Capitalism and the War Machine.  Technological Evolution of Warfare to Capitalism. 7 17 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Capitalism and the War Machine.  Technological Evolution of Warfare to Capitalism. 7 17 2026

If we look at the evolution of modern capitalist warfare, drone technology and missiles capable of shooting down missiles have totally changed society.  The one way drone aircraft, primarily developed by Iran, based on a design of a more sophisticated two way drone brought down a little more than a decade ago, has been used in Ukraine, where the most high tech weapons are being used in a fight between Russia and America’s proxies.

It has gotten to the point Germany has decided not to cooperate on a new generation of fighter jet aircraft with France.  They have not publicly cited a reason for this, but what should be obvious is jets are getting shot down by Russia.  They can hardly even fire a missile at Russia without it being shot down, no less a manned aircraft.

It is so impossible to use fighter jets there that drones are the main means of warfare, that is in the trenches.  But the camera on the drone, combined with satellite tracking systems, primarily the one built by Elon Musk, the star link internet connections, have proved, in combination with long range ballistic missiles fired by Ukraine, to hit targets in Russia often a thousand kilometers or more from  Russia’s borders to Kiev.  

But without Starlink, Ukraine has little hope of defeating Russia. The drones are totally reliant on it.   The missiles too are part of the machine.

It is remarkable though to see the failure of jet aircraft, which Russia also owns, to be of any help in a front line condition where any movement of individuals or small groups face drone attacks by both parties.

The Patriot missiles proved effective in stopping missiles fired at Kiev, but at a cost of a million dollars a missile has left Kiev unable to stop Russian missiles.  But the presence of these systems have made airplanes a failure in this new form of warfare. Ukraine now wants to produce their own, but Germany gave up on it as it was too costly and difficult to produce without American engineering. 

The peace movement was focused on American and the Soviet Union learning to live with each other.  Groups like Greenpeace showed ecological cooperation was required, but what did the bourgeoisie do?  Remove the socialists from power, now violently in Ukraine.   They can’t even get along with Vladimir Putin, a capitalist oligarch himself. Apparently he is too far left for the reactionary bourgeoisie in Germany. 

Donald Trump has had success with aircraft technology in the developing world, in Venezuela for instance. The coup de tet has given  America a new colony there. 

After Trump’s success in Venezuela  he felt he could handle Iran. But even in Iran the aircraft keep getting destroyed.  They have lost 50 or more, some in flight, others parked on the ground.  Given its close proximity to what was the Iron Curtain,  they have missile defenses.  They also have missile and drone technology capable of stopping Chevron and ExxonMobil from mining oil and shipping it in the region.

If anything Iran should prove that even with a sophisticated air bombing campaign, air power will not dislodge Iran’s leadership from power.  If anything it empowered them to fight  back, with missiles and drones.  

But what has really been strange is how easy it was to shut off the strait of Hormuz, where massive amounts of oil were flowing from Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.  It is shut again, Iran controls it.  The shipping companies cannot insure the ships,  it costs a lot of money to use ships in war zones, the companies usually avoid bad areas with ships worth tens of millions of dollars. 

Iran is limited though as they have not found a way to attack the nuclear powered aircraft carriers with drones.  Without a sophisticated Navy they have yet to sink a big ship.  But the aircraft get hit sometimes now that  the war has been going on, and large ships and drone technology seem to be on a collision course.  Ukraine is using missiles to destroy Russian grain shipments, it is proving to be easy to target large vessels, which could face the fate of war aircraft, if Iran can build the missiles to do it.

The Saudis are shipping oil through the Red Sea, but Iran’s friends the Houthi rebels are even making this harder, contesting control of the Red sea by the Saudis.  What drone warfare has shown is just how vulnerable petroleum production is to small explosives on drones.

Iran knew this, and was prepared to hit petroleum production in their region, striking Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain ,with missiles, crippling their now privately owned oil shipping and production.  They are cutting off access by the bourgeoisie to conquered territory in Iraq, where money was being made for the  home country after several wars that removed nationalized oil. But without stable shipping; with ground transport of Iraq’s oil basically impossible, oil must move through the strait of Hormuz. 

Thus the embargo on Iran’s ports by America, in a conflict that looked solved until Trump and Iran again started fighting.  One thing should be clear, America’s nuclear weapons have been of no assistance in Iran.  This should teach the Iranians that nuclear weapons are a crutch not an asset.  And reject building nuclear weapons.

Even with little or no drones or aircraft of any kind Afghanistan removed the American bourgeoisie.  It took 20 years, but America was conquered there.  No nuclear weapons were used, they were of no help. 

The only option is to stop producing jet fighter aircraft.  They are only effective in the developing world, where the primitive conditions do not include antimissile defenses.  Trump is living in a fantasy world if he thinks by air bombing Iran they are going to give in.  They are shooting down the F35’s, we saw the pictures at the beginning of the war there, the crashing down airplanes.  Short of a ground invasion, in a large new Middle Eastern war, Trump looks destined for failure in Iran.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

7 17 2026

Presence of Democratic Socialists in Liberal Progressive Party 7 8 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Presence of Democratic Socialists in Liberal Progressive Party 7 8 2026

Given the move to start another red scare by Donald Trump, it is time to attempt to rectify the situation.  There have been several positions in Congress, and local mayors, in the east, that have been won by people suggesting they are democratic socialists.  The Republican bourgeoisie is calling it communism, and  due to the big money required by the liberal progressive bourgeoisie to compete in suffrage, there has yet to  be a serious rebuttal.

“Democratic socialist Melat Kiros won the June 2026 primary election for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, defeating 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette. As the Democratic nominee in the solidly blue Denver area, she is heavily favored to win the general election and become the ⁠first Gen Z woman in Congress”.

