Tag: news

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

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

Starlink, Elon Musk, and Ukraine. Militarisation of Space. 

~ nicholasjayboyes

It is coming to light that the starlink satellite internet service run  by Elon Musk is a poor example for providing internet service, unless there are few users at a time.  Basically the conclusion is the more users on the service at a time, the slower it goes, or starts to malfunction.

“There’s an irony with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service beamed from space: The more popular it becomes, the worse its speeds and reliability tend to get.”

“Those limitations are known, but a new analysis estimates the tipping point at which Starlink connections could bog down: With as few as 419 Starlink customers in an area the size of Tacoma, Washington, service for all users in the area could become unusable.”

“They (internet expert Sascha Meinrath’s group) believe that within the geographic coverage area of a single Starlink satellite – an estimated 62.9 square miles or roughly the area of Tacoma – hitting 419 Starlink customers could become a problem. That’s an average 6.7 Starlink customers per square mile.

“At that level of usage, they estimated that internet speeds for Starlink customers in the area would fall below the government’s definition of modern, reliable internet service for sending data out from your device. Service could be unusable under some conditions, they said.”

Washington Post 7 18 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/18/starlink-internet-satellite-speed-elon-musk/

Elon Musk knew this, but kept it secret, and just kept launching more and more rockets with the starlink satellites on board, regardless of pollution in near orbit, or later on how offensive the militarization of space is becoming.

“One wrinkle for Starlink and similar satellite technologies: When many people in one area use them, internet speeds tend to significantly slow.”

“All internet services experience those constraints, but internet experts say they’re more acute with Starlink, particularly for uses like sending images or video calls for which you send data out to the internet.”

Washington Post ibid.

“Ookla reports, based on user-initiated speed tests, were cited by the Federal Communications Commission last month when it rejected Starlink’s application to receive $885.51 million in broadband funding that had been tentatively awarded during then-Chairman Ajit Pai’s tenure. The FCC said it doubts whether Starlink can provide the grant’s required speeds of 100Mbps downloads and 20Mbps uploads.”

“”We observe that Ookla data reported as of July 31, 2022 indicate that Starlink’s speeds have been declining from the last quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, including upload speeds that are falling well below 20Mbps,” the FCC said at the time. Ookla, a private company, operates a widely used speed testing service and boasts that its data is often used by government and regulatory bodies.”

Article continues

“Starlink has more than 3,000 satellites in orbit so far. The Internet provider has FCC permission to deploy nearly 12,000 satellites, including those already being operated, and is seeking authorization to launch tens of thousands eventually.”

From link: internet speeds start to significantly slow.  see above in Washington Post

See arstechnica here:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/09/ookla-starlinks-median-us-download-speed-fell-nearly-30mbps-in-q2-2022/

Which one has to wonder, what is the real purpose of this exercise?  Who benefits from using starlink?

“Wireline broadband is still the best. Overall, fixed broadband services in the US posted median download speeds of 150.1Mbps, uploads of 21.5Mbps, and 14 ms latency, the Q2 Ookla report said.”

“From the beginning, it was clear that Starlink is most appropriate for people who don’t have a solid cable or fiber connection in their homes. The recent data doesn’t change that overall conclusion, but Starlink users who are getting slower-than-expected speeds have good reason to be frustrated.”

Ibid, arstechnica

So clearly not the average person using starlink, at least not in a city, It costs 7 times more than cable internet, and it functions poorly compared to wire internet.

From here we go to Reuters, an article written yesterday about Elon Musk and the war in Ukraine, which his starlink internet service is providing access to for military purposes.  

“KYIV – During a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia in late September 2022, Elon Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive and dented Kyiv’s trust in Starlink, the satellite internet service the billionaire provided early in the war to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity.”

“According to three people familiar with the command, Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a strategic region north of the Black Sea that Ukraine was trying to reclaim.”

““We have to do this,” Michael Nicolls, the Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the three people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, their hexagon-shaped cells going dark on an internal map of the company’s coverage. The move also affected other areas seized by Russia, including some of Donetsk province further east.”

“Upon Musk’s order, Ukrainian troops suddenly faced a communications blackout, according to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, and two others who experienced Starlink failure near the front lines. Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets.”

“As a result, the Ukrainian military official and the military advisor said, troops failed to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, the administrative center of the region of the same name. “The encirclement stalled entirely,” said the military official in an interview. “It failed.””

Reuters 7 25 2025

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/musk-ordered-shutdown-starlink-satellite-service-ukraine-retook-territory-russia-2025-07-25/

This is an example of  how connected Musk is to Ukraine, and its war with its now capitalist neighbor, Russia.  As soon as starlink stopped functioning, everything started to fail.

article continues

“Whatever the reason for Musk’s decision, the shutoff over Kherson and other regions surprised some involved with the Ukraine war – from troops on the ground to U.S. military and foreign policy officials, who after Russia’s full-scale invasion that February had worked to secure Starlink service for Ukrainian forces. Panicked calls by Ukrainian officials during the outage to seek information from Pentagon counterparts, five people familiar with the incident said, were met with few explanations for what could have caused it. “

“As of April 2025, according to Ukrainian government social media posts, Kyiv has received more than 50,000 Starlink terminals. Easily transported and deployed, the pizza-box-sized devices communicate with thousands of SpaceX satellites now circling the globe. An initial batch of terminals was provided to Ukraine by SpaceX itself. Further terminals have arrived from donors including Poland, the United States and Germany.”

