On this holy day, it is fitting to think on how religions have pronounced on GREED:

1] “You have despised the poor. Is it not the rich man who oppress you, and drag you before the judgment seats?” [James 2:6]

2] “Muslims are warned in the Quran to be on guard against greed. A Muslim should not save and hoard great sums of money, but should distribute it to those who are in need of it.” [Zakat Foundation of America}

3]. “Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind.” [The “three poisons” for Buddhists]

4] “Nowhere in Judaism is greed or selfishness encouraged…Charity, kindness, and using wealth for good pop up again and again..” [Big Think}

5] “Greed is one of the six ararthas [unwanted qualities]. It makes one act sinfully. A greedy person can never experience satisfaction. A greedy person can never be happy.” [ major beliefs of Hinduism, 3/24/24]

6] “Take heed, and beware of greed, for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses.” [Luke 12:15]

7] “It is never acceptable to earn a living by doing wrong. – “O you who have believed, do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent.” [Quran 4:89 – Zakat Foundation of America]

8] “A wicked man takes a bribe secretly to pervert the ways of justice.” [Proverbs 17:23]

9]. “You shall not take each other’s money illicitly, nor shall you bribe the officials to deprive others of some of their rights illicitly, while you know.” [Quran 2:188 – University of Texas; Koran excerpts]

10] “Listen now, you rich men: weep and wail for the miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches have corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who have harvested your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have entered into the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived in pleasure and luxury on earth; you have fattened your hearts, as for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the righteous, one who does not resist you.” [James 5: 1-6]

Every American that cares about democracy MUST read the 3/17/24 New York Times article, “Trump Allies Are Winning War Over Disinformation.” “Their Claims of Censorship Stymie Efforts to Tamp Down Election Lies Online.”

Before some of you get angry over what is presented, think about the general concept: do we expect material about American government and elections to be the truth, to tell exactly what happened – or is it OK to allow some to twist truth to satisfy their desired political outcome?????
What the article’s authors, Jim Rutenberg and Steven lee Myers are relating is that not only in the 2020 election, but also ever since – Mr. Trump and others allied are building an election strategy that revolves around LIES, twisting information, making things up, filing legal motions to disable mechanisms designed to stop LIES and misinformation.

Think about that. Now, consider this from Albert Einstein: “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. And, then this:
Former Republican president, Gerald Ford: “Truth is the glue that holds government together.” Gerald Ford belonged to a Republican Party that no longer exists.

Some excerpts from “Trump Allies Are Winning War Over Disinformation”:
“In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that..fueled the assault on..peaceful transfer of power.”
“Social media companies suspended Donald j. Trump, then..president, and many of his allies from..platforms they..used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it. The Biden administration, Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans sought to do more to hold the companies accountable.”……
“Mr. Trump and his allies embarked instead on a counteroffensive, a coordinated effort to block what they viewed as a dangerous effort to censor conservatives. They have unquestionably prevailed.”
“Waged in..courts..Congress..seething precincts of the internet, that effort has eviscerated attempts to shield elections from disinformation in the social media era. It tapped into – and..critics say, twisted – the fierce debate over free speech and the government’s role in policing content.”
“Projects that were once bipartisan, including one started by the Trump administration, have been recast as deep-.state conspiracies to rig elections. Facing legal and political blowback, the Biden administration has largely abandoned moves that might be construed as stifling political speech.”
“While little noticed by most Americans, the effort has helped cut a path for Mr. Trump’s attempt to recapture the presidency. Disinformation about elections is once again coursing through news feeds, aiding Mr. Trump as he fuels his comeback with falsehoods about the 2020 election.”……
“Those involved draw financial support from conservative donors who..backed groups that promoted lies about voting in 2020..worked alongside an eclectic cast of characters, including Elon Musk..and Mike Benz, a former Trump administration official who previously produced content for a social media account that trafficked in posts about “white ethnic displacement.” [More recently, Mr. Benz originated the false assertion..Taylor Swift was a “psychological operation” asset for the Pentagon.]”
“Three years after Mr. Trump’s posts about rigged voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes went viral, he and his allies have achieved a stunning reversal of online fortune. Social media platforms now provide fewer checks against the intentional spread of lies about elections.”
“”The people that benefit from the spread of disinformation have effectively silenced many of the people that would try to call them out,” said Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington whose research on disinformation made her a target of the effort.”….
“The arguments strike at the heart of an unsettled question in modern American political life: In a world of unlimited online communications, in which anyone can reach huge numbers of people with unverified and false information, where is the line between protecting democracy and trampling on the right to free speech?”
“Even before the court rules, Mr. Trump’s allies have succeeded in paralyzing the Biden administration and the network of researchers who monitor disinformation.”……….
“…the government has suspended virtually all cooperation with..social media platforms to address posts that originate in the United States.”

“”There’s just a chilling effect on all of this,” said Nina Jankowicz, a researcher who in 2022 briefly served as the executive director of a short-lived D.H.S. advisory board on disinformation. “Nobody wants to be caught up in it.””

Now, THINK. about what has been said here. WHAT is being attacked??? It is the mechanism to prevent disinformation from being circulated. Would YOU. say a “democracy” might want to do this???

Just WHY. did former Republican president Gerald Ford say: “Truth is the glue that holds government together.”??????????

Does it concern. YOU. that. ANY. American political operation is. “…Winning War Over Disinformation”???????


Regardless of YOUR views, should. YOU. be concerned about a person, and – THE PEOPLE AROUND HIM – are creating a DISINFORMATION operation????? Would YOU want people in YOUR personal life who deliberately, often lied to you??? Would you want them running the company YOU worked for???
WHY would YOU vote for anybody as a political leader who not only has a decades long history of lying, but is also, quite obviously, planning on doing it again???

To get their amoral, destructive, antidemocratic programs into law, the FAR RIGHT has perfected LYING. Following are some examples. If daily experiences, anecdotes not enough, do SERIOUS research in UNSPUN mainstream and official statistics. Books like “The Betrayal of the American Dream” [double Pulitzer Prize winners Barlett & Steele], “Dark Money” [multiple award winner Jane Mayer], “The Cheating of America” {Lewis & Allison], “Predator Nation” [Academy Award winner C.H. Ferguson], “Evil Geniuses” [Kurt Andersen], “Democracy in Chains” [award winner N.MacLean], “The Price of Inequality” [Nobel Prize winner J. Stiglitz]. WHY written??? What material, evidence, statistics led to these books – and – dozens/hundreds more like them???

1] TRUTH – The very concept of “truth” has/is, for some time, under attack. A major principle, worldwide: “flood the zone.” Provide so much information people can’t tell what is real truth, what is LIES, give up. Causing confusion is THE major motivation.
So many corporations and industries, unscrupulous politicians, have told LIES, real truth is hard to discover. A flood of books have been written on this: “The Death of Truth” [Michiko Kakutani], “un-Spun” [Jackson & Jamieson], “On Bullshit” [H.Frankfurt], “Lies, Incorporated” [Rabin-Havt & Media Matters], “Bullsh*t” {J.Grant], “Network Propaganda” [Benkler,Faris,Roberts], “twilight of american sanity” [A.Frances], “When Words Trump Politics” [A.Hodges], “Lies and the Lying Liars” [A.Franken], “Big Lies” [J.Conason], “The Outrage Industry” [Berry & Sobieraj], “Hate Inc” [M.Taibbi], “It Was All A Lie” [S.Stevens], “On Disinformation” McIntyre]
IF YOU can find truth – how do YOU think??? How do YOU act??? What products do YOU buy? How do YOU vote??? Do YOU vote? Without real truth, what do YOU fall back on? Biases, prejudice, rumor & hearsay. YOUR I-net influencer? Family & friends? YOUR “echo chamber”? YOUR “trusted source”? Church? Employer?
How many of the following GREAT LIES have YOU agreed with? WHY did you????? After YOU heard what you thought was “the truth,” did YOU ask any questions – or – once YOU had what you felt was “the truth,” YOU stopped asking ANY questions???

