Material Conditions and the Bourgeois Press

January 9, 2026January 9, 2026 ~ nicholasjayboyes

There has been a movement in Europe and America towards a capitalist state, which reached a crescendo in the late 20th century, and is still with us. This mechanism of capitalism consolidates ownership of the land, and industry, increasingly in the hands of a small aristocracy that own everything.

The group in control of the means of production are the modern bourgeoisie. Through cable television, and other outdated mediums such as regular radio fed television broadcasting, paper newspapers, etc. have been used for propaganda purposes by this aristocracy.

It is easily accessible, and paid for by capitalist advertising, a form of propaganda that if nothing else portrays a smiling face in the marketplace, the privately owned reality forced upon the ignorant worker. Its political bent, due to the presence of the people who pay for the broadcasts, the ownership of the companies attempting to sell commodities by advertising, who are all capitalists, and support the more extreme form of them , the Republican bourgeoisie, as this is encouraged by the economic system of modern capitalism.

Often the industry promoted is not metric, like gasoline powered automobiles from Detroit, a product of an industry intact still in a 20th century condition. The bourgeois press directly uses propaganda when it is time for suffrage, and the broadcast is not in the metric system. The local political leader is on in 30 second attack ads when the worker wants to see local television news.

This system uses ignorance to promote a vision of capitalism that is not in tune with reality. In Europe, the concession of suffrage to the workers is used to justify expropriating employee owned shops. Once political leadership can overcome the pressure of its workers, who for one reason or another have slipped back to capitalism, through the mechanism of ignorance and cable television, employee ownership is targeted and removed by the Republican bourgeoisie.

Without employee ownership, democracy doesn’t really mean much. Given the factory is where the worker finds himself most of the time, democracy would seem to be in order there. But where is the suffrage for the manager? Or the owner? It is no longer present after employee ownership is removed.

The European Union is best at this expropriation process, all the while suggesting they are expanding democracy.

The ignorant worker, who tunes into the cable television broadcast, the station is also owned by the bourgeoisie, receives his social conditioning through this medium. The internet is gradually removing this old system, corroding the cable television monopoly; ad block technology, and paying for the news rather than the free enterprise method of advertising paying for news is becoming the dominant model.

The internet is a revolution. The tech giants are trying to control the system, but can only do so much. The Washington Post costs 10$ a month, you pay for it. It is owned by Jeff Bezos, not the journalists. The New York Times and Reuters are similar, you pay them directly. Youtube is another one worth paying for, the purpose of this is so there are no advertisements.

Society is materially changing, the main mechanism of control is ignorance. People are being told to believe things about subjects they need to find out about for themselves, by reading books. Philosophy and political economy in particular; many people have feelings about what socialism represents, yet have never read Marx’s Capital, even just volume One. Or have feelings about the ancient world and have never been exposed to Aristotle or Plato.

The internet again is coming to the rescue; Amazon Prime delivers new and used books we had a hard time getting before, like works by Marx and Engels now accessible by internet for low prices.

Giving up the cable subscription for the internet saves money. People are paying a hundred dollars a month for cable, and at best we can say it includes the internet. An internet connection costs about 50$, and it is advertisement free when you pay for it.

As the material conditions change, outdated ideas resort to outdated technology to transmit their messages. Cable television, radio broadcast television, AM radio, are all examples of outdated industry dominated by the Republican bourgeoisie. Control of cable television consumes these people. It is their main prerogative, and they control the companies advertising, and even have their political leaders on the station when suffrage occurs,to give us their bourgeois propaganda.

It is a little harder to control the internet. It is more advanced, and cheaper to use and produce than the outdated mediums. You have to be able to read and write to use it.

It doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon, the dinosaurs of 20th century capitalism look unable to stop the march of material and social development, which are leading to an ecological and economic awakening.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

12 31 2025

The Legacy of Colonialism. Life on the Reservation. 1 7 2026

January 7, 2026January 11, 2026 ~ nicholasjayboyes

The Legacy of Colonialism. Life on the Reservation. 1 7 2026

The pictures of Nicholas Maduro, prime minister of Venezuela being led around in handcuffs, blindfolded, was like a reminder of Saddam Hussein when he was captured in Iraq. Another Republican president, another war, just like George I and George II. George I took Iraq, securing the oil. Sounds familiar, right? Well he missed Hussein, it was Georege II, another republican, who finished the job.

Maduro may still be alive, but he is in no condition to try to lead Venezuela anymore, even if he wants to lead from captivity. Anything he says or does now is under duress; he is probably drugged and chained in New York where he is imprisoned. He is no longer in a position to influence things. The only real question is if they will ever let him out.

Another political prisoner, another open ended commitment to a country in the developing world with oil reserves nationalized. Iraq had nationalized the oil wells in 1972, from the Iraq Petroleum Company. This was done by the Baath socialist party, to put Iraq’s oil wealth in a more equitable arrangement, where the proceeds of the oil wealth were no longer making surplus value.

George II, who got Hussein, expropriated the property of the Iraqis, returning private investment in the oil wells to American and European capitalists. George II also cited terrorism as a reason to invade Iraq; in the light of when this occurred he tried to suggest Iraq was connected to the 9/11 incident.

This could not be proved, and it never has been to this day. Then there were the friends of George II, Labour leader Tony Blair, for instance, who got on the air telling Britons Hussein had an atomic weapon, and could hit Britain in 15 minutes if he launched it. They also suggested Hussein was developing chemical weapons. These were called the “weapons of mass destruction” arguments.

There were never any atomic weapons, or chemical weapons found in Iraq. Considering the country was conquered, there is no reason to believe the weapons could have been hidden. Instead, after removing Hussein, George II found a new enemy, Islamic State. He was still trying to link Iraq with Afghanistan, which evidence has yet to be found for.