“SpaceX is the first company to establish an extensive network of communication satellites in low-Earth orbit, a region of space that is closer to the planet than areas where such satellites historically reside. The proximity of satellites that now make up the company’s constellation allows Starlink to offer space-based wireless connectivity that is faster than any previously available. “

“With more than 7,900 satellites now in orbit, SpaceX has become the world’s largest satellite operator. Its devices, which relay signals among each other to create a network that communicates with the ground, account for about two-thirds of all active satellites in space, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian. “

“Compared to the geostationary satellites historically used for communications, the sheer number of SpaceX satellites helps make Starlink less vulnerable to jamming and attacks. Its far reach makes it valuable in remote and hostile terrain – from battlefields to airspace to high seas. In Ukraine, it has facilitated activities including communications, intelligence and drone piloting. “

Reuters ibid.

“Even before the conflict began, documents reviewed by Reuters show, SpaceX had already been in discussions with the U.S. government about providing Starlink in Ukraine. Rollout began after Russian troops crossed the border on February 24, 2022.”

“Two days later, Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister in Ukraine, requested Musk’s help. “We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations,” he wrote on Twitter.”

“Musk responded in 10 hours. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” he tweeted. “More terminals en route.””

“Poland was also instrumental in the early days of the war, shipping thousands of terminals to Ukraine shortly after the invasion. Warsaw this year said it has purchased about 25,000 Starlink terminals for the effort – roughly half the total now in Ukraine – and that it is paying the subscription costs to keep them connected. So far, it has spent about $89 million on Starlink for Ukraine.”

“The equipment has made a critical difference for Ukraine.”

“Day-to-day bureaucracy has also benefited. Early in the conflict, Ukraine stored state data in the cloud and relied on Starlink to access it, helping keep some government operations running. “We wouldn’t be anywhere without Starlink,” said Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain until 2023. “The whole state was preserved.””

“On the battlefield, Ukraine quickly deployed Starlink to enable front-line troops to communicate with commanders. The service also allowed drone operators to transmit surveillance video streams and locate and attack Russian targets. Reuters couldn’t establish just when such attacks may have become a concern for Musk or SpaceX.”

“That month (September 2022), in a statement to the United Nations, Russia noted the use of “elements of civilian, including commercial, infrastructure in outer space for military purposes.” It warned that “quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation.””

“It isn’t clear whether Russia has tried to attack any Starlink facilities. Musk has said, however, that Moscow has repeatedly sought to block its connectivity. “SpaceX is spending significant resources combating Russian jamming efforts,” Musk wrote on X last year. “This is a tough problem.””

“Ukrainian drone specialists and Prystaiko, the former ambassador to Britain, said some attack devices, including maritime and bomber drones, now have Starlink antennas fitted to them. The antennas, in the case of sea drones, help operators guide the devices and view video feeds to classify targets, said Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense think tank.”

“Musk himself has boasted of Starlink’s importance to Kyiv. “My Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army,” he wrote on X in March. “Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”” 

Reuters ibid.

So here we see what starlink was really designed for; internet service communications in war zones where many users, civilians, etc. along side military users would overload the system. It may hardly provide for civilian internet service, but it seems to work when NATO and their proxies are attacking a de populationed region. Clearly this militarization of outer space is exactly what Musk knew he was doing, when he launched all those satellites into near earth orbit.

There is still no way to return satellites to earth; they just break apart and make near earth orbit space stations vulnerable to space garbage, which damage for example fuel cells for returning to Earth.  It also precludes any carbon based life being able to get near the planet without shielding of some sort.  Fortunately we have been lucky enough not to have been visited by anything recently, up to this point this sounds like science fiction.

Musk’s system is  being used to guide drones and missiles into Russia, some of which are targeting Moscow.  It has allowed capitalists there to attempt to join NATO,  to leave behind the past attempt to rectify the contradiction between wage labour and bourgeois.  Ukraine preferred the material results of capitalism more than the quality of labor emancipated from production for surplus value.  In exchange for weapons, luxury items, and modest gains in wages, capitalism returned full force to Ukraine. 

Part of this was due to the failure of eastern communism to make the shift to ecological socialism. 

Nuclear energy remains an export from capitalist Russia.  The reactors built by GE and Hitachi in Japan, at Fukushima. melted down too.  Japan has had to release hundreds of millions of liters of tritium polluted water into the ocean.  Neighboring countries refuse to buy Japanese fish, or serve it in restaurants.  

In Ukraine the largest nuclear reactors in Europe,  the Zaporizhyzhia generation facilities, were never shut down, even after Chernobyl melted down.   They are now in a war zone, shut down,  for how long it is unknown.  Clearly the return to capitalism by Ukraine did not have ecological goals.

Musk’s starlink service is the main weapon in the war in Ukraine.  It is for communications and targeting of drones and missiles, designed to conquer Russia.  What Musk told us about starlink being practical as a service for areas with little internet service seems to only work if you keep your connection a secret to your neighbors.  The minute people start to use the starlink in numbers, it fails.  But in Ukraine, in a depopulated area where the army uses starlink, it works fine. It is just that it is not really for civilian usage, like it was promised by Musk when he began launching massive amounts of satellites into orbit.