2] GRAET LIES and “information” infrastructure – the FAR RIGHT built an extensive infrastructure for pushing its LIES and bogus “ideologies.” Most visible is the media empire. One well known TV station was SET UP as propaganda outlet. Their methods recently exposed by how their on-air personalities’ words differed from what they said in private. At least one of their people has been used by Putin’s Russia to help push his lies. Talk radio is virtually an exclusive FAR RIGHT outlet for bias, fear, prejudice, and misinformation. Other radio networks are well known as FAR RIGHT outlets, in some cases local stations are ordered to read propaganda on the air.
The FAR RIGHT, following the advice of the infamous 1971 “Powell Memo<” has infiltrated many top university programs, especially law. They’ve pushed “law & economics” bogus ideology; conducted “training sessions” for judges on how to interpret law through the eyes of corporations. They’ve cut funding and donations if universities “strayed’ from following the FAR RIGHT desires on curriculum. They’ve supported numerous writers and “scholars” pushing FAR RIGHT ideology in books, papers, articles, editorials, TV “authority” appearances. I-net posts.
All this has succeeded. The FAR RIGHT has succeeded in confusing Americans about what the Founders said, wrote, intended; and – worse – twisted the meanings of the Constitution and Amendments. They’ve succeeded getting people to question whether THEIR government is helpful by suggesting it’s harmful. They’ve even gotten many to accept such obvious FRAUDS as “trickle-down economics” and “originalism.”

3] Global climate change denial – THE Greatest LIE in human history. THE most destructive LIE in human history. Why is YOUR property insurance bill escalating [if you can buy it]??? Why are “storms of the century” occurring every decade, if not every year? Why are plants and animals migrating away from the Equator? Why are YOU now threatened by tropical diseases and insects?
The Rich and their corporations who profit from fossil fuels have said this GREAT LIE since at least the 1960s. Oil companies own internal 1970s documents prove it. Humanity lost 50 years of climate mitigation [50 years of profits!!!]. Perhaps irreversible changes in nature are occurring – polar ice melt, ocean warming, etc.
This GREAT LIE is also SYMBOLIC of insatiable GREED of the Rich and their corporations. They have been willing to sacrifice their own children and grandchildren’s future to make continual OBSCENE amounts of money – when many are already millionaires and billionaires.

4] “trickle-down economics” will benefit all Americans – perhaps THE greatest post-1980 LIE of the American FAR RIGHT rich. Best rephrased as “TAX CUTS for the already Rich will somehow benefit all Americans.” This became a mantra for the FAR RIGHT, implemented by Republicans at al times. At the beginning of COVID in 2020, one state Republican leader stated the cure for COVID was tax cuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This person was serious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This GREAT LIE wa/is told to “justify” immoral Reagan, Bush II, Trump tax cuts for the Rich and their corporations. Result: concentration of wealth in top 1%, matched only by OBSCENE 1865-1901 “Gilded Age” [an age many of the FAR RIGHT want to duplicate]. Result: explosion of U.S. national debt since 1981 – a threat to our national security. Result: annual debt payments of about $650 billion – WASTED money that could’ve ben used for things such as universal child care. Result: an explosion of billionaires [there were NONE in 1956, near the height of American power]. Result: money NOT paid to workers who create the wealth – wage stagnation since 1973. Result: at least 50% living paycheck-to-paycheck and credit card debt [which goes back to top 1%].

5] “originalism” – THE. GREAT LIE of the Roberts ‘supreme court.” A false twisting of what is DOCUMENTED the Founders really said, wrote, intended, 1775-1791. This CORRUPT “court’ [as pronounced by several analysts/scholars/judges] has written monstrous LIES, into bogus “law.” They’ve so twisted Amendment One a connected activist can “justify” almost ANY human conduct by casting it as “speech,” including bribing legislators with “campaign contributions” [see “Citizens United” aftermath, confessions by Congress people, others]. They’ve crated a new class of SUPER CITIZENS who claim “religious freedom” “rights’ to discriminate, cheat and more.
Read Gaustad’s “Faith of the Founders,” pages 134-45 for explicit 1775-1800 state constitutional prohibitions. They’ve twisted Amendment Two beyond recognition. State laws as early as 1813 prohibited concealed weapons. NO Supreme Court, 1789-2007, IMAGINED a “Well-regulated militia” meant any citizen had personal gun “rights.” Result: more guns than Americans, far bigger chance to be shot anywhere in America – except – inside the “supreme court.”
“Originalism” has been DOCUMENTED by numerous real, mainstream, scholars as a historical FRAUD, the latest Chemerinsky’s “Worse Than Nothing.” Even more contemptuous and perverse, as noted by Supreme Court justices and scholars: the Roberts “supreme court” abandons “originalism” when it won’t get them to their predetermined ideological payoff.
A. study by Senator Whitehouse, discussed in “The Scheme. How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.” Appendix “A” lists “The 80″: Decisions by the Roberts Five, 2005-2019” – 80 cases, decided by 5-4 ideological votes; which achieved one of four “conservative interests” in politics, anti-democracy, far-right social agenda, protecting corporations. Any doubt? Get the book, read the 80 cases!!!!!!
Then, “The Shadow Docket” [Vladeck], on “How the Supreme Court uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine theRepublic.” As described by reviewer Epps: “Chamber of Secrets The Supreme Court’s habit of deciding hugely important cases without briefings, arguments, or even a word of explanation threatens democracy.”

6] ‘the tobacco playbook” – for American industries of all types. Guiding principle: denial of REAL scientific, or ANY, evidence which proves what they’ve done is wrong, illegal, destructive. Principle #2: make up your own “scientific” or other evidence. LIE. One corporate leader famously said: “our product is denial.” Scientific evidence smoking killed its customers was/is overwhelming. It didn’t matter. Profits, careers, industry survival, were at stake. LIE.
Good place to start: Oreskes & Conway”s “Merchants of Doubt How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.
YOU can easily observe this immorality – check stories about various industries fighting. ANY. effort to hold them accountable, from selling dubious products, to efforts to mine resources where serious damage to people and environment has/could occur, to various white collar crimes of cheating/deceiving customers. Even caught red-handed – it doesn’t make any difference – deny responsibility. LIE.
Credibly accused of violations, go before Congress, apologize BUT DO NOT CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL!!! You’ve seen a famous high-tech leader do twice.

7] “America is a Christian nation.” – NOBODY who has done serious research on what the Founding generations of 1775-1800 said, wrote, intended, could believe this. Many period direct quotes refute this. Documents express “freedom from religion” a person doesn’t believe in. The First Amendment was INTENDED to prevent Americans from having an “established” or official state church. Research what was said at the l3 state ratifying conventions on “freedom of conscience” and freedom of religion. “God” is, DELIBERATELY, NOT in the U.S. Constitution.
1776 North Carolina Constitution, Articles XXXIV: ‘..neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment, nor be obliged to pay, for..any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes right..” REREAD. THIS. is there ANY way this could have been written by people believing “America is a Christian nation?????????
North Carolina was NOT alone. 8 of the original states PROHIBITED an active minister from their government. 4 prohibited a “religious test for office” [Article VI !!!]. 10 prohibited an “established church. Evangelical demands for separation of church and state “supported principally” by Baptists and Presbyterians prevailed in Virginia. Baptist leaders John Leland and Isaac Backus were famous for opposition to an established church. Leland rejected the idea America was a Christian nation, “saying any sort of establishment of Christianity..were, all of them, Anti-Christocracies.” [Levy: “The Establishment Clause”].
CASE IRREFUTABLY CLOSED: “America is a Christian nation”. is a DOCUMENTED GREAT LIE.