Afghanistan ended in American retreat and exit from Afghanistan. The images of the big airplanes and the hundreds of people running trying to get them is an icon of George II and his Republican war efforts. Whether he won in Iraq is sort of a matter of opinion; they got the oil back. But the country remains in shambles after decades of all out war.

Here we have another republican bourgeoisie, and the beginnings of another war, with a similar goal of gaining control of oil fields, and markets. Trump has already said he will be running Venezuela’s oil wealth, and has committed the Army to war there, abducting the head of state of a neighboring country, and demanding its resources.

In a historical context, Trump looks a lot like a Conquistador, valiantly discovering native land, and conquering its residents. Perhaps Venezuela will become a 51st state, with reservations for the natives. How much different it would look from the ICE facilities, packed with Mexicans on the border? A vision of reservations on stolen land from Mexico gained in the Mexican American war that ended in 1848, with Mexico ‘s capitulation to the Americans of the Southwest.

Not really much new here. The bourgeoisie has been conquering lands in the new world for more than 500 years. The stain of bloody conquest of native american soil, and black slavery, is part of the history of the country. Their descendants are still with us, the Indians are still on the reservations, their fishing and hunting rights on land they ceded in treaties are still controversial.

At some point it is going to have to be left behind, like 20th century industry. Trump’s only justification for abducting Maduro was drug dealing. In a country with legal marijuana in half of it, legal alcohol and tobacco throughout it, if you are addicted to drugs, it is nobody’s fault but your own. You can’t sue the alcohol company because you are a drunk. We view this as a health problem, not a criminal one. Cocaine is illegal, it is an expensive luxury item only the bourgeois and middle classes can afford. Penalizing all Venezuelans for drug dealing does not lower demand for cocaine in America. If anything it will strengthen the cartels, who thrive on the lawless luxury trade.

Trump has made a decision to conquer Christianised Incas in their homelands. There is no separation from this and the presence of reservations in America. For those who live on the Res, this must come as no surprise. In 1492, Columbus discovered America. It’s been 533 years of repression of the native people he found in the Americas. This is part of Trump’s legacy, his hatred of Indians, much like the rural white settlers who still keep the Indians separate from their colonies, on reservations, where poverty is a scourge. Trump is no different, it’s been 533 long years, the song remains the same.

Nicholas Jay Boyes
Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

1 7 2026

Capitalism and Socialism. 12 17 2025

December 17, 2025January 9, 2026 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Capitalism and Socialism. 12 17 2025

There is a brewing conflict about whether or not to have capitalist assistance, in tandem with taking part in their governments. We have seen Boris Yeltsin basically completely removed worker owned property, leaving only Belarus with a socialist government. His handpicked successor Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000, has been a little better, but it was a form of capitalist assistance when he helped Alexander Lukashenko stay in power when capitalists were running in the streets trying to stop socialism.

Which directly goes to the issue of capitalist assistance. I guess it may have been a concession to keep Lukashenko in power? Putin would come to attack Ukraine, first from Belarus.

It was not as successful as Russian efforts in the Donbas have been, where Putin is winning against the American and western European bourgeoisie. The first invasion targeted the capital Kyiv, where Vladimir Zelensky fought and slowed the progress of Putin.

NATO and the Americans are capitalists, and they are already carving up Ukraine’s mineral wealth, claiming the spoils before the end is reached. Trump has claimed large mineral deposits in Ukraine.

It might be there? Apparently there are rare earth metals underground, and Trump wants the profits to pay for the war effort against Russia. Believe it or not, after 20 years of war in Afghanistan, in what was a loss for NATO and the Americans, Ukraine is becoming too costly,

Well when missiles valued at $10,000 a pop are being shot to stop missiles from entering the Ukraine by NATO, it’s not hard to see how even with American deep pockets, the war is not sustainable forever.

Trump has said Europe needs to spend more, shouldering most of the burden of fighting Russia. The long range ballistic missiles at Moscow are coming from Ukraine, who get them from NATO. Not only did NATO not reduce missile numbers after the Cold War ended, they are now shooting these drones and missiles at Moscow, albeit with limited success.

Have we really come full circle? There were pacifists who wanted to end the Iron Curtain, who supported rapprochement to stop nuclear weapons.

Well the long range missiles Ukraine is using are coming from America, Britain, Germany and France. Many of them were designed to use nuclear warheads.. Russia shoots most of them down; they have defenses for this. But how did we get to this point?

Trump has stopped short of calling it ”Biden’s war”, or the “Democrat war “. But it looks like Trump is ready to lose another war, like Afghanistan. Biden inherited that one; Kabul was failing badly under Trump, Biden saw the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Ukraine may be forced to give up about a quarter of their territory, or risk losing all of it to Putin’s Russia. It is difficult to see how one could call this some sort of victory for NATO.

But unfortunately one has to see that Putin represents Russian capitalists; he may not own much property, or the means of production in the form of stocks, bonds,. etc., but is insured wealth if he leaves power by the same bourgeoisie he spent his time supporting under Yeltsin.

He could help out socialism, but it probably requires a concession. For Lukashenko it was allowing for Russia’s army to use their territory to attack Ukraine. Zelensky has already asked for nuclear weapons from NATO, the latter seems to be saying no. A little too close to World War Three?

Cuba has been under embargo again under Biden and Trump. Obama has loosened the embargo, but Trump put up the curtain again. The Cubans do not cooperate with the bourgeoisie, short of allowing tourism from the Canadians. They are a heroic example of a small country pitted geographically against a capitalist empire.

Cooperating with capitalists seems to sort of work for China, where there is a Politburo. Xi Jinping is not a capitalist, but they are present in modern China. This may be a useful example of cooperation, but the issue of Taiwan, where the Chinese bourgeoisie fled to when Mao Tse Tung completed his Long March, says something else. Even Putin has joint exercises with planes and ships, under China in the Pacific near Taiwan. Reunification has yet to occur between Taiwan and China.

