Georgia and Georgia: Aspiring and Settled States

While one Georgia was secure as a member-state in the U.S., another Georgia was finding itself being frozen out of not only accession talks with the E.U., but also being invited as a “NATO partner” to attend the NATO meeting in June, 2026. It is ironic that whereas the first Georgia had delegated some of its sovereignty to the U.S. in 1789, the second Georgia was unhappy remaining fully sovereign outside of the E.U. rather than as one of the semi-sovereign E.U. states. Giving up some governmental sovereignty can be a “step up,” and, with that comes certain requirements in terms of good governance.

The full essay is at "Georgia and Georgia." 

Independent U.S. Regulatory Agencies: Undermining the Chief Executive

On June 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal president has the authority to terminate the employment of heads of independent federal agencies at will, rather than only for cause. The latter requirement (i.e., due cause) would still hold for the Federal Reserve, which raises the question of whether a central bank should be distinguished from regulatory agencies. The value in buffering monetary policy from political pressure is why the Federal Reserve is not part of the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of the U.S. government, but is instead an independent central bank within that government. As a consequence, monetary policy does not require approval from either the U.S. president or the Congress. Hence, the “for cause” requirement for removing someone from the Fed’s board of governors cannot be disagreement with the person’s preferences or decisions regarding monetary policy. As for independent regulatory agencies in the executive branch, their independence undermines the unitary executive as well as the president’s role in implementing existing law.

The full essay is at "Independent U.S. Regulatory Agencies."

Is Europe in Civilizational Decline?

Does the E.U. itself instantiate a decline in European civilization? So says a National Security Strategy for the United States released by the Trump administration in December, 2025. That report also claims that migration to Europe was in the process of causing European nations to face “civilizational erasure.” That is to say, the European nation-state was by the end of 2025 facing existential threats due to the E.U. and migration. The report also highlights the loss of democracy in Europe, due both to the E.U. usurping the governmental sovereignty of the states and the clamping down on voices on the right in Europe. I contend that the report contains a sufficient number of fallacies that it can reasonably be dismissed as bias ideology under the subterfuge of national security.

The full essay is at "Is Europe in Civilizational Decline?"

On the 2025 Political Convention of the European People’s Party

Competition within a pollical party and recognition that a political party is indeed a political party are essential or at least advantageous to any political party in a democratic system. Moreover, a republic, even if it contains smaller republics but is not just them in aggregate, deserves to be recognized as such rather than implicitly relegated by erroneous nomenclature that is designed to appease skeptics so they won’t rise up to resist the federal republic itself. “Let the chips fall where they may” is, I believe, an expression from gambling. Another expression comes from playing cards: Call a spade a spade. These two expressions evince truth and power, whereas hiding behind false notions is sheer weakness. Much of my writing on the European Union is oriented to strengthening it, as well as to gleam lessons for both the E.U. and U.S. by comparing and contrasting them as federal empire-scale unions of states.

The full essay is at "On the 2025 Political Convention of the European People's Party."

American Federalism Eclipsed by an Ideal of Democracy: Education Over Immigration as a Constitutional Problem

The U.S. Constitution includes immigration as one of the listed (i.e., enumerated) powers of the federal government. Education is not such a power; hence it resides with the States. Historically, the accumulation of power by the federal government has involved taking areas from the States even though those areas are not listed as federal powers. As a result, American federalism has shifted increasingly toward a consolidation of power at the federal level. Among other means, Congresses and U.S. presidents have used the power of the purse to gain control from the States. Education is a case in point, whether elementary, secondary, or higher education. That the U.S. Government has had trouble controlling the country's southern border with Mexico suggests that maybe adding education has come at the expense of the added attention and effort that could have been put on immigration. In business terms, an opportunity cost (i.e., the cost of foregone benefits) comes with each additional federalized area. U.S. President Obama on education presents us with a case in point. 

The full essay is at "Federalism Eclipsed by Consolidation."