8] “globalization will benefit all Americans.” MAJOR LIE – at least the way the U.S. has allowed globalization to operate. Other nations, especially China, “managed’ globalization for best interests of their COUNTRY, not some corporations – doing similar types of things America did 1789 – to build our industries and economy.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz: “The world of Adam Smith and the free trade advocates, in which free trade advocates, in which free trade will make everyone better off, is not only a mythical world of perfectly working markets with no unemployment; it is also a world in which risk doesn’t matter because there are perfect insurance markets to which risk can be shifted, and where competition is always perfect, with no Microsofts or Intels dominating the field. In such a world, workers wouldn’t worry about losing their jobs because of trade liberalization; they would move seamlessly into other jobs.” [“Making Globalization Work”]
Globalization has been a boon to many corporations. They move jobs and plants overseas – avoid American taxes, regulations, workers – AND bring the same products back to America for sale [at more profit, more environmental damage]. Some even renounce American citizenship – to avoid taxes.
Parts of trade agreements negate local government’s ability to hold corporations accountable; corporations even get to sue local governments for “lost” profits – often in secret corporate-friendly “courts.”
The main beneficiaries of current globalization are the Rich and the corporations they own. Virtually all other aspects of most societies have been harmed or lessened. When you get to write the rules, YOU usually win !!!!!
And then – there’s China – THE. big winner in post-2000 globalization. “American” corporations have provided the money that made China. THE #1 THREAT. to democracy worldwide. – by moving “American” factories and jobs there; by importing Chinese products; by giving away intellectual property – much of which also raises U.S.national debt.

How close is this to treason????

9] “Women – Native-Americans – African-Americans – Orientals – Jews – Immigrants – Etc. are inferior and dangerous.” Denigration, dehumanizing, and demonizing “the Other” is a big part of the FAR RIGHT message. The arrogance of making one’s self “the real American’ often appeals to those believing in white, male, supremacy.
This. happens. at. a cost.
America will NEVER know what it could have been, IF – women had been full citizens, 1789-20xx, not subject to “the glass ceiling” and other forms of discrimination. America will NEVER know what it could have been had other groups not been denigrated, dehumanized, discriminated against….. An unknown cost………..
The examples supplied by 1789-1940 successful women and minority persons give us an idea of the enormity of this cost. How many more Mary McLeod Bethunes, Jane Addams, Marie Curies, Barbara McClintocks, Coco Chanels, Georgia O’Keefes, Isadora Duncans, Amelia Earharts, Margaret Sangers, Helen Kellers, Maria Montessoris were there?
How many more Frederick Douglass”, Booker T. Washingtons, George Washington Carvers, Dennis Chavezs, W.E.B. Du Bois”, Ida Wellses, Paul Robsons, Thurgood Marshalls, Asa Randolphs, Harriet Tubmans, James Weldon Johnsons, Sojourner Truths, Luis Munoz Riveras, Jesse Owens, Octavio Larrazolos were there?
What if Chief Joseph had been a white man? If Jim Thorpe had been white?
It is said Adolf Hitler learned from America how to discriminate against certain groups of people. Even after various “civil rights” laws and movements – where is 2024 America on the continuum with Adolf Hitler?
AND – at. what. cost ?????

10]. “free market solutions are best” – The Right Wing mantra, the idea unfettered markets by themselves can ensure prosperity and growth – and – therefore government should leave them alone. [Don’t govern !!!!!]
Consider Adam Smith: “We can’t have free markets because the world is too complex and independent to let everyone run around doing whatever he or she wants to do. As a society, we have to regulate conduct when it interferes with other people’s freedoms or when it threatens damage to other people’s properties.”
Consider Dwayne Andreas, former A.D.M. CEO: “there isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold on a free market..The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.” [‘Cornered”]
Consider Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “The very fact..market participants spend billions and billions trying to beat the market itself refutes the twin hypotheses that markets are efficient and that most market participants are rational…If markets were efficient, there were never be bubbles. But they have occurred repeatedly.” [“Freefall”]
Stiglitz: “Free market ideology underlay many of the institutions and agreements that provided..the framework for globalization;..those ideas had been the basis for..deregulation that played such a big role in the creation of the current [2008- ] crisis, they underpinned the capital and financial market liberalization that played such a big role in the rfapid spread of the crisis around the world.”
Marjorie Kelly: “..as Hobsbawm observed in “The Age of Extremes,” postwar industrialization was ‘backed, supervised, steered, and sometimes planned and managed by governments.’ The free market was remarkably successful in that era [1945-1975] when it was notably not free.” [‘The Divine Right of Capital”]
Events, not words, proved the GIANT LIE. of “free market solutions.” In reality, this ideology was just another excuse for the Rich and corporations to cheat everybody else. Failure, depressions, crashes, billion dollar taxpayer bailouts, mass unemployment, people losing homes, deaths – meant. NOTHING. to the LIARS. – only get more creative, invent new “theories.” LIE. more effectively. REWRITE. the rules differently. REWRITE. the record.

And, of course, YOU’LL. have many opportunities to observe how the FAR. RIGHT. can LIE. in coming months. The 2024 election season is here!!!!!! Weekly, if not daily – the FAR RIGHT. “information” machine will be working overtime – to convince YOU – black is white, upside down is really right side up, 2 plus 2 is really 5, a person who lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes really won and that he really cares about you [as illustrated by his 2017 millionaires tax cut !!!!!!!!!!!!!!] Then there is that bridge in the desert you need to buy………….

Following are more of the antidemocratic and abusive stories about the Rich and Corporations mistreating ordinary people like YOU, available virtually EVERY day in local newspapers……..

1]. “Amazon ends controversial tipping practice for its drivers” “..were surprised to learn..the e-commerce giant would at times dip into their tips to cover their promised wages..”The problem most drivers have with Amazon is there is zero transparency about our wages..” [Johanna Bhuiyan; L.A. Times; 9/1/2019]

2] “Secret money is a U.S. Problem, too” “This country is an active competitor in the “corruption services” business. Several states have passed laws making it easier to set up shell companies..corruption costs developing countries at least $1.1 trillion a year.” [Doyle McManus; L.A. Times; 4/8/2016]

3] “Meta to pay $725 million over claims Facebook data was shared illegally.” “Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump campaign.” [Joel Rosenblatt; Bloomberg News; 12/24/2022]

4] “Millions in welfare went to the rich.” “In Mississippi..one of the poorest states, aid was diverted.” [Emily Wagster Pettus; Associated Press; 1/8/2023]

5]. “GAO: Tax scams cost U.S. Billions”. “..could become serious enough to undermine the U.S. income tax system..schemes [deprive] U.S. Treasury of as much as $40 billion..each year..” [Marilyn Geewax; Cox News Service; 12/20/2003]

6]. “Oil Industries War Profiteers Put Shareholder Cash Over Customers” ‘..on the backs of U.S. customers..desperately struggling to pay gasoline prices..while enlisting lobbyists and friendly Republican lawmakers..” [Alan Zibel; Public Citizen News; May-June; 2022]

7]. “Going For Broke”. “How a copper giant plans to make the public pay for its toxic mess..Asarco is just one example of how corporations use Chapter 11 to slough off massive environmental liabilities..emerge leaner and meaner to operate..” [Marilyn Berlin Snell; Sierra; May-June; 2006]

8]. “Insider-trading case reads like a movie script” “Workers at Goldman-Sachs and Merrill Lynch were charged by federal prosecutors and regulators”. [Larry Neumeister; Associated Press; 4/12/2006]

9]. “You’re Not the Regulator of Me”. “..American industry has been working for years to gut safety standards..Reagan convinced Congress to pass legislation that crippled the “CPSC” commission..President Bush nominated a senior lobbyist for the very industry the commission regulates..” [Marla Felcher; Mother Jones; Nov-Dec, 2007}

10]. “Pfizer Bullies Governments Across the World”. ‘..prohibits governments from discussing..agreements without their approval, retains unilateral control to make critical decisions..secured an intellectual property waiver..” [Lizza Barrie; Public Citizen News; Nov-Dec. 2021}

11]. “S&P pays $1.38 billion for role in meltdown”. “..accused of knowingly overrating toxic mortgages that ignited the crisis.” [wire services; 2/4/2015}

12]. “Bumble Bee, Starkey cases take prosecution..” “..massive conspiracy among three companies to fix canned tuna prices.” [Michael Hiltzik; L.A. Times; 6/4/2018]

13] “BNSF accused of destroying evidence, fined $4.6 million”. “..for destroying evidence – and it’s not the first time.” {Rochelle Olson; Star-Tribune; 7/9/2018]

Following is a recently rediscovered January, 2012 “Letter to the Editor”:

“Take Back America Trilogy”

“American politics have been corrupted by huge amounts of secret “campaign contributions,” where donors literally buy the legislation they want. Convicted felon Jack Abramoff admitted it on TV, successful lobbyist Gerald Cassidy admitted it in “So Damn Much Money” [Robert Kaiser]. Here are three proposed Constitutional Amendments to consider. The American people are going to have to force “our” Congress Critters to be honest.”