The satellites are essentially military satellites,  it should be of no surprise Trump started a military wing called the “Space Force” when he was in office. Although he may not be getting along so well with Elon now, the fact remains he contributed about 275 million dollars to Trump’s campaign to get reelected. Space Force is really militarising space, and passing off starlink as a civilian organization.

Without Musk, no war in Ukraine. Unless you want to pay top dollar for crappy internet service somewhere in America without cable or telephone lines, starlink is not for you.  But give it to capitalists in a war zone, it is essential.  Musk even said before the war broke out he would deploy starlink for the military in Ukraine.  Well there it is, in full glory bombing Moscow from Ukraine.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

revised 9 18 2025

Petroleum Industry.  Monopoly Capitalism. Protectionism.

~ nicholasjayboyes

  The answer to why Donald Trump is ramping up tariffs is protectionism, in particular to protect ExxonMobil and Chevron, who control much of the US market for petroleum.  Other countries like Britain own Shell and BP,; Total is owned by France.  By discouraging competition with tariffs, ExxonMobil and Chevron will control the US market for oil. 

Chevron has a history.  This work is  from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

“Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation. 

Wikipedia Chevron 

Chevron is one of two massive companies that control much of the US market. There are 5 large oil companies in the world who control most or all of the market for petroleum production, refining, and selling the gas at gas stations.  They are ExxonMobil, the largest, Chevron, BP , Total, and Shell.  The Saudi Aramco company is in production of crude and are also a force to be reckoned with.

There was a time not so long ago, in memory, when the gas station was a family business.  That began to change in the 80’s and 90’s and now it is rare to find a family or small business owned gas pump.  Concentration of ownership by large capitalists removed the small gas stations, 

“Since the acquisition of the Pacific Coast Oil Company by Standard Oil, the Standard descendant had traditionally worked closely with Texaco for 100 years, before acquiring Texaco outright in 2001. “

Wikipedia Chevron

There went another large company to Chevron.  Texaco used to own gas stations, it is now all Chevron.

“Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985.[1] The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger with Standard Oil of California, Gulf was one of the chief instruments of the Mellon family fortune; both Gulf and Mellon Financial had their headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Gulf’s headquarters, the Gulf Tower, being Pittsburgh’s tallest building until the completion of the U.S. Steel Tower.

“Gulf Oil Corporation (GOC) ceased to exist as an independent company in 1985, when it merged with Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), with both rebranding as Chevron in the United States. Gulf Canada, Gulf’s main Canadian subsidiary, was sold the same year with retail outlets to Ultramar and Petro-Canada and what became Gulf Canada Resources to Olympia & York.[2][3] 

Wikipedia Gulf Oil

“The term “Seven Sisters” refers to seven major, vertically integrated oil companies that dominated the global petroleum industry from the 1940s to the 1970s. They controlled a significant portion of the world’s oil reserves and production. The “Seven Sisters” were: Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP), Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil Company of California (later Chevron), Gulf Oil (later merged with Chevron), Texaco (later merged with Chevron), Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (later Exxon, then ExxonMobil), and Standard Oil Company of New York (later Mobil, then ExxonMobil). “

Google search 7 sisters oil and gas

Basically Chevron and ExxonMobil are the main American petroleum producers, BP, Shell, and Total also dominate the market for oil.  These 5 companies also own gas stations, which as mentioned have become owned by a few large companies, rather than small businesses.  

“Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.[3] It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess was CEO from the early 1960s through 1995, after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO.[4] The company agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron in October 2023.[5]

Wikipedia Hess company

This one has ties to the new fields in South America, in French Guyana.  It is now owned by Chevron.  

Exxon Mobil is the other American company that competes with Chevron, at least, if you believe that this small group of companies does not exert monopoly control of oil.  

“Exxon Mobil Corporation[a] (/ˌɛksɒnˈmoʊbəl/ EK-son-MOH-bəl)[4][5][6] is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston.[7][8]: 1  Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller‘s Standard Oil, the modern company was formed in 1999 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil. It is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry, as well as within its chemicals division, which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products. As the largest U.S.-based oil and gas company, ExxonMobil is the seventh-largest company by revenue in the U.S. and 13th-largest in the world. It is the largest investor-owned oil company in the world.[9][10][11] Approximately 55.56% of the company’s shares are held by institutions, the largest of which as of 2019 were The Vanguard Group (8.15%), BlackRock (6.61%), and State Street Corporation (4.83%).

“The company has been widely criticized and sued, mostly for environmental incidents and its history of climate change denial against the scientific consensus that fossil fuels significantly contribute to global warming.[12] The company is responsible for many oil spills, the largest and most notable of which was the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and itself considered to be one of the world’s worst oil spills in terms of environmental damage.[13][14] The company has been the target of accusations of human rights violations, excessive influence on American foreign policy, and its impact on developing countries.[15]

Wikipedia ExxonMobil

“ExxonMobil traces its roots to Vacuum Oil Company, founded in 1866. Vacuum Oil later was acquired by Standard Oil in 1879, divested from Standard in 1911 with its breakup, and merged by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), later known as Mobil, in 1931. After the 1911 breakup, Standard Oil continued to exist through its New Jersey subsidiary, sometimes shortened to Jersey Standard, and retained the Standard Oil name in much of the eastern United States. Jersey Standard grew by acquiring Humble Oil in the 1930s and became the dominant oil company on the world stage. The company’s lack of ownership over the Standard Oil name across the United States, however, prompted a name change to unify all of its brands under one name, choosing to name itself Exxon in 1972 over continuing to use the three distinct brands of Esso, Enco, and Humble Oil.[16][17]

“In 1998, the two companies agreed to merge and form ExxonMobil, with the deal closing on November 30, 1999.