“Additionally, a slate of ⁠Democratic Socialists of America- endorsed progressive challengers also won their June 2026 primaries in ⁠New York, securing strong positions for the upcoming midterms

Google search democratic socialists elected to congress in 26

“Two prominent democratic socialists won the June 23, 2026 Democratic primaries in heavily blue districts, effectively assuring their election to the U.S. Congress in November:

  • Claire Valdez: A labor organizer and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member who won the primary for ⁠New York’s 7th Congressional District.
  • Darializa Avila Chevalier: A community organizer and DSA member who defeated an incumbent in ⁠New York’s 13th Congressional District. 

The democratic socialists who won the election were in majority Democratic Party areas, places mostly urban that overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.  The reason this is important is there is some overlap between the democratic socialists and Democratic Party.  We saw this when Bernie Sanders ran for president as a Democrat, and was defeated by Democrats connected to and following Joe Biden.

Sanders was defeated by the Democrats themselves, although he had some momentum, it quickly became clear in 2020 the Democrats were not going to be ruled by a socialist.  They closed ranks on Sanders, and he lost in suffrage,

Consequently we were given Joe Biden, who was able to command a majority.  His age then was 77 years old in 2020.  His opponent was 74; clearly it was the old guard represented by Donald Trump that Biden defeated.

Biden’s rule was not socialism.  Nothing was nationalized,  in particular the land  remained in the hands of mostly large landowners, with corporations often owning the land outright, or smaller farmers trying to eke out an existence and somehow compete with the multi million dollar large machinery used to produce on the big farms.

When it comes down to it, if a farmer is still on the land in 2026, he is there by the graces of big capitalists.  Small farmers are easily removed by large capitalists.  The only way to stay on the land is to toe the line, become a businessman,  a petty bourgeois capitalist, supporting Donald Trump.   Those who fail to do this are mercilessly removed from the land, and join the ranks of the urban proletariat.

Nationalizing the land is a tall order, as these democratic socialists are all urban.  Even our Colorado Democratic Party socialist’s district who in the primary (there is still a possibility the Republicans could defeat these new candidates, but this would be highly unusual, and improbable given the demographics) , won in downtown Denver.  

Clearly socialism and communism are primarily urban phenomena.  These terms rather directly refer to questioning the ownership of the means of production by capitalists, rejection of production for an ever greater quantity of surplus value.  I’m referring to the part of the day that is worked for no pay by the worker in the factory, or for large landowners; we call this surplus value.  Profit is essentially this, although surplus value more directly refers to the amount of hours worked without pay as labour, whereas profit includes the cost of the means of production and raw materials used up in production, calculated with the  surplus value.

Profit is harder to comprehend, as it includes the means of production, which can be very large, resulting in multimillion dollar machines often run by an individual ,or a small group of workers. Compared to the price of the means of production, labor costs seem to be small. But when we look at surplus value produced by an individual worker, it is considerable.  

At a lower level of industrial development profit can be larger, as machinery is worked by more workers, rather than large scale industry, where there are few workers and massive machines.  It is misleading because the machinery is included in the cost of production.  Clearly as productivity rises, surplus value rises as a rate, whereas the rate of profit falls.

Therefore we generally use the term surplus value to refer to the  part or the workday that is worked without pay.   

Socialism and communism refer to rejection of  surplus value in production.  The work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels revealed scientifically the origin and practice of private property, and the surplus value attached to it.   The 4 volumes of Capital are so concise that there is often nothing left to discuss but how to organize the proletariat to throw off its shackles, and control the means of production.  

I don’t think the Democratic Party represents this.  Sander’s run as a Democrat, and consequential failure,  should tell us something.  The embarrassment of having to ask his following to vote Biden something most of us would not like to revisit.

It is possible to have a bourgeoisie less extreme than Trump’s, that is what is decided in suffrage.  It is something to take part in, and as a grown man a certain responsibility is expected of someone, that of filling out the ballot and taking it to the drop box. Much of the time workers don’t bother to vote because they don’t trust the candidates.  They should  get over it; just because a revolution is not going to be elected, doesn’t mean it is not worth voting.  

And I think the latter is probably why  the Republican bourgeoisie are trying to make socialism and communism profanity.  They know too many workers vote Democrat, and the presence of a few who are more radical offends their better judgement as bourgeois.

This should tell us something; we are doing it right.  If the only connection is voting, that  sounds easy.  But as we saw on January 6th, Republicans don’t want to play the game.  Desperate for power, it is they who jeopardized the system of universal suffrage, not the socialists or communists.

The liberal progressives are capable of giving in, but it runs contrary to their petty bourgeois nature.  As far as revolution goes, if someone has a feeling about  socialism, they should qualify it by reading Capital by Karl Marx.  Then come at us with problems.  Instead it is dog whistles, and attempts to make taboo anything that questions their ownership of the means of production.  Given our familiarity with Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, etc.  it seems strange to be afraid to allow someone to read a book just because they disagree with its contents.  But that is the  morass of bourgeois culture, and ignorance follows in its wake. 

It makes one wonder just how foolish the representatives of the capitalist state would look if directly questioned about basic economic ideas, like what is a commodity?  Or what does the term “value “ represent to him?  

The answer I’m afraid would be embarrassing.  The Chevron Pipeline politician takes orders well, and is vocal, but that is about how far it goes.  Given their lack of familiarity of what Marxism really represents,  and their following of rural large landowning capitalists, we see a system in place that  economically rewards ignorance.  If you are literate in economics, you are most likely in a city, therefore not in Trump land.  

That is where it stands, when the maps are drawn 80% democratic in a district, they  go socialist.  Thus the national insecurity by our landowning class of socialism.