Amendment 27: Money in Politics: Money spent influencing government of any kind is not “free speech,” not protected by Amendment One. Free TV time for all candidates; identical candidate campaign money; three month election campaigns. Candidates are permitted ONLY to offer their program, no opponent criticism. No outside groups permitted to “campaign” or finance in any manner. Efforts to bribe any government official in any manner is treason. There are no loopholes. The intent is clear.

Amendment 28: Corruption in Government: Acceptance of any form of gift intended to influence any government employee is treason. Such person convicted forfeits all pension and health benefits. Government employees are prohibited from jobs after government work for any business they might have remotely dealt with; prohibited from seeking to influence government in any manner. All staff members of government personnel are similarly prohibited. Government employees are prohibited profiteering from privilege3d information acquired; prohibited from offering laws, rules, etc. benefitting relatives and associates. Violators forfeit any government pensions, benefits. “Government employees” includes Congress members, Senators, Presidents, political appointees, civil service people, “contractors,” and all others employed or not. There are no loopholes.

Amendment 29: Division of Wealth: The United States tax code is null and void, replaced with a 10 page maximum table. ALL income in ANY form is taxed at identical rates; estates over $5 million taxed. Corporations are not people; have no Constitutional rights; cannot use “fiduciary responsibility” as an excuse for conduct; their charters subject to five year renewal. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 is restored. Bankers, etc. are criminally liable for actions/omissions; all wealth and property anywhere forfeited covering damages. Stock exchanges are prohibited from high speed trading [stock held less than 24 hours]; a .5% tax on all forms of “trading.” There are no loopholes.

These need to be tightened up! Look what has happened in just 12 years. BUT – the intent of proposed Amendments 27, 28, 29, remains to be accomplished. The massive corruption of 1980 – 2024 alone proves this. Much of what is wrong of 2024 America can be traced to CORRUPT. INFLUENCE. BUYING. And, surprise of surprises!!!!!!! – guess WHO is doing almost all this corruption????????????
The perps of THE. FAR. RIGHT, in the persons of the Rich and Corporations. – the same ones who. DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED to middle class golden [STATISTICAL] age of 1947-1975. The same ones Adam Smith discussed. The same ones our Founders feared. [James Madison’s incomplete notes for the May-September, 1787, Constitutional Convention had the word “corruption” written 54 times. Corruption was most likely their NUMBER ONE fear].
America will NOT “be great again” until corruption of American government by all forms of “political contributions” are banned. To rule bribing government people is “free speech” is an insult to our Founders. It is also a colossal fraud to say spending money is “speech.” “Speech” is supposed to be an equal activity for ANY American. It can’t be when one of America’s 1,400 billionaires can buy more “speech” than other citizens.

America will also not “be great again” until we again have the more equitable division of wealth we achieved in the middle class golden age of 1947-1975. This means voiding ALL the tax cuts for the Rich and Corporations enacted since 1980. It means returning to a marginal high tax rate of 81% that was in place, 1947-75. It means a return to ordinary workers being fairly paid for their productivity; it means a return of “defined benefit” pensions. It means that the wealth of America – THE richest nation on earth. – will be SHARED. That wealth will NOT go to only the top 1%. It will be SHARED.

Due to events, GREED, “theories,” egregious LIES, and much more – the America of 2024 is nothing like what numerous people, the Founders forward have dreamed of, tried to build. It is a shadow of what once existed in the STATISTICAL middle class Golden Age of 1947-1975. Consider these thoughts:

1] “Never let ourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and his million followers, it will no longer be America.” [General, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower]

2] “To feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.” [Adam Smith]

3] “..the Court’s hard right majority is actively participating in undermining American democracy..the Roberts Court has contributed to ensuring..the political system in 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.” [U.S. District Court judge Lynn Adelman: Harvard Law & Policy Review, “The Roberts Court’s Assault on Democracy”]

4] President Rutherford B. Hayes diary: worried about how the “influence of money” had resulted in “excessive wealth in the hands of a few” and..there was now a “maldistribution of property,” which meant “extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness of the many..This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government by the corporations, of the corporations, and for the corporations.” [Sitaraman: “The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution”]

5] “But the getting has been best in America over the last 25 years for the wealthy, said Stein a rich guy who..makes about $60,000 per speech.. Stein, who is hitting a nerve on these issues around the country…Stein says our number one crisis is the “looting of America” by greedy capitalists and politicians who lean more toward defense contractors and drug company lobbyists than working stiffs.” [Neal St. Anthony: “Stein; Greedy are Looting America”; Mpls Star-Tribune; 7/31/2007]

6]. a “kind of slavery sought to be fastened on the American people..the slavery that would result from aggregations of capital in the hands of a few individuals and corporations controlling, for their own profit and advantage exclusively, the entire business of the country.” [ Justice John Marshall Harlan, 1901 ]

7] “If [conservatives] look honestly enough, they will realize the conservative information sphere has long been full of lies. the reason for this is..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.” [ex-Republican Josh Barro, 2016 – related in Whitehouse”s “The Scheme”]

8] “The rules of marketplaces are created by governments and governments decide who will benefit from those rules..Reaganomics shifted the priority of the rules of business from helping workers, communities, and the overall American economy to purely supporting the morbidly rich CEOs and trustfund babies who funded Reagan’s election…
“There was hardly a company..that paid that 50% tax, but that doesn’t mean it was ineffective..companies..avoided paying income taxes by using their surplus cash to pay their employees better, offer expanded benefits, build new products and facilities, improve their marketing, and help out th communities in which they do business.” [Thom Hartmann: “Why the Corporate Tax Bracket Should Go Back to 52%”; Progressive Populist; 3/15/24]

9] “..airline deregulation has failed..Robert Crandall, American Airlines CEO, 2008: “Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality, and international reputation..fewer flights are on time..airport congestion..bags lost..passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable.” “The Betrayal of the American Dream”]

10]. “Proponents of markets as the solution to all problems want to eliminate public parks…The Cato Institute..leading promoter of libertarian ideals, laid out the case..in 1981..Milton Friedman..intellectual godfather of market-solution prophets, urged elimination of national parks..in the 1964 presidential election…The Ludwig von Mises Institute denounced public parks in 2007 as “nature socialism.” [“Free Lunch”]

11]. “A survey of early childhood educators and caregivers shows the post-pandemic collapse of federal funding is fueling a national crisis for young children and their families…50% reported staffing shortages..”
“On February 22, Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service Danny Werfel told CNBC..the U.S. government loses approximately $150 billion annually from tax evasion by the nation’s wealthiest individuals.”
“Earlier this month, the IRS announced it could collect approximately $560 billion in. additional tax revenue over the next decade so long as Republican lawmakers were thwarted in their efforts to claw back large portions of $80 billion in funding the agency was provided as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.” [Progressive Populist; 3/15/24]

12] Representative Chris Collins: “My donors are basically saying “get it done or don’t ever call me again” [tax cuts]. Senator Lindsey Graham: “[If we don’t pass tax cuts] the financial contributions will stop.” [“Tax The Rich”]

13] “He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich, shall surely come to want.” [Proverbs 22:16]

Following is a small sample of how the Rich and Corporations have sucked the wealth out of America – and many other countries;

1]. The Gini coeffcient, which measures wealth distribution was .441 for 1774 America, including slaves. It was .463 for 2012 America. “What that means is that the America of 2012 was actually more unequal than the America of 1774 – EVEN INCLUDING SLAVES…even more surprising because the Gini coefficient for America in 2012 is based on household incomes AFTER taking into account taxes and transfer payments…” [Sitaraman: “The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution. Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic”]

2] 81.7% of wealth created in the United States between 1983 and 2009 was gained by the top 5% {“In These Times”; December,2011]

3]. “Companies paying for fraud, but executives aren’t” $8 billion in fines that corporations were expected to pay in 2012 to resolve charges of defrauding the government – not the people who did it. [Michael Schmidt, Edward Wyatt; N.Y. Times; 8/8/2012]

4]. The bottom 50% 0f U.S. workers had less wealth in 2018, adjusted for inflation, then they did in 1988. [“Fulfillment”]

5]. $3 trillion – America’s 2014 health care bill, more than the next 10 nations combined. [“America’s Bitter Pill”]

6]. $100 million – lost to the U.S. Treasury [YOU!!!], because of the 1872 “General Mining Law,” in 2000 ALONE. [“Is That a Politician in Your Pocket?”]