Police Brutality: A Symptom of a Brain Sickness Stimulated by Large Doses of Power

Behind the ornate rooms and regalia of a head of state, the stately appearance of legislative chambers, and even revered democratic constitutions, the basis of a government is its power—even if beyond authorized limits—to use lethal force against even its electorate peacefully protesting. As the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 show, human beings who have police power—even beyond the authorized—have at the very least a proclivity to abuse people without countervailing power. The students who were assigned as prison guards in the experiment because so abusive toward the students assigned as prisoners that the experiment had to be terminated after only 6 days in a two-week period. Even the experimenter, who took on the role of prison superintendent during the experiment, “had become indifferent to the suffering” of the students who were in the role of prisoners.[1] Lest it be concluded that college students are simply too immature to assume even what seems to be absolute power over other students, such behavior is arguably common among actual police employees. Lest it be further concluded that such behavior is part of an autocratic regime, even the known instances in republics suggest that human nature itself cannot handle such discretion as police departments and their employees have. Incredibly, even with the result of the Stanford study, no one seems to go to this conclusion; rather, primitive human nature may be poised to jump from incident to incident as if doing so enough would end the abuse of such power.

The presumptuousness that police departments and individual employees have in abusing their powers to harm even nonviolent protesters was on display to the world on June 4, 2020 as police in Buffalo, New York, pushed down a 75 year-old man who ironically had stood for peace and justice for decades. The violent act itself by two police employees was telling. Video shows Martin Gugino approaching an oncoming police employee in a nonviolent manner to talk—perhaps to ask a question. Another police employee immediately speeds up his pace—the first indication of possible aggression. Then he and another employee pushed Martin backwards. Incredibly, one of the employees who pushed Martin then shock his head back and forth as if the incident had been Martin’s fault, when the fault lied with the employee. Such shirking of responsibility is a convenient mental tactic by which the abusive mind seeks to justify/protect itself—the delusion being hidden to such a mind by the mind itself.

The full essay is at "Brain Sickness Stimulated by Large Doses of Power."

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1. Stanford Prison Experiment.

2. “Buffalo Police Riot Squad Quit to Back Officers Who Shoved Man,” BBC.com, June 5, 2020 (accessed June 6, 2020).

3. Julia Mahncke, “Why Police in the US Are So Powerful,” DW.com, June 6, 2020 (accessed same day).

4. Ibid.

Is the U.S. Congress Too Beholden to the Financial Industry?

That financial deregulation had any traction at all following the financial crisis of 2008 in the U.S. is stunning, for the implication is that Wall Street money has tremendous influence in the U.S. Governent even after Wall Street banks have screwed up (even in triggering a financial crisis!). 

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler staring down the big banks  

The full essay is at "Is Congress Owned by the Banks?"

Before Infiltrating American Democracy, the Kremlin Had Curtailed Democracy (and Federalism) in Russia

Officials in the Russian government may have ordered computer hackers to infiltrate the U.S. presidential election in 2016 not only in order to influence the outcome to be more favorable to Russia, but also because those officials did not respect federalism and democracy, which, after all, had been so weak in Russia. 

The full essay is at "Russia's Kremlin: Disvaluing Democracy."  

Elected Representatives in a Republic: Is Any Sense of Duty Remaining?

I suspect the notion of duty had by 2018 taken a rear seat, pushed out by self-centered ambition, in many if not most democracies in the world. In the ancient world, office-holding by lot stemmed the impact of people desiring office. Of the latter, the desire for personal gain would, I submit, be more likely. In contrast, finding oneself holding an office by lot was more likely to be accompanied by a sense of duty rather than personal ambition. Of course, ordinary citizens could find themselves voting in councils or legislatures—but would that necessarily be so bad?

In the American experiment, office-holding was originally thought of as a civic duty of the wealthy class. Landless citizens were cut off from even voting. George Washington did his duty as the first U.S. president, then went home to Virginia; he had done his duty (and then some). Once he decided not to run again, he did not, while still president, call it quits even if he was personally done with the office. I submit that that sense of duty had been lost by the twenty-first century.

The full essay is at "Duty in Public Service."

