The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

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Have you ever listened to the lyrics?


(See 50 years later version below.)

If you see something that looks like a star
And it’s shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just can’t escape from the sound
Don’t worry, it’s alright, it’ll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys

And the sound that you’re hearing is only the sound
Of the low spark of high-heeled boys
The percentage you’re paying is too high-priced
While you’re living beyond all your means
The man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he’s made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn’t make any noise
And it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest
Was the low spark of high-heeled boys

If you had just a minute to breathe
They granted you one final wish
Would you ask for something like another chance?
Or something similar to this?
Don’t worry it’s alright, it’ll happen to you
As sure as your sorrows are joys

And the sound that you’re hearing is only the sound
Of the low spark of high-heeled boys

The percentage you’re paying is too high-priced
While you’re living beyond all your means
The man in the suit has just bought a new car
And the profit he’s made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn’t make any noise
And it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest was
Was the low spark of high-heeled boys

If I gave you everything that I owned
And asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you
Or take me for a ride?
And strip me of everything including my pride
Spirit is something nothing can destroy

And the sound that I’m hearing is only the sound
Of the low spark of high-heeled boys
Heeled boys
Heeled boys
Heeled boys
Heeled boys

AI Is Just Not Ready And The Bubble Will Pop

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The following experience reflects many experiences I have had using AI. I keep trying again because I’m a long-time techie so I am ever-hopeful that “tech will save us,” and because once in a while it actually does do something better than I could have done it myself. That one time buys another 5 or 6 unsuccessful tries.

I decided to try out something AI is supposed to be really good at. I asked Gemini “What Cambridge restaurants are open on Christmas day?” (I live outside of Cambridge, UK now.) It searched for a while, and found 9. But I knew of one that was for sure open, and asked, “Are there any others? What about The Boot?” It replied “Yes, I can confirm that The Boot is planning to be open, and I found another restaurant as well.” It then gave me an updated list.

So I gave up and started searching the internet myself and found a few more.

Efficient? Time-Saving? Not Ready For Public Use

If this is supposed to be “efficient” or “time-saving” … it isn’t. It wasted my time and made me less “productive” not more.

As I said, this experience reflects so many of the experiences I have had. And as I said, once in a while it can be great. But it just is not ready for public use, and seriously should not be out there in public because sometimes it is dangerously wrong and people are trusting it.

We’re In A Bubble That Will Pop

A lot of people warn that stocks are experiencing an AI bubble and the world’s economies are at risk if (when) this bubble collapses. But some (are paid to) say AI is “for real” so these astronomical valuations are just fine. (“This time it’s different.”)

Why are the tech oligarchs so wealthy that they can throw hundreds of billions into AI? Why are they allow to have these monopolies? Why are they inflicting obviously harmful tech on US? Why has the stock market been able to inflate so enormously?

It’s Corruption

Why hasn’t the government stepped in to protect the public? Because of corruption.

Techies are wealthy because of this corruption and there is this corruption because the tech bros are so wealthy. The wealthy techies are paying politicians, parties and regulators (“governments”) not to “interfere” and protect the public from what they are doing.

Everyone sees this. Everyone understands this. No one seems to be able to do anything about it.

Paid-off governments won’t enforce antitrust rules. Paid-off governments won’t regulate tech. Paid-off governments refuse to tax the wealthy and their corporations. And paid-off politicians and parties and regulators certainly won’t do anything to stop the flow of cash and perks they are receiving.

PS The Boot Is Really Good

The Boot, in Histon, is really good. But the best restaurant in Cambridge is The Dumpling Tree. I’m not just saying that, it really is that good. But is isn’t open on Christmas.
 