7]. $0%. – what 91. 2018 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid in 2018 taxes [But – YOU did!!!]. {“Tax The Rich”]

8] 300,000 men, women, and children of the top 1/10 of the top 1% – had more income than the bottom 150 million Americans in 2005 [Johnston: “Free Lunch”]

9] 56,190 – number of American factories closed, 2002-2012, “A record 5.7 million factor workers lost jobs…exceeded manufacturing job losses during the Great Depression..” [“Betrayal of the American Dream”]

10]. $17 million – what a single anonymous donor spent on each, to get Gorsuch and Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court. “..we will likely never know..what business he or she had before the Court.” [“The Scheme”]

11] $32 trillion – the undisclosed wealth stashed in overseas havens by wealthy individuals from around the world. [Rick Gladstone; N.Y. Times; 4/5/l1; “Leaked records..show vast hidden wealth” ]

12] $15 trillion – what Switzerland saves on health care because it moved to universal health care while controlling costs [2010]; in 1980 – U.S. and Switzerland had comparable health costs per capita. [“American Amnesia” ]

13] from 1999 to 2010, U.S. median wages went up a total of $56

From 1789 forward, America slowly became a “democracy.” Much of this occurred in the 20th century. Ordinary people revolted against the egregious abuse, criminality, and amorality of the 1865-1901 “Gilded Age.” The 1901-1915 “Progressive Era” began to reform parts of American society, government, and economy. The GREED of the 1920s led to the 1930s Great Depression, fascism, Nazism, World War II, the Holocaust. Reforms against some of this began in 1933-36, with the “New Deal.” Right Wing reaction against this began in 1947 with the anti-labor Taft-Hartley act.
From 1789-1920, women were second class people [not citizens]. They couldn’t vote; were supposed to “stay in their place” [barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen]. African-Americans were supposed to have been “freed” by the Civil War. They weren’t. Having fought against Nazism, it was thought discrimination should not exist in America. A “civil rights” movement began to obtain simple public equality – to honor the words of the Declaration of Independence and the ideals and intents of “The Bill of Rights” and subsequent Amendments. This was unacceptable to elements of the Right Wing.
From 1865 to 2024, there has existed an effort by working people to obtain decent wages, conditions of work, and legal protections against the GREED of corporations and the Rich. Corporations used the power of government to suppress ANY effort to create unions to achieve simple decency. Local police and various U.S. military forces have been used by corporations and their political allies to suppress American workers. NO tactic, including murder, has been ignored by GREEDY corporations and the Rich.
American middle class civilization reached a historical, STATISTICAL, peak in 1947-73. By laws and norms, the wealth of America was shared. Ordinary people could, and did, succeed. Mixed white and blue collar neighborhoods were common. I lived in one. WE all went to the same schools. Many went to the same churches. WE, in our innocence – thought this was “normal.” Ordinary kids could finance a private college education by working at a grocery store, starting at $1.09 an hour. WE, in our innocence – thought this was “normal.” Ordinary people could fall in love, get married, buy a home, have 2-3-4 kids. WE, in our innocence – thought this was “normal.”

BUT – for the Far Right – this was “too good a deal” for “undeserving” ordinary Americans. Some of the rules behind this mass middle class prosperity were ‘unfair” to the Rich, many of whom “had gotten rich all on their own efforts.” They resented sharing “their’ wealth with these “undeserving” ordinary Americans. Most especially, the Rich resented having to pay “unfair’ taxes. Taxes that were used to build roads, schools, infrastructure; and – the police and legal system that protected “their’ wealth, incomes, property, persons.
The revolt began in the mid-1960s, escalated in the 1970s, exploded in the 1980s. The Far Right revolt against the bottom 90% has had one main tool: CHANGING. THE. RULES. Much middle class success depended upon getting fair treatment from government , especially courts. The Far Right set out to change that. They HAVE – and – you live in 2024 America amid what bought-off politicians and courts, corrupt ideology, have created. The ultimate Far Right goal” a return to the 1865-1901 “Gilded Age.”

Following is a SAMPLE of how rules and norms have been changed. Changed by the money and power of the Rich and their corporations. This is only a SAMPLE. The Far Right political-economic-religious-social Right has fought a self-declared ‘WAR’ against ordinary Americans. The mess and chaos of 2024 America is the result of their many successes. In the name of “freedom,” the Far Right has reduced freedom for ordinary people like YOU.
Remember – NOTHING – in YOUR life is “out-of-bounds” for Right-Wing “do-gooders” and GREEDHEADS. Every Right Wing interest group has their list of “improvements’ they wish to impose on YOU. Consider some:

1] “Rule of law depends not just on what is written down, but also on the behavior of those who interpret and enforce that rule. If these people don’t regard themselves as servants of the law first, partisans second, if they won’t subordinate their political goals to their duty to preserve the system, laws become meaningless and only power matters.” [Krugman: “Arguing With Zombies”]

2] “The rules of the game, adopted and managed largely by economic elites, have made the American political system peculiarly inhospitable to the politics of the labor-left. These rules block..success of third parties, weaken all political parties, empower special interest lobbies and pressure groups, give money a dominant voice in elections and public policy, and make voter participation the lowest in the democratic world” [Sexton: “The War on Labor and the Left”]

3] “In no other area, observed one scholar, “was the process of strategic investment [by right-wing funders] as prolonged, ambitious, complicated and successful as the law.” The campaign for the courts..sought “to mold a new jurisprudence” that would radically change “the way justice is dispensed in our society.” In particular, those waging the campaign sought “to make the protection and enhancement of corporate profits and private wealth the cornerstones of our legal system.” [Maclean; “Democracy in Chains”]

4] “What was needed was a way to amend the Constitution so that public officials would be legally constrained from offering new social programs to the public or engaging in regulations on their behalf even when vast constituencies were demanding them..’the problems of our times require attention to the rules rather than the rulers..real change would come ‘only by Constitutional law.’ The project must aim toward the practical ‘removal of the sacrosanct status assigned to majority rule.'” [MacLean: “Democracy in Chains”]

5]. “The rigor of competition..is being weakened bit by bit; a law here, a regulation there, a court ruling over there. These events tend to be reported as discrete events or even go unnoticed…markets are supposed to be policed, but posing as friends of the taxpayer, politicians from both parties have increasingly handcuffed the white-collar detectives at..federal agencies. Price-fixing, price gouging, price manipulating and other anticompetitive practices have become more common, becoming the norm…Meanwhile, leaders chosen from the industries they are supposed to regulate are named to..regulatory boards. Compromising relationships are formed..” [Johnston; “The Fine Print”]

6] “Tyler Cowen..now directs the cause’s base camp at George Mason, the Mercatus Center, has explained..with the ‘rewriting of the social contract’ under way, people will be ‘expected to fend for themselves much more than they do now. ‘While some will flourish..’others will fail by the wayside’ and because ‘worthy individuals’ will manage to climb their way out of poverty, ‘that will make it easier to ignore those who are left behind.’ Cowen foresees..’we will cut off Medicaid for the poor.’ Also, ‘the fiscal shortfall will come out of real wages as various cost burdens are shifted to workers’ from employers and a government that does less. To ‘compensate people who have had their government benefits cut or pared back’ should pack up and move to lower-cost states like Texas. Granted..’Texas is skimpy on welfare benefits and Medicaid coverage,’ and nearly three in ten..residents have no health insurance, but the state does have jobs and ‘very cheap housing’. to offset its ‘subpar public services.”.. Cowen forecasts, ‘the United States as a whole will end up looking more like Texas.'” [MacLean; “Democracy in Chains'”
[STOP111. TIME OUT111. Reread this – for the cruelty, callousness, arrogance. THIS. is what the Far Right – the Rich and corporations intend to do – to. YOU. THIS. is what CHANGING THE. RULES. is all about.]