In the case of China it looks close to impossible not to cooperate with capitalists, who use China as a production center for massive industry. Capitalists feel this too, the inability to compromise with socialists. Trump has tariffs on Chinese goods 45%, after threats of 145%. Who is not getting along with socialists? Combine this with the embargo, you see both sides agree to disagree.

The difference is the proletariat is represented by socialists, and the workers under capitalism are often only differentiated by national boundaries, created for the purpose of keeping the working class divided. The capitalists are fighting to hold down the worker, to maintain wage labour.

When capitalists fight other capitalists, it is for control of markets. Lenin called this imperialism, this is the case. World War one was a conflict of this type, even though Russia had a successful workers revolution, the war was not about this. That comes later, in the second world war, with Hitler fighting Joseph Stalin.

In the last world war the Allied Powers got over their differences for a short time, resulting in cooperation with Russian socialism. It was short lived; within 6 years Harry Truman, who succeeded Franklin Roosevelt, was fighting in the now free Japanese colony Korea in 1951. The same man who dropped the bomb on Japanese capitalists cost the Chinese communists millions of men, in a conflict we are still reminded of 83 years later, the Korea’s are divided. He no longer seemed so cooperative.

Russia is winning the war, and it looks like NATO is retreating. How much cooperation there will be between Russia’s workers and capitalists when this is done with remains to be seen. Russia could return to a more worker friendly society, keeping Lenin’s vision of a proletarian society without capitalism possible. Or something like China, a revolution holding on even with capitalists again present. Or it could crush the last pockets of resistance of the workers, and betray Belarus and China. History will soon determine this.

Ukraine could be just a foretaste of what could come if NATO keeps trying to corner Russia. Expansion through ignorance of workers is the rule, rather than the exception. Condoning bourgeois rule by a worker shows he is probably ignorant, or selfish trying to make himself a fortune on the backs of his fellow workers, rather than cooperation and a vision of emancipation of wage labor..

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

12 17 2025

Overproduction. Destruction of Commodities in Glutted Market.

December 9, 2025January 9, 2026 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Well here we go again. The farmers are again being paid to dump the food, wasting millions of tonnes of Soybeans. Trump is paying 12 billion dollars of state money to large farmers, for food that will be destroyed.

The justification for this is that China only bought 2.7 million tonnes of soybeans this year, after promising 12 million, in a large purchase planned by Biden and his government. Trump has alienated China so badly, with 45% tariffs the current number, they didn’t buy the beans this year.

The last time Trump was president the farmers regularly received tens of billions of dollars, and the dumping of soybeans was also practiced in the pandemic.

It is a prime example of overproduction; the soybeans are useful, they are good quality. But due to social conditions, they cannot be sold, rather, the bourgeoisie is sort of paying for them to be dumped. Apparently flooding the market with cheap soybeans is also not possible.

They have about 2 weeks to purchase the beans, before they get dumped. It seems physically impossible to move the about 10 million metric tonnes to China they were expected to purchase. In an event of overproduction, inability to plan ahead for this calamity, the direct cause Trump’s tariffs, food otherwise consumable is all a loss.

We still to this day have famine, often in war torn countries. Gaza is hungry, but the beans are unsaleable. Clearly overproduction is a social problem, not a physical one. It is occurring due to the style of government; the capitalist one.

At this point it looks like the bourgeois will not even be buying the beans, rather just issuing checks to big farmers. Checks were issued last time based on acreage, the more acres, the more welfare.

“The highest per-acre payments will be paid to rice farmers, who could receive $132.89 an acre; cotton farmers, at $117.35 an acre; and oat farmers, at $81.75 an acre. Meanwhile, farmers are eligible for a payment of $44.36 per corn acre, $30.88 per soybean acre and $39.35 per wheat acre. The payments are calculated using 2025 planted acres, cost-of-production data, and market conditions, USDA said.”

Reuters 12 31 2025

This has yet to change. Small farmers will be selling their farms, when their crop is unsaleable due to overproduction. This will concentrate ownership of land further in the hands of the large landowners, who are all Republican bourgeoisie.

The 12 billion dollars comes from part of the surplus value sectioned off for taxes. It is created in the labour process; wage labor is what is paying for this 12 billion dollars. But to the capitalist this money is his property,as it was a deduction from his surplus value, gained through his control of the means of production, in this case the land.

It is a crisis of overproduction, due to a glutted market for soybeans. The only thing different this time is Trump is the cause of the crisis, as he had to tariff China massively, mostly to protect non metric industries like automobile production, which would have a tough time competing against Chinese EV’s. They cost half as much as a Detroit car, or a Muskmobile Tesla. They are not selling them to workers, they are luxury cars. Honda is selling a Chinese EV this year, the Prologue. I was at the Honda dealer recently and asked about Honda EV’s. I was told about the Prologue. I asked if it was Chinese produced. The answer from the dealer was yes.

The bourgeoisie should have remembered the last time, in Trump‘s first term, when tariffs started with solar panels (30%) and washing machines (20%), then expanded under Section 301 to hit steel, aluminum, and eventually a broad range of Chinese products with 25% tariffs. That time they bought the soybeans elsewhere too. The beans were probably dumped the first time Trump pulled a stunt like tariffing China. The farm subsidies of tens of billions also got flowing under Trump in his first term.

It should be obvious there is no gain for the worker here. It is not like Trump is even paying for land, as in a purchase, nationalization of land with a price tag. Instead the 12 billion dollars will go to mostly large landowners, who will use it to pay wages, cementing their control over the labor process on land itself. He just doles it out, and it is the large landowners who pull Trump’s puppet strings.

