[Mileis victory is an international marker, of sorts, for
America’s billionaires and largest corporations, who share his
desire to end liberal democracy and the so-called “welfare
state”... ]
[[link removed]]

WHAT ARGENTINA’S NEW GRAND EXPERIMENT MEANS TO THE WORLD  
[[link removed]]


 

Thom Hartmann
November 22, 2023
The Hartmann Report
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Milei's victory is an international marker, of sorts, for
America’s billionaires and largest corporations, who share his
desire to end liberal democracy and the so-called “welfare
state”... _

Javier Milei,

 

I hope I’m wrong, but I think I just saw the future of America if
Republicans manage to sweep the 2024 elections, Trump or no Trump.

Argentina just embarked on a Grand Experiment, untried before in any
developed country in the world; it’s one that multiple
American billionaires have been pushing
[[link removed]] in
the US ever since David Koch ran for VP on the Libertarian ticket in
1980.

WHEN I ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT IN BUENOS AIRES ON SUNDAY MORNING THIS
WEEK, ELECTION DAY, I ASKED MY CAB DRIVER WHO HE’D BE VOTING FOR AND
WHY.

“Javier Milei,” he said without hesitation. “The current
government hasn’t done what they need to do about inflation.”

I ASKED HIM ABOUT THE LIBERTARIAN CONGRESSMAN’S (AND NOW NEWLY
ELECTED PRESIDENT’S) PLANS TO REPLACE THE NATIONAL “MEDICARE FOR
ALL” TYPE OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEM ARGENTINA HAS WITH AMERICAN-STYLE
PRIVATE, FOR-PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS THAT PEOPLE MUST FINANCE
OUT OF THEIR PAYCHECKS (IF THEY HAVE A JOB, OTHERWISE THEY’RE SOL);
TO END THE NATION’S FREE COLLEGES; AND HIS PLAN TO TURN ALL THE
NATION’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PRISONS OVER TO “ENTREPRENEURS” TO
RUN FOR PROFIT.

And what about his promise to end all government support for average
people, including disability payments, unemployment insurance, and all
forms of welfare? His saying
[[link removed]] that
abortion is murder and he’ll re-criminalize it, along with ending
women’s and queer rights?

He shrugged.

“Things can’t get any worse,” was his terse reply, adding that
he’s driving an airport car as a second job because inflation has
wiped out the income from his regular job. This working two and three
jobs, he said, has become common across the country.

Argentina has been suffering from an ongoing economic crisis for
decades, but it got really bad when the “currency crisis” hit the
nation in 2018 after they complied with IMF demands, wiping out half
the purchasing power of the peso virtually overnight.

MUCH LIKE THE UNITED STATES, UP UNTIL THE 1960S ARGENTINA HAD A TOP
INCOME TAX BRACKET OF 90%
[[link removed]],
WHICH STABILIZED THE ECONOMY AND PREVENTED MASSIVE WEALTH INEQUALITY.
SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS, INCLUDING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP, CUT
THAT DOWN TO 35%, LIKE TODAY’S US, WITH ENOUGH LOOPHOLES THAT, LIKE
AMERICA, MOST BILLIONAIRES PAY VIRTUALLY NOTHING.

Like the US, they also cut
[[link removed]] taxation
on capital gains (although they’ve taken them all the way down to
zero), giving a huge boost to Argentina’s morbidly rich and
stripping massive amounts of revenue from the federal government.

Their draconian tax cuts, like Reagan’s, drove huge federal
deficits. Right wingers, citing the deficits, demanded cuts in social
programs, but, until now, weren’t successful in gutting Social
Security and other social programs in either country.

IN PART, BECAUSE THE US DOLLAR IS THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY, WE
CAN SELL DEBT (TREASURIES) TO FINANCE OUR DEFICITS; ARGENTINA HAS A
MUCH HARDER TIME, BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE USES THE PESO AND INTERNATIONAL
INVESTORS ARE WARY, SO THEY’VE BEEN PURSUING A POLICY OF PRINTING
MONEY AND BORROWING FROM THE IMF, WHICH HAS DEBASED THEIR CURRENCY
LEADING, IN PART, TO TODAY’S MASSIVE INFLATION.