Kant on the NSA Lying to Congress

James Clapper, Director of U.S. National Intelligence, told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in March 2013 that the National Security Agency was not gathering any type of data at all on millions, and even hundreds of millions, of Americans. After leaked documents showed that Clapper had misled the committee in stating, “There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly,” he issued an apology to the committee for having made the comment that was “clearly erroneous.”[1] U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, chair of the committee, praised Clapper as an honest and direct man.[2] The discerning reader realizes the full implications of the difference between being in error and lying. To err is human, but to deliberately fabricate for the benefit of oneself or one’s group is a matter on which particular humans can and do differ morally.

The full essay is at "Kant on the NSA Lying to Congress."

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1. Kimberly Dozier, “James Clapper: Answer on NSA Surveillance to Congress Was ‘Clearly Erroneous’,” The Huffington Post, July 2, 2013.

2. Jeremy Peters, “Feinstein’s Support for N.S.A. Defies Liberal Critics and Repute,” The New York Times, July 1, 2013.

On Democratic Accountability in a Republic: The Pentagon Papers

The publication of portions of the Pentagon Papers despite President Nixon’s threats of treason highlighted the fact that four presidents successively lied to the American People on build-up of U.S. involvement in Indochina (most notably, Vietnam) and the Nixon administration lied on the prospects for victory in the Vietnam War—a war that had not even been declared by Congress. Clearly, democratic accountable extends to foreign policy at least in broad outline, such as in whether or not to continue an active engagement militarily in another region of the world. Even in U.S. presidents being able to get away with effectively declaring war even as one of their roles is that of commander-in-chief—a huge conflict of interest!—democratic accountability by the popular sovereign, the People—is important, even vital should the legislative and judicial branches fail as checks in the separation-of-powers feature of the U.S. Constitution.

The full essay is at "Democratic Accountability on the Vietnam War."

Deaf-Signing at Mandela's Memorial and Kavanaugh's Confirmation FBI Probe: Cover-Ups?

Watching U.S. President Barak Obama speak of his hero, Nelson Mandela, on December 10, 2013, something was distracting me; the rather large man signing for the deaf used such exaggerated gestures I had trouble concentrating on what Obama was saying. Little did I know that the interpreter was a “fake,” according to the Deaf Federation of South Africa. “It was horrible; an absolute circus, really, really bad, Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter, told the AP. “Only he can understand those gestures,” she added.[1]  I suspect that labeling the fiasco a “circus” skates over the underlying mentality in over-reaching and lying to cover it up. Years later, I wondered the same thing concerning Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Are we, the public, out of the loop concerning what really goes on inside governments? 

The full essay is at "Deaf-Signing and an FBI Probe: Cover-Ups?"

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1. Kim Hjelmgaard and Marisol Bello, “Interpreter For Deaf Branded a Fake,” USA Today, December 12, 2013.

Picking a President by Polls

It is one thing to say that something is broken; it is quite another thing to fix it. In such a case, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it doesn’t cut it. Any pathological fear of change must give way or the brokenness must be endured. During the last half of 2011, over a year before the U.S. presidential election, the election season was already in full swing. Without any primaries or caucuses, the media and “debate” (i.e., talking points) organizers divided the Republican candidates into two tiers. Besides being an artificial dichotomy given the spectrum of support revealed in polls, that they were being used to prioritize among the candidates in the “debates” and more generally in terms of electability is problematic. 

The full essay is at "Picking a U.S. President." 

 

Constructing a Constitution: Egypt in the Arab Spring

Concerning a new constitution, which is more important: the process or the content? In Egypt in 2012, that most secularists and the Coptic Christian representatives walked out of the assembly working on a constitutional document suggests that the final product would not have legitimacy for all of Egypt. To be sure, it is possible for a partisan group to design a system of basic law that is not overtly self-serving at others’ expense. The document that emerged from the assembly weakens the presidency and strengthens the parliament. This shift was in line with the popular protest in “the Arab Spring.” However, the assembly left in place a “longstanding article” grounding Egyptian law in the principles of one religion. Furthermore, a provision on women’s equality was left out, and the military generals would keep their existing power. Moreover, anticipating dissolution from Mubarak-appointed judges, the assembly began its work from the last Egyptian constitution.

Do the members of the constitutional assembly look liberal or conservative?  Reuters

The full essay is at "How to Make a Constitution."

