This post, from l2/24/23 headlines – illustrates to YOU how the rich and corporations are constantly finding ways to abuse the lower 90% – this time in their own neighborhoods. the following information comes to YOU from College Football Sacks Housing Markets Nationwide” [Allison Salerno, New York Times; 12/24/23]

From Athens, Georgia: ”But the rent is too high for anyone to go anywhere, at least locally…youcan get one for $l,800, that’s considered cheap,” said Ms. Malcolm, 48. ”For a one-bedroom – a one-bedroom. It’s like $2,100 on average.”……..
 ”But Ms. Malcolm believes the rent issue in Athens has more to do with football. the Georgia Bulldogs..draw some 90,000 spectators to Sanford Stadium for six or seven games..essentially creating an alternate market for short-term rentals..Real estate investors are buying and building homes for fans who will pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a weekend housing…and the effects are affecting local residents ll year.
  “..there are currently 1,135 short-term rentals available in Athens – up from 865 in November 2022…”…

 ”Athens is no outlier. Around the United States, in small cities reliant on college sports to keep their economies humming, short-term rentals are destabilizing housing markets, fueled by wealthy fans and investors who transform single-family homes into de facto hotels for a few weeks..often leaving them sitting empty the rest of the time.”

 ”Over the past year, the supply of short-term rentals has grown 34% in Tuscaloosa..33% in Columbia, Mo..and 11% in South Bend, Ind..according to data from AirDNA.

“But it’s not just the rental markets that are effected – investors are overpaying for the houses they rent out, pulling sale prices out of reach for many locals.
 ”They have very wealthy alumni that have no problems buying second houses, whether that’s for their kids to go there or whether that’s just for them to have a good time seven or eight weekends a year,” Mr. Bouchet said. ”And that’s caused the price of these houses to go through the roof and push people out of these neighborhoods.”…

“But this summer, after she returned from some traveling, she found the trees felled and a two-story house under construction close to her property line, part of a larger complex that now includes a renovated six-bedroom, five-bath ranch house. The Texas-based investors have yet to open their property to paying guests, but VRBO lists it as available to up to 16 people, with the first night, Feb. 1, set at $1,250

“Right now, the housing market favors the investor over just the average human being..”

“In south Bend..blocks from Notre Dame stadium..they’re nearly surrounded by short-term rentals..With so many investors scooping up homes, Harter Heights has been irrevocably changed.”…
 ”Houses are being purchased, flipped, and then they stand empty for sometimes weeks upon weeks..In Harter Heights, rents for one-bedroom apartments have risen 89% since 2013, according to data compiled by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency, drastically outpacing the national average.”
 ”Officials in South Bend can do little to stop the surge. In 2018, Indiana’s state legislature enacted a law prohibiting local governments, cities, and counties from passing ordinances regarding short-term rentals..”… !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“But investor-owned homes have no place in a residentially zoned neighborhood, he said…”It’s so hypocritical of us as a city because we don’t allow a hair salon, we don’t allow a tax preparer or whatever to be in a neighborhood because that’s a business,” Mr. Tyner said. ”So you’re going to allow short-term rental, which is definitely a business. People are making huge amounts of money in our neighborhoods, but they don’t even live there.”

“The rush of investors turning private homes into short-term rentals is “absolutely” contributing to Tuscaloosa’s affordable-housing shortage, said Ellen Potts. ex-director of Habitat for Humanity of Tuscaloosa. ”It ties up a lot of rental housing that would be for families,” she said. A landlord friend of hers, she said, “is making so much more money than she used to, renting it for maybe $1,200 a month, when she’s renting it for $2,000 0r $3,000 a weekend.”……..

“The bottom line, she said: “It’s impacting how we form a community and how we sustain all the goods of that community.”