Not even a year into Trump’s presidency there is already an economic crisis, this time a glutted market for soybeans resulting in millions of tonnes of food being destroyed. Overproduction occurred, and now big pockets are required to keep the landowners happy. They all know Trump represents the gravy train, and regardless of how bad decisions regarding economics go, they are insured through him if their crops fail. They even went along with the tariffs, at least until Chinese tariffs in line with Trump’s made American soybeans unsaleable. Will they keep supporting him if it means economic failure for their crop?

How many more failed years of crops will there be until there is nationalized land? Clearly the USDA planning is not working. It failed in Trump’s first term, when he pulled the same thing, big tariffs on China, resulting in counter tariffs, and overproduction. A more rational planning process, especially regarding the effects of large tariffs on markets, was required. Instead we have failure, another lost year, with Trump to blame for the fiasco.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

12 9 2025

edit 1 9 2025

Divide Between Town and Country. Large Landowners and Unions. 11 28 2025

November 28, 2025November 29, 2025 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Divide Between Town and Country. Large Landowners and Unions. 11 28 2025

Much like eastern Europe, America is in a period of reaction. The bourgeoisie has leveraged the rural people, some of whom are workers in large scale agriculture, to people who believe they are small businessmen growing on farms as capitalists.

The latter group, not exactly small farmers but also not large scale agriculture, are sort of becoming a petty bourgeoisie, who sell their products as commodities to the merchants. They may have a few hands, but often are still labouring.

These people supported Trump. In so doing, they also supported the large scale production of food, even though they have seen many of their counterparts lose their farms, only to have their lands subsumed by large landowners.

They feel it is not simply the large scale agriculture bourgeois who have spared them, probably due to their political bent, that has given them prosperity, and allowed them to keep farming. Although they are clearly the chosen ones, they feel it has been their good business sense that has kept the farm. This is why they support Trump, even though economically they are on shaky ground; a few bad harvests and that’s it, bankruptcy follows.

Harnessing this form of ignorance is common throughout capitalist society. It is rare for one to acknowledge his posh lifestyle simply came through a process of vetting, undertaken by the upper class into their ranks. Rather ignorance most often restricts the knowledge of this from the petty bourgeoisie.

The view of Trump having made himself rich as a businessman; a sort of man who became rich with his own money and business sense, is fiction. Trump was born into money, his dad was a real estate tycoon from New York, who helped his son get into casinos at a young age, like Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. He built a small empire after his dad died in luxury properties, he did not trade commodities, rather traded the profit from capitalist industry, the money kept as surplus value by capitalists for their own personal enjoyment, rather than a product like an auto part, sold as a commodity. Trump has been chosen to represent his class, as he has always been,from his start as a casino owner to his presidency. It is doubtful he would be intelligent enough to be pulling some sort of scam, supporting the proletariat from his position as president.

He has no experience as a commodity producing capitalist, yet the farmers liked him, and although he was not elected in 2016, appointed rather in 2017 after losing the popular vote; then, following his loss in suffrage in 2020, questioned the validity of American elections by having a group of ruffians , ex military and police, storm the capital on January 6th 2020.

It seemed like he was gone then, but by leveraging the ignorant by the bourgeoisie, just like in Russia and Eastern Europe, where employee ownership ended due to ignorance of what capitalism really represented, Trump came back. American antisocialist laws are present here, with political prisons for Jews, communists, etc. which echo the rise of Hitler. Trump regularly calls his opponents lunatics, sick individuals, etc. like Hitler and his SS in the thirties.

The large landowners are represented in government by the constitution, that keeps them at the table so to speak with large capitalist industry. There was a time agriculture was all the land was used for under the British, when America was a colony. The planters who rebelled understood that industry would follow revolution, that the north in particular would build heavy industry, eventually challenging the South where the slave plantations were.

This was rectified by having the upper house of Congress have 2 seats for each state. It keeps large scale agriculture in power; the areas with less population, or a rural population of a sort of reserve army of workers., like the city is present. It’s like the poor whites during the Civil war supporting the landowners; they were no help to them, but they supported the slaveowners who used them for an army to fight the north, where slavery was not present, as in Wisconsin, or minimally present, like Lincoln’s state of Illinois.

The phenomenon of support for landowners, not the family farm, rather the more industrial form of agriculture, heavily mechanised petroleum dependent large scale agriculture, is what Trump harnessed. Without unions, large agriculture’s labour is low paid, often m Mexican immigrants many of whom are in the country illegally. There is little or no movement to nationalise the land, rather a distant belief in a capitalist who will buck the system, and support the little guy.

You don’t get rich supporting the little guy. Trump is a billionaire, he represents capital, he is the living embodiment of capital, it is his hand that creates the surplus value.

Perhaps it is the idea a person can go to the casino, and walk out a millionaire. You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning at Trump’s casino. It is the roughest place in town, where if you don;t spend enough you get kicked out. If you went there hungry you would get bounced for asking for food. It’s a dog eat dog reality.

In the cities it is a little harder for capitalists. Libraries, museums, theaters, etc. are part of urban society, and the proletariat is thus a little harder to fool. There is less ignorance in the city, rural society has none of these advantages. Collectively large scale industry comprises much of the activity in the city, with buzzing ports, retail capital workers, large commodity producing recycling operations. It is a stark difference to rural America, reflecting a massive divide between town and county.

Rectifying this divide will take time. Nationalising the land will follow, as large landowners have to increasingly reckon with a union of farmers at the site of harvest and in the fields. The cooperative markets will be where the money comes from, and outreach for the small and large cooperatives that will replace the capitalist landowner will come from here.

The state will not be buying the land for the cooperative. The workers may have to use the money created in production to buy additional land, or nationalizing the land if the landowners refuse to cooperate with their workers.

This will not be easy, but will start to rectify the huge gap between town and country. Getting used to being in a union at work on the farm, much like his proletarian cousin in the city, will follow.