Wikipedia ibid

From here we pivot back to protectionism.  Oil from Canada is now under a 25%  tariff from Trump.  This number fluctuates as Trump has repeatedly threatened larger tariffs, and exempted Canadian oil from some tariffs. Trump’s tariffs change from day to day and seem to be more reliant on stock exchange numbers than anything else. 

“Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.

“The predecessor company of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Company LLC, formerly known as Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, was formed by the merger of the refining operations of Marathon Oil and Ashland Inc. in 1998.[11] The merger brought together several descendants of the Standard Oil trust, as Ashland had acquired several smaller Standard spinoffs while Marathon itself was directly owned by Standard Oil. It also brought Marathon’s Speedway and Ashland’s SuperAmerica convenience store chains together and were subsequently merged as “Speedway SuperAmerica”.

“As longtime Marathon rivals Standard Oil of Ohio and Amoco were acquired by British company BP, Marathon Ashland adopted the marketing slogan “An American Company Serving America”, with the slogan being adjourned to Marathon fuel pumps. In 2006, it adopted its current slogan, “Fueling the American Spirit” as the company shifts emphasis on work ethic and the contributions of its employees.[12]

Wikipedia marathon petroleum

Mentioned above is a further ending of small businesses in petroleum, BP (British Petroleum) purchased Amaco.  Marathon is still a big gas station owner in companies with American ownership.  BP is massive, so is Total and Shell, and can leverage power in the market.  Marathon does refining, but it is not nearly as large as ExxonMobil or Chevron. Watch for concentration of ownership to consolidate  monopoly control of this company by the bigger competitors… 

Place tariffs on the oil from outside the country, and these three companies are in position to have monopoly control of petroleum in America.  It is probably not a coincidence that ExxonMobil are climate change skeptics, and Trump is too.  

These dinosaurs pump and sell as much oil as possible, with little or no concern about climate change.  The goal is to make a profit, not to promote proletarian ecological visions.

Consolidation of ownership occurs after every periodic crisis that comes in the business cycle of what we know of as modern capitalism.  The economy starts off after the last crisis. Workers return to their jobs, business starts moving again.  The unemployed army of workers who work in the precarious position of unskilled labor are slowly reemployed.  Business picks up further, the economy starts to pick up a trot.  Employment increases, and profit is created.

Then, there comes overproduction.  The speculation on the ability of the market to exchange commodities begins to falter.  The crisis comes, and the workers are out on the streets again, unemployed.  The machines are no longer working, capital is being destroyed. The crisis is social; there are workers hungry and jaundiced, the machines to provide for them unable to be used due to capitalism. 

At this point the large companies buy at ridiculously low prices their former competitors.  This process gives rise to massive capitalist companies in control of things like petroleum.  

American goals of returning to small businesses in control of, for example,  gas stations, is a futile endeavor.  The Standard Oil monopoly that preceded ExxonMobil and Chevron’s trust was hit with antitrust in the 20th century.  As we can see, monopoly control of petroleum came raging back.  There we have Trump, climate change skeptic, supporter of large petroleum industries, also throttling forward gasoline powered engines for cars.  Built by Detroit, the large engine petroleum motors propel people where they need to go.  

Attempts at building electric cars are now dominated by China, where EV’s cost as little as $10,000. Compare that to an American car, the low end is about $33,000, it is more expensive to buy an American petroleum powered vehicle than a Chinese EV..

Trump to the rescue, with 100% tariffs on Chinese EV”s.  Protectionism rears its head, bourgeois gas companies are favored to powering cars with electricity.  Combine this with Detroit’s failure to go metric, and it all becomes clear.

Protectionism is required to keep 20th century industry moving.  The petroleum powered car has reached its climax. It peaked about 4 years ago, and is now being replaced with cheap electric vehicles, in particular from China.  A return to a past era is promoted, “make America great again” sums up this desire.

Small business will not be returning, without a massive crisis.  The companies are all in trusts, monopoly or duopoly are the real conditions.  These same conditions create a class of people who own little or no real property, they do not own the means of production.  They are wage labor,  they work part of the day for these large companies and are not paid for their labour.  Rather surplus value is created.  This surplus value is created any time productive labor is employed.  And it increases as industry grows larger, more concentrated.  

These old industries were all created to make surplus value, essentially profit.  The whole pattern of industry and society  was shaped by them.  What will their end bring? 

Will the companies that were most responsible for capitalism, and its surplus value,  disappear?  Will surplus value go with these monopolies and trusts being dismantled?  It shouldn’t seem so ridiculous that with the failure of the 20th century non metric factories socialism is being discussed.  The ecological movement taught us about what forms of repression come with asking the bourgeoisie to clean up their act. How can you trust them to clean up the environment when they sell pollution on the market, as carbon credits?

As we slowly leave the 20th century, society is progressing.  Our reliance on petroleum is starting to end.  Will we leave what we know of as capitalism, when we are no longer reliant on these forms of industry?

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

Trump’s Economic Woes

~ nicholasjayboyes

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

~ nicholasjayboyes

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

Concentration and Consolidation of Ownership. Joint Stock Companies.