    SO – dear people – research into. YOUR. OWN COMMUNITY - how are YOU. doing there???  Do YOU even have a clue on how the rich and the corporations are doing the same type of things where YOU live ??????
   THE. “investor” stories are proliferating. The “private equity” reports are exploding>. The stories about how various companies no longer just want to sell YOU. something – but they want to rent it to YOU, make YOU a “Subscriber,” make YOU return to the dealership for “service”. [YOU are no longer allowed to fix YOUR own piece of equipment!!!!!!!!]

More “investor” stories will be unearthed. Reports are that the rich and their corporations are working to corner the markets in virtually ALL disposable products. Reports on various food monopolies are coming out – tight corporate control allows the rich to jack the prices on. YOUR. food – by eliminating independent competition.

I was told by a real estate agent he/she knew of local communities where up to 50% of all houses were owned by absentee landlords – many of which could be rented out; which, again – takes a single-family house off the market.

There once was a period where American civilization approached its peak; 1947-1973. It had weaknesses [racism, misogyny] – but the “average person” could – and did, succeed. I. know this to be a fact – because this describes the community and immediate neighborhood in which MY family lived. What many of you can only read about – we, in real time fact lived the real American Dream – and so did the people around us.
      A MAJOR factor was the cultural norms supporting the control of GREED by the rich. the top marginal tax rate for this period, and much time around it – was an average of 81%. Labor unions were accepted and supported.
      All this mass prosperity was “too good a deal” in the eyes of the rich. So they set about to destroy it – which they have nearly succeeded in doing – which gives YOU the divided America of 2023.   SEE – “divide and conquer” works – if one has slick marketing, and believable LIES.
     So – America has “cultural wars” – and YOUR real oppressors – the rich and their corporations – are literally “laughing at. YOU. all the way to the bank.”   YOU’RE running around in circles, angry at the wrong people – while the rich, Wall Street, financialized medicine, various monopolies are robbing YOU blind.
     “Football victims” are just one of many victimized populations. WE will provide more.

-Collins & Yeskel: ‘”The larger economic trends of the past three decades [1975-2005]: falling wages for the bottom 60%;
wealth inequality – the top 1% of households had more wealth than the bottom 95%; the widening gap between the richest and lowest paid workers. Inequality in wages is at an all-time high; losing ground at work – in the last 25 years, 3 0f 4 U.S. wage-earners lost ground on the job; precarious and stressed middle class – half the population says they feel no employer loyalty or job security; the rising tide lifts only yachts – unlike the post- World War II years, when economic growth was shared more equitably, a dramatic pulling apart in the last 25 years between the small number of “haves” and everybody else.”

Collins & Yeskel: ”The problem of inequality is, in part, a problem of democracy. The growing role of big money in politics is only one aspect of the decline of democracy. The vast majority of people in this country have been excluded from decision-making about some of the most important rules determining our shared economic lives.”….
 ”We believe that we are at a dangerous juncture. As wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, so does the power to change the rules that govern our economy.”..
 ”This is a vicious circle. As corporations gain more power, they use their power to buy lobbyists and pay to elect candidates who will change the rules in their favor. They buy the media and utilize complex tactics to influence and shape public opinion and culture.”

Collins & Yeskel: “What is clear is that economic inequality is the result of rules rules that govern the economy; over three decades of public policies and private corporate practices that have benefir asset-owners at the expense of wage-earners. Tax policy, global trade policy, government spending, and regulation have all been tilted in favor of asset-owners and large corporations.”

Collins & Yeskel: “The power shift since the 1970s: on the rise: big campaign contributors, corporate lobbyists, corporations, big asset-owners, CEOS, Wall Street. In decline: popular political movements, voters, labor unions, wage-earners, employees, main street.”

Collins & Yeskel: Rule changes since the 1970s: for unions, an anti-union climate; in trade, global treaties that benefit corporations; in taxes, big tax cuts for the wealthy; in the budget, corporate welfare expands. Human services are cut. 
The minimum wage is not raised for inflation. Federal Reserve policy, “whip inflation” policy helps investors, hurts wage growth. In “privatization,” government dismantling helps investors, hurts consumers and workers.”

Collins & Yeskel: “”In the last two decades, large corporations have taken over the health care industry in the United States. The corporate takeover of health care has caused a restructuring similar to other industries, including downsizing, subcontracting and outsourcing, work speed-ups, and mandatory overtime.”
Collins & Yeskel: ”We have prepared graphs, using Census Bureau data, that illustrate how America grew together from
1947 to 1979 in real family income; and illustrate how America grew apart from 1979 to 2003.”

Collins & Yeskel: “In the last 30 years, the tax burden has been transferred from large corporations to individuals; from the wealthy owners of assets to low-and middle-income earners; from foreign corporations to domestic corporations;
from foreign investors to U.S. workers; from multinational corporations to medium-sized and small businesses; from the federal government to state and local governments whose taxes are the most regressive; from today’s taxpayers to the next generation of taxpayers.
 ”The shift part of the program comes in the form of budget cuts and shifts eroding the quality of life for working people. But these tax cutters are counting on the American public not to connect the dots between local service cuts and federal budget policies.”

[note: the preceding testimony comes from Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel”s 2005 book: “Economic Apartheid in America.” Please access the book – for text, data, graphs and charts – all illustrating THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE THEFT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM SINCE 1980 – by the perps: the rich and the corporations they control.
  Reflect on this: WHY did they choose the term ”Economic Apartheid in America?” What does “apartheid” mean?
What are thy telling YOU about what has happened to the bottom 90% of America since 1980???????

Following are some numbers, courtesy of Barlett & Steele”s ”America: What Went Wrong?” [1992]. Already, 31 years ago, NUMBERS were beginning to reveal what The Far Right was doing to sabotage the great post-World War II mass middle class prosperity. Read this book, then read their “The Betrayal of The American Dream.”
  PIECE together the following Numbers – as part of the bigger PATTERN of winners & losers as the Far Right’s counter-revolution progresses – and the victims are people like YOU……
– “The wage and salary structure of American business, encouraged by federal tax policies, is pushing the nation toward a two-class society. The top 4% make as much as the bottom half of U.S. workers.”
- ”The total amount of dollars in salaries funneled to the rich soared in the 1980s – as did the number of rich themselves
…people making $20,000-$50,000 salaries only gained a 44% increase…those earning $200,000- $l million salaries gained a 697% increase…those earning salaries over $1 million gained 2,184% in increased money !!!
- The “Tax Reform Act” of 1986 cut everybody’s taxes. But 3 years later, some fared much better. If YOU made $40,000-$50,000, YOU got a $1,000 cut [16%]. If you made $l million or ore, you got a $28l,033 cut [31%] !!!
- ”Fewer rich are paying the minimum tax, contrary to reformers” promises> {surprise !!!!!] ”..collections dropped 90%”
…from 77% to 85%, depending on bracket, paid the “minimum” tax; paid LESS when they paid anything.
- ”American corporations are closing plants or slashing work forces in the U.S. & shifting the jobs to Mexico. Since 1965, more than 1,800 plants employing more than 500,000 workers have been built there, most by U.S. corporations.”
- ”The amount deducted for corporate interest payments on borrowed money soared in the 1980s, due to a wave of corporate restructurings. The lost taxes ended up exceeding the taxes paid – a first.
- ”Corporations pay lessc[taxes], and individuals make up the difference>’. In the 1950s, the corporate tax share was 39%. In the 1980s, the corporate tax share was 17%.
- In the 1980s, interest payments on the federal debt were 55.2% of American education expenses, by 1990, that debt interest payment was 93.87% of American educational expenses.
- ”Corporations discover the NOL, a tax write-off bonanza worth billions. Companies escaped paying the 34% corporate income tax on $51.4 billion in write-offs in 1988, costing the U.S. Treasury $17.5 billion.”
- 29 of the 30 biggest corporate bankruptcies occurred between 1982 and 1991. At that point in time.
- ”Congress taxes foreigners at lower rates than you