Nicholas Jay Boyes 

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

7 8 2026

Political Conditions and Leadership 6 26 2026 

~ nicholasjayboyes

Political Conditions and Leadership 6 26 2026 

When looking at the condition of representatives of what are called democratic socialists in America, you get a wide view. Some like Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, is a Muslim.  The congress seats he helped fill with democratic socialists, two in the lower house so far, are also connected to Islam.

Islam is a religion built on fighting in Mecca against pagans, the sword verse in the Koran shows this.  It reads:

“The “Sword Verse” is the common name for Surah At-Tawbah (Chapter 9, Verse 5) of the Quran. It states: “Kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush.””

Google search original sword verse in Koran

This would be connected to the fight against the pagans in Mecca from Medina.  By pagans they mean a non monotheistic god, and historically in that region, near where the Epic of Gilgaham was written, people who had belief in the earth mother.  In the epic they cut down a forest, and this is not liked by the religion there.

“Gaia most commonly refers to the primordial Greek goddess of the Earth”… “Greek Goddess: The supreme Earth Mother in ancient mythology, seen as the creator of life and the ancestor of the gods”

Google search gaia

The concept of the Earth Mother seems to be a very ancient concept indeed.  The Greeks were part of a larger ancient world, one of a lower stage of barbarism, prior to money.   A particularly excellent book about this is Friedrich Engels:  Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.  This book shows matriarchal lineage, and a common clan structure intact in groups of people that was present for tens of thousands of years throughout the world.  It points to the common heritage of exit from Africa, and the adaptation strategies of early man.

I guess we must ask how non believers fit in Islam.  From what I gather Islam currently pity’s Atheists, and  wants to save them.  This differs from Pagans who they, by their holy  book of god the Koran represents, suggest should be killed, not pitied. The  Earth Mother would not survive Islam, it is a pagan belief only now in the upper stages of barbarism, the modern era, it is being again sought after.

The socialist  movement  is not a religious movement.  It may not be the Earth Mother, but it is not clear why Mamdani and his following in New York are calling themselves socialists, yet still are openly Islam.

Obviously ecology means something different to us, to non believers like the classical historical materialists, who were the first thinkers to grasp the inner workings of capitalism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in particular; this was prior to late modern ecological knowledge; knowledge of ecology has moved considerably since Marx’s time.  We are left to sort out how ecology fits in with socialism.

In that respect perhaps the democratic socialists, in America at least, could be more accepting of a personal belief in the Earth Mother at this late date. But we find Islam violently opposed to pagans, followers of the earth mother.  

Really?  Do the democratic socialists now condone killing pagans?  Or do we hope Islam like Mamdani’s will just go away, or, like modern versions of the Koran, simply change the wording of the Koran, to fit current conditions?

Mamdani has some explaining to do, before he gains the trust of the Marxists.  We all have our own opinions on things,  there is no one way to attain socialism.  But Mamdani and his “Islamic socialism” would seem to be at odds with what is written in the Koran.  Will he kill the ecology people who believe in mother Earth because they are pagans?   

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

6 25 2026 

Cartels and Trusts.  Commodity Production.  Monopoly and Prices. 6 3 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Cartels and Trusts.  Commodity Production.  Monopoly and Prices. 6 3 2026 

It looks like he is threatening to use the tariffs again, even though the Supreme Court rebuked his privilege a few months ago.  Don has a theory that it doesn’t matter how unpopular he or his government looks, that if he finds a legal loophole, he does what he wants.

He did this to get appointed in 2016, he found a loophole in the electoral college, and was appointed without a majority.  When it failed in 2020 he had the January 6th episode, which he pardoned the members of when he was voted in, in his third attempt to be president. 

He has the Senate behind him as it was designed for large scale landowners to dominate the body.  Given it is 2 votes per state, Alabama is equal to Illinois, home of Chicago. It is remarkable that anything ever gets accomplished around here.    

The Senate has yet to get the bill to legalize the metric system.  Given the conditions,  it would be a surprise if they passed it, if it ever did come.  The Republican bourgeoisie supports the non metric industry, the farm equipment and autos are still not metric. 

The tariffs are for competition between American autos and Chinese autos.  Without protectionist tariffs, the big three Ford, Stellantis, and GM stand little chance of being able to compete with China.

It costs about the same amount as five Chinese BYD autos to purchase one American truck.  The electric vehicles the Chinese have developed cost 12 thousand US dollars.  The Ford starts around 41 thousand, but there is tax.  So it’s closer to 46 thousand.  But most F 150’s cost more like 60 thousand, when you add in features that people want, often considered luxury add ons.

The BYD has features too, like computers etc., but is a basic car.  It makes up for features in that it is entirely electric, it does not use fossil fuels.  The F150 sells 6 cylinder motors, and also the 8 cylinder V8.  People like the V8 because it has more power.  I guess if you don’t care about your fossil fuel usage, the V8 might be for you.  But it will cost you more than $60,000 after taxes.

This system of protectionism was working until Trump invaded Iran, and was unable to conquer the Persians with airplanes, satellite guidance systems, and missiles.  Congress has voted against allowing Trump to continue his unpopular war there,  the price of gasoline has doubled  with the strait of Hormuz closed due to the war.   Gasoline went from less than 3 dollars a gallon to about $4.85 a gallon.  

Fueling a big motor F 150 suddenly got a lot harder.  EV”s do not use petroleum; it doesn’t matter what gas costs, the EV uses electricity to power it. 

So Trump wants his tariffs back, even though it was ruled against the law, and he was forced to return 180 billion dollars to the parties that were tariffed, the importers.  

It looks like racketeering, or conspiracy to commit wire fraud.   Another boldfaced white collar crime, using the legal system with high powered lawyers and big money to continue to protect Trump’s  effort  to maintain a monopoly on autos, so American autos can compete domestically at least, with Chinese autos.