The system is geared against them. There will be losses, but also victories. As recognition of membership in the class of labourers comes, that they do not own the stocks in the means of production, collectively the poor rural man will support more radical leadership. He is up against the constitution, this may take time. But don’t give up on the countryman, instead remove the ignorance.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

11 28 2025

Trump Raises Tariffs on Northern Neighbor Again. 10 25 2025

October 25, 2025January 6, 2026 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Donald Trump has raised tariffs on Canada again, a whole 10%. He also suspended communication with Mark Carney, deciding to skip a meeting planned with him. This was due to Doug Ford, Ontario premier, who ran this advertisement during the ballgame:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/reagan-1987-address-was-defence-free-fair-trade-2025-10-24/

It is rather humorous, a full throated rejection of the very thing Trump has made himself famous the world over for, taxes on imports, tariffs. In Reagan’s own words we see a leader who was a free trader, who predicted a crisis would occur if tariffs were used in dealing with a close trading partner, in this case, Japan.

It is unknown if he went ahead with tariffs. But given his feelings about it, it looks unlikely. As Reagan noted in the speech, tariffs take center stage. (see above),

“ What eventually occurs, first, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs, they stop competing, and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all of this is going on, something worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs, and subsidised inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, business and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. The memories of this occurring back in the 30’s made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.”

Ronald Reagan, ex president, at camp davis april 25, 1987 (see above)

A recording of what Reuters has called pieces of this thread was played in a 30 second advertisement during the ballgame in Canada, resulting in a 10 percent additional tariff on Canadian goods. Some Canadian commodities will be spared if they are in a free trade agreement.

Canada already got it by 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, this brings the tax to 60%.

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

““The advertisement aired Friday during the broadcast for Game 1 of Major League Baseball’s World Series, in which the Toronto Blue Jays are facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD,” Trump posted.

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” he wrote.”

Reuters 10 25 2025

https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-announces-10-increase-tariffs-canada-2025-10-25/

Trump’s neighbors all love him. Cuba, back under embargo Trump restored in his first presidency, are no doubt Trump supporters. America’s nearest neighbor in the north, Canada, was also propositioned by Trump to be a “51st state”; they now face Trump’s ire as they are sovereign. Mexico now is expected to call the gulf there the “Gulf of America”, instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the west was once called Mexico, until 1846 when it was occupied by the American army. Is it a land claim?

His own party is divided; but there are still free traders in the bourgeoisie, although they seem to be remaining quiet. This advert risks awakening them, resulting in Trump’s latest taxes on imports.

Trump is also placing large tariffs on Russian oil, in an attempt to fight the war there against Ukraine. He is supplying satellite communication with Starlink to Zelinsky’s army there; they use it to target Russian oil production with American guided missiles.

About 4 million people nationwide came together to denounce Trump on the 18th of October, 2025. It was the second “No Kings” demonstration; it took place in many cities, as well as New York, Chicago and LA. There was no violence, they shut down downtown for hours.

It is this type of activity and the response to it that could determine what Trump is thought of. Canada has yet to retaliate, but when it comes Carney will be tested. Retaliatory tariffs seem to be all that Trump understands.

But if enough people would show up for the demonstrations, Trump could be brought under control. Right now the bourgeoisie won their first elections for president after 20 years, they also took Congress. As usual, they are having a revolution.

But 4 million showed how many really feel about the protectionist bourgeois, who know non metric industry only sells in America. Huge tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles is keeping GM, Ford and Stellantis alive. The tariffs allow for American exports to be priced higher than they would be sold without tariffs. Detroit has yet to go metric, Trump has gone as far as suggesting gasoline should not be abandoned as climate change is a farce.

An isolationist America, with protectionist economic structures to prop up non metric industries, which have yet to even publicly announce an attempt to go metric, in Detroit and DC.. An electric vehicle is out of reach for most, yet in China EV’s cost about $20,.000 US. Thank you Donald for placing fetters on the means of production, keeping America non metric for another 4 years.

The solar panels for the roof fall the same way, it is too expensive due to tariffs to invest in them, as they are also made in China.

It makes you wonder if someday Trumpers will build a wall at the Northern border. Like the Mexico one, only also to keep American workers from defecting. Detroit is basically there already. Will Don “Build That Wall”?

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

10 25 2025

edit 1 6 2026

Potential of a New Front in the South. Venezuela and Capitalist Military Power. 10 16 2025

October 16, 2025October 16, 2025 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Potential of a New Front in the South. Venezuela and Capitalist Military Power. 10 16 2025

So far it doesn’t look too sophisticated, but there have been several small boats bombed in the Caribbean, suspected of containing the often lethal forms of luxury items. The boats so far, at least what was filmed, look like small wooden boats with 2 outboard motors attached to them. It is hard to believe one could smuggle much through it, and we are left to ponder how far they could go with a full tank of gas.

The logic behind this is Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela is behind the trafficking of the illegal luxury items. The cocaine is grown down there, and Maduro is suspected to be sending it as it is only affordable by the bourgeoisie, the latter’s luxury consumption well known.

First there was Hugo Chavez, the oil rich socialist, who was first elected in 1998, and took power in 1999. There was an attempted coup d’etat lasting 47 hours in 2002, but Chzvez was returned to power.

After this Chavez was elected twice, as a socialist, until he became ill with cancer and died March 5th 2013. It was at this point power went to Maduro, leading to another coup attempt by Juan Guaido, which was also rebuffed.

Maduro has been ruling ever since, in what could be considered favorable conditions for a developing world form of socialism. The opposition has long since given up on universal suffrage for their concerns, dividing instead to do political obstructionist tactics like election boycotts.

It looks weak. But the Nobel Peace Prize was just given to the bourgeois leader who hopes to topple Maduro.

