The Core Flimflam

Both parties are run by elites. Both favor bigger government. And both are controlled by incompetents and liars. There’s a pattern to that too.

Monday, July 22, 2024 

Bill Bonner, writing today from Poitou, France

‘The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’ 

Antonio Gramsci, while imprisoned by Mussolini 

As expected, Biden has dropped out. 

Fox:  

President Biden announced Sunday that he will suspend his 2024 re-election campaign amid mounting pressure from his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill, top donors and Hollywood stars after a disastrous debate performance last month. 

One geezer gone. Another still in the race. 

The real surprise was not that he dropped out. It was that they let him run at all.  

Of course, the insiders knew it didn’t matter. Biden wasn’t really ‘running the country.’ He wasn’t coming up with ideas, plans or programs. He was just a standup... a cut-out... a suit... whose job was to keep the elites’ grift going. 

No vetoes on budget bills. No qualms about supporting murderous regimes and lost cause wars overseas. And no resistance to loading the next generation with deadhead debt. 

On none of those important matters did Joe Biden give the Establishment any cause for concern. He was a good politician.  He was bought.  He stayed bought.  He was one of them. He was their man in the White House. 

Kamala Harris? Just more proof that large-scale democracy is largely a fraud. Is she now the Democratic Party candidate for president because of her stellar record as a statesman... a scholar... a can-do politician... a captain of industry... a noted economist... a national healer... a Mandela... a Gandhi... a geo-strategist... a great general? 

Nah... her only real qualification is an accident of birth; she was available when the Democrats needed a Black/Asian/Indian/woman to show how progressive and inclusive they were.  

Placeholder

The individual dots don’t matter.  Democrats know they don’t need a real person…a real leader. They only need a placeholder... someone who will reliably champion their scams. It has nothing to do with the will of the people... nor with their well-being. Ms. Harris will do the job as well as anyone. 

For the benefit of new readers, the real goal of the elites — in a late, degenerate Empire — is to shift wealth and power from ‘The People’ to themselves. This applies to Republicans as well as Democrats. 

Both parties are run by elites. Both favor bigger government. And both are controlled by incompetents and liars. There’s a pattern to that too. You begin with Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Monroe...and you end up with ‘Dubya,’ Obama, Trump, Biden... and now... maybe Harris.  

And the only trouble with Donald Trump, in this regard, is that he is unreliable. In the four years he was President, he did nothing to interfere with the elites’ program. Au contraire! He actually increased government spending and debt at the fastest rate in Washington history. When he left town, Washington was more powerful than ever. And between him and Biden, the national debt increased an incredible $15 trillion since 2016.  

The Donald glories in making enemies and occasionally threatens to undo one of the elites’ prize swindles — such as NATO or the World Trade Organization. But he never challenges the core flimflam... cheap credit, excess spending, and war. 

There are nuances, of course. Donald Trump seems to want to turn China into the Great Bugaboo, rather than Russia. He’s proposing even stiffer tariffs than the Biden Team. And he has urged the Fed to avoid cutting rates until after the November election. He doesn’t want the economy to get a boost until he is in the White House.  

Then, it will be off to the races again... with lower rates, higher prices... and more debt. And none of them can be controlled. 

The ‘morbid symptoms’ will become more apparent.  

Regards, 

Bill Bonner 

PS You’ll find more on the megapolitical patterns of history in yesterday’s State of the World Private Briefing.