Monopolies control prices, like  Trump’s tariffs.  They do not tolerate competition, and include trusts and Cartels to control commodity prices, much like what Vladimir Lenin described in Lenin’s Imperialism,  the Highest Form of Capitalism. 

“Cartels come to an agreement on the terms of sale, dates of payment, etc. They divide the markets among themselves. They fix the quantity of goods to be produced. They fix prices. They divide the profits among the various enterprises, etc”

Later he writes

“Competition becomes transformed into monopoly. The result is immense progress in the socialisation of production. In particular, the process of technical invention and improvement becomes socialised..”

Passage continues 

“Here we no longer have competition between small and large, between technically developed and backward enterprises. We see here the monopolists throttling those who do not submit to them, to their yoke, to their dictation. This is how this process is reflected in the mind of a bourgeois economist:

“”Even in the purely economic sphere,” writes Kestner, “a certain change is taking place from commercial activity in the old sense of the word towards organisational-speculative activity. The greatest success no longer goes to the merchant whose technical and commercial experience enables him best of all to estimate the needs of the buyer, and who is able to discover and, so to speak, ‘awaken’ a latent demand; it goes to the speculative genius [?!] who knows how to estimate, or even only to sense in advance, the organisational development and the possibilities of certain connections between individual enterprises and the banks. . . .”

“Translated into ordinary human language this means that the development of capitalism has arrived at a stage when, although commodity production still “reigns” and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined and the bulk of the profits go to the “geniuses” of financial manipulation. At the basis of these manipulations and swindles lies socialised production; but the immense progress of mankind, which achieved this socialisation, goes to benefit . . . the speculators.”

Vladimir Lenin, Chapter one, Imperialism the Highest Form of Capitalism

Lenin saw this forming more than a hundred years ago, prior to him Engels wrote about it in Anti Duhring.  Capitalism becomes monopoly, cartels and trusts divide up whole industries, the state responds with favorable taxes, and often armed support like the oil wars of the late 20th century and beginning of the 21st century.

The big three auto producers form a trust to keep Chinese EV’s from competing with their petroleum motor driven non metric auto production.  Trump’s tariffs are efforts at cementing monopoly control  of the auto industry, supporting cartels and trusts.  The days of competition in the industry are behind us. On the domestic market there is no low cost vehicle, at least nothing like BYD’s EV.  Instead workers are supposed to buy the big three autos, to “Make America Great Again”.

Monopoly trusts are a part of all industries in the late stages of capitalist industrial development.  Whether there are two, or three producers of a commodity, real competition is rare. When it does happen it is technologically driven. Computers had done this, it revolutionized society, and companies like Google experienced competition to gain a hold on the servers of the internet.  

But how long did it take before Google became the server, with little of non competition remaining, on a server system that appears, at least, to be changing little from its conception?  It migrated to phones and ipads, but it seems to be going nowhere new on the bigger computers.

Regardless of Google’s status as a monopoly, they own Youtube, and if you pay $15 a month it is advertising propaganda free.  The monopoly seems to be becoming more like a cooperative, its main cash cow removed.  

But the point is, monopoly capitalism seems to be a part of life, and Trump is controlled by it.  His desire to return to the 20th century can only be called childish.  The auto industry  he is supporting cannot deal with competition, instead they operate in unison, and in this way control prices,  as a form of monopoly.  As the living  representative of capitalism, Don likes monopoly.  His tariffs support this.  Whether or not it is legal seems not to concern Don, if there is a loophole in the law he will find it, even after being snapped back, like having to return the 180 billion dollars in tariffs to the importers.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

6 3 2026

Local Conditions.  Trump’s America and its Neighbors 5 21 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Local Conditions.  Trump’s America and its Neighbors 5 21 2026

It would seem that Donald Trump has a history of constant threats and intimidation of not only foreign countries like Iran and Afghanistan on the other side of the world, but also Canada, Mexico and Cuba.

First it was Canada, when Trump started calling the “51st” state.  He also called the Prime Minister “governor” repeatedly.  

Canada values, like  America’s other neighbors, its sovereignty.  Although they still honor Britain, they never practiced slavery.  The remnants of slavery still exist in America, with large ghettos of freed slaves still present more than 100 years after the abolition of slavery.  Simply put, massive ghettos Southern style do not exist in Canada. If Trump took over the lumpenproletariat would be removed to Canada, as well as honest migrants.  

Then there is Mexico, connected to the drug war near Venezuela, where the army is bombing boats linked to drug dealing. The cartels down there are selling the luxury goods, often lethal, to buyers north of the order. Trump has threatened to use the CIA to stop the drug gangs. 

With these two countries there is also the tariffs,  Steel and Aluminum is subject to a 50% tariff under Trump.  Even Mexico has not had to pay what Canada has to pay to enter the American metals market.  Recently the Supreme Court detoothed Trump’s ability to apply tariffs, but some remain a problem.  

Trump has yet to have threatened to conquer Mexico, although he now calls the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”.  They discovered Mexico and in 1846 conquered the northern part of it.  Its residents are now returning, Trump’s response is military.  The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is active in the Southwest to stop illegal migration, much of it from America’s nearest southern neighbor, Mexico.

Mexicans in Trump’s America are often treated harshly, ICE has a history of violence when stopping migrants.  Sometimes it is even white people who  get repressed, like protestors in Minneapolis. 

Last but not least of neighboring countries, Cuba shares the southern border a mere 228 miles (367 Km) from Miami, just 95 miles (145km) from the state of Florida.   They are currently under embargo again, with Trump threatening sanctions on any  country that supplies oil to them.  They do not have solar panels and have no way of producing electricity.  They have been embargoed almost constantly since the revolution in 1959, with only brief let ups like under Barack Obama.