~ nicholasjayboyes

Try as they may, regardless of the size or sophistication of their latest technology, there is no changing material conditions.  Even with all the new weapons, the fact remains the companies are owned by a monopoly, a duopoly, or cartels.

Every crisis consolidates ownership further, as the companies concentrate ownership.  Often bought in crisis conditions, for ridiculously low prices, or merged by companies with larger wallets to absorb functioning capital, more and more joint stock companies dominate industry.  

It is rare now to have a large company not listed on the stock exchange, the center for trading of joint stock companies.  The days of an industry being private property of an individual have basically come to an end.  

With this change competition begins to fall behind making surplus value by setting prices due to monopoly.  When there are only a few large companies owning, say, electricity and gas, and distributing this gas to consumers on their own lines, it is not hard to see competition come to an end.

Wisconsin Gas and Electric produce all the electricity from power plants here Milwaukee Wisconsin, and also own the lines for transmission of high voltage to Milwaukee.  They also own the gas lines, and distribution facilities, including pipelines.  There is no alternative source in any sense, and short of cutting your own wood, the houses are all gas burning forced air heating.  Solar is still prohibitively expensive, and Wisconsin Gas and Electric do not pay for excess production from solar generation in homes.   

This has been building for some time.  It is a common feature of industry to become concentrated in a few hands, often in the form of monopolies.  They set prices as they control the production facilities, the distribution,the lines etc., and do not practice competition.  

The days of competition regulating the price of major commodities is rapidly fading.  The grocery stores are now all consolidated into huge markets, dominated by WalMart, Kroger, Albertsons, and Costco.  Smaller family owned stores are becoming rare, only for an item or two needed between visits to the big stores.  Kroger and Albertsons attempted a merger, which looks like a failure, but would have meant about half of grocery stores would have been controlled by WalMart and Kroger Albertsons combined as one company.

The largest computers cannot stop the consolidation of industry, the growth of joint stock companies and monopoly conditions. It is a built in condition of late capitalism, described by Friedrich Engels in Anti Duhring in the 1890’s; the growth of joint stock companies, and concentration and consolidation of industry. here is a quote

T0″he period of industrial high pressure, with its unbounded inflation of credit, not less than the crash itself, by the collapse of great capitalist establishments, tends to bring about that form of socialization of great masses of means of production which we meet with in the different type of joint stock companies. Many of these means of production are, from the outset, so colossal that , like the railways, they exclude all other forms of capitalistic exploitation. At a further stage of evolution this form also becomes insufficient. The producers on a large scale in a particular branch of industry in a particular country unite in a “Trust”, a union for the purpose of regulating production. They determine the total amount to be produced, parcel it out among themselves, and thus enforce the selling price fixed beforehand. But trusts of this kind, as soon as business becomes bad, are generally liable to break up, and on this very account compel a yet greater concentration of association. The whole of the particular industry is turned into a gigantic joint stock company; internal competition gives place to internal monopoly of this one company. This has happened in 1890 with the English alkali production, which is now, after the fusion of 48 large works, in the hands of one company, conducted on a single plan, with a capital of &6,000,0000.”

“In the trusts, freedom of competition changes to its very opposite- into monopoly; and the production without any definite plan of capitalistic society capitulates to the production a definite plan of the invading socialistic society. Certainly this is so far still to the benefit of the capitalists. But in this case the exploitation is so palpable that it must break down, No nation will put up with production conducted by trusts, with so barefaced an exploitation of the community by a small band of dividend mongers.”

Anti Duhring First wellread books edition 2017

Part 3 socialism II Theoretical p. 329

Which is optimistic that a society will not tolerate trusts and monopolies, which is precisely what we have learned to do. The important part is trusts and monopoly were recognized by Engels as being the dominant form of capitalism.

This was published in 1890. Vladimir Lenin published Imperialism, the Highest Form of Capitalism, in 1916. Clearly Lenin agreed with Engels, and developed this idea further.

It is all connected, and the presence of these monopolies looks unlikely to change.  Internet service is also dominated by two large companies, one of which has been the subject of antitrust activity, American Telephone Telegraph, AT&T.  The only choice is Charter, also called Spectrum, and these companies cooperate to keep the price of internet at a set price, by removing, for instance, subsidies by the state to keep the price of internet low for seniors.  There is AT&T again controlling prices; last time it was their long distance telephone service, broken up by congress, resulting in the baby Bells.

Computers are dominated by Apple, who produce most often computers used in homes. International Business Machines, IBM, is no longer a competitor of home computers to Apple, who are close to monopoly.  Google as the search engine, also a monopoly, caps off much of our computing.

This list could continue, but I think I have made my point.  Consolidation and concentration of ownership into joint stock companies, often exerting monopoly power, is a fixture of modern capitalism.  Rarely it is addressed as antitrust by capitalists who want to artificially change what is a dominant feature of capitalism, to control the market by monopoly.

Every capitalist wants to drive his competitor out of business.  When they are successful at this, they control the market, competition ends, and they then set prices for the commodity they control. It seems to be universal; there are no sectors of the economy left untouched by consolidation of ownership. Breaking them up is only a temporary fix, AT&T for instance is now back to its old self again, in a duopoly of internet service with Charter, as they own the fiber optic cables. Antitrust activity towards AT&T, breaking up the long distance telephone to the baby Bells, did not stop AT&T from again attempting to set prices by control of markets,this time in internet transmission .