On the Presumptuousness of Power: Does Wall Street Own Congress?

At the end of April, 2009, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin blamed the powerful banking lobby for the defeat of legislation that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify some troubled mortgages.  Even as mortgage servers were claiming to be overwhelmed with requests from distressed borrowers for readjustments to the adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM), the banks and mortgage companies felt the need to stop the US Senate from enabling judges to relieve the backlog. Durban later said in an interview, “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” he said on WJJG 1530 AM radio's  “Mornings with Ray Hanania.” On October 30, 2009,  James K. Galbraith spoke on the Bill Moyers Journal on the bank lobby changing the financial system regulation reforms now being discussed in Congress.  That that lobby feels itself to be in a position to advise the Congress on a matter in which the banks were part of the problem is something that blows Galbraith away.   They should realize among themselves, or at the very least BE TOLD that their involvement is not helpful or appropriate.   Galbraith pointed out that we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done governmentally to stave off another financial crisis—such as separating the commerical banking and investment trading (on the bank’s equity even!) functions and reducing the scale of the banks too big to fail.  However, there are a hundred reasons why the governing class will not follow through. 

The full essay is at "Does Wall Street Own Congress?"

See related: Essays on the Financial Crisis

Democracy Deficit in the E.U.’s State-Rights Federalism: The Debt Crisis

Holding back additional transfers of governmental sovereignty from the state legislatures to the E.U.’s legislative chambers not only inevitably pushes power to non-democratic E.U.-level  institutions, notably the ECB; the democratic basis even at the state level can be compromised.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.

Congressional Statements on Obamacare: A Crack in Representative Democracy

Even as democracy has many virtues, the political system is not without its own weaknesses. In times of economic crisis, such as Germany in the 1930s, stressors can “fan the flames” such that a few opportunistic people can exploit the vulnerability to the extent that the democracy itself collapses. The “rising phoenix” is often much worse than the original weakness. In this essay, I analyze how a congressional report on “Obamacare,” or the Affordable [health] Care Act, triggered a chain reaction that brought a weakness of representative democracy to the surface. Unfortunately, I do not believe many people thought it very serious (i.e., systemic implications); most Americans probably did not even notice the brief rupture on the skin of the U.S. body politic. For my “microscope slide” of the underlying “virus,” I have carefully selected a slice of the relevant “biomass” in which the pathogen can be most easily seen; it is hardly partisan in nature even though it tends to manifest as such. While you examine my “slide” below, I recommend that you ignore the partisan puss lest you miss the proverbial “fly in the ointment.” Once you have detected the rascal, you might want to ask yourself whether the lapse in representative democracy now rendered transparent is sourced in the people or their respective representatives.

On February 4, 2014, the Congressional Budget Office released a report that mentions in a “oh, by the way” fashion a novel twist in how Obamacare could be expected to impact jobs. Whether out of sheer gamesmanship or ignorance (of whom?), some of the public conclusions from Congressional leaders show more generally the gulf between what the public “is fed” by elected representatives and the actual content they claim is behind their interpretations.

Providing a succinct account of the “twist,” congressional budget analysts said that 2.3 million Americans “who would otherwise rely on a job for health insurance will quit working, reduce their hours or stop looking for employment because of new health benefits available under the Affordable Care Act.[1]

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s first statement on the report, however, concludes that the report proves that the health care law “will push 2.3 million people out of the workforce.”[2] At the time, many of Ryan’s Republican colleagues were making similar claims. I want to isolate the word push here, for it is logically incompatible with the report’s claim that people staying in a job only for the health-insurance benefit will no longer have to continue in the job to receive affordable health-insurance.

