Welcome to a New Year! Who's Going to Clean Up the Mess that 23 Left Us?

Thanks for nothing, 23. You left us two wars, one declining, and one just getting started. And how about all that inflation? Lots of us can't afford a home, or even a good meal.

There were some good things that happened last year (2023). The long-suffering countries of the Global South, which is most of the world’s population, decided they wanted a say in their own future, and in the future of this planet. Almost all of the emerging voices want peace, not war, and more democracy. That may sound like a line from a US Voice of Democracy broadcast, yet the United States is standing against a new structure to world affairs. Why?

The US does not want to lose its position as Top Dog to a democracy of nations. We’ve long had a unipolar world led by America. This country told Europe what to do, and those formerly powerful countries went along with it even if it meant much higher energy costs, including higher heating bills.

Another problem for America is how to protect the huge profits that US corporations extract from weak countries in Asia, Africa and South America if those countries develop their own businesses and industrial base. In the New America, government’s number one job is to protect the interests of the big corporations and the super-rich. The working people be damned.

The Oligarchs who rule the US want more of everything, except change. They see the world as a zero-sum game. If another country does well, they think that is bad for them. They can’t applaud China for bringing millions out of poverty, because that would somehow make them look bad. The Oligarchs must constantly be winning or they’re not happy.

President Biden, who was picked by the Oligarchs to manage their affairs is in trouble. He presided over a defeat in Afghanistan, and is about to preside over another defeat in Ukraine. Now BRICS+ is rising, and the Oligarchs don’t like it, even though it’s a trading consortium, not a military alliance. Its crime is that it’s not run, or dictated by America. The US has been reduced from a great country to an arms manufacturer with a lot of Nukes. Let’s hope the Oligarchs keep their cool when they’re backed into a corner.

Personal Note: Why the long wait between articles?

As some readers may know, I’ve got a new book out that I’m very proud of. It’s called, Chaos and Disorder, and is about the past three years and what they were really about.

I was on a book tour around the Left Coast, when I felt extremely odd (more so than usual). I went to an emergency room where they immediately put me in the hospital. My kidneys were failing (they’ve since revived) and my prostrate was the size of Mt. Shasta. I’m not out of the woods yet but I’m getting excellent home care from my daughter.

I’m going to try to keep on a regular schedule. At least, that’s my 2024 New Year’s resolution. I’m hopeful that during 2024 we can bring more writers into the Left Coast, including people who can report from Seattle to San Diego, and the world at large. That all depends on how many regular readers will turn loose of thirty dollars for a 2024 subscription.

About that Book…

Chaos and Disorder: The Wild and Scary 2020s, a 300-page book, is available for $14.50 at Amazon and maybe your local bookstore. Annual subscribers, and those who have monthly subscriptions for at least three months, can get it free. Just send a message to the Left Coast, telling us where you want it sent. Readers, who are not subscribers can get it for $10, if you mention the Left Coast in your message. I guarantee there is important information in the book about the world situation that you don’t know.

Three bookstores in L.A. are excited to carry the book. They are Small World Books, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore, and Beyond Baroque Books.

From Venice West Publishers:

James R Smith’s new book for Venice West Publishing is a historic and entertaining overview, anecdotal and quasi-humorous, about the monumental societal, economic and governmental failings which plague us in the early 2020s, continuing with no respite, for the majority of citizens in the USA, and in consequence, the world.

Chaos and Disorder exposes the Whys and Hows of domestic and international malfunctioning Oligarchies, arming the reader with trenchant historical backstories relating to the Pandemic, Institutional Racism, Perpetual War, and Zombie Capitalism, played against the Great Game for Asia.

Don’t panic, even though we’re ninety seconds away from worldwide thermonuclear war! You can still get a broad understanding of how we got to this point, and what we can do about it. Chapters on the Universal Basic Income, Ecotopia, and Socialism offer an alternate path beyond extreme survival, with clear, wholistic and impassioned solutions towards an egalitarian and enlightened democracy for All.

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RIP:

• Robert “Bob” Wells - Revolutionary, Author of the novel, Passing Through the Territory (about Huck Finn and John Brown).

• John Pilger - Australian-British Filmmaker and Journalist par excellence.