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

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

Trump’s Economic Woes

The drama of Donald Trump’s budget continues.  The Senate cannot rectify the cost of the bill, which will add about 4 trillion dollars to the national debt.  They are trying to use a new method to calculate what the bill actually costs.  The Republican bourgeoisie has lowered its estimates of cost 90% less than what it actually is going to cost, if calculated in the traditional manner.

By what I guess one could call clever:  

“If Congress doesn’t act, most of Trump’s signature 2017 tax cuts will expire this year. Extending those cuts through 2034 accounts for the vast majority of the bill’s estimated impact on the national debt. But the Senate’s method of cost-counting compares the cost of extending the tax cuts against the government’s finances with the cuts in place, not against the government’s finances if the cuts expire. “

Washington Post 6 28 2025

So Trump’s “tax cuts” are what is making the 4 trillion dollar debt that is going to have to be paid by younger generations, risking default.  By not including the extension of the tax cuts, which is probably the most important part of the bill, to the price of the bill, its cost is lowered 90%.

Which perhaps pleases the following of the Republicans who like to think they are masters of economics.  Without the legislation,  the tax cuts expire.  By reasoning the tax cuts would not expire,  the Senate simply adds on the cost of the bill without the tax cuts.

Would you feel comfortable about this group doing your bookkeeping?  It overlooks a massive expenditure that will likely never be paid off.  It defers payment to another generation, long past  Trump’s ripe youth of 78 years old.

But what the heck? They always said someone would come to their assistance with nuclear waste.  But it just keeps accumulating, a gift from the 20th century when long term effects of industry were less important than creating surplus value.

The government’s credit rating has already been degraded due to Trump. Moody’s was the last rating agency to downgrade the government’s credit rating.  Yet Trump thinks he can remove the chairman of the Central Bank, and have lower interest rates.

The government’s credit rating falling means the bonds they are buying are riskier.  This if anything would raise interest rates, as money is harder to get;  the risk of default is rising.

In the end where this seems to be going is the currency is currently being devalued, which makes the debt lower as money is worth less.  It also seems to make the stock market value rise.  

If this continues wages will have to rise.  If the value of money is less, workers have to undergo privations. This can only be maintained for so long without civil unrest, strikes,  etc. resulting when workers on multimillion dollar machines are being paid minimum wages.

The whole thing looks increasingly like a powderkeg, and the Republican bourgeoisie are totally in control of the capitalist state.  The debt was contracted to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  At some point it became clear Afghanistan’s natural resources, which was probably about all the country had for assets, could not pay the trillions of dollars borrowed.  

This culminated in the defeat of the bourgeois state, and the subsequent debt.  The whole adventure has to be written off as a failure, no profit is flowing in due to Afghanistan.  Rather the opposite, with the weapons designed to be used there no good for fighting in Ukraine.   The bomber planes may work in the developing world, but in Europe they seem to be a failure.  They even gave Ukraine long range missiles, to no avail.  

At some point the hard reality is going to have to sink in, probably when Moody’s cuts the government’s credit further.  Then interest rates will have to rise again, just like now.

The downgrade of the government’s credit also came with the tariffs Trump is trying to place on Canada.  He has gone so far as to suggest Canada becoming part of America.

After the overwhelming success of Afghanistan,  how could Trump go wrong?  I suppose Trump thinks the Canadians will just give in.

We have seen this road before.  Iraq looked like a cakewalk, two interventions later the only profit to be made is selling the once nationalized oil under Iraq.  They have yet to explain why they felt the need to expropriate the assets of the people of Iraq, who were represented by the Baath Socialist Party, the party that had nationalized the oil.  

It is morally offensive that a sovereign country would have to endure this type of harassment.  Canada is the second largest trading nation to America.  They risk trade coming to a halt rather unceremoniously,  if Trump attacked our neighbor to the north.  I suppose then he thinks interest will fall.  

Trump’s bill passed, and the tax cuts, at some point down the road, crisis is looming.   Accounting tricks will not help them then, default or partial default will be the only answer.  It already looks ridiculous to raise the interest rate, the amount of money the government buys its debts for.   The bill could be more than 4 trillion if Trump has a  new Fed chairman just  keeps buying debt.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

6 28 2025

When Fantasy Meets With Reality

With both houses of Congress, and the president all being in the same political party, the Republicans,  it would seem to be now that the bold moves would take place. Given the Republican bourgeoisie always preaches less government, and less taxes, just now has this unfolded?

Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, just attempted to gut the state. They removed thousands of state workers and officials, in what was an attempt to pay off the national debt, which stands at 34.2 trillion dollars. It costs about a trillion dollars a year in interest.  This money comes from taxes, through the more mysterious bond borrowing by the Central Bank.  They buy money, to pay off expenses of the state, and the interest is paid for by taxes.

The Central Bank are indebting the state, and the bourgeois speculate on the ability of the state to be able to pay off its debts.

Musk’s effort seemed bold, and he promised to cut 2 trillion dollars from the state.   

But then, things started to unfold that contradicted the Republican message we were so used to hearing about; how fat the state was, and how the assets of the state could be made private property.  Musk started issuing to state offices and state industry ultimatums regarding their employment.  

Musk really believed the Republican bourgeoisie, and attempted to gut the state.   Things started to unravel though, and 2 trillion dollars became 1 trillion dollars.  State workers really were losing their jobs, but it was becoming clear the state employees were there to help  the bourgeois run industry that was needed but could not create a profit.  The state industry could not be sold off to private businessmen,  it turned out the state could not shrink in size much smaller than it already was, without causing civil unrest.

2 trillion went to 1 trillion, and at the end of Musk’s official work to make the state smaller, he saved about 150 billion dollars a year.  This was about a half a percentage point of the expenditures of the state for 2024.  This is about one sixth the size of the interest payments the bonds issued this year are paying.

Then Trump’s efforts at legislation, his budget “big Beautiful Bill” he was trying to pass,  would indebt the state  2.4 trillion to 5 trillion dollars in 5 years.  

So lowering taxes was fiction. 

The massive tariffs also followed Republican leadership, taxes on imports.  It’s simple; the importer buys a foreign product.  When it arrives at the dock,  the importer receives his receipt, with the tax on the purchase displayed on the bottom.  In this case it is the tariff that is the tax, paid for by the importer.  It is like Sales Tax, paid by the purchaser of the product, in this case the importer.  

So much for lowering taxes.  As far as the consumer goes, for instance WalMart has said prices there will be rising due to tariffs.  Trump has said WalMart should make less profit, simply “eating the cost of the tariffs”.  But stores like WalMart, where the proletariat shops, already were stretched to make a profit, having to compete with other stores like online giant Amazon.  Amazon also has said prices are rising, due to tariffs.  

The taxes from Trump on imports, whose Republicans preached about the “tax and spend” culture of Washington constantly to get elected, showed the latter was also fiction.  At best they passed on the taxes to the next generation, by which time the next president will have to pay off the debt, or default.

Moody’s credit ratings are used to assess the creditworthiness of debt issuers, providing investors with insights into the likelihood of default and financial loss.  The repayment of obligations is what is key here,  and on May 16, 2025,  Moody’s Ratings (Moody’s) downgraded the Government of United States of America’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Aa1 from Aaa and changed the outlook to stable from negative.

This was the last credit ratings organization to downgrade the government’s credit rating, the others already concluded default by the bourgeoisie on its debts is a risk worthy of a downgrade.

Yet Trump kept suggesting the taxes he created on imports would help pay off the debts.   But it was a drop in the bucket compared to the 32 trillion dollars owed by the government for its debts.

At this point Musk began sensing he had been made on ass of,  and left the government.  He would have a falling out with the president he paid 260 million dollars of his money to elect.  It started getting ugly on social media, with Musk going so far as to suggest Trump should be impeached.

Trump then said Musk had a drug problem, which would explain why he was so easily taken when he heard the state was too fat, and its assets could be privatised. 

I guess the only real question is why there are some who believe the economy has been helped by Trump and his Republicans.  He threatened 150% taxes on Chinese imports. He backed off, but it remains about 50% on imports from China.

Trump is the taxman.  And he is this with complete control of Congress, Senate and House.  Perhaps the only question is is this not exactly what happens when the bourgeoisie has total control the state?

Nicholas Jay Boyes

MIlwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

9 17 2025