It seems like every day Trump gets closer and closer to direct threats of violence against Cuba.  What does Cuba see when they look at Trump? They see Mar a Lago, his castle on the border of Cuba.   He lives a bourgeois lifestyle right next to repression caused suffering, the Cubans are under embargo by him.

It is a sorry tale what our casino owning president did to neighbors who once trusted the Americans.  Canada is trading with China now,  they are buying 50,000 electric cars a year from China.  The big 3 non metric auto manufacturers are up in arms,  Trump has his lips sewed to their ass, keeping cars that cost 5 times what a Chinese EV costs competitive.  

The whole purpose of the tariffs was to keep American exports competitive by raising prices on everything, so  commodities produced in America would be able to compete.  But you can buy 5 BYD EV’s for the price of one large petroleum motored Detroit auto. 

Cuba has stood up to the bourgeoisie for more than half a century.  The socialist revolution is really in force there, after several changes in government.  Fidel Castro, the leader of the revolution there passed away November 25, 2015 at 90.   He led Cuba as a socialist country,  nationalizing the land, much of it owned by the United Fruit Company, large  American landowners. 

This put the bourgeoisie and Castro on a collision course,  and Trump is no different.  In 1961 John F. Kennedy decided to invade Cuba, considering Fidel to be a criminal.  It failed, and Fidel would rule 46 years as a constant thorn in the side of capitalists.

Cuba has known attempts to stop the revolution, and Trump’s efforts may not work, as in Iran.  It is hard to believe the bourgeoisie could take comfort in not being able to change Iran into its colony.  It’s a small country in the developing world, and does not border a rich country like Cuba. 

Yet Iran has survived the latest military aircraft show of force, fighting back and forcing Trump to content himself with pious wishes of no “Weapons of Mass Destruction” there.  He has given up on removing nationalized oil there, and Trump now asks for Iran not to be like the neighbor it shares a 565 mile (905 km) and build an atomic  bomb.  Israel has them too, so does India.  

Given what just went down it should be clear Iran does not need a nuclear weapon to stop the Americans.  They stand and remain a non colonized nation, even with the port embargoed. 

Cuba has not attacked another country, no less America.  Yet the cruel and unusual punishment continues, and is ratcheting up again under Trump.  Lowering the embargo could lessen the suffering there.  Petroleum is in short supply, electrical generation solar panels are also needed. 

Trump may be able to make Cuba suffer, but what is the plan to replace the revolution with?  Capitalism? A reactionary bourgeoisie?  Given the options Cuba really has no choice but to keep fighting.  The men who gave their lives to create the revolution may no longer be with us, Fidel passed at 90 ten years ago.   But their legacy and ideas of a sovereign Cuba not under the yoke of any foreign power remain.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

5 21 2026

Role of Conflict in Society.  Goals and Effects of This. 5 12 2026 

~ nicholasjayboyes

Role of Conflict in Society.  Goals and Effects of This 5 12 2026 

Donald Trump has been president for two terms now.  His war machine now has attacked 3 countries, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Iran.  He is now calling what was the defense department the “Department of War”.

The war effort in Afghanistan did not work out; at least it brought home no capital.  In Venezuela, Trump had a coup d’etat against Nicholas Maduro.  It remains to be seen if a profit can be made pumping the oil there, assuming companies will be willing to take the risk of going there and working given nationalization could be the result.

Trump’s latest war against Iran, in a cease fire currently, has also not resulted in victory, like Afghanistan.  In the latter the Americans spent a lot of money, and got no real return.

The purpose of war is, one, conquer the country and take anything you want, then, two, put the conquered population to work supporting the conquering country.  

In Afghanistan only number one was achieved.   There was no profit made there,  this tells us the Americans and NATO did not win there.

At this point, Donald Trump’s Department of War looks like a non profit organisation.  One may say adventures like  Afghanistan and Iran are for the public good,  but it remains to be seen if Iran is like  Afghanistan, a large expenditure of capital and men with no profit coming home.

Our casino owner seems to have pious wishes.  But pious wishes do not always bring popularity, and the bourgeois effort to conquer Iran is deeply unpopular, like Afghanistan towards the 20 year mark  of war.

Don’s coup in Venezuela seems to have emboldened him to attack Iran.  The result was Iran fought back, and now the  Americans are getting no military help from NATO, who seems to have learned about Middle Eastern military adventures with the bourgeoisie.

Now that Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices have doubled.  The gains of war in Iraq, control by Chevron and ExxonMobil  of the oil wells there, expropriated from their nationalized state by Americans, are now unable to ship through the Strait.  Every day that goes by is  a loss for ExxonMobil,  it is unable to sell oil and make a profit.

Don feels he is helping society by attacking Iran.  Even if he was, the fact of the matter is capitalists expect to make a profit anytime there is labor involved.  And although war may seem unproductive, a profit can always be made employing the conquered population in capitalist factories.  

But all we have ever seen with Don is a non profit effort, in Afghanistan and Iran. 

It makes one wonder how much longer capitalists will tolerate this.  With control of both Houses of Congress and the presidency, the Republican bourgeoisie can only blame themselves for their  inability to bring home the capital from Iran.  And they can blame Joe Biden for ending the war after 20 long years in a defeat,  but it was Trump who made the peace agreements with the Taliban; Biden just honored them. 

The mid term elections are coming, and the Republican bourgeoisie may lose its majority in the House of Representatives due to these factors.  The Senate rarely falls, it is dominated by large landowners. They are reliably more reactionary than the big bourgeoisie, who sometimes support the radical democrats.  The possibility of losing has sparked a desperate effort to draw new lines in voting districts to keep a Republican  majority.  It’s been most effective in the South, dominated by large landowners.  Fear of nationalization of the land drives forward the most reactionary measures to control suffrage, for instance requiring people to show up to vote on the  day of the election rather than just being mailed a ballot.