This system is a form of capitalism referred to as imperialism in the late 19th century and early 20th century by Friedrich Engels, and later by Vladimir Lenin. It was becoming more obvious then that joint stock companies would dominate capitalism, and consolidation of ownership would only continue.  

Names like J Peirpont Morgan, and his domination of 20th century large scale industry, is a case study in the growth of monopolies and trusts. By the early to mid 20th century Morgan’s empire included railroads, Steel production (US Steel), General Electric, AT&T…. Morgan personified the bourgeoisie of the 20th century, with control of markets for just about every large industry.  

When the next crisis comes the trend will no doubt continue. Capitalism is at the  stage where competition is becoming rare, only lasting a few years in a new industry, until monopoly control and joint stock ownership is achieved. Crisis comes and ownership is consolidated further, the likes of which are a recurrent theme in capitalism. It seems unlikely this will end without leaving capitalism, antitrust does not deter companies from concentration ownership of the means of production (like AT&T) from continuing to exert monopoly power over the industries they own, it just sets them back a decade or so.  It is just way too tempting to remove competition by these capitalists , and set prices.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

1 4 2025

revised 9 16 2025

From the Archive: Historical Points on the Ecological Era. Afghanistan War Remembered 3 Years Later

~ nicholasjayboyes

Events in Afghanistan as the Army Leaves There 8 14 2021

As Joseph Biden prepares to completely leave Afghanistan on the 31st of August, 2021, the Taliban has made enormous gains in placing areas under their control. The major cities are falling daily, the Taliban now close to conquering Kabul, the largest city and the Capital.

Biden has said ““One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” Biden added.” in the Washington Post.

It is a bold move to end the 20 year long war, started by Republican George Bush II. It’s been a Republican war, with Donald Trump pumping up the air war, like George Bush II did. Barack Obama did keep the war effort going; but it was something he inherited from George II. Under his rule they got Bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks on the New York skyscrapers. They found him in Pakistan, living comfortably in a modest house with a garden. He was killed by the Americans, mostly as revenge. But the war was started by George II, and perpetuated by Trump.

Since the start of the war, there was always the question of what the goals were. It was for capitalism, obviously, but it was never really enunciated clearly, as it was in Iraq. There it was nationalized oil, which was an accomplishment of the Baath Socialist Party. Thus overthrow the government, and get the wells back under Exxon Mobil and Chevron making a profit again. The invasion of Kuwait started with the wells there being nationalized by Saddam Hussein. The goals were clear, not to allow for the petroleum to be the property of the Iraqi people through nationalized ownership, as they were under the Baath Party.

But Afghanistan always sort of looked like revenge. Why was it necessary for George II to go to war? To get even with the Taliban for attacking New York, but it could have been handled differently with more level headed thinking. Iran is currently under American sanctions, and it drives them nuts. It can seriously hinder the regular functioning of the ruling class. Afghanistan could have simply been put under sanctions, until they gave up Bin Laden. It may have not been as severe a punishment viewed by all the world’s people, a message not to fight the Americans. But it may have averted what is now obviously becoming a military failure the minute the Afghans have to fight for themselves.

George II, like Donald Trump, did not command a majority in universal suffrage. Yet George II was fighting “dictatorship vs. democracy”. Trump too, often called his bourgeoisie “pro democracy”. This was connected to the 9/11 incident; the rest of the world did not see the legitimacy of George II as a leader of democracy, and someone attacked the country under his leadership. It was like Trump, everybody knew he did not command a majority, yet we were all expected to go along with it.

It was George II’s war, he was a “war president”. The Republican bourgeoisie he represented should be remembered as having started the war, Biden’s liberal progressive bourgeois the end of it.

The Taliban came to power fighting the Soviet Union, and they were trained and armed by the Americans in the war against the Soviets. They found them in Pakistan’s religious schools, where the Taliban would claim their name from, Taliban means “student” in Pashtun. They were recruited to fight by the Americans, and they defeated the Russians.

The point is, the bourgeois taught these people how to fight, and they turned against them. Now it looks like the Americans and their NATO European Union support have also lost the war there. Kabul may fall shortly, as have Kandahar, Herat, etc. Short of something strange happening, Afghanistan is lost. The war is ending, without a victory for NATO or the Americans. No profit is going to be made there, the investment of a trillion dollars in the war effort there for 20 years is lost.

There are Republicans who still want to fight war there, but given the failure of the Afghan Army, it certainly looks like the only thing that was stopping the Taliban from taking power was the presence of the American Army there. The minute NATO and Americans pulled people out of there, the country started falling. They had 20 years to train the Afghans, would another 20 years be enough for them to take care of themselves?

Biden may be in favor of the Embargo against Cuba, and upset with China. But under his leadership the country is making a hard choice that Trump was unable to make; to extricate themselves from a conflict that they were not winning. Although not everybody agrees with it, he did attain the sanction of universal suffrage to govern, and it was his decision based on the will of the majority. Perhaps that above all else will be remembered in the end.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

8 14 2021

Here’s another one from the archive:

Afghanistan Falls to the Taliban 8 19 2021

On the 15th of August, 2021, America lost the war against Afghanistan. The largest city, the capital Kabul, fell to the Taliban. The rest of the country by this point was mostly under Taliban control, and the capital falling ended America’s 20 year war, which was a failure.

A nonessential evacuation order (NEO) followed, with a scene resembling the fall of Saigon, an airlift operation from the airport in Kabul. The rush of thousands of Afghans and others attempting to board aircraft to escape resulted in several deaths, with some clinging to military aircraft during takeoff.

