Crony Capitalism 101 – How To Replace Democracy with Only Your Loyalists

  

Crony Capitalism 101: How To Replace Democracy with Only Your Loyalists

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

Were you even slightly suspicious when Trump announced that it would be good time to invest in the stock market, which would obviously represent support for his tariff-drive approach to a great US economy… then four hours later, he paused the tariffs (except for China), and the stock market exploded? Stock manipulation, which is illegal? That he later celebrated with several billionaires in the Oval Office, bragging that those oligarchs made a cool $3 billion from that fluctuation. Later, to placate some more of those Trump-crony billionaires, whose businesses would otherwise die without critical imports from China, Trump exempted electronic components (used in computers, smart phone and electronic components) from his massive 145% tariff on Chinese goods. Feeling the pressure from the obvious hit to Christmas from even his loyal base, Trump also exempted toys. Elon Musk, smiling at his new leverage overseas, was smiling too.

The big picture here is simple, and like all roads may lead to Rome, all of Trump’s policies lead to a government totally controlled by Donald Trump, where the slightest evidence of less-than-perfect loyalty from any government functionary, leads to discharge (if elected, to a pledge of support to defeat that defector with massive funding of his/her opposition) or investigation and prosecution by Trump’s most personal law firm: the Department of Justice, led by his groveling sycophant, AG Pam Bondi.

In a crony capitalist society, which is just one form of a kleptocracy (where those in government generate personal values for themselves by helping themselves to government assets and contracts – legitimized stealing), your business does not prosper (or perhaps even survive) unless you support the leaders with financial support. That tariff waivers have been accorded disproportionately to donors to Trump’s campaign is clear evidence of cronyism. This was the way of kings, who granted “dispensations” to generous members of the royal court. A monarch could grant exclusivity in a particular trade to such courtiers, eliminating competitors. This is at the heart of DJT’s attack on law firms, which were willing to betray their profession and their oath as lawyers to maintain those favorable lines to the government. Lobbyists have increased their value as well.

So what is really doing on in the quest to eliminate waste, fraud and corruption is rather unambiguously aimed at installing an oligarchy (rich people rule at the expense of the rest), crushing the formerly functional bureaucracy that was busy protecting the middle and lower classes, expendable in an oligarchy, and installing crony administrators instead. What I like to call eliminating a non-existent “deep state” to be replaced by a Trump loyalist deep state. Yes, people point to the wild success of DOGE as cutting costs and increasing government efficiency. However, that was never the intent behind DOGE, and as the tens of thousands of veterans purged from federal jobs can attest, DOGE is an utter failure at its stated goals.

David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine, reporters looking at Musk/DOGE details in the NY Times The Morning (April 13th), reports on Musk’s success (actually abysmal failure) in cost cutting: “[In early April], Elon Musk indicated for the first time that his Department of Government Efficiency was falling short of its goal… He previously said his powerful budget-cutting team could reduce the next fiscal year’s federal budget by $1 trillion, and do it by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Instead, in a cabinet meeting on Thursday [3/10], Mr. Musk said that he anticipated the group would save about $150 billion, 85 percent less than its [already reduced] objective.

“Even that figure may be too high, according to a New York Times analysis of DOGE’s claims… That’s because, when Mr. Musk’s group tallies up its savings so far, it inflates its progress by including billion-dollar errors, by counting spending that will not happen in the next fiscal year — and by making guesses about spending that might not happen at all.”

In fact, the proposed federal budget is higher than ever, the tax cuts for the oligarchs are wending their way through the House, and the underlying cuts that the MAGA needs to power deficit busting tax cuts are laid out in committee policies… which were carefully omitted (as was any specificity) in the underlying House bill: under a false pretense of cutting waste and fraud, a major reform and budget reduction of Medicaid is on the table, despite lies to the contrary.

So, history buffs, go back to jolly old England, or any other land ruled by absolute monarchs, and ask yourself how those close to the King, helping his or her majesty maintain full coffers, fared when compared to the tiny merchant middle class and the giant peasant class who mostly worked the farms of those connected to the court. Those without connections suffered unimaginably. So when the New World offered hope and escape from that form of government, the mass emigration to that New World began. As New World prosperity rose, it soon became necessary to shove the last vestiges of royal power out of what became the United States. Now, the very form of government that we solidly rejected in the Revolutionary War is back on the table… and gaining traction through lies, misdirection and programs that everybody knows won’t “wink-wink” work, like DOGE, a failure under any metric.

Indeed, prior to the New Deal era, US tariffs gave rise to massive bribes and favoritism to wealthy interests seeking “exemptions.” The New Deal era tackled those absurd tariffs, and government corruption dropped precipitously. And the United States prospered. So what do you think when exemptions from absurdly high tariffs are subject to the whims of one man – Donald John Trump, famous for dispensing “benefits” to his ardent loyalists and largest contributors. Just look at the billionaires who gathered in the White House to protect their electronics businesses (and got a tariff exemption) or Elon Musk who makes billions from US government contracts and is now pedaling his influence overseas, where “tariffs” are a hot topic. As evidenced in his negotiations with Thailand in connection with signing on to his Starlink communications satellite system.

But this entire program may collapse like a house of cards as Europe is beginning to push back hard…. And an unrelenting China is capitalizing on every Trump mistake, every ally Trump has screwed and noting Trump’s sinking popularity even in the United States. China President Xi Jinping holds to the firm belief that the United States is self-destructing… and they only have to survive short term economic risks to win the war to become the most powerful nation on earth, economically, politically and militarily. Bye, bye Taiwan. And Donald Trump seems to be handing the keys to the prosperity castle to China… and her buddy, Vladimir Putin whose nation is struggling and this must follow China’s dictates.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Donald Trump is hell-bent on every right-wing oligarch’s greatest wish (since the New Deal): to dismantle all government programs that do not favor the rich and let the poor and the middle-class aspirations die as the oligarchs bask in the sunshine of lower taxes, deregulation and crony capitalism.