Here comes Trump to threaten the developing world leader with modern technology. Unable to sell their oil due to the embargo, Venezuela is poor. Cuba is in a similar condition. In Cuba blackouts due to reliance on fossil fuels is common; Cuba has yet to be able to tap into China as a source for industry like wind turbines and solar panels.

There have so far been several boat bombings, but given the fact they seem to be down there looking for illegal smuggling, it must not be too common or they would have found more than a few small boats with outboard motors leaving Venezuela. Columbia has complained some of its boats were bombed, in violation of their sovereignty. Apparently they are targeting both countries with aerial bombardment.

The luxury industry is well known for its corrupt tastes, and fuels a small empire in Mexico. It is a bloody business, with assassinations, kidnappings, etc, practiced all to get the bourgeoisie their products. The items are worth a hundred dollars a gram, it is a rich man’s game.

The proletarian luxury item has been becoming legal in many places. The memories of the “war on drugs” scar a generation, when pot smoking was taboo. With Trump in power it looks unlikely pot will be legalized any more than it has been, legal in the big city, illegal in the country.

So what it seems to come down to is the war against Russia is not going so well. Russian antiaircraft drones and missiles are defeating NATO, aircraft are not even flying above the front lines in Ukraine. They are so desperate to win they are now talking about sending long range ballistic nuclear weapon carriers to Ukraine, whose leader has already asked for nuclear weapons. The assumption is the nuclear warheads that can fit on the Tomahawk missiles will not be sent. The presence of a satellite system in use, Elon Musk’s project, ensures Moscow can be targeted with the long range ballistic missiles.

At this point, after the embarrassing loss in Afghanistan to a small guerilla force without even aircraft, if the hundred million dollar price tag for aircraft is still going to be paid is in question. Without a less developed opponent, like Gaza, American weapons are increasingly outdated.

In the developing world it is still difficult to down aircraft. It requires modern technology., which is lacking in Venezuela. They are vulnerable to aircraft, and in a conflict this could be decisive. The only question now is if Trump will really do it, and invade Venezuela with aircraft and bombings.

For a long time the Americans basically claimed all of Americas as their territory. They tried to claim Cuba in the Bay of Pigs disaster, a loss for Kennedy. Nicaragua is another example of socialists in conflict in the Americas. Chile under Salvador Allende resulted in a coup, with bourgeois assistance.

Making America Great Again includes a Department of War, and a Gulf of America. It also includes mass deportations of Mexicans, who are returning to their own conquered territory in Southwest, often encountering the Customs Border Guards only to be deported. Venezuela has been sending two flights a week of its citizens who entered illegally since Trump was elected.

One has to wonder if a show of force with the outdated weapons is in order. Venezuela has oil under it, and the pipeline politicians want to drill. The show of force continues in the developing world. Without an aircraft’s ability to fly over Venezuela and bomb targets it would seem to be not such a good choice to harass the socialists. But the bourgeoisie has a technological advantage, and Russia cannot intervene. Perhaps this is merely a distraction from the real battles in Europe. Something to distract from the obvious inability of NATO and America to be able to stop Putin. Or it may simply just be the old guard reasserting itself, to “make America great again”.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

10 16 2025

Nationalization of the Land 9 29 2025

September 29, 2025 ~ nicholasjayboyes

Nationalization of the Land 9 29 2025

“The property in the soil is the original source of all wealth, and has become the great problem upon the solution of which depends the future of the working class.”

“I do not intend discussing here all the arguments put forward by the advocates of private property in land, by jurists, philosophers and political economists, but shall confine myself firstly to state that they have tried hard to disguise the primitive fact of conquest under the cloak of “Natural Right”. If conquest constituted a natural right on the part of the few, the many have only to gather sufficient strength in order to acquire the natural right of reconquering what has been taken from them.”

Karl Marx Nationalization of the Land

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/04/nationalisation-land.htm

It is a sorry fact that the small farmer is rarely in control of most of the farming that is occurring on the land. Large corporations have replaced the family farm, just as they did the grocery store, gas station, etc.

It is beyond returning control to small farmers; rather the struggle becomes one of unions, cooperatives, and nationalization. Returning to small scale farming, where the small farmer was his own capitalist, would only revert again to large scale farming, after a few generations as farmers would sell their lands, and ownership would become concentrated in the hands of a few large farmers again.

This does not mean cultivating the land on one’s own, purely for use value, would stop. It just means labour on the farm would be more like working in a factory, with a union, and the right to strike. Land will be owned by farmers, but they will be free to cultivate ecology or gardens for themselves on their own land, as a family unit. The man or woman will work for a collective farm, or both, and if they want to own some land it will be available to them, just not for capitalist purposes.

Labor on the large farms is already industrial. Unloading the trucks, sorting the vegetables for defects, etc. is all industrial labor. Even tilling the soil becomes an industrial activity of driving the tractor.

The current model of capitalist farming is destroying our ecology, with pesticides, genetically modified crops, patented seeds from Monsanto,etc. becoming a perfect example of the plunder of land exacted by the bourgeoisie.

There may have been a golden time when farming was not done by large farmers, when they were a petty bourgeoisie, but now they are heavily weighted towards the big bourgeoisie, Donald Trump’s supporters.

The latter is connected with removal of the farms from the small farmer, through patented seeds and subsidies to large farms based on the number of acres farmed.

“If cultivation on a large scale proves (even under its present capitalist form, that degrades the cultivator himself to a mere beast of burden) so superior, from an economical point of view, to small and piecemeal husbandry, would it not give an increased impulse to production if applied on national dimensions?”

“The ever-growing wants of the people on the one side, the ever-increasing price of agricultural produce on the other, afford the irrefutable evidence that the nationalisation of land has become a social necessity.”

Kar Marx ibid.