War Isn’t Murder – Jesse Welles

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War isn’t murder, good men don’t die
Children don’t starve and all the women survive
“War isn’t murder, ” that’s what they say
When you’re fighting the Devil, murder’s okay
War isn’t murder, they’re called casualties
There ain’t a veteran with a good night’s sleep

Let’s talk about dead people
I mean a-dead people
The dead don’t feel honor
They don’t feel that brave
They don’t feel avenged
They’re lucky if they got graves

Call your dead mother, ask her when she died
It’s a deathly silence on the other line
The dead don’t talk, but the children don’t forget
So in 20 short years, you could live to regret that

War isn’t murder, there’s money at stake
Girl, even Kushner agrees it’s good real estate
War isn’t murder, ask Netanyahu
He’s got a song for that and a bomb for you
War isn’t murder, it’s an old desert faith
It’s a nation-state sanctioned, righteous hate

Let’s talk about dead people
I mean a-dead people
War isn’t murder, it’s the vengeance of God
If you can’t see the bodies, they don’t bloat when they rot
And the flies don’t swarm, and the children don’t cry
If war isn’t murder, good men don’t die
So in a short 20 years, when you vacation the Strip
Don’t think about the dead and have a nice trip

War isn’t murder, we should all give thanks
I saw it all in a movie, give it up for Tom Hanks
War isn’t murder, they don’t ship out the poor
And the bullets they fire aren’t part of the cure
War isn’t murder, land is a right
But the banks called dibs, it’s something you can’t fight

Let’s talk about dead people
I mean a-dead people
The dead don’t feel honor
They don’t feel that brave
They don’t feel avenged
They’re lucky if they got graves

War isn’t murder, ain’t a river of blood
Stretching all-through time and raining down in a flood
It’s a dark sacrifice, made on your behalf
So get down on your knees and thank the sweet Lord that
War isn’t murder

Who Will Stand With Us?

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For No Kings Day. (Lyrics below video.)

Throughout centuries in every country
We’ve faced the wrath and felt the pain
Of the tyrant’s sword or the henchman’s boot
For another rich man’s gain
In the endless quest for wealth and power
They stomp us down with great disdain
Beneath the false god’s banner
In the name of all that’s vain

Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
To the bosses and bankers
Who never gave their share
Of any blood
Of any sweat
Of any tears

Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gain

So tell me
Who will stand with us?
And as time rolls on
Not a single thing has changed
The wealth gap’s only grown
As we all point the blame
We’re at the throats of one another
Though we share a single fate
And the golden few laugh on and on
As we all take the bait

Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
To the bosses and bankers
Who never gave their share
Of any blood
Of any sweat
Of any tears

Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gain

So tell me
Who will stand with us?
Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gains
So tell me
Who will stand with us?
So tell me
Who will stand with us?

American Media Asymmetry

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There are things the American public just can’t be told. Here are a few examples.

Universal healthcare, like Medicare-for-All, would dramatically reduce American healthcare costs.

Cutting government spending usually just shifts costs onto the public or other government departments, and almost always increases those costs well beyond what was being spent before the cuts.

Immigrants are good for the economy — and also are human beings.

Taxing the rich to get money FROM the rich would mean the govt stops “borrowing” from the rich and forever after paying interest TO the rich. (It could also begin to address the problem of inequality if taxation levels are high enough.)

Renewables like wind and solar reduce energy costs while oil companies create life-threatening pollution and receive massive subsidies.

Joining a labor union brings tremendous benefits to workers. It increases their pay and benefits. It helps prevent mistreatment on the job.

These are just a few of the things you don’t hear in American “news” outlets.

The Real AI Question: Who Benefits?

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Here’s a different question about AI. Suppose it does what is promised, and does greatly increase productivity, and does bring all kinds of benefits. Who will gain from that? Will those benefits be shared? Will there be 3-day workweeks of 6 hours a day? 6-week vacations?

How Did Trade Work Out For Us?

Think about how it worked out with trade. Economists will explain that trade brings all kinds of benefits. One huge benefit was supposed to come from moving the worst jobs to places where people really need work, so the labor force is freed up to take on higher-level, higher-paid work, and the people on the other side of the trade border who needed jobs now have jobs. Over time this moves around the world lifting everyone. The same was supposed to be true about other benefits and gains from trade.