The Trumpers will only have themselves to blame  if they lose the war in Iran.  If it stops tomorrow, it remains a non profit effort by Don.  Who will buy the weapons used, if they cannot achieve victory in a developing world country, with little resources?  

That is how it stands, and time is ticking.  The midterm elections could change the course considerably, but nothing will change if perfection is the only way a person votes. The radical democrats are the liberal progressive bourgeoisie, but in the past they have sided with the proletariat, for instance in Europe in 1940.  The sentiment  is not so strong today, but nevertheless they appear less extreme than the reactionary bourgeoisie.  It remains to be seen if this can translate into victory for them.  It is only by being flexible one will achieve change, unbending objects break when pressure is applied. Obstructionist tactics will not be effective, workers representatives are needed who can try to legislate change.  This is not the end all result of worker organization, but begins to address the political movement.  At this point obstructionism will only isolate the workers movement further.  With elections coming Don’s machine could be dealt a decisive blow.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

5 12 2026  

Renewal of Tariff Money to Importers. Trump Returns the Money. 4 25 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Renewal of Tariff Money to Importers. Trump Returns the Money. 4 25 2026

We began getting used to the announcement of tariffs on social media by Donald Trump, often in the middle of the night on his website.  He used tariffs to punish or reward other countries, related to political actions, for instance when he imposed tariffs on Brazil due to the treatment of Jair Bolsonaro.

He later backed out of that one, but the system was yet intact for Trump to use tariffs to gain power in international relations and communication. 

“On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that tariffs imposed by the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unlawful. The Court affirmed that Congress, not the Executive Branch, holds the exclusive authority to impose tariffs. This decision invalidates roughly $166 billion in collected duties. “

Google tariffs supreme court

It was a pivotal decision by a court that in many people’s eyes was totally subordinate to Trump, as he appointed 3 of the justices when he was dictator, ruling without a majority.

This led shortly in time to the effort to get the money spent from tariffs back to companies who paid the tax.  

“April 20 (Reuters) – The refund system set up to allow companies to recover illegally collected tariffs from ​the U.S. government went live on Monday as thousands of companies rushed to file claims.”

Reuters Article continues

“Companies contacted by Reuters in recent ​days expressed concerns about the durability of the new system, created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in response to a court order that it prepare to return up to $166 billion to importers.”

“”I’m ​relieved that the portal seems to be functioning properly,” said Cassie Abel, CEO of Idaho-based outerwear company Wild Rye. Abel had her customs broker make the submission, which she said cost her $250 for the first phase of the filing.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court in February struck down the tariffs President Donald Trump pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, handing the Republican president a stinging defeat.”

“In court filings, Customs officials said as ​of April 9, some 56,497 importers had completed the necessary steps to receive electronic refunds, an amount totaling $127 billion, or more than three-quarters of the total eligible to be refunded. More ​than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments of imported goods.”

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/business/tariff-refund-system-launches-thousands-companies-file-claims-2026-04-20/

The 166 billion dollars is not a small sum,  it comes from the surplus value.  

“Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts”… 

“DOGE’s latest figures on contract cuts ticked up to $54.2 billion in an update posted on Tuesday.

Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-doge-contract-claims-savings-inflation-00498178

Incidentally the chart on politico’s article is worth looking at when it comes to what really transpired. 

Anyhow the various sums involved, in the chart for instance Doge claims 145 billion saved due to terminations, is still less than what the state has to come up with to pay back the 166 billion dollars it wrongly took as tax from importers.

This money will have to be raised as taxes, unless we are to believe the government was holding it not spending it.  I haven’t heard of a special fund from the tariff money, a savings account.  Rather it will come from the surplus value, and in the end the consumer will have paid this 166 billion dollars, although some of the money was returned to the importer.

I guess the importer could attempt to reimburse the customer, but it has yet to specifically occur.  I think most importers are just feeling lucky to have gotten back some lost profit, which Trump’s tariffs had cost them.  

The commodities the consumers are consuming could be made to be worth less, if the importers would return the money to consumers.  But in reality, as said before, most likely the consumer will see little or no benefit from this return of tariff money to the importers. 

At best Trump could say it was easier to pay off the 166 billion dollars, as Doge had saved 145 billion dollars, and that was close to 166 billion dollars.  Well, about 11 billion dollars less, but whatever.  Perhaps this will be of some consolation to his bourgeoisie, who so fervently believed in Trump to keep non metric American production competitive with the rest of the world’s commodities with taxes on imports.  

 In the end this exercise shows that Congress raises taxes, not the president.   And Congress also decides how tax will be paid, as import taxes, tariffs, etc.  The Supreme Court made this argument when they took away Trump’s favorite tool, tariffs for political purposes.

It seems to be holding; Trump has not been threatening tariffs constantly after the Court ruling.  And the money the tariffs generated is being returned to the people who had to pay it, the  importers. In the end it is a rare case of justice being done, a victory of the workers. Trump now has to pay back the money he illegally extorted in his sorry adventure with tariffs.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

4 25 2026  

Another Middle Eastern War.

~ nicholasjayboyes

In respect to the conflict between Donald Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran, it remains to be seen what will come of it.  At this point it looks like a successful coup de tet, killing Ayatollah Khamenei, and many of his following who were in power.

But no territory was gained by Israel or America, indicating the lack of a clear victory. 

And there is yet to be talk about American capital flowing into Iran, to employ the conquered people, with the goal of making a profit for America.

So it is not a victory yet.  There is currently a cease fire agreement, but the American power is blockading Iran’s ports in the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for Iran stopping traffic there.

The strait carries massive quantities of oil to foreign markets, including all of Kuwait and Iraqi oil.  At best Trump bombed some industry there that was pumping oil in Iran, I  guess this looks  like victory?