7]. In the last 40 years, patents and copyrights protections have been made stronger and longer. 1976 and 1998 Copyright Acts extended patents to a total of a possible 95 years. their scope expanded. Patents in courts now win 2 of 3 cases – prior, won 1 of 3..

“Examining the upsurge of patents in the semiconductor industry in the 1980s and 1990s, Hall and Ziedonas [2001] found..the main motivation was to use patents as weapons in lawsuits against competitors and as bargaining chips in..settlement of cases….. “The extreme example of using patents for legal harassment is..a patent troll, a company that exists only to push claims of patent rights against profitable companies.” [Baker: “Rigged”]

8] “Doctors, dentists, and lawyers don’t face the same downward pressure on their wages as textile workers, autoworkers, and retail clerks because the government’s policies are not trying to push their pay lower. We aren’t designing trade agreements to expose these professions to competition with lower-paid counterparts in the developing world.” [Baker; “Rigged”]

9]. Courts advanced the business project by giving corporations “personhood’ status. State courts abandoned the theory a corporation was a “mere legal construct…the Supreme Court..bestowed upon it the constitutional status of personhood without even entertaining legal argument on the matter. The final step..was to weave “economic freedom” for corporations into the texture of the Bill of Rights. Since state law permitted corporate persons to hold title to property, they could claim..protections of both the due process clause and the “takings” clause. The Court held..governmental intervention was justified only when an entire industry was “affected with the public interest,” and it narrowly construed legislation that met this test to construct governmental authority.” [McGarity: “Freedom to Harm..”]
[read this again – courts GAVE corporations the farm, by CHANGING THE RULES ]

10] “With economic power came political power as the industrialists and bankers behind the largest corporations were able to determine the makeup of many state legislatures, state courts, and to some degree even Congress. Corporate entities had the power to ‘bend laws and regulations to [their] own purposes”..” [McGarity]

11] “Refocusing Tort Law” – an active right-wing, Chicago School campaign to “talk less about corrective justice and more about efficiency.’ Posner argued the law’s “economic function” was “to deter uneconomical conduct.’ Posner asserted judges should exercise more jury control in tort litigation, a “substantial departure from the highly pragmaic common law tradition, which until the late 1970s rather successfully eschewed dogmatic formulas.” [McGarity]

12]. “With substantial financial support from conservative foundations [$68 million from Olin foundation alone], law and economics became an effective vehicle for incorporating a business-friendly approach to legal analysis into American legal education. Most law schools..offer multiple courses in law and economics..few law professors feel free to ignore law and economics altogether.” [McGarity}.

13]. Reagans first EPA Administrator, Anne Gorsuch..and her carefully selected associates adopted three strategies to change the agency’s culture:..removed career civil servants..and replaced them with ideologues, many..wholly unqualified;.. they [employed] reorganizations aimed primarily at enhancing their control over career employees;.. they negotiated directly with..regulated industries..undercutting professional staffers..” [mcGarity]

14] “..echoed a November 2007 report..by a subcommittee of FDA’s Science Advisory Board which concluded the nation’s food supply was ‘at risk,’ because the agency’s ‘ability to provide its basic food system inspection, enforcement and rule-making functions’ had been ‘severely eroded.” [MGarity} [note” the ‘erosion” had been accomplished by the “politically savvy” food industry opposition to make it safer]

15] Deregulation of financial derivatives allows them to be, ‘in the words of investor Warren Buffett, ‘weapons of mass destruction.” [McGarity} This was shown true in the Crash of 2008. R-W Rules Changes have consequences, for YOU ]

16] In 2004, the SEC loosened restraints on capital reserves – “in fact did away with any ceiling on leverage at all. It was one of the more extraordinary derelictions of regulatory duty in a long list under Christopher Cox, Bush’ appointee to see the SEC..” [Jeff Madrick” “Age of Greed” ]

17] America is the “most unequal advanced country…the direct result of 25 years of public policy that has favored wealth, rewarded property, and encouraged concentration of both.’ {Ehrenberg: “$ervants of WEALTH” ]

18] “President Reagan nominated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board who believed..the COPB should be abolished..Reagan vetoed appropriations for the CPB..” [Sexton: ‘War on Labor and the Left”}

19] “..a key reason..wages are stagnant to falling for most..is a tx rule enacted in 1986..Reagan signed a law that said so long as the money was owned by offshore subsidiaries, American companies could hold unlimited amounts of cash..a key reason companies..siphon profits out of the United States..” [D.C. Johnston: “The Fine Print” ]

20] “..the larger transformation in the American economy since the late 1970s. A host of large industries..banks, credit card enders, electric utilities, health care, oil pipelines, Hollywood studios, property insurance, railroads, and water companies, all have worked quietly to rewrite America’s economic playbook in their favor.”
“..legislatures have rewritten basic business laws, some whose principles date back thousands of years. Too often the goal has been to thwart competition, artificially inflate prices, hold down wages by decimating unions, reduce worker benefits and then restrict or bar access to courts…Businesses have gotten policies adopted that..allowed some managers to run corporations as, effectively, criminal enterprises..” [D.C. Johnston: “The Fine Print’ }

21]. “Within two years, Reagan and Regan, working with a receptive Congress, wiped out many of the rules that had restrained finance for the previous 60 years. Gone were most of the restrictions on S 7 Ls. Gone were most of the rules that stabilized the mortgage market. For the first time, the federal government allowed companies to buy back their own shares to raise stock prices. For the first time, the federal government allowed the pooling of mortgages into so-called mortgage-backed securities – the risky investment vehicles that would eventually destroy Lehman. And for the first time, corporate raiders started taking on established companies, financing buyouts with massive amounts of new borrowing.” [Hacker & Pierson: “American Amnesia” ]

22]. Early 1990s fight over stock options…federal regulators wanted to “expense’ them..new rules to force companies to incorporate expected costs of options in their accounting. The Business Roundtable mobilized this. “..an aggressive effort to silence..compensation consultants…consultants..on the receiving end of veiled threats”..pressure on the FASB to drop new standards…CEOs “swarmed Capitol hill” with threats; 3 Democratic senators advanced a resolution to gut the FASB; “Faced with the onslaught, the FASB backed down.” [“American Amnesia”]. [note: THIS is how the top 1% works to get the rules they want ]

23]. Airline safety – and preventing 9/11. After TWA Flight 800 crashed in 1996, the Clinton administration proposed toughening airport security measures. “Tragically, as we know, had the Gore Commissions’s original recommendation’s been followed, the September 11 hijackers might never have been able to get past airport security that fateful day. But fierce opposition from the Air Transport Association, which feared that longer lines at security checkpoints would turn off passengers, managed to block any implementation of these proposals.”…

“Even after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, safety measures are being watered down at the behest of this powerful lobby.” [Sifry & Watzman: “Is That A Politician In Your Pocket?’ read pages 134-135 for more details ]

24]. “Tax Tricks”. employed by the Rich and corporations: Read “Tax The Rich” by Morris Pearl & Erica Payne, pages 68, 95, 112, l35 – and much more. How the Rich cut their taxes – so YOU can pay more to run America – Rules. Changes. That. Threaten Democracy – not to mention YOUR billfold!!!