Notably, some influential conservatives were cautioning Republican members of Congress to be careful with their own nterpretations, lest constituents and even the public at large (domestic and even global) catch a glimpse of the proverbial “man behind the curtain.[3] Writing in POLITICO magazine on February 4th, National Review editor Rich Lowry notes that “we aren’t talking about jobs that are eliminated in the usual sense of discouraging employers from hiring, as some Republican talking points suggested.”[4] Yet this warning did not stop Rep. Lynn Westmoreland from referencing the CBO report on February 11th as Janet Yellen, the new chair of the Federal Reserve, faced a House committee. Adopting a factual tone, Westmoreland told the Fed chair that the Affordable Care Act "is estimated to cost more than 2.5 million jobs over the next decade." He then asked her whether she thought Obamacare would have an impact on "economic growth and job creation."[5] Lest I belabor the obvious, 2.3 million is less than 2.5 million, and, moreover, the report does not claim the jobs would be lost, as implied by "cost" and "job creation." 

Notice that Rep. Paul Ryan is using "props" (e.g., gray suit, button, flag, and the all-caps title) that add to the visual impression of authoritative fact rather than opinion, ideology, and interpretation. (Image Source: CNN)

Rep. Ryan had at least gone out of his way on February 5th during a hearing on the report to “clarify” his initial statement. “So just to understand this," he said, "it’s not that employers are laying people off, it’s that people aren’t working in the workforce, aren’t supplying labor to the effect of 2 and half million jobs in 2024, and as a result that lower workforce participation rate, that less labor supplied, lowers economic growth?” he asked CBO director Doug Elmendorf.[6] The easy pivot may have saved the Budget Committee chairman his credibility, yet Westmoreland's statement and question demonstrate that disinformation can have considerable staying power, even becoming the default, nonetheless.

I submit that the misinformation had been so glaring that even the general public, otherwise occupied with life, might notice the sheer distance between Ryan’s conclusion and what credible experts were saying of the report. Do we know what is really going on? If not, how can we make good judgments in voting?

In other words, the democratic premise of viable self-governance by a virtuous and educated citizenry may contain an inherent weakness in as much as the electors rely on their respective representatives for information translated for general consumption via interpretation. As the number of electors per representative increases (i.e., larger districts, especially if in an empire-scale republic of republics and citizens), the reliance increases, exponentially I suspect. For one thing, the constituents must rely increasingly on the media to transmit (and shape) their respective representative’s interpretations.

Furthermore, “official” misrepresentations by elected representatives can mask for many voters the value to the individuals who no longer have to work in a (second) job they hate, the companies for whom motivated employees are an asset, and even society itself (happier people). To be sure, a lower labor-force participation rate in a particular job category means higher wages (to attract potential workers), other things equal. Some employers may find that the increased commitment is not worth the more tangible monthly cost.

In fact, Obamacare may not even be the primary culprit behind relatively fewer people seeking employment.  According to The Washington Post, CBO’s analysis points out that “the upward pressure on [the labor participation] rate from improvements in the economy will be more than offset by downward pressure from demographic trends, especially the aging of the baby-boom generation.”[7] By implication, the downward pressure from Obamacare come in second, at best. As part of her congressional testimony on February 11th, Fed chair Yellen did not even mention the Affordable Care Act as a factor in the downward pressure; rather, she pointed to the aging population as the main contributor in the downward trend, with structurally and cyclically unemployed giving up playing a secondary role.[8]  

That the 66% participation rate held from 2004 to 2008 suggests that sustained increases in GDP can counter the huge aging factor as the unemployment rate falls. However, as shown in 2010-2012, both rates can fall concurrently, suggesting an impact from the long-term, or structurally, unemployed losing unemployment compensation and even finding further job-hunting to be futile.

Lest business managers fear a spike in wage rates, the report projects that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually, not dropping to 5.8 percent until 2017 and 5.5 percent in 2024. “Factors such as obsolescent skill-sets and the spread of automation that have fed into the persistently high long-term unemployment are expected to have diminishing effects on the unemployment rate after 2017.[9] We can expect, therefore, that the positions freed up by demographic changes and Obamacare will not go vacant for long; as pointed out above, it is not as though the positions themselves are to be sacrificed on the altar designated by the O-god.