About a day later, the military part of the airport was up and running again, with a few thousand Army men guarding the retreating Americans. The press was able to exit, and a few thousand Americans, some diplomats.

Ashraf Ghani, the hand picked diplomat who was running the government, fled to the United Arab Emirates, where he is currently. He fled the country as the government fell, NATO and the American’s leader who was responsible for Afghanistan.

Joseph Biden joins the ranks of Harry Truman, who lost in Korea, John F. Kennedy, who failed to stop the Cuban revolution, and Gerald Ford, who saw the loss of Vietnam. The repeated failure of the Army to win victories against people in the developing world, in this case against a group with no aircraft, in the face of a massive aerial bombing campaign, showed again the weakness of the bourgeoisie, unable to stop peasants after 20 years and more than a trillion dollars spent, on the Afghan Army.

For years we were used to hearing the desperation of the Taliban, when the Americans were losing it was due to suicide bombers, etc. The way it looks now is the minute they started pulling out the men, which Donald Trump had originally agreed to, but could not as he was not elected, Biden was instead, and Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. If anything Biden delayed the inevitable; Trump said May 20th the war would end, BIden was 2 months later.

Yet the Republicans, and some Democrats, are suggesting this was Biden’s fault, that he misled the people by ending war there. We all know Trump’s agreements were often lies, that he often said he would do something, then failed to carry out his decisions; that things would have looked different if Joseph Biden had not commanded a majority of 7 million votes to Trump.

The only difference would have been we all know Trump was lying when he agreed to remove the American Army on May 20th.

Joe Biden stuck to his word, and honored the agreement, and the rest is history. Biden’s decision was a courageous one, standing up the Pentagon in a war started by Republicans under George Bush II, continued by Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The bourgeois finally had to admit the war was costing them men, and was not returning treasure or profits. Even if there was victory, Afghanistan would never have brought the Americans the trillion dollars they spent there in the war. The people they had in their proxy army were mostly illiterate, some even had trouble taking basic commands, like adding up numbers.

Like Vietnam, the airlift is bringing back the bourgeoisie and their supporters from the Kabul airport, many lucky to have saved the skin on their backs. It is not clear how long the Nonessential Evacuation Order will take to be completed, perhaps until the Taliban have had enough. There are still thousands of people trying to fly out of Kabul, and only the military side of the airport is still flying.

It remains to be seen if this is a once in a generation spectacle. Syria was also lost, although it was not as clear looking. Trump had bombed Syria many times, and the Americans are not in control of Syria, Bashar Assad is still in power. They always said removal of Assad was the goal of the Army being deployed there. Another failure, although a slower less sensational one.

The war this time lasted 20 years, the longest yet, only to result in a loss. It must be quite demoralizing, to have lost thousands of men and a trillion dollars, in a small country without even an air force. George II got them into it, and was unable to win; Obama inherited what looks now like a hopeless battle from George II. It was remarkable it lasted this long, the pandemic made fighting in a conflict overseas without vaccinations, Trump’s predicament, impossible to maintain. Even with vaccines, the virus is still spreading, and more than 600,000 people in America have died from Covid 19. The military is just now starting to receive orders to vaccinate all their people. Not good conditions to be tooling around the other side of the world trying to stop peasant rebellion.

The blame lies with the first efforts to support the Taliban against the Soviet Union, which they won. But look what was left behind, the Taliban in power. The same group they armed and trained overthrew their American supported government. The rest of the blame lies with the Republican bourgeoisie, who chose war over sanctions when the skyscrapers were attacked in 2001.

They did get Bin Laden, but revenge was the main motive keeping the conflict going. With only capitalism the motive for fighting, things finally came to a head in August of 2021, when the Army they created was conquered, mostly without even a fight. The flight of Ashraf Ghani to the UAE symbolically ended the foreign invasion of Afghanistan.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

8 19 2021

Wait there’s more:

The American Occupation of Afghanistan Ends 8 30 2021

The last flight left Afghanistan loaded with the soldiers, ending almost exactly 20 years of war. The pictures of the helicopters evacuating the diplomats from the rooftop a powerful symbol of the end of American intervention in Afghanistan.

It was the second superpower to lose a war there in less than 50 years. First it was the Soviet Union that was removed from Afghanistan in 96’ by the Taliban, with American assistance. They supported the rebels who fought the war against the Communist Party there, and successfully removed the government the Soviet Union had established there.

The same Taliban would refuse to surrender Bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks in 2001 that struck the skyscrapers in New York. Bin Laden, who came from a royal family in Saudi Arabia, would eventually be caught in Pakistan, although at some point he was living in Afghanistan, according to the Americans.

America’s longest war would last 20 years, cost trillions of dollars, yet end in a retreat from the last remaining enclave of control, the Kabul airport. They airlifted a little over 100,000 people in a period of a few weeks; the spectacle of thousands of Afghans who got on the tarmac was another memorable event, much like the airlift from Saigon in 1975.

They got most of the Americans out, anyone left is now on their own in an Afghanistan no longer under the Americans and NATO. The last of the diplomats left, their embassy shuttered, its contents destroyed in order to keep it secret from the Taliban.

The agreement Donald Trump made with the Taliban to leave and end the war was accomplished by Joseph Biden, something that escaped the former, who tried to suggest if he won the election the soldiers would stop fighting by May. We all know Trump was notorious for lying, we came to expect it in the 4 years he was in power. The epitome of Trump lying was his suggestion that the landslide victory of Biden by 7 million votes in suffrage was a fraud. There are still some believers who think someone like me would vote twice.

Voting twice is fraud, Punishment for fraud includes the following: Jail or Prison sentence: A misdemeanor conviction could carry a sentence of up to a year in a local jail, while a felony conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years in federal prison. How would you like to have that on your criminal record? You would never get a job again. The idea that there were thousands of Milwaukeeans who voted twice is being entertained by the State Legislature here of late. Although Joe Biden was preferable to Trump, finding even a dozen ballots cast twice simply has not happened.

The point is we were used to the Republican bourgeoisie and their bold faced lies, and the argument seems to be that Trump would have changed his mind and the Taliban would not have taken power.

So here we are again, like lifting the mask mandates, something the Republicans said they wanted, a May 20th return of the Army home from Afghanistan they are now rejecting. The Covid 19 pandemic continues, the reactionaries afraid that getting vaccinated is really a shot that is going to affect your mind, and you will start liking Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

So here we go again, their own decisions resulting in reality. The pandemic is raging in the South, more than a thousand dead a day; Florida, Texas, Alabama etc. the epicenters of the Delta variant of Covid, due to the politicization of masks and vaccination by the Republicans,

All Biden did is do what Trump told us he wanted to do, like stopping mask mandates, ending the war, etc. It’s been their own decisions that have gotten them to where they are today, there is noone to blame but themselves.

And it was the Republican bourgeoisie who were in power when the war started, under similar conditions. Like Donald Trump, George Bush II did not command a majority in universal suffrage, yet it was “democracy vs dictatorship” in Iraq and Afghanistan. George II could have simply applied trade sanctions on Afghanistan, until they gave up Bin Laden.

Instead 20 years, trillions of dollars, and no treasure returning, American companies making a profit by employing Afghan workers, etc.

They taught the Taliiban how to overthrow the government when they fought the Soviet Union. They won, but in time the knowledge they gave them came back to haunt the Americans. The Taliban, armed with no airplanes; only guns, rocket launchers, and landmines have overthrown what was once a superpower. The nuclear weapons did not help them, or the night vision goggles, stealth aircraft, etc.

The Taliban are not a western movement. The ideas they have did not agree with the Soviet Union either. Are we really to believe that Nato and the Americans value the rights of women more than the Soviets did?

Yet the more liberal ideas of the west are trumpeted as what was lost to the Taliban. They could have just left Russia in control of Afghanistan and the rights of women if anything would be better than what the occupation brought. Equality was a value of the communists the Taliban removed in 96”.

We will soon see what the effects of this loss of territory means to places still occupied, like Iraq. If the oil gets nationalized again we will know for sure they lost. When ExxonMobil and Shell no longer pump the oil there will be no treasure returning home to American capitalists. Departures from bourgeois society such as industry capable of making profit that is not owned by capitalists always proves to be controversial.

It is not clear what Afghanistan is moving towards with the removal of Russia first than the Americans. But it was the fault of the bourgeoisie they are where they are today.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

8 30 2021

Profit and Taxes.  Wages and Profit. 

~ nicholasjayboyes

Profit and Taxes.  Wages and Profit. 

Wages are the lowest that can be paid, remaining socially acceptable.  The unpaid section of the workday, the surplus value, essentially what profit, is where taxes are divided off from. Escaping from this reality seems to be what is desired now, by cutting taxes for the wealthy.

If you cut taxes from profit and shift it directly on the workers back,. the taxes still have to be paid for. Workers work longer hours, what Marx referred to as increasing the absolute surplus value.  But this too runs into resistance, as there are laws about how many hours workers are supposed to be able to work, 8 hours is the current one.

You have to work them overtime to make up for the loss of wages due to the tax   

Longer hours, a wage cut…  It makes one wonder where the support for this is coming from.

Privations by the proletariat would seem to be coming.  You cannot simply raise the amount of profit.  If you lower the amount of the taxes from profit the taxes have to come from somewhere.  

And as the only thing that creates profit is labour,: lowering taxes on the wealthy is the same thing as increasing the profit kept by the capitalist at the workers expense.  

Either the taxes are coming from the form of profit, or from making the worker privy to part of what was taken as surplus value directly by his employer by charging him yearly, like property taxes, or printing it on the paycheck as a deduction, it still comes from the worker. In either case, divided off of profit, or shifted on to the worker, the surplus value flows into the state.

The bourgeoisie claims the tax money as their own. Obviously for them it is part of their profit. State industry does not make a profit.  It is privatized when it can make a profit, we saw this with recycling.  Waste Management now runs the sorter. Money for the state can only come from taxes.

The wealthy can only cut taxes by increasing privations from its workers.  Surplus value from the worker is needed to maintain the capitalist state.  It is a bourgeois fantasy to massively defund the state. Perhaps some of the savings will come from the prisons, police, etc. whose social function becomes clear during unrest. Like that is going to happen. The whole purpose of the state from its inception is to keep the classes divided.

Perhaps it is more palatable to the bourgeoisie to consider taxing workers directly rather than making a profit and dividing it off to pay for the state.  But in the end, it is all the labor of the workers that has to pay this, out of the surplus value they have created thorough exploitation of their labour.

Nicholas Jay Boyes   

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic