said: Every day in our newspaper — in the country in Western Europe where he lives — we see pictures of American troops patrolling American cities. You’re a country that I wouldn’t move to in a million years. There’s too much turmoil. And then I watched your new army, your ICE army, closing down a South Korean battery plant in Georgia, out of the hysteria you have cultivated against immigrants. I’m not moving there. I’m not entering that crazy place that is occupying its own cities. [My Emphasis]

Sometime ago (I’m dating myself) a movie called Coming to America was produced and shown globally which went with the Cold War insistence that the USA was the Leader of the Free World and similar propaganda, and the above reaction related by Dr. Wolff made me think of the vast difference between now and then (1988). It wasn’t too long ago that Joe Biden was still invoking that old Cold War adage and trying to convince the world that the democratic systems of governance employed by Russia and China weren’t democratic.

Historically, Empires were autocracies usually controlled by an oligarchy. The Outlaw US Empire has an interesting term to describe its oligarchy—The Deep State—although some try to call it the administrative state to obfuscate reality. The truth is the USA via the Constitutional Coup of 1787 when the Articles of Confederation were ousted the government formed was very clearly an oligarchy. In Federalist #10, the main ideologist of the constitution James Madison argued that democracy was dangerous because it was susceptible to the straw man he thus created—Factions. Factions are political parties, which immediately formed once the 1787 Constitution was ratified. A close look at what US society was composed of in 1787 tells us why Madison lied in order to avoid telling the truth about what the US federal government would actually be—rich, landed slave owners like him deemed themselves exceptional—above the rabble lower classes—and thus naturally entitled to govern their lessers. By the time the Populists of the 1880-90s made common cause against what they deemed their Deep State—The Money Power—it was too late for any reforms to alter the Class situation and eliminate the Oligarchy. And that’s why we have one today, because it’s been here from the very beginning.

I find the term Money Power to be quite apt for it describes reality—look at the number of billionaires on Team Trump. Note that many are Libertarians who got most of their wealth via government largess—Elon Musk most notably. And the first act Trump made certain to enact was his giving even greater tax breaks to the already filthy rich. Yet, he then goes and complains about the size of the deficit, which is close to 200% of genuine GDP. As many globally note, that number is what’s driving Trump’s desperate actions, not because he wants MAGA—he’s not doing anything to even begin that massive chore. Instead, his actions are worsening the problem. Tariffs as noted above are a tax on Americans and work to reduce the amount of disposable income people have to spend on goods. Plus, many companies within the Empire have had to layoff workers because of those tariffs, thus decreasing aggregate spending even more. And when that happens, aggregate demand also decreases, and you have a recession. Now most Americans have dealt with genuine recession conditions since the Dot.Com bubble burst in the late 1990s. Income inequality is looking like the 19th Century, the Era Trump reveres. Internationally, the monies Trump’s extorting is a mere pittance against the $37 Trillion+ deficit. The dirty secret not being told to the public is the US won’t default on its debt since its owed to all those rich folk. Rather, the interest that’s being paid on the debt will eventually squeeze out all other spending—even on war—unless taxes are raised on the filthy rich. When that will occur can even be calculated. Indeed, here’s an AI generated answer:

According to the analysis by ChatGPT, in 2024, interest payments accounted for approximately 20% of federal revenues, but by 2028, this share is expected to increase to 65%. This means that nearly all revenues will go toward interest payments, leaving little for stimulus policies or deficit reduction. [My Emphasis]

So, there’s what appears to be the source of the desperation. But is that correct? Wouldn’t an expansion of business—a genuinely growing economy—be a far better policy aim than shaking down the world and generating a recession? Where are the reasonable counter-arguments? The only action I see happening are the court challenges as to the constitutionality of Trump’s tariffs.

The solution Captain Kirk comes up with in A Piece of the Action is to become a bigger more powerful boss than all the others on the planet thanks to his technological advantages—using force and a bit of guile to overcome force. How will our planet deal with a desperate, fading, semi-fascist nuclear armed Empire run by a cabal of semi-megalomaniac billionaires? Let it feed on its own colonies until they revolt, and it becomes almost completely isolated while still having its own escalating internal problems? Perhaps solving the problem of the Genocidal Zionists and primary Imperial proxy will provide a pathway. Perhaps some historical irony will somewhat repeat itself—Al Capone’s crime spree came to an end when he was imprisoned for tax evasion, a money issue where he failed to payoff the bigger bandit—the Outlaw US Empire.

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