Israel has yet to remove Hamas from Gaza, even with F35 aircraft the Americans gave them.  Hamas, with no air force, like Afghanistan, again shows the limitations of airplanes bombing cities.  It has been more than 2 years now, Israel has yet to declare victory.  

Yet Trump thought this same group was capable of easily conquering Iran, that  have  industry, and a population twice that of Iraq.

Clearly Trump picks winners.  The way we will know if he won if the oil becomes property of ExxonMobil, like it did in Iraq.  In which case, it brings home profit for the bourgeoisie, which says the adventure had a purpose rather than simple punishment with destruction of a developing world power.

It will be very difficult to secure the Strait of Hormuz if Iran decides to block it again,  as it recently did. You would almost have to remove Iran from the coast, where they could attack boats they didn’t want in the strait.  

And if the goal is simple destruction, it is too easy with a missile or grenade launcher to effectively stop the shipping companies from wasting their capital to traverse a dangerous strait when they can do business elsewhere without insurance needed for a trip through the passage,

OIl prices have almost doubled, and American industry is still building fossil fuel vehicles.  The non metric trucks from Detroit cost a small fortune to commute in.  They are feeling the pressure, as China continues to build electric cars, and the solar panels and wind power to recharge them.  By 2030 about a third of China’s energy will be produced by renewable energy.

I guess if they win they get the Standard Oil monopoly’s fields back. But that cannot stop climate change, driving the economy to renewable energy.  All the oil in the world cannot stop the fact that burning fossil fuels is damaging the ecology, causing the temperature to rise.  It causes freak storms, high temperatures for short periods up north.  It is a monster the likes of which no human has ever seen or had to live with. 

And there is no question that if Iran’s oil returns to the bourgeoisie they will  pump as much as possible, with little or no concern for ecology.  At best they  will create some surplus value for ExxonMobil, and it will  come home to America.

If it stops now it is hard to call it a victory.  They know that, and that is why more men are going there in the Army to fight.  Nothing has been gained financially from bombing Iran, if anything closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cost capitalists money; the shipping companies cannot sail the ships, oil has doubled in value, and rebuilding Iran will cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump looks like he has committed the young men to another endless war in the Middle East.  They just never stop.  Real estate there keeps motivating the bourgeoisie to attempt to conquer.  This is no different than Iraq or Afghanistan, and the latter should show us the limitations of this style or warfare they think will easily win with.

Nicholas Jay Boyes   

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic 

4 16 2026

Universal Suffrage. Fear of Milwaukee’s Workers. 4 5 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Universal Suffrage. Fear of Milwaukee’s Workers. 4 5 2026

If you want to talk about how much we are trusted, it should be obvious the conditions of what is called “democracy” should strike one immediately as an example of a bourgeoisie who distrusts its own citizens to make decisions regarding their own conditions.

The ownership structure of capitalism removes the worker from the chain of command, reducing his active output as a producer to that of a mere appendage of machinery he does not control.  The manager is chosen by the same forces that keep him subjugated, in wage labour producing surplus value for the capitalist.

Confronted with this he is supposed to take heart in a democratic government with fair suffrage.  In reality, he finds the Senate, president, and Supreme Court, all elected in ways that favor materially the bourgeoisie.

The Senate gets two votes a state or territory.  Alabama gets the same number of votes as Chicago, two for the state.  This mechanism easily allows for  large scale landowners to stay in power; they hold power in the less populated states, and rural areas that  comprise much of the country.

Who else but the bourgeoisie would settle on conquered land?  Naturally the settlers are in the pocket of the Republican bourgeoisie. So South Dakota, much of Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. all fairly recent settlements with rural populations have a different opinion of what reality is than the proletariat in the cities.

The proletariat is an urban phenomenon, comprised of workers producing commodities in industrial settings.  It is possible for the larger farms to have unions, but it is not there yet. Waiting for it to form on the large farms would prove to be something that could take generations. Compounding the problem is massive state subsidies of more than 50 billion dollars a year, divvied out by the state, controlled by the republican bourgeoisie.

When the  worker votes he is also confronted by the electoral college, that appoints presidents without a majority periodically.  His votes for a woman president are not heard, even if a majority in suffrage support her.  Instead he is supposed to be happy he got Donald Trump instead.

What does this show us but a small group of people in control scared of their own workers, with no intention of giving up power.

When our worker tries to go to legal means for emancipation, he gets Citizens United rulings.  The Supreme Court is appointed by the president, who does not have to control a majority to govern.  And to make it seem more legitimate, it is supported by the Senate, who rubber stamps the decision for Supreme Court Justices. 

Sometimes the more moderate liberal progressive bourgeoisie govern, but it is a miracle there is ever a Senate majority.  It favors the large landowners, who vote republican.

When you look at the demographics, clearly the cities all vote democrat.  The country votes republican; we see it every cycle of elections.  This is an indicator of the presence of large scale land ownership, and its dominance over the proletariat in the city. 

The answer is to nationalize the land. If large scale farming is so great, its benefits should be enjoyed by all of society, not a small group of families who control all the good land around the city.  Small farmers are a small part of modern farming already, at best they can inherit soil, which we should not tamper with. But make no mistake, small scale landowning in time will only produce the same results we have l already come to, dominance of capitalism and the demise of the small farmer. They will find a mechanism to retake their lands, and consolidate  ownership in no time without nationalization of large landownings.  Be it through inheritance, or other means, under capitalism there will always be an effort to concentrate ownership of land in a small aristocracy, who control the food production for the city.

This having been said, it is still imperative to take part in universal suffrage.  Local races in particular, such as the current struggle between Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor looks like landowners vs urban petty bourgeois; the latter more worldly, sometimes favoring the working class.  

Lazar is up against the Planned Parenthood woman.  She is against abortion, probably a Catholic.  And yes, a person’s religion can influence how they vote.