In short, Ryan’s initial statement suggests not just that elected representatives are capable of putting out blatantly false “information” on a policy or new law (this is hardly a revelation), but also that electors may make electoral and public-policy judgments on the false assertions. Especially in a large, empire-scale republic like the U.S., the E.U., or India, the citizenry may have to rely so much on media-shaped sound-bites that the pronouncements are instantly stamped not only with legitimacy, but also as the default. In other words, an interpretation said into a microphone and then broadcast by the media enjoys the presumption of being true even if it is blatantly false. Falsity as truth coming from elected officials is not necessarily checked, since no other quarter in the public discourse has so much authoritative status. Furthermore, the media no longer speaks with one voice, so any “truth correction” may be eclipsed by rhetoric or assumed to be mere partisanship. In terms of representative democracy itself, the representatives may be able to exploit the inherent informational-difference that exists between them and their respective electors.

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1. Zachary A. Goldfarb and Amy Goldstein, “Health-care Law Will Prompt over 2 Million to Quit Jobs or Cut Hours, a CBO Report Says,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2014.

2. David Nather, “Both Parties Keep Cherry-picking CBO Report,” Politico, February 8, 2014. See also "ObamaCare Could Lead to Loss of Nearly 2.3 Million Jobs, Report Says," Fox News, February 4, 2014.

3. This reference is to the Wizard working the controls behind a curtain in the film, The Wizard of Oz.

4. Zachary A. Goldfarb and Amy Goldstein, “Health-care Law Will Prompt over 2 Million to Quit Jobs or Cut Hours, a CBO Report Says,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2014.

5. "Economy & Monetary Policy," U.S. House Financial Services Committee, February 11, 2014.

6. Zachary A. Goldfarb and Amy Goldstein, “Health-care Law Will Prompt over 2 Million to Quit Jobs or Cut Hours, a CBO Report Says,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2014.

7. Ibid.
8."Economy & Monetary Policy," U.S. House Financial Services Committee, February 11, 2014.
9..Zachary A. Goldfarb and Amy Goldstein, “Health-care Law Will Prompt over 2 Million to Quit Jobs or Cut Hours, a CBO Report Says,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2014.

Should Germany Prop Up the E.U.'s Southern States?

In April 2013, Deutsche Welle reported that the German central bank had “analyzed possible effect a domestic growth package could have on southern European economies. ‘By and large, it would have no impact,’ claimed Clemens Fuest, president of the Mannheim-based Center for European Economic Research. ‘We won't be able to fight recession in southern Europe with domestic growth incentives.’ He added that southern European states do not just have a demand problem. ‘Prices there have got out of hand,’ he said. ‘Wages and labor costs have spiraled out of control, and must be brought down again. If you were to implement a growth scheme, you'd only slow down the necessary adjustments.’”

The full essay is at Essays on the E.U. Political Economy: Federalism and the Debt Crisis, available at Amazon.

José Manuel Barroso: Picking Romania’s Government?

On December 9, 2012, Romanian voters approved of the coalition of the then-current Prime Minister Victor Ponta, by a two-thirds majority. However, because Ponta had been in a bitter political feud with President Traian Basescu—Ponta’s coalition tried and failed to impeach the president—it was not clear that the president would nominate Ponta for prime minister even though that post must be approved by the parliament. Basescu did wind up nominating Ponta. The interesting point here is that President Barroso of the European Commission publicly waded into the choice on behalf of Ponta. 

 Prime Minister Ponta of Romania: Propped up by Barroso?           exclusivnews.ro

The full essay is at Essays on the E.U. Political Economy, which is available at Amazon in print and as an ebook.

Bailouts, Bond-Buying: E.U. Plows Ahead!

On September 12, 2012, a psychological threshold was reached in the E.U. on the way toward “ever closer union.” That is to say, at the end of that day Europeans could feel an overdue sense that come what may, the euro would be protected. Moreover, the E.U. (at least for the states willing to sign up for greater E.U. enforcement of state deficit and debt limits) would proceed along with further incremental shifts of governmental sovereignty from the states to the union thereof. The sense of relief was palpable in Europe as state and federal officials as well as commentators and citizens breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Most pressingly, the constitutional court of the state of Germany announced that that state could in fact contribute to the fund to bailout indebted states. The court held that the state legislature would have to pass any increases because the further integration of the E.U. must not be allowed to proceed without commensurate democratic legitimacy and the rule of law. The President of the E.U. Parliament observed that this holds at the E.U. level as well.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.