Inflation this year has been over 100%, exacerbated by previous
presidents experimenting with neoliberalism as demanded by the IMF,
irresponsible borrowing, along with several years of climate
change-induced drought 
[[link removed]]which
have badly damaged Argentina’s agricultural production, driving up
food prices.

Milei’s opponent in Sunday’s runoff election was the nation’s
finance minister, so he took much of the blame for the state of things
while Milei — often referred to as “Argentina’s Trump” because
he’s a wealthy former TV star, tantric sex instructor
[[link removed]],
and crackpot economist with no governmental experience other than his
first year in parliament — promised to dump the rapidly devaluing
peso and replace it with the US dollar. (He campaigned carrying around
a chainsaw, saying he was going to take it to “welfare,” the
“deep state,” and the nation’s social programs.)

When Milei won the top slot in the runoff election a few months ago,
his victory caused the peso to fall further, as markets anticipated
mass chaos
[[link removed]] resulting
from the possible implementation of his plan to abandon the
Argentinian currency if he won the general election. (It’s going to
require huge cooperation from the IMF, and they don’t seem inclined
to want to help.)

His primary win set off a run on the peso and produced a further
currency devaluation (inflation is at 143% today) which, in turn,
caused greater voter discontent. Ironically, that funneled more votes
to Milei, who overwhelmingly (55%) won Sunday’s election.

THE LIBERTARIANISM THAT MILEI AND AMERICAN POLITICIANS LIKE RAND PAUL
AND MIKE LEE EMBRACE, AS I’VE NOTED PREVIOUSLY
[[link removed]],
IS A POLITICAL/ECONOMIC SYSTEM THAT WAS INVENTED AND NAMED IN THE
1950S BY A FRONT GROUP FOR THE REAL ESTATE LOBBY TO RATIONALIZE THEIR
OPPOSITION TO RENT CONTROL, WHICH WAS THEN SPREADING OUT OF NEW YORK
CITY AND ACROSS AMERICA.

It basically argues, as Koch did in his 1980 campaign, that the only
“commons” (things publicly owned and administered) a country can
legitimately claim are the police and the courts.

They, in turn, have the primary job of making sure that property
rights of wealthy people supersede all other rights, including the
rights to healthcare, education, clean air and water, protection from
abuse by employers, housing, and anti-poverty programs (including
Social Security). All of these, Libertarians will tell you, are simply
vestigial forms of socialism (or communism) and should be turned over
to billionaires or giant corporations.

Libertarians’ key rationalization for this is that “private
industry is always more efficient than government,” an argument
that, while false, anybody who’s ever stood in line for an hour at
the DMV can understand.

EVER SINCE THE 1980S, WHEN REAGAN EMBRACED THE LIBERTARIAN WORLDVIEW
CLAIMING THAT, “THE NINE MOST FRIGHTENING WORDS IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE ARE, ‘I’M FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND I’M HERE TO
HELP,’” THE GOP HAS INCREASINGLY EMBRACED LIBERTARIAN POLICIES.
REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES NOW COMPETE FOR WHO CAN GUT OR SHUT
DOWN THE MOST FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, FROM THE EPA TO THE DOE TO,
WELL, ASK RICK PERRY.

Milei haș taken it so far as to say that poor people should feel free
to sell their body parts
[[link removed]],
children, and organs to wealthy people on private, unregulated
exchanges to pay their rent and medical expenses.

BILLIONAIRES AND BIG CORPORATIONS LOVE LIBERTARIANISM BECAUSE THEY END
UP WITH ALL THE FORMERLY-GOVERNMENT-RUN SECTORS THAT THEY CAN THEN
TURN INTO PROFIT CENTERS TO RIP OFF THE PUBLIC. AND SHUTTING DOWN
REGULATORY AGENCIES LIKE THE EPA, INTERIOR, AND USDA MEANS THEY NO
LONGER HAVE TO PAY FOR POLLUTION CONTROLS, FOOD SAFETY SYSTEMS, AND
OTHER PESKY PROTECTIONS FOR THE “LITTLE PEOPLE.”