25] “Thanks to the rules, many of which are written by corporations, a company can pull up stakes and use cheap foreign labor to make the same product it once did in America. It no longer has to meet environmental standards..abide by U.S. labor laws..pay a decent wage. Then the company can ship the product back to the United States where, courtesy of the rules, it will pay little if any duty.” American workers can’t compete against that. [D.C. Johnston: “Free Lunch” ]

26]. “The decline of U.S. manufacturing isn’t a new story. But what hasn’t been told is..the role played by Wall Street and the ruling class, why it need not have played out the way it did..what doomed manufacturing jobs was largely an economic policy crafted by Washington and Wall Street..sold to the country..that would benefit the nation as a whole. Instead..enriched a few at the expense of the many..”free trade.” [Barlett & Steele: “Betrayal of the American Dream”}

27]. “..to the IRS not all dollars are equal..Congress, responding to the wishes of their well-heeled constituents, ordered the IRS to treat some dollars differently..ensures preferential tax treatment for the privileged…If all dollars were treated the same..the deficit would disappear, with only a few adjustments in tax rates.” [“Free Lunch”}

28]. “There is yet another way..government rules favor executives over..rank and file. The rules allow troubled companies to cheat workers out of their full pensions despite a 1974 law intended to guarantee retirement income. The economics of funding pensions are simple, but corporations have persuaded Congress to make them complicated because they gain from complexity that subtly shifts risks onto workers.” [“Free Lunch”]

29]”..the Roberts Five rewrote the separation of church and state.” “..the Roberts Five in Heller held for the first time in our history..the Constitution provides each individual the right to keep and bear “arms.” [Whitehouse: “The Scheme”]

30]. “..the Chief Justice in Citizens United announced a new rule; if precedent is “hotly contested” it has less precedential value and can be replaced…Precedent fell to the Roberts Five in gun cases..campaign finance cases..voter protection cases..labor cases..always to the benefit of the Republican right.” [“The Scheme”]

3l]. Trucking deregulation is “even more destructive than in the airline industry..Nearly every large trucking company..in business at the time of deregulation has either foundered, merged with a competitor, or downsized. Most of those remaining are perilously close to collapse..Working conditions are more stressful and pay is lower..companies cut back on maintenance and replacement of trucks.” [“Betrayal of the American Dream”]

32]. “Beginning in the Reagan administration, came the sabotage. By law and by willful inaction, by written rule and by instructions to focus enforcement efforts on some criminal behaviors and not bother with others, constraints on the type of bank that is closest to American communities were disabled.” [Chayes; “On Corruption in America”}

So, dear readers – remember – this is but a very small fraction of the thousands of examples in which rules and norms were DELIBERATELY changed at the request of the Rich and Corporations – in the name of GREED. A democracy that was slowly, painfully, built – step by step – from 1901 to 1975 – was DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED.. – by simply CHANGING. THE RULES. They have proved that money is the root of all evil.

We, the People, call John Perkins to testify on “Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and The Truth About Global Corruption.”
[note: the following testimony is from Perkin’s two books: “The Secret History of the American Empire” and “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”]

Perkins: “..I was an EHM”.. “I wrote that in 1982, as the beginning of a book..”Conscience of an Economic Hit Man”..dedicated to..Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama…They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire..”…
“I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times..the next twenty years..influenced by world events…However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop.”..
“In 2003, the president of a major publishing house..told me that since the executives at world headquarters might object, he could not afford to risk publishing [“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”}. He advised me to fictionalize it.”

Perkins:”Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, USAID, and other foreign “aid” organizations into coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder.”

Perkins: “..corporations, banks, and governments [collectively the corporatocracy] use their financial and political muscle to ensure our schools, businesses, and media support both the fallacious concept [all economic growth benefits humankind] and its corollary. They have brought us to the point where our global culture is a monstrous machine that requires exponentially increasing amounts of fuel…in the end will have consumed everything..”

Perkins: “This empire is ruled by a group of people who collectively act very much like a king. They run our largest corporations and, through them, our government. They cycle through the “revolving door” back and forth between business and government. Because they fund political campaigns and the media, they control elected officials and the information we receive. These men and women [the corporatocracy] are in charge regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats control the White House or Congress.”

Perkins: “..there two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN and other U.S. companies..through massive engineering and construction project…Second, I would work to bankrupt countries that received..loans..so they’d be forever beholden to their creditors..”

Perkins: “I had begun to understand..although most Americans have no idea their lifestyles are built on exploitation, millions of people in other countries are aware of it..”

Perkins: “..the extremely high price Indonesian people had paid for what economists referred to as an “economic miracle.”…benefits were restricted to those at the top…the abuse of cheap and plentiful labor, in sweatshops…with policies granting foreign corporations licenses to destroy the environment and conduct activities..outlawed in North America.”

Perkins: “Iran illustrated beyond any doubt the U.S. was a nation laboring to deny the truth of our role in the world…incomprehensible..we could have been so misinformed about the shah and the tide of hatred…”

Perkins: “The Indians and all the farmers who live along the river you’re damming hate you. Even people in the cities…sympathize with the guerillas…Your government calls these people Communists, terrorists, and narcotic traffickers, but the truth is they’re just people with families..on lands your company is destroying.”

Perkins: “A cogent example of the way natural disasters are exploited by the corporatocracy is..Aceh’s Leuser Ecosystem. For three decades, local resistance kept lumber and oil companies out of one of the world’s richest forests. Now that GAM [is] crushed, the region is open to exploitation.”

Perkins: The American republic offered hope to the world. Its foundation was moral and philosophical..based on concepts of equality and justice for all…. The global empire..is the republic’s nemesis. It is self-centered, self-serving, greedy, and materialistic, a system based on mercantilism.
“..what we’re perpetuating through this new, highly subtle form of imperialism was the financial equivalent of what we’d attempted to accomplish militarily in Vietnam..”

Perkins: “In countries on every continent, I saw how men and women working for U.S. corporations..participated in something far more pernicious…blind to the consequences of their actions, convinced the sweatshops..were helping the poor climb out of poverty, instead of simply burying them deeper in a type of slavery..”

Perkins: Ecuador, an old Amazonian Shuar man: “The world is as you dream it. Your people dreamed of huge factories, tall buildings, as many cars as there are raindrops in this river.. Now you begin to see your dream is a nightmare.”
[ STOP! TIME OUT! Reread this man’s words. WHO has seen the truth????? ]
think –
Perkins: Venezuela, 1992: “Largely as a result of Caracas’ collaboration with the corporatocracy, Venezuelan per capita income had plummeted by more than 40% and what had been previously the largest middle class in Latin America sank into the ranks of the impoverished.”
[ STOP! TIME OUT! THINK – is there ANY possibility that several millions Venezuelans have tried to immigrate to the U.S.A. – is in ANY way – related to what he corporatocracy did 30 years ago?????????? to ruin THEIR country? ]

Perkins: “Evo Morales rose out of the indigenous community..opposed privatization and..”free market” reforms – policies that would prevent Bolivia from protecting its farmers and businesses while at the same time forcing it to accept protectionist U.S. barriers…He denounced the Washington-driven Free Trade of the Americas plan as a plan to legalize the colonization of the America.” …Almost immediately, the corporatocracy labeled him as a terrorist..”

Perkins: July 31, 1981 – Torrijos dies in a plane crash. “There was a bomb in that plane. i know there was a bomb..but I can’t tell you why over the telephone.” “men with immense power..hated Torrijos..”

Perkins: “What was going on in the energy field was symbolic of a trend that was affecting the whole world. Concerns about social welfare, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues took a backseat to greed..an overwhelming emphasis was placed on promoting private businesses…something inherently better about projects owned by wealthy investors rather than governments…the World Bank bought into this notion, advocating deregulation and privatization of water and sewer systems, communications networks, utility grids…that up to then had been managed by governments.”

Perkins: secret meeting with ‘Jose’ on a Brazilian park bench: “It’s not just about bribes and the threat of coups or assassinations, not just about striking deals and falsifying economic forecasts, not just about enslaving us through debt we can never repay. It goes deeper.” He went on explaining in Brazil and other nations, the corporatocracy essentially controls all parties. “Your CIA has ‘the goods’ on him.”

Perkins: Panama’s infamous Contadora island resort: “Rumors that George W. was photographed doing coke and having kinky sex…” There was a theory in Latin America that Noriega used incriminating photos of the younger Bush…In retaliation, H.W. invaded Panama and hustled Noriega off to prison. The building housing Noriega’s confidential files had been incinerated by bombs…Jose: “those rumors ring awfully true.”

Perkins: CIA agent: “Linda Tripp was assigned to destroy a president feared as a reformer who might undermine the corporatocracy…Linda found her innocent in Monica Lewinsky.”

Perkins: Raul Zibechi “states he and other analysts have concluded Washington is creating a South American unified armed force…two army privates and a second lieutenant – substantiated Professor Zibechi’s allegations…Everything we do in Columbia just makes it more attractive for the drug business. Why do you think the situation keeps getting worse there? Because we want it to be, we’re behind the drug trafficking. the CIA is – just like it was in Asia’s Golden Triangle…Coke provides illicit money, in the billions – for clandestine activities…”

Perkins: What if the CIA hadn’t overthrown Iran’s democratically elected leader? Many scholars concluded that if America had not done it, other Middle Eastern countries might have been encouraged to follow Iran – and – might have prevented all the violence that followed.

Perkins: the 1958 U.S. invasion of Lebanon “had a profound long-term impact on Muslims”

Perkins: The U.S.-G.B plot to assassinate the popular Iraqi president included Saddam Hussein. Lter Saddam brought back from Syria and installed as had of Iraqi national security.

Perkins; A Turk in Iran speaks: “Your people haven’t a clue of the crimes the Israelis commit against Arabs…it is really an American war. Israel is just your foot soldier. It wasn’t enough you stole Palestine…You rub Muslim noses in the shit of history…You torture, lie and steal for oil…Israel is..an enemy fortress built on Arab lands. For Muslims everywhere, it is an insult, a humiliation, a reason..to hate you.”
[ Stop. Reread this. Unpack what this man said. Whether everything he said is true or not is irrelevant. Much of this is what many people in the Middle East BELIEVE to be true. And – there is some truth in it. Only a”Two State Solution” can BEGIN to “solve” parts of the problem. The world cannot ignore either the current Gaza suffering or the history of their suffering before October 7, 2023. 2.5 million people living in horrible conditions cannot be ignored. Unmitigated hate festers – it doesn’t go away, will not remained ‘covered up.” }

Perkins: “”The Iraq-Iran War; Another EHM Victory” – military suppliers and contractors profited handsomely; “the corporatocracy has managed to link the business of selling death with international diplomacy.” The Middle East as a primary testing ground and market.

Perkins: Corportocracy policies in Asia-China-Latin America often had negative consequences. Washington denied culpability for its failures..[media] reports blamed corrupt foreign government officials, religious fanaticism, and left-wing dictators…The corporatocracy and its agents were painted the good guys… Seldom was it mentioned we were the ones who corrupted these officials, that our repressive policies empowered the fanatics, or many leaders we classified as ‘dictators’ were actually democratically elected..”

Perkins: “Farm families that had lived off the land for hundreds of years, saving the seeds to replant their crops, were now becoming dependent on fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds they had to purchase from foreign companies…an anti-GMO conference…countless testimonies of disenfranchised farmers suffering the consequences of unfair trade policies…USAID and Monsanto working together to rewrite Malian legislation…the ravaging effects of U.S. cotton subsidies on Malian farmers…economic development in Mali is driven by corporate interests…the myth of development is alive and well in the U.S.A. [3rd world people as ignorant-backward-stupid-etc.]

Perkins: “The global empire had become just that..previously considered U.S. corporations..now..international..could pick and choose…Words like democracy, socialism and capitalism were becoming almost obsolete. Corporatocracy had become a fact, and increasingly exerted itself as the single major influence on world economics and politics.”

Perkins: “I did watch with great interest the way the corporatocracy went after him {President Clinton} and Hilary during his first term; it seemed like warning shots fired across the bow, and, in fact, those warning shots brought many of Clinton’s promised programs to a halt. I had to wonder what he’d done to convince them to bring Monica out into the public..”

{ notes: Stop!!! Now – consider what Perkins has said here – and – not just these words – but this: FOR. 20. YEARS – PERKINS WAS EITHER THREATENED OR PRESENTED. WITH. BRIBES. – TO NOT. WRITE THESE. BOOKS. So – what was it/ is it, that certain people and forces do NOT want YOU to know about?????
NOW – fit what Perkins has said with other materials already presented on this site:
– Sarah Chayes [& others] work on “Corruption in America”
– Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains. The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America”
– Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money. The Hidden history of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”
– Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?” – and. Barlett & Steele’s “The Betrayal of the American Dream”
–Collins & Yeskel’s “Economic Apartheid in America”

Do YOU really think ALL these people, some Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners, made up what they said – including naming names of people and companies in print ??????? We have stressed that YOU investigate for yourself – the UNSPUN statistics used by these people, and many more, to DOCUMENT. how “The Far Right IS aThreat to Democracy. How the rich and their corporations have sabotaged not only the 1789-1979 upward curve of real ‘democracy” in America, and many parts of the world, but also – for sheer GREED sabotaged the ability of millions/billions of people to live happy and prosperous lives. SHEER, AMORAL, IMMORAL GREED.
And. THE QUESTION; do YOU care? And if so, are YOU honestly, factually informed – NOT propagandized by Far Right propaganda outlets playing on your fears – but, real truths and facts??? We have to ask that, because a major FAR RIGHT goal, l933-2024, has been to twist truth, to in George Orwell”s words, engage in “blackwhite” – to say black is white in complete contradiction of reality; to lead people down into the rabbit hole of planned falsehoods.
Again – we are back to this question for YOU: WHY was Perkins subjected to threats and bribes for 20 years so that he would NOT write the two books????? What was the corporatocracy afraid that YOU might learn???? What questions were they afraid YOU might start asking??????? ]

Again, we return to the work of Nancy MacLean, but first, consider the track record and words of 20th and 21st century autocrats, who also wanted the ‘educate” and control the thinking of their people:
– V. I. Lenin: “Truth is the most precious thing. That is why we should ration it.”
– Adolf Hitler: “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.”
– “Education” of publics, and “re-education” camps. It is well established that several 20th and 21st century autocratic
leaders went to great lengths to instill propaganda in their own public. Consider what Mayer in ‘Dark Money” and
MacLean in “Democracy in Chains” have stated. There is much more. On many topics. On many levels.
To erase what Americans saw and experienced, 1929-73, the radical FAR RIGHT must “reeducate” Americans,
must change the narrative, must convince Americans “big government’ is EVIL – and big business are the heroes

and will “save America from the evils of “collectivism. – socialism. -communism” that “big government’ seeks to impose on the American people. Changing how American law is taught and conducted is a critical part of the FAR RIGHT program…….

MacLean: “..the Law and Economics Center at the University of Miami..was run by Professor Henry G. Manne, a leader in the emerging field of “law and economics,” dedicated to shaping the understanding and practice of law in a manner..CEOs and CFOs could – and did – appreciate. Bringing a corporate-oriented cost-benefit analysis to regulation and legal liberalism..the field sought to do to mid-century legal thought what public choice was doing to social science thought about government:..’undermine the intellectual foundations on which its arguments, and its claim to represent the public interest, were based. ‘Manne had argued..insider trading was good for the economy and..hostile takeovers offered an ideal way for investors to control managers.”

MacLean: “[Manne’s] summer legal programs had provided intensive training in applying free market economic analysis to legal decision-making for law professors and..federal judges…By 1990, more than two of every five sitting federal judges had participated..a stunning 40% of the federal judiciary had been treated to Koch-backed curriculum.”

[So – when YOU wonder why the Roberts ‘supreme court” has THE highest “business friendly” rating of ANY U.S. Supreme Court since 1945 -0 maybe YOU just learned why. Or, maybe when YOU hear about a dubious “pro-business” court ruling in YOUR area – maybe YOU just learned why. Then – YOU might ask questions – like. WHY. are these judges going to these “education” sessions? And – given the track record of the Kochs – YOU might ask. WHY. they were the ones who wrote/subsidized the writing of what YOUR federal judges were being taught? Or………………..???
Unfortunately. there is more, much more. Future posts will get into that. it goes under the heading of “CHANGING THE RULES.” See, the RADICAL. FAR. RIGHT. feels the 1933-1979 rules favored the “wrong” people – like YOU!!!!!! this could not be allowed to stand, so, the RADICAL FAR RIGHT set about CHANGING THE RULES – back to what they were, 1865-1901. And, the result: record numbers of billionaires and millionaires, millions of ordinary Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck and racking up credit card debt, many unable to afford more than one or two kids.]