Democracies Would Make Sure Benefits Were Shared

But the economists assumed that everyone would benefit because democracies would make sure everyone shared those benefits. Why else would a democracy allow factories to close and imports to replace goods made at home? Why else would a democracy allow jobs to be sent away?

What Really Happened?

What really happened? The democracies were “captured” and instead of protecting the public government power protected the few at the top who had done the capturing. Jobs were moved out, factories were closed, and people were just laid off (too bad so sad here’s some Oxycontin). Unions were broken. Entire “rust belt” regions were utterly devastated. The middle class was forced downwards, while income and wealth shifted upward.

Here Comes AI

So now AI threatens to accelerate those changes. Democracy is gone and we all know the gains from AI won’t be shared. Instead AI will be used to force more and more people out of work, their wages instead going to a top few. This will further increase centralized power and wealth at the very top.

There Can Be Only One

This increasing concentration will accelerate and become a winner-take-all game. The oligarchs all understand this process of concentration, and are racing to be the winner in the AI race — to be the one person who gets it all. Literally all.

Hence the massive investment into AI we are seeing. Hence the bubble. It’s like nothing else matters.

Nothing Else Matters

It doesn’t matter to the massively-wealthy what happens when the bubble bursts. They understand this is about being the ONE person in control of what happens and who won’t be destroyed. They even say it – if AI becomes superintelligent they want to be the ONE person controlling that. And the current “system” is set up – by them – to let that happen.

That’s why they have rigged the system to keep We the People from stopping them.

Chemtrails

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Atrios makes a great point about right-wingers. You can’t appease them because they’re nuts. They’ll always want more.

Florida passed a law banning airplanes from spreading chemtrails (plus 7 other Republican states – so far). But people look up and still see the vapor trails from planes!!!

Lesson to learn: When they get done removing all the “illegals” (crossing the border is a misdemeanor) They will STILL see people who “don’t look like us” and that huge ICE apparatus they’re building will go to work on the rest of the population, until only the “pure” remain.

Chemtrails

The dangers of indulging the fantasies of the crazies.Since the state law went into effect, the Floridians who backed it have grown increasingly angry by seeing the skies just as marked by white trails as they were prior to the state law.

Here’s a smattering of irate posts on X in the two months since the state law went into effect:

— “Yes, the spraying has taken place every single day since the Ban was put in place!”

— “The invasion continues. Florida skies are under constant attack.”

— “DeSantis, why do you lie? Why do you say that you signed a Florida Bill getting rid of these hideous chemtrails, and it is all a fat big LIE?”

— “Welcome to Florida, the chemtrails state. Now we are being sprayed from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m., so by 10 a.m. the skies are cleared but you are breathing heavy metals. Thank you DeSantis.”

— “See how the chemicals are spreading out. Trees are dying, crops are barely growing. Why is our government doing this to us?”

By humoring Florida’s free-dumb coalition on chemtrails, state lawmakers have unleashed a tornado of disappointment upon themselves.While not precisely the same, there is a lesson here about trying to give anti-immigration zealots something you can’t give them. They don’t want cuts to illegal immigration or even legal immigration.

They want you to send them all back again, and if you can’t provide that, they won’t be happy. They will vote for the people who they think might.

Stop negotiating with the imaginary Reasonable Republican in your head, imagining that surely this compromise will appeal to them, because it’s very sensible. Reasonable Republicans don’t exist, and they haven’t agreed to your compromise.

Twenty-Third Blog Birthday

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This is the 23rd birthday of Seeing the Forest’s first post.

On July 17, 2002 the post Seeing the Forest explained,

Recent polls show that the public is blaming Clinton for the business scandals, and Bush’s popularity remains astronomical. That’s a tree.

Let’s see if we can see the forest. Look back to the 2000 election. Step back and look at the candidates.