The farm worker harvesting today is overworked, using machinery from dawn to dusk, for a few months out of the year. Often this labor is done by migrants from Mexico, sometimes the only workers who can work long hours with little pay. Sometimes they are illegally working, constantly in fear of deportation.

Capitalists obviously have concluded large scale farming is the answer. As Marx points out, would it not be superior for the nation if the benefits of large scale farming was for all?

The plunder of the soil for capitalist agriculture, and the exploitation of the laborer, could be better addressed with employee ownership of large farms, and nationalization of the land.

“France was frequently alluded to, but with its peasant proprietorship it is farther off the nationalisation of land than England with its landlordism. In France, it is true, the soil is accessible to all who can buy it, but this very facility has brought about a division into small plots cultivated by men with small means and mainly relying upon the land by exertions of themselves and their families. This form of landed property and the piecemeal cultivation it necessitates, while excluding all appliances of modern agricultural improvements, converts the tiller himself into the most decided enemy to social progress and, above all, the nationalisation of land. Enchained to the soil upon which he has to spend all his vital energies in order to get a relatively small return, having to give away the greater part of his produce to the state, in the form of taxes, to the law tribe in the form of judiciary costs, and to the usurer in the form of interest, utterly ignorant of the social movements outside his petty field of employment; still he clings with fanatic fondness to his bit of land and his merely nominal proprietorship in the same. In this way the French peasant has been thrown into a most fatal antagonism to the industrial working class. “

Karl Marx iibid.

A similar phenomenon is the support from the petty bourgeois farmers of the reactionary bourgeoisie of Donald Trump. It’s gotten to the point if you are rural and farming, you are expected to support Trump. The residents of the small towns also like Trump, even though they own little land, and work for large scale agriculture.

It has destroyed the very thing we put our hopes in, the ability of the worker own land. Instead he is landless, or trying to be a small businessman with his land, attempting to obtain as much land as possible, and remain competitive.

“Peasant proprietorship being then the greatest obstacle to the nationalisation of land, France, in its present state, is certainly not the place where we must look to for a solution of this great problem.”

“To nationalise the land, in order to let it out in small plots to individuals or working men’s societies, would, under a middle-class government, only engender a reckless competition among themselves and thus result in a progressive increase of “Rent” which, in its turn, would afford new facilities to the appropriators of feeding upon the producers.”

“At the International Congress of Brussels, in 1868, one of our friends [César De Paepe, in his report on land property: meeting of the Brussels Congress of the International Working Men’s Association of Sept. 11 1868] said:”

“”Small private property in land is doomed by the verdict of science, large land property by that of justice. There remains then but one alternative. The soil must become the property of rural associations or the property of the whole nation. The future will decide that question.””

“I say on the contrary; the social movement will lead to this decision that the land can but be owned by the nation itself. To give up the soil to the hands of associated rural labourers, would be to surrender society to one exclusive class of producers.”

Karl Marx

Iibid

Nationalization of the land would give the cities a larger say over what and how land is farmed. The large scale agricultural producers now have a lock on the city with Trump. It has become a matter of guaranteeing the supply of food to the city for affordable prices, which could be an issue if the farmers boycotted the cities their leader keeps calling shitholes to live in. Then the nation would be forced to exert a say over the land.

It has yet to come to this, but the decision was already evident in 1872 when this was written. Things are even further along now, and even attempting to buy land for individual farming is something that just no longer happens. Jobs in agriculture almost always come from large scale farm farming; at most there is a distant view of a small capitalist farmer making his way up to be a big farmer.

But once there he remembers not his peasant roots, and supports Trump. His help is wage labour, his motive profit.

“The nationalisation of land will work a complete change in the relations between labour and capital, and finally, do away with the capitalist form of production, whether industrial or rural. Then class distinctions and privileges will disappear together with the economical basis upon which they rest. To live on other people’s labour will become a thing of the past. There will be no longer any government or state power, distinct from society itself! Agriculture, mining, manufacture, in one word, all branches of production, will gradually be organised in the most adequate manner. National centralisation of the means of production will become the national basis of a society composed of associations of free and equal producers, carrying on the social business on a common and rational plan. Such is the humanitarian goal to which the great economic movement of the 19th century is tending.”

Karl Marx conclusion, ibid.

All one can say is society is still moving in this direction, but has yet to remove the large farms, and the urban bourgeoisie, who work in tandem. There has yet to be a firm break from this , indicating it will not be imperceivable when it happens. Rather it will be abrupt, a real change felt by all. At which point “the expropriators will be expropriated” in Marx’s words.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

9 29 2025

Financial Capital. A Speculative Bubble.

September 13, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ nicholasjayboyes

At the start of what is looking like what could be a crisis, the question is if the financial bubble will burst. The speculation on financial capital is reaching a fevered pitch, with investment in money capital feeding a market that is now further and further away from industrial capital, and is producing a mountain of financial services, hedge funds, money markets, etc.

The bourgeois are in bonds heavily too, speculating on the ability of the state to be able to pay off its debts, with the interest paid for by taxes.

The purpose of circulation capital, merchants capital, is to make the turnover of capital occur more smoothly. Credit and the large banks are also connected with this, they use the stored money to do banking operations that include loaning out money to capitalists to smooth the exchange of commodities.

But beyond this lies the world of joint stock companies, which are simply companies with several owners. The stock is a title to ownership of the company, and the companies control capital.

But is all this buying and selling of stocks really a movement of industrial capital?

To some degree yes. But it is invested in by money market funds, and other financial services that draw interest from industrial capital. They are a cost of production, and we should always remember the value of a commodity is the amount of labour contained in it, whether or not it is paid for. David Ricardo showed us this in his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Clearly circulating capital does not miraculously create value; the exchange of commodities does not create surplus value, what Ricardo called profit (surplus value). The surplus value is the unpaid section of the workday, based on the amount of labour required to produce a commodity. Profit is calculated on the whole capital expenditure, including the means of production and raw materials.