The proletariat has a duty to take part in all suffrage, regardless of how slanted toward management it becomes.  It is still one vote, one person, and numerically the proletariat outnumbers the owning class 10 to one.  It can happen.

As suffrage comes again for supreme court justice in Wisconsin, it is a real battle.  These small contests can attract the big money;  the last local elections brought Elon Musk and his big wealth here. This one no doubt will also bring big out of state money, due to fear of Milwaukee’s proletariat.  The election is in two days, a real test of equality.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

4 5 2026

Suffrage for Justices to the Supreme Court. 3 24 2026 

~ nicholasjayboyes

Suffrage for Justices to the Supreme Court. 3 24 2026 

As we again take the opportunity to engage in suffrage for the supreme court in Wisconsin, it is important to digress on this phenomenon.  To begin with, it should be noted the United States Supreme Court is not subject to universal suffrage,  Rather it is appointees of the president, rubber stamped by the upper house of Congress.

What this means is twofold:  One, the president is not always in control of a majority, yet was still appointed.  We have seen this repeatedly in the last 25 years; George II was appointed without a majority, then Donald Trump was appointed without a majority.  It seems to be the Republican bourgeoisie who do this, they call it the “electoral college” method of dictatorship.  They then appoint the  Supreme Court justices for life; then generally last decades. Trump did three this last time when he was appointed.  

Secondly, Congress goes along with this.  The Senate approves the candidates, giving their rubber stamp of approval in the upper house.   

The Senate is appointed by two senators a state, which gives massive amounts of power to the large scale landowners, who till much of the rural areas.  They benefit by states like South Dakota having the same power in the Senate as Illinois, home of Chicago.  The same is true for New York and LA.  The power structure is the same, the founders, Virginia plantation owners, did this for a reason; they feared British industry would force change in the slave owning aristocracy.  They chose equal power for large scale landowners to industry by having 2 votes per state in the upper house.

It is basically a miracle the big cities ever win control of Congress.  And the stakes are enormous, state assistance to large farmers in 2025 was 40.24 billion dollars according to google.  It is allocated by the acre, which  results in it being of little help to small farmers, who more intensively cultivate this land.

Nationalization of large farms would help greatly, but instead of just buying land with the 42 billion dollars, the  Republican bourgeoisie just gives away this money to large landowners, who all benefit from the subsidies.  Basically all large farmers get money; it is part of the land tenure arrangement.

The state is not going to buy land and give it to cooperatives. We would have seen attempts at this by now.  No, the state assistance is going to support the Republican bourgeoisie, the state does not purchase land for cooperatives.

If the land was going to be nationalized, there would be no price tag.  And it would not be the worst soils that the cooperatives would be farming on.

Anyhow, that is the picture generally.  What this has to do with Wisconsin is this:

Supreme Court justices are subject to universal suffrage every 10 years.  This may seem like a long time, but compared to the United States Supreme Court, it  is brief.  Wisconsin justices serve  as long as they command a majority, which differs from our appointed counterparts who serve without a majority. 

Short of having a politburo, there is no alternative to universal suffrage for the judges on the supreme court.  The levels of bold faced white collar crimes the supreme court is involved in, with rulings like Citizens United, should show us WIsconsin has the answer; the Wisconsin supreme court is not electing because they are small,  rather this is a movement that is logical, and able to be followed on a larger scale, like selecting United States Supreme Court justices for 10 year terms.

We saw last election for supreme court Elon Musk giving away the million dollar checks to his republican bourgeois supporters to vote against democrat Susan Crawford.  DC meddles in Wisconsin elections, even though it is only residents of the state that can vote. 

No matter, Citizens United and Musk feel no shame in involvement in Wisconsin’s more radical system of universal suffrage.  

Incidentally Musk and his Republicans lost the election.  Musk hardly even got a slap on the wrist for his million dollar checks, even after explaining they were vetted to be most likely to be Republicans.

The latest suffrage is between Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar are going at it.  Lazar was Scott Walker’s lawyer.  She is a Trumper, and will be a yes woman for Trump.  

Chris Taylor has“..a legislative voting record full of support for unions and public schools, and endorsements out of the gate from the four sitting liberal justices..

“She worked as the public policy director at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, and then spent nearly a decade in the state Assembly…”

WPR 3 24 2026

Lazar, on the other hand:

“During the administration of Governor Scott Walker, Lazar worked as an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice where she handled litigation in support of Walker’s signature anti-labor law, 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, and then in defense of new security rules implemented to crack down on statewide protests against it. Lazar later took on the job of defending a Republican redistricting law that implemented one of the most aggressive gerrymanders in the country.”

Wikipedia Maria Lazar

The choice could; not be put in starker terms.  Ten years of Lazar would be a return to Scott Walker. 

“As an assistant attorney general, Lazar defended Republican-drawn legislative maps from gerrymandering claims along with laws on voter ID, abortion and Act 10, which restricted collective bargaining rights for most state employees.”

WPR 2 23 2026

So it should be interesting to see where this goes.

“Brad David Schimel (born February 18, 1965) is an American attorney, former judge, and Republican politician. He most-recently served as interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, from November 2025 until March 16, 2026, when his interim appointment was not extended by the district court judges. The Department of Justice, however, has announced their intention to appoint Schimel to a senior staff position in the U.S. attorney’s office, leaving him as the de facto head of the office. “

Wikipedia Brad Shimel

So here we see what Trump does when he loses an election.  Shimel was appointed leader in federal court even though he did not command a majority.  I guess Trump doesn’t mind losers as long as they are yes men.  Shimel is now appointed without suffrage, the power struggle between DC and Wisconsin could not be more pitched this election.  Clearly the republican bourgeoisie is doing DC’s bidding.  

The date suffrage will occur is April 7.  It is one to watch.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

3 24 2026