The Democrat’s candidate was a well respected, well liked, extremely experienced, Vietnam vet, former seminary student, character beyond reproach, faithfully married family man, foreign policy expert, with many accomplishments including being the person in the Congress most responsible for advancing the Internet… The Republicans ran a foul-mouthed thoroughly inexperienced scandal-ridden (Harken oil, Rangers stadium, recipient of bribes directed at his father) failed businessman, continuously bailed out of jams by his father’s connections, draft-dodger (worse, he got into the Nat. Guard through connections and then played hooky!), former drunk, probable drug-user, kids constantly in trouble, with a campaign entirely financed by large corporations obviously looking for favors.

But by election time the only issue was “character”, and the character in question was the Democratic candidate’s! That’s the forest.

Issues like the “Love Canal story” and “I invented the Internet” were trees. The forest was how they pulled it off – the smears, the propaganda blitz, the way they spread their message and the way people hear messages these days.

With this weblog I’ll be writing about this issue, seeing the forest for the trees.

American Manufacturing Was Sold Off For Profit

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China didn’t “take” America’s manufacturing jobs, greedy American investors and executives sold America’s farm and ate the seed corn. Same in the UK.

Paul Waldman writes about woodworking tools, in A Trump Tariff Case Study: Can the U.S. Again Be the Power Tool King? at The New Republic.

My DeWalt 20-volt cordless drill/driver combo set is a beaut—powerful, smooth, comfortable in the hand, and not too expensive; I got it on sale for about a hundred bucks. It’s also a tribute to the wonders of the transnational supply chain, its components traversing the earth before they came together and found their way to my door. The drill and driver were made in Mexico, but their batteries were made in China, as were the battery charger and the handy tote bag that came with it. DeWalt, a brand familiar to every woodworker and DIY enthusiast, is a division of Stanley Black & Decker, a global conglomerate headquartered in Connecticut that owns brands including Craftsman, Porter-Cable, Bostitch, and many others.

He writes about how tools once made in the US by American companies are now made elsewhere by international companies, why this is, and what it might take to bring the factories back. He nails it, just spot-on: Manufacturing ecosystems, the cost of bringing it back, the jobs that were good in the past. “(M)any started as American companies but are now part of multinational corporations.” “Unfortunately, there are serious impediments to achieving reindustrialization on a large scale, and Trump’s policies are just about the worst way to go about it.” “We could rebuild those manufacturing ecosystems in the U.S., but we can’t just wish it into existence.” “In fact, this entire debate seems animated by a vision of a bygone time.”

Yep, he nails it. And, as we all know, it’s not just woodworking tools. It’s the same story for … everything.

Same In The UK

It’s the same here in the UK as well. Jaguar/Land Rover are now owned by an Indian company. Trains, water, Royal Mail, British Petroleum (BP), British Telecom (BT) and many other iconic, privatized “British” brands are no longer British-owned. All were sold off to international “investor” conglomerates so a few already-wealthy people could get even more wealthy, under an economic “ideology” (free markets) that was really just a cover story for selling the farm and eating the seed corn. And the public, struggling to get by, now flails around hoping Trump (and here, the Trumpy Reform party) will make good on his promise to “fix it.”

China Did Not “Take” Those Industries

“China” (generic term for “somewhere else”) didn’t “take” those industries. American and British “investors” and executives did that – literally sold out their countries – enabled by US/UK governments run by politicians elected with money that those executives and “investors” took out of their companies to buy the politicians, so they could personally obtain great wealth. They did it because they wanted cheap labor and a way around the pollution and worker safety rules that democracies insist on.

“China” understood what they were seeing and planned and executed a strategy to build their industrial base – as a country. They set up manufacturing zones and put in place everything needed — from local financing, to a modern power grid, to roads, to training centers, to supply chains, to places for workers to come live. Everything.

It was a “public/private partnership” between American executives and the Chinese government. Those exectives also took that ecosystem apart in the US, piece by piece, and it can’t easily be put back together. They sent away the “institutional memory” and “ecosystem” of supply chains and training centers… much like how the Trumpers are now doing the same to the US government itself.

