This reminds me of Chapo’s recurring bit about the core MAGA voter basically being a guy named Chick Hickenlooper who owns a regional chain of water parks that are always one inspection away from a Legionnaires’ outbreak
This is very interesting. One addendum to this is that small and medium capital in the US tends to be very highly indebted. Might that not be one reason that Trump is so focused on lowering interest rates? In my view there is a connection here between this observation, and the framework of "political capitalism".
Interesting that we're back to real estate again. I've made the argument (elsewhere) that it's not random that Trump is a real estate developer (and also that his closest lieutenants, Witkoff and Kushner are fellow NYC RE guys). In vol II Marxian terms you could see RE traders as merchant capital (buy cheap, sell dear M - C - M'), but of a special type because operating in the non-tradable goods (land) sector. So even though Trump's deals are international, that doesn't make him a globalist in the way that tradable sector merchant capital or finance are. If an anti-globalist alliance of Inland SME capital were looking for leaders a little higher up the capital food chain, then its not surprising that it's this particular real estate sector. (Plus the connection to the mob you've always pointed out)
My brother spent a couple of years in the Moshannon Valley fed prison in Pennsylvania (weed smuggling, mid-aughts). Built and owned by GEO Group.
Business strategy was to identify economically depressed areas throughout the US, make deals with local authorities to build prisons, create employment, etc. Even the guards there hated it, told me they’d rather be back in the mines.
Moshannon facility closed in March 2021 following Biden’s exec order to phase out private prison contracts, was re-opened less than 8 months later as an ICE processing centre, still under GEO Group management.
The DOD has been spreading the "wealth" around to Congressional districts for decades. Anyone know which was the first mover: military or prison contracts?
During the recent winter storm, I had to host a neighbor who is part of this Trumpenproletariat: she's a woman in her 80s whose adult children didn't think it was a problem that she might lose power and die in her house (as some elderly people did in Nashville). We spent three days together that were a revelation to me about how these people think: basically, she had a hard life, and so she thinks that everybody else from now on should also have a hard life.
She mocked people who think child care should be affordable or even free. She scoffed at people who "want people to vote." She said that the Bible says nobody should get divorced (but she did get divorced because God made an exception for her). But she also was very confused about reality: she thought that the redistricting in TN happened because "Nashville is too crowded so they had to move some people out." !!!
It seemed fine to her that the government would just tell people that they had to leave Davidson County because it was getting too crowded. That level of authoritarianism seems normal to her. I had to explain many things, including the fact that redistricting was not about making people move. It was about gerrymandering, or arranging the voting districts in favor of Republicans. That's when she got a very annoyed look on her face and said, "Because they want people to VOTE!" As if voting was something like pooping on the sidewalk: disgusting!
This person has voted Republican in all national elections and still has a Trump sign from 2020 in front of her house. But in 2012 or so, she got extremely annoyed because there was no free health care for her unemployed, alcoholic adult son. I tried to explain that the Republican Tennessee legislature had rejected the Medicaid expansion that would have covered people like him. She thought it was all Obama's fault.
You hardly need to appeal to a murderous thug like Lenin to get a quote about looking for who stands to gain. There's a weakness on the left for finding some redeeming value in figures like Lenin (same for Castro, Guevara, Trotsky and until recently at least Ortega) who set themselves up as revolutionary heroes but in the historical record have acted as, as I described Lenin, murderous thugs.
Instead of "come on," engage. Why are you appealing to someone like Lenin for banal truism? Look, I love your analyses. They're really enlightening and sharp, and there have been worse historical actors than Lenin, but perhaps few set in motion such huge disasters. But such an uncritical reference to someone awful seems the opposite of what appreciate about your work.
I think you can quote awful people without endorsing their lives and actions. I quoted Stalin the other day. It's done with a touch of irony. I did a long piece about Lenin's theory of imperialism. These are significant thinkers and figures of history, no matter how we morally judge them.
I don't know about thinkers, and the irony doesn't come through. The juxtaposition of the citation at the beginning and the commonplace nature of the assertion is weird. But I totally understand that when we write especially in this form, it's hard to think through all the potential meanings. But I get what you're saying, and let's leave it.
Depends. The kind of people who would quote approvingly of the hypocritical slave owner, genocidal supremicists, or maniacal conqueror as the insightful source of a truism masquerading as an insight are the Niall Fergusons of the world. So my they would just fit my expectations.
Whether I'm obnoxious or pedantic isn't the point. Calling me that is just an ad hominem attack which avoids the point. However, it seems pretty obvious that the only people who would quote those people saying something like that Lenin quote are right wingers like Fergusson. So it's kind of what's expected. Anyway, I said I'd let it go because I thought I'd made my point, and John Ganz decided to do what what he wanted with it, probably nothing. However, I did want to clarify it to you since you made a comment that made it clear that you didn't get at all what I was saying. However, if you want to compare Lenin to those people you mentioned fine. It's apt.
One anecdote I found revealing about Trump was in the big MTG profile that the NYT did recently (here : https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/magazine/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-maga-split.html). He and MTG had this big confrontation about the release of the Epstein files, and during a private argument about this, she asked him puzzled why he was obstructing their release to this point. According to her, he replied : "my friends will get hurt."
Of course, "my friends" probably first and foremost meant himself. But it's probably more as well, and it tells a lot about the psyche. First he serves himself. Then his family. Then his buddies from his dingbat NY business pedophile milieu. Then his allies from the dingbat MAGA milieu. Etc etc. It's all about how close people are to him, in reach and in profile.
A conversation between you and Prof Cooper would make for an excellent podcast on the political economy of American fascism. Btw- what did you think of Tooze’s history setting duties at Davos?
CoreCivic did their great rebrand, ditching the name Corrections Corp of America, in 2016. Presumably, they expected Hillary to win, and needed a friendlier name.
This post reflects Trump's way of running the government like his family business: a seat of his pants/one-step-ahead-of-the-sheriff style. And deeply in debt.
This reminds me of Chapo’s recurring bit about the core MAGA voter basically being a guy named Chick Hickenlooper who owns a regional chain of water parks that are always one inspection away from a Legionnaires’ outbreak
This is very interesting. One addendum to this is that small and medium capital in the US tends to be very highly indebted. Might that not be one reason that Trump is so focused on lowering interest rates? In my view there is a connection here between this observation, and the framework of "political capitalism".
Here's what my initial research has turned up:
GEO Group — Heavily leveraged. As of ~2023-2024:
- ~$2-2.5 billion in total debt
- They converted from REIT to C-corp in 2021 specifically to address debt (REITs must distribute 90% of income, limiting debt paydown)
- Banks fled after Biden's 2021 executive order against private prison contracts — major banks (JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America)
stopped lending to private prison companies
- High interest rates + uncertain contract environment made refinancing difficult
- ICE contracts = 43% of revenue, making them extremely dependent on immigration enforcement policy
CoreCivic (GEO's competitor) — Similar story, ~$1.5B debt
Gov't contracts typically require surety bonds, which have some debt market exposure but generally are based on credit score of the company afaic.
Interesting that we're back to real estate again. I've made the argument (elsewhere) that it's not random that Trump is a real estate developer (and also that his closest lieutenants, Witkoff and Kushner are fellow NYC RE guys). In vol II Marxian terms you could see RE traders as merchant capital (buy cheap, sell dear M - C - M'), but of a special type because operating in the non-tradable goods (land) sector. So even though Trump's deals are international, that doesn't make him a globalist in the way that tradable sector merchant capital or finance are. If an anti-globalist alliance of Inland SME capital were looking for leaders a little higher up the capital food chain, then its not surprising that it's this particular real estate sector. (Plus the connection to the mob you've always pointed out)
Fascinating John....
Yeah, great observation, and I want to look more into the specifics.
My brother spent a couple of years in the Moshannon Valley fed prison in Pennsylvania (weed smuggling, mid-aughts). Built and owned by GEO Group.
Business strategy was to identify economically depressed areas throughout the US, make deals with local authorities to build prisons, create employment, etc. Even the guards there hated it, told me they’d rather be back in the mines.
Moshannon facility closed in March 2021 following Biden’s exec order to phase out private prison contracts, was re-opened less than 8 months later as an ICE processing centre, still under GEO Group management.
Yep, political capitalism.
The DOD has been spreading the "wealth" around to Congressional districts for decades. Anyone know which was the first mover: military or prison contracts?
During the recent winter storm, I had to host a neighbor who is part of this Trumpenproletariat: she's a woman in her 80s whose adult children didn't think it was a problem that she might lose power and die in her house (as some elderly people did in Nashville). We spent three days together that were a revelation to me about how these people think: basically, she had a hard life, and so she thinks that everybody else from now on should also have a hard life.
She mocked people who think child care should be affordable or even free. She scoffed at people who "want people to vote." She said that the Bible says nobody should get divorced (but she did get divorced because God made an exception for her). But she also was very confused about reality: she thought that the redistricting in TN happened because "Nashville is too crowded so they had to move some people out." !!!
It seemed fine to her that the government would just tell people that they had to leave Davidson County because it was getting too crowded. That level of authoritarianism seems normal to her. I had to explain many things, including the fact that redistricting was not about making people move. It was about gerrymandering, or arranging the voting districts in favor of Republicans. That's when she got a very annoyed look on her face and said, "Because they want people to VOTE!" As if voting was something like pooping on the sidewalk: disgusting!
This person has voted Republican in all national elections and still has a Trump sign from 2020 in front of her house. But in 2012 or so, she got extremely annoyed because there was no free health care for her unemployed, alcoholic adult son. I tried to explain that the Republican Tennessee legislature had rejected the Medicaid expansion that would have covered people like him. She thought it was all Obama's fault.
Let’s go charts baby love da charts
:)
You hardly need to appeal to a murderous thug like Lenin to get a quote about looking for who stands to gain. There's a weakness on the left for finding some redeeming value in figures like Lenin (same for Castro, Guevara, Trotsky and until recently at least Ortega) who set themselves up as revolutionary heroes but in the historical record have acted as, as I described Lenin, murderous thugs.
come on man.
Instead of "come on," engage. Why are you appealing to someone like Lenin for banal truism? Look, I love your analyses. They're really enlightening and sharp, and there have been worse historical actors than Lenin, but perhaps few set in motion such huge disasters. But such an uncritical reference to someone awful seems the opposite of what appreciate about your work.
I think you can quote awful people without endorsing their lives and actions. I quoted Stalin the other day. It's done with a touch of irony. I did a long piece about Lenin's theory of imperialism. These are significant thinkers and figures of history, no matter how we morally judge them.
I don't know about thinkers, and the irony doesn't come through. The juxtaposition of the citation at the beginning and the commonplace nature of the assertion is weird. But I totally understand that when we write especially in this form, it's hard to think through all the potential meanings. But I get what you're saying, and let's leave it.
Yes, let's, because I'm not going to change how I write. And apparently, you haven't seen the Big Lebowski.
"I am the walrus." ????
You'd be equally irked by someone quoting Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson in earnest, right? Or Napoleon, Cecil Rhodes, etc.?
nope
Look let's be real, whatever else he did Mao dropped some straight bars.
Depends. The kind of people who would quote approvingly of the hypocritical slave owner, genocidal supremicists, or maniacal conqueror as the insightful source of a truism masquerading as an insight are the Niall Fergusons of the world. So my they would just fit my expectations.
I mean I just don’t believe you first of all. But if true you sound like an obnoxious pedant
Whether I'm obnoxious or pedantic isn't the point. Calling me that is just an ad hominem attack which avoids the point. However, it seems pretty obvious that the only people who would quote those people saying something like that Lenin quote are right wingers like Fergusson. So it's kind of what's expected. Anyway, I said I'd let it go because I thought I'd made my point, and John Ganz decided to do what what he wanted with it, probably nothing. However, I did want to clarify it to you since you made a comment that made it clear that you didn't get at all what I was saying. However, if you want to compare Lenin to those people you mentioned fine. It's apt.
You have a good point there.
One anecdote I found revealing about Trump was in the big MTG profile that the NYT did recently (here : https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/magazine/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-maga-split.html). He and MTG had this big confrontation about the release of the Epstein files, and during a private argument about this, she asked him puzzled why he was obstructing their release to this point. According to her, he replied : "my friends will get hurt."
Of course, "my friends" probably first and foremost meant himself. But it's probably more as well, and it tells a lot about the psyche. First he serves himself. Then his family. Then his buddies from his dingbat NY business pedophile milieu. Then his allies from the dingbat MAGA milieu. Etc etc. It's all about how close people are to him, in reach and in profile.
A conversation between you and Prof Cooper would make for an excellent podcast on the political economy of American fascism. Btw- what did you think of Tooze’s history setting duties at Davos?
Bingo!!! Thanks John!!!
I am the Walrus?
“they are all regional, dynastic family businesses and major GOP donors.”
Reminds me of “American Gentry: The Political and Economic Elite No One Talks About” by Patrick Wyman in The Atlantic.
Reposting as comment to your post, not the annoying comment about Lenin.
Yup. This also jibes with MacLean’s analysis of the class composition of the Second Klan. One typo: change Melina to Melinda.
CoreCivic did their great rebrand, ditching the name Corrections Corp of America, in 2016. Presumably, they expected Hillary to win, and needed a friendlier name.
This post reflects Trump's way of running the government like his family business: a seat of his pants/one-step-ahead-of-the-sheriff style. And deeply in debt.
Another quality column. How can we get you syndicated?