Probably the example most Americans would recognize is Medicare
Advantage, a privatized health insurance scam for seniors that makes
billions in profits every week for our largest insurance companies
while routinely refusing to pay for doctor’s visits, procedures, and
even hospitalizations. It’s literally killing
[[link removed]] people
by denying them care.

Milei ran on the promise of shutting down 10 of Argentina’s 18
federal agencies, throwing most of his countrymen, women, and children
into the arms of the nation’s largest and richest corporations and
the billionaires who own them.

He’s also a climate change denier, winning him — like Trump —
the support of the nation’s fossil fuel industry, claiming the
country’s drought and wildfire problems are part of natural climate
variations.

MILEI HAS  [[link removed]]TOLD THE
NATION ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING:

“It’s another one of the lies of socialism.” He’s also 
[[link removed]]added, “There is a
cycle of temperatures … a cyclical behavior … and therefore all
the policies that blame humans for climate change are false.”

ECONOMIST MARK WEISBROT [[link removed]], CO-DIRECTOR OF
THE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH, NOTED
[[link removed]]:

“No one so extremist on economic issues has been elected president
of a South American country.

“His extremist views and values go far beyond macroeconomic policy
— he hardly acknowledges any legitimate role for government in some
of the most important policies that most people have come to see as
necessary for a democratic, humane, and stable society.”

Proving Weisbrot’s point, Milei recently told
[[link removed]] Tucker
Carlson:

“Every time the state intervenes, it’s a violent action that harms
the right to private property and in the end, limits our freedom.”

As Weisbrot notes, Milei claims that any attempts to “fix the
problem of hunger” or “fix the problem of poverty,” or even deal
with unemployment is “communism or socialism”; all of these
problems should be left to billionaires and giant corporations to
solve through private charity or minimum wage work.

Programs like public schools, the free college system that Argentina
has that allows any capable student to become a doctor or lawyer at no
cost, their national healthcare system, housing supports, Social
Security, and even a minimum wage and unemployment insurance are
“abhorrent [[link removed]],” Milei
says. He claims that “social justice” is simply another word for
“theft
[[link removed]] from
rich people”:

“It’s stealing the fruits of one person’s labor and giving it to
someone else. So it means two things. First, it’s stealing. The
problem with that is that one of the Ten Commandments is ‘thou shalt
not steal.’ To support social justice is to support stealing. So one
problem is that it violates the Ten Commandments.”

Milei has referred to Pope Francis as “a fucking
communist,” saying
[[link removed]] that
because the Pope champions social justice and the plight of the poor
he is “the representative of the evil one on Earth.” (Apparently
Milei has never read Matthew 25.)

When asked about Milei, (who is not associated with any political
party, but, like Trump, has essentially taken over and destroyed
Argentina‘s right wing movements) the Pontiff, the former Archbishop
of Buenos Aires, told
[[link removed]] a
television interviewer:

“The extreme right always reconstructs itself; it is the triumph of
selfishness over communitarianism. … I am terrified of saviors of
the nation without a political party history.”

Milei’s victory has America’s rightwingers positively giddy
[[link removed]].
Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, tweeted a celebratory video of
him promising to “destroy” the Ministry of the Environment and
Sustainable Development, along with the Ministry of Women, Genders and
Diversity.

Republicans are loving him,particularly his hate of racial and
religious minorities. US Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar
(R-Florida) endorsed him on Twitter, saying “We want [Argentina] to
be one of the best countries in the world, because it’s what they
deserve. A country that has everything. It has soy, it has meat, it
has minerals, it has land, it has water, and it has only one culture,
only one religion and only one race, completely homogenous.”

Yeah, “one race.” White people control virtually 100% of the
levers of political and economic power and Argentina. He’s been
embraced across the GOP.

And his campaign appears to be the world’s first to make extensive
use
[[link removed]] of
artificial intelligence generated images and memes. It was very
effective, portraying him as a superhero and his opponent as a Cuban
army style socialist; expect to see Republicans use this in next
year‘s election.