Beyond Neoliberalism

Last week I stepped back into a past life and attended the opening of the “Beyond Neoliberalism” conference (https://beyond-neoliberalism.org/) because it was literally right down the street here in Cambridge UK. Oddly America-centric (and attended by lots of Americans I used to know) it began with a rousing 2.5 hour panel discussion (mostly Americans) on Industrial Policy under Biden. They said a lot of the things you nailed down in your piece.

Biden tried with his IRA to the extent the “system” would let him. Obama tried in tiny ways with his Smart Manufacturing “hub” concept, setting up labs – like a sensor testing lab in Lorain, Ohio around community colleges that would train people to work in the labs, etc. Same with a 3-D printing hub in Youngstown.

They tried. They failed. Now the US has Trump and likely soon the UK will have Farage.

Where Did Everyone’s Money Go? (Hint: We Know)

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At the very end of the 1970s the US economy changed. An economic ideology called “neoliberalism” took hold. That was the idea that markets are a better way to decide things, not voters. The idea that “taxes on the rich hurt the economy” was blasted everywhere. Business does things more efficiently than government. Etc. (Tell me if you haven’t heard these things.)

So big changes were made in the way the US economy worked. Taxes on the rich and corporations were dramatically slashed. Companies were “unleashed” through deregulation. Unions were broken. Pensions disappeared. Etc.

Results appeared quickly. All of a suddent the gains from the economy stopped being shared, and increasingly went to the top few. Over the years I have posted versions of this chart:

Where The Money Went

A study from the Rand Corporation (a research organization) shows were the gains from the economy – as shown in that chart above – went. Rand’s Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018 concludes that around $79 TRILLION that would have gone to working people instead went to the top 1%. That was 2018, seven years ago. Worse now.

Trump Isn’t The Collapse, Trump Is A Consequence Of The Collapse

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

People say America and its democracy are being collapsed by Trump. I have come to believe that what we have been calling “late-stage capitalism” was a system that had already collapsed.

Trump isn’t the collapse, Trump is the consequence of the collapse.

The Rule of Law had departed some time ago. The Constitutional system was nonfunctional. The economic system was rigged. The political system benefited only the wealthy and their corporations. That was collapse.

Accountability had long ago disappeared. (A pardon for Nixon? What?) Executives at corporations are never prosecuted. Instead the company itself would be fined – as if companies are sentient entities that can make decisions and do things. White-collar criminals were rarely prosecuted. This is how Trump was able to even be on the scene in the first place to run for office, instead of imprisoned for sex crimes, money laundering, fraud, etc.

The collapse was how Reagan was able to get away with the deal with Iran, and the later Iran/Contra deal.

The collapse was how the Supreme Court was able to make Bush president.

The collapse was how the Iraq War happened.

The collapse was how the climate crisis came about in the first place, how the companies were allowed to continue to put carbon into the air after scientists warned us of the harm it was causing, and how the executives at the companies that caused it got rich instead of being prosecuted.

The collapse was how tax cuts for the rich & corporations, with budget cuts for things government does to make people’s lives better happened.

The collapse was how no bankers were prosecuted for fraud after the financial collapse, and Wall Street but not the public was bailed out.

Rule of Law and accountability had long since disappeared from the United States. That was the collapse.

This wasn’t “late stage capitalism,” it was collapse.

People called these things “late stage capitalism.” This wasn’t late stage capitalism at all. We were already living with the collapse of the Constitutional system, the collapse of Rule of Law, the collapse of accountability. It was corruption taking over. It had been happening for decades.

Trump is just a consequence of that collapse.

In 2017’s Democracy and Corruption I wrote about “democracy off the rails” and democracy “corroded,” not realizing Trump was only possible was because the collapse had already happened.

Trump didn’t just come out of nowhere. The road to Trump goes back a long way. Trump comes out of a steady and intentional undermining of rule of law, norms, equality, civility and democracy.

They say these things happen slowly, then all at once. The collapse was happening for decades, then all at once with Trump.