All this speculation and corresponding financial capital has formed a bubble, and in the end, if it breaks, industrial capital will be all that remains. And if you are a country that has leveraged other countries resources, with money from the home country, importing much more than exporting, financial capital becomes increasingly more important.

The question becomes how much financial capital has accumulated, and what happens when there is overproduction, and crisis occurs. At this point large amounts of capital are destroyed, we saw this as the markets were crashing of late. The money is just wiped off, the financial capital rendered useless paper.

Perhaps this is due to the fact the bank does not produce commodities, rather it is connected with merchant capital, circulating capital. It also makes the process of production turn over more quickly by means of credit, making turnover more smoothly than if the industrial capitalist had to be the one who had to sell his own commodity.

The banks also invest financial capital in industry, in the 20th century they were quickly becoming ever more powerful. The ability to gain seats in joint stock companies led to the monopoly conditions, led by JP Morgan, who controlled US Steel, most of the eastern railways, General Motors, etc. Financial capital was connected with this, he used credit to buy companies, which he obtained through the bank.

But the question remains how much is financial capital used to simply turnover commodities? The stock market is still called the ‘“Stock Exchange”, implying something tangible is being exchanged.

“What does a mercantile exchange do?

“The Merc trades several types of financial instruments: interest rates, equities, currencies, and commodities.

Google search mercantile exchange

“Equities, also known as stocks, represent an ownership stake in a company, giving investors a claim on the company’s assets and earnings. Investors purchase equities to gain potential returns through capital appreciation (an increase in share price) and dividends. The value of equities fluctuates based on market demand, company performance, and economic conditions, making them a popular but inherently risky investment.”

Google search equities

Equities seem to now equal stocks., as the jargon in capitalism changes sometimes; Milton Keynes would have been proud of this one. People buy stocks “to gain potential returns through capital appreciation (an increase in share price) and dividends.”

“Capital appreciation is the increase in an investment’s market value over time, leading to a higher price than its original purchase price. This growth occurs due to factors like increased demand, better asset performance, or favorable market conditions. Investors seek capital appreciation for passive growth, while the actual profit realized from selling an asset is known as a capital gain.”

Google search capital appreciation

So now we know profit results from selling an asset, which is an active relationship of the owner of stocks to his glorified hoard.

“Passive growth” refers to growth achieved without continuous, active effort, appearing in several contexts including investment strategies where wealth accumulates over time with minimal management)….

Google search passive growth

And naturally investors in stocks want to think or do as little as possible, and still be able to wring the surplus value out of the workers, whose labour represent the profit..

” increased demand, better asset performance, or favorable market conditions” as reasons for the exploitation of the proletariat is not clear. There are conditions which make it easier or harder for the bourgeois to reap the profits from is ownership of means of production, referred here to as assets. Sort of a more technical term for the accumulation of capital in stock, obtained upon selling, “capital gain”.

google’s explanations are always witty. I don’t know who writes them. It would not seem to be a task to just let a computer so to say wax philosophically ab.out

The bubble occurs when financial capital is divorced from reality, when circulating capital starts to cease to function,

But it is definitely better to be a producer of commodities than a financial capitalist speculating on the price of commodities when the crisis comes. I think that should be obvious, the bubble may break, and the speculation on financial capital becomes more risky. The next stage will be in production, when the companies who all rely on China for cheap raw materials and machinery have to pay double for them (Trump’s now on now off again tariffs in 2025). . The financial capital may cushion the blow, but when the merchant cannot pay the bill at the port, his creditors will be the first to react. The spectacle of yards in port, parked, waiting for a consumer, and conversely a working class suffering layoffs and loss of employment, the result of the speculative bubble breaking.

And there are the exports to China, now tariffed 138% by them to enter, now not tariffed, etc. . America produces commodities China uses, they may have a huge deficit in overall trade, but they still rely on products from America. Overproduction will likely occur here too, unless new markets are found for finished commodities. As far as commodities produced in both countries jointly, the tariff would be a real impediment to production.

The speculation on financial capital has created a bubble. Overproduction is looking likely, we will probably again see the state in its role to bail out the failing companies and agriculture. We see this taking effect in regard to the threat by Trump to lower the price of money to banks to near nothing. A large subsidy to capitalist industry. It is also a clever way to use the states money, the segment of surplus value separated off and called taxes, by alternately pulling the taxes out of the surplus value, then returning them to capitalists who are having trouble making a profit. The only question is, is it using the state money to make a profit? The bourgeois has a fetish about state assets capable of making a profit, they are sold off, often at bargain basement prices, to any capitalist who wants to take the risk of running them. I fit is the state making money here, it is quite clever. But it is also not capitalism.

Generally it is agriculture that is subsidized and bailed out; the milk wasted and dumped as it cannot be sold at $2.19 a gallon. The government paying farmers to dump the milk. At the same time the soup kitchens with long lines, often outdoors in winter.

This is a recurring feature of capitalism. It may be here again, crisis. If it is, it was sparked by Donald Trump’s protectionism. The taxes on imports could cause overproduction, social overproduction, at home and abroad. He backed off this time, but it could be enough to cause confidence investors had in dealing with Americans to be depleted; how can they be trusted? It is a crisis at least partially of their own making.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

edit 9 13 2025

Interest Rates. Central Bank. Taxes and Fraud.

September 7, 2025September 20, 2025 ~ nicholasjayboyes

What looked an awful lot like Donald Trump wishing he could make the stock market numbers rise by tampering with the central bank, lowering the cost of money to a percentage or less, we receive the employment data from the government.

Google points out: “in August 2025, U.S. employment growth slowed significantly, with nonfarm payrolls adding only 22,000 jobs.”

Employment data july 2025