Trump posted
[[link removed]] to
his vanity Nazi-infested social media site, “MAKE ARGENTINA GREAT
AGAIN!” while Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted, “May the spirits of
{neoliberalism’s founders
[[link removed]]]
Mises & Hayek be with you.”

Rightwing influencer and failed Arizona senate candidate Blake Masters
posted a video of Milei screaming in Spanish:

“Leftist sons of bitches, be afraid!” He added, “Now, Argentina
electing Javier Milei foreshadows Trump’s return in 2024.”

I SPENT SEVERAL HOURS MONDAY WITH A POLITICALLY KNOWLEDGEABLE
ARGENTINIAN FRIEND-OF-A-FRIEND WALKING AROUND BUENOS AIRES, AND HE WAS
BLUNT:

“Milei is a very smart man, but he is also insane. Really. We call
him ‘Loco Milei.’ Nobody knows exactly what he’s going to do or
how far he will go, but the current situation is so intolerable that
Argentinians will vote for a lunatic if he will simply change the
economic course of the country. Poverty has gone from 25% to over 40%
in the past two decades, which is a disaster: people are in a lot of
pain.”

I ASKED ABOUT MILIE‘S PLANS TO CRIMINALIZE ABORTION AND GAY MARRIAGE
(ARGENTINA WAS THE FIRST
[[link removed]] SOUTH
AMERICAN COUNTRY TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE BACK IN THE 2010; ABORTION
IN 2010) AND HE SHRUGGED:

“Maybe it’s just talk and maybe it’s not. We shall see.”

Because Milei doesn’t have a parliamentary majority, it’s unlikely
any effort to replace the peso with the dollar will to go anywhere,
but all bets are off on his reconfiguring the federal government to
trash the poor, gut social services, and privatize the nation’s
schools, colleges, and medical system. Converting the country to
dollars, however, would require a massive stock of the US currency
that is simply unavailable within the country; the World Bank is
suggesting they are unlikely to finance necessary reserves.

Thus, he’s already moving the goalposts, saying his economic reforms
won’t kick in until 2025 at the earliest, even though he takes
office next month. Meanwhile, he’s ramping up the victim-blaming
rhetoric, attacking “lazy” poor people, progressives, and pursuing
what he calls a “culture war” similar to the one that led to
the murder
[[link removed]] of over
30,000 people during the military dictatorship of 1978-1983.

MILLIE REFERS
[[link removed]] TO
THE “LGBT LOBBY” AND ARGENTINA’S WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT AS
ARMS OF THE HATED “SOCIALIST AGENDA” THAT HE SAYS MUST BE
“STAMPED OUT”: THE FIRST STEP HE HAS PROMISED WILL BE ENDING LEGAL
PROTECTIONS FOR WOMEN AND QUEER PEOPLE BY DISMANTLING THE MINISTRY OF
WOMEN, GENDER AND DIVERSITY AND THE LEGAL RIGHTS THEY PROTECT.

Like America’s far right groups attacking public schools and
libraries that carry books about civil rights movements, MLK, and Rosa
Parks, Milei is all in
[[link removed]]:

“Gender ideology, native peoples, ecology and inclusive language
[taught in Argentina‘s public schools] destroy the values of
society”. 

HIS VICTORY IS AN INTERNATIONAL MARKER, OF SORTS, FOR AMERICA’S
BILLIONAIRES AND LARGEST CORPORATIONS WHO SHARE MILEI’S DESIRE TO
END LIBERAL DEMOCRACY AND THE SO-CALLED “WELFARE STATE” BOTH IN
ARGENTINA AND AROUND THE WORLD.

In its wake, expect to see the GOP double down on Milei-like language
and policies as they try to drive America back toward their own
libertarian ideal, which hundreds of years ago in Europe was simply
known as “feudalism.”

_Thom Hartmann is the NY Times bestselling author 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* Javier Milei
[[link removed]]
* Argentina
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
* Libertarianism
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]