Think of this series of posts as a trial – the trial of the rich and corporations for the damage and destruction they have committed against American democracy: “We, the People – vs – the rich and corporations
I. The CHARGES – the rich and corporations have corrupted the American legal system; they have corrupted American
government; they have corrupted the American economy; they have corrupted the tax system; they have
sabotaged the ability of ordinary people to achieve The American Dream.
II. They have done this, and much more, by changing the rules; by spending immense amounts of “campaign funds”
and other political favors to buy results; “justified” this by massive amounts of lying; creating new, radical,
reactionary ideology and weaponizing information; they have done this for simple. GREED.
III. “We, the PEOPLE of America will prove our case by using unspun NUMBERS from the Census Bureau, IRS, GAO, CBO;
using legal cases and guilty pleas; showing PATTERNS of corrupt and criminal behavior; disproving the massive
LIES of the rich and corporations; b y testimony of numerous qualified great historical figures.
IV. This trial will show that the rich and corporations, for GREED, CRUELTY, and CORRUPTION, deliberately sabotaged
the STATISTICAL peak of American middle class civilization, achieved 1947-1973, when America’s wealth was more
equitably shared, when corporate cultural NORMS supported more equitable distribution of wealth, when
government invested in the American people and society.
The result of this GREED and CORRUPTION is that, steadily, from l980 onward, life for “average” Americans
became more difficult, more expensive, less secure.
*** President Herbert Hoover: “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They’re too damn greedy.”
V. GREED
A. Perspective: if Joe Sixpack works l8-68, makes $50,000 every year, his LIFETIME earnings will be $2.5 million: if Suzie Sorority works 22-68, makes $100,000 every year, her LIFETIME earnings will be $4.6 million; the American president, supposedly THE most important person in the world, makes $400,000 a year.
B. CEOs often make $5-$l0-$20 million in ONE year; some financiers make billions.
***Wall Street Journal Reports [4/18/90]: “The market value of top managers “has been grossly inflated by prattle about the rarity of their talents..Executive talent is far, far more common than the talent..to spear a ground ball hit to the hole..”
C. “The most recent data shows..the top 1% of the national income and wealth now owns 31.4% of American wealth, more than that of the entire bottom 90%.” [11/19/23 N.Y. Times; Petrou; “Bidenomics..”]
***Adam Smith: “No society can..be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of..members are poor and miserable..It is but equity..that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have..and share of the produce of their own labor as to themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.”
VI. NUMBERS – everybody has “opinions”; some have REAL numerical FACTS. A major part of any serious criticism of the tragedy that oppresses post-1980 America is based upon UNSPUN FACTS – from Census Bureau, IRS, GAO, CBO.
YOUR own serious research must start with PATTERNS of 1946-2023; putting your research IN CONTEXT. WHY is 1980 often seen as a numerical dividing point??? What where the NUMBERS for 1946-1979 tax burden, tax rates, incomes, wealth??? What are the NUMBERS for 1980-2023???
The STATISTICAL peak of American middle class society was reached in 1947-73. WHY??? Though plagued by racism and misogyny, a mixed blue and white collar mass society was achieved for average people.
One of the major charges against the rich and corporations is they DELIBERATELY SABOTAGED what 1947-73 achieved, which means YOU. don’t live there. WHY can serious analysts say this???
***Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “..the marked reduction in inequality..between l950 and 1970 was due partly to developments in the markets but even more to government policies..In the years after the “Reagan Revolution.” by contrast, the divide in market incomes increased and..government initiatives designed to temper..inequalities of the marketplace were dismantled , taxes at the top..lowered and social programs were cut back.”
***”The One Percent Solution”: for the first time ever, in 2012 more than half of all income went to the richest 10%; “the richest 400 individuals now exercise a degree of influence comparable to rulers of ancient Rome.”
“$ervants of Wealth”: “From 1973 to 2003, median American family income rose only 22% after doubling between 1947-73. Average top 1% income more than doubled in the same period, top 0.1% tripled.”
VII. LYING – “alternative facts,” bogus ‘legal’ theories, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, half-truths, truth denial, “reverse engineering”, “the firehose of falsehood”, the “tobacco defense.” The American right has conducted a war on the truth for a hundred years, and more.
*** ex-Republican Josh Barro [2016]: “If [conservatives] look honestly enough, they will realize the conservative information sphere has long been full of lies. The reason for this..lying has been the most effective way to promote many of the policies favored by donor-class conservatives, and so they built an apparatus to invent and spread the best lies.” [“The Scheme”] note: perhaps the right’s biggest lie is that they are “conservative” – but then
REACTIONARY is – and sounds – far more threatening
*** Frank Luntz [2002 memo to GOP candidates]: “Should the public come to believe the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate..There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.” [“American Amnesia’]
*** Steve Bannon: “The Democrats don’t matter. the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” [“On Disinformation”]
*** “Merchants of Doubt”: “The Internet is flooded with the assertion..Carson was a mass murderer, worse than Hitler..In the demonizing of Rachel Carson, free marketers realize..if you could convince people..an example of successful government regulation wasn’t, in fact successful – that it was actually a mistake – you could strengthen the argument against regulation in general.”
The far right WAR ON TRUTH covers every possible method and strategy you can think of, and many you won’t. In EVERY sphere of life, every industry [almost], the plan is to CHANGE. HOW. AMERICANS. THINK, to provide “justification” for those changes. Literally A WAR ON TRUTH [inconvenient truths]. “The firehose of falsehoods” – the Putin model, is an “unremitting, high-intensity stream of lies, partial truths, and complete fictions spewed forth with tireless aggression to obfuscate the truth and overwhelm and confuse anyone trying to pay attention.” [“The Death of Truth’}
VII. CHANGING THE RULES – to destroy the 1947-73 middle class prosperity, the far right simply changed the rules: for government, for the economy, for taxes, for the law.
*** President Andrew Jackson [1832]: “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes..when the laws undertake to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society..who have neither the time or the means of scoring like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.”
*** “Tax The Rich!”: “..essentially all..economic gains of the last 20 years have gone to a tiny sliver of the wealthiest Americans, and that’s not by accident..It’s by design..The wealthy have paid for the ability to stand at the drawing board and plan out big parts of the economy so..the whole thing works particularly well for them.”
*** “tax the Rich!”: “A study by Princeton professor Martin Gilens shows..between the 1980s and..2020s, policies supported by the rich ended up being passed into law between 60% and 70%..not a single policy supported by the majority of voters but opposed by the rich and the business community ended up being passed into the law.”
*** Right-Wing activist Paul Weyrich warned: “We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country.” [D.Gann; New Republic; 10/27/97]
Begin YOUR research with double Pulitzer Prize winners Barlett & Steele”s “The Betrayal of the American Dream” and Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”
IX. DESTROYING DEMOCRACY – the far right has worked, quite successfully, to remake America into a theocratic oligarchy. the pre-1980 America that was reaching toward aa all-inclusive democracy has been systematically changed. We will present SOME of the mountain of evidence to this great THEFT.
*** Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1%, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important…our democracy is being put in peril.”
*** Nancy MacLean: “In writing this book..I have found myself more and more fixated on one gnawing question. Is what we are dealing with merely a social movement of the right whose radical ideas must eventually face public scrutiny and a rise or fall on their merits? Or is this the story of something quite different, something never before seen in Americsn history? Could it be – and I use these words hesitantly and carefully – a fifth column assault on American democratic government?……..
Pushed by relatively small numbers of radical-right billionaires and millionaires..profoundly hostile to America’s modern system of government, an apparatus of decades in the making, funded by those same billionaires and millionaires, has been working to undermine the normal governance of our democracy..”[“Democracy in Chains”]
*** U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman: “..the Court’s hard right majority is actively participating in undermining American democracy..the Roberts Court has contributed to ensuring..the political system of the United States pays little attention to ordinary Americans and responds only to the wishes of a relatively small number of powerful corporations and individuals.” [Harvard Law & Policy Review, “The Roberts court Assault on Democracy”}
X. CORRUPTION AND CRIMINALITY – Weekly, if not daily, corruption and criminality reports are in the news. But – this has long been recognized”
*** Chief Justice, Wisconsin supreme Court [1873]: “There is looming up a new and dark power..The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power..money is taking the field ax an organized power. the question will arise..which shall rule – wealth or man, which shall lead – money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?” [speech to U of Wisconsin grads; “Selling Out”]
This trial will produce a small part of the MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE that the far right threat to democracy by the very rich and the corporations they control is very, very real; has been escalating since 1980; and in left unchecked – will result in a theocratic oligarchy.
Heed the words of Theodore Roosevelt’s Mount Rushmore plaque:
“WE, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the
coming years; and shame andf disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light
of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men.” ? ……..
With Justice For All 