Wednesday, 28 May 2025

THE FIVE FORCES FACING WESTERN PUBLICS

28 May 2025

The five forces threathening the future of western publics : 1. refusal to accept a multipolar world; 2. the consequences of unsustainable debt on interest payments, inflation, taxes and austerity; 3. hyper financiation or the reinvestment of the global south's profits into western assets, inflating their value and leaving the rich richer and the poor only with debt ie inequality as source of unrest; 4. the domination of western governments by corporate interests at the expense of the people; 5. democracy is bypassed as the elites kettle rhe people and condition the democratic process to their own ends, rather than respond to national needs for peace and prosperity.


It is a very good video, up until the end. It is the shocking truth. And Nader's remedy is? ... write a letter to your MP....perhaps I misheard.

Means, in effect, there's nothing we can do, f'ed everywhere you turn! The establishment itself is facing too many problems and so how can the people avoid being collateral damage to the elite's greed and fear?

1. MULITIPOLAR. Loss of hegemony and war everywhere you look - how to accept a mulipolar world & diffuse centres of power?

2. DEBT. Debt & now Trump adds more - how to pay the interest, how to roll over the short end or sell long term bonds, how to have bond markets accept coupons below inflation ( this is the only real way to pay down the debt), how to live within our means w/out tax hikes or austerity, how to avoid bloodbaths of civic non-acceptance of further solutions that continue to privilege the top few percent.?

3. HYPER-FINANCIALISATION. How to de-financialise... To explain...the US persuades the rest of the world from the 50s and 60s onwards to use the dollar for trade purposes, meaning that by the 1974 trade agreement with Saudi, to buy oil you need to first buy dollars. This created an unnatural demand for the dollar, pushing up its value, pushing down the competitiveness of US exports, obliging the US to export its manufacturing jobs to low cost countries eg China, and the condition was that the profits are reinvested in the US. 

The established elites will never willingly accept this, never! How to balance trade (the balance of payments deficit is the profit of the other end of the global supply chain, that they have up to now "lent" to the US for the safe and good returns, but the heightened demand for assets they invest in just inflates their value (hence the S&P at historic multiples of earnings) and who owns these assets...the elite...they see, their assets continue to increase in value while most people have only debt ?

4. AIPAC The jewish / zionist / corporate  lobby has its boot on the West's throat, how to free up our resources and energies for our own use?

5. DEMOCRACY. And finally, how can the people get the leadership the country as a whole needs?

The answers to these questions will not come from a better public relations strategy or a new centrist manifesto (that is binned anyway as soon as the section of the elite gets into power). They require rethinking everything: our economic logic, our global position, our idea of leadership, and our relationship with power itself. 

The West is not dying, but it is being reborn under pressure - the only real-world question is whether that rebirth will come through democratic renewal or systemic collapse.

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

WHY MACRON DESERVES A GOOD FACE-SLAPPING

27 May 2025


Yes, he's just an example of what's happened in Western democracies. He is a president without a people. He's a failure. He was elected on the hope that he would restore his country, but he now stays in power through manoeuvre and gambit. Just consider:

1. Democratic Arrogance ("Jupiterian Presidency")

Macron has cultivated a top-down, centralised style of governance. Critics call it "Jupiterian" - as if he's above democratic dialogue.

2. The 2024 Snap Election Gambit

His dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024, after the European election defeat, is widely seen as a reckless gambit.

Rather than stabilising the country, it led to political chaos, four Prime Ministers in one year, and a hung parliament.

3. Ignoring Electoral Outcomes

Despite electoral gains by both the left (NFP) and right (National Rally - le Pen), Macron swindled in a minority centrist government, where there should have been some form of coalition and certainly the "democratic barrage", as the establishment call it, put up against the "extreme" right, ditto, was clearly to out-manoeuvre democracy and the people's vote....Starmer's EU deBrexit same same - no authority for his actions = this is archetypal fascism, by definition - fascism is when the corporate world runs the government in its own interests and against those of the people.

4. Refusing to Appoint a Left-Wing Prime Minister

After the NFP won the most seats in the legislative election, Macron rejected their proposed PM (Lucie Castets) and delayed any decision...we talked about this here at the time

https://www.livingintheair.org/2024/06/parliamentaries-in-france-latest.html

https://www.livingintheair.org/2024/07/analysis-of-2024-french-election-results.html

Macron is simply obstructing democratic processes.

5. Rising Cost of Living, Debt, and Austerity

France’s public debt exceeds 112% of GDP, and Macron supports austerity-style reforms (notably pensions), rather than de-financialising the economy.

His handling of debt and budgets, including using Article 49.3 to bypass parliament, enraged most non-brain-dead.

6. Public Alienation and Social Unrest

2024 strikes restarted (after les gilets jaunes), street protests, and more n more mistrust of government and authority in general.

78% of the public believes France is going in the wrong direction, yet Macron continues to push his agenda.

7. Macron’s “Truce” During the Olympics

He delayed forming a new government until after the 2024 Olympics, widely interpreted as stalling, not statesmanship, creating a vacuum of leadership at a time of crisis.

Context

You know, thinking about it, in some ways, Macron is like all our other leaders. They just lack seriousness and gravitas - unlike the leaders that we had back in the 70s and 80s -  and I think it must be because of bad motivation. They are attracted to the job for the wrong at reasons.

What drove the people we had back in the 70s, and the 80s? They were serious-minded, polished politicians with a sense of duty and who led and developed a shared idea of the public interest and a common national destiny. This looks like another case of the downside of globalization and the increasing domination of Washington.

These days, if you look at the motivation, these people are motivated by money and the applause of a parent-type-figure - the deep state establishment who organise these things these days - by whom they are appointed, they have no internal civic drive of their own. They're just puppets of the establishment.

It's not right to blame "the people" by saying we get the politicians we deserve. I don't think that's fair.The fact of the matter is we have no choices and democracy is a poorly concealed sham.

Conclusion

He needs a public face-slapping, for his anti- democratic manoeuvering, his aloof style, and his policy decisions detached from public needs.



FYI

The bigger picture:

.https://www.youtube.com/live/aCpXRsssHZ0?si=7Xhtf7yPMJyNurHP

https://www.youtube.com/live/fxLgxSGe5sE?si=tHgHl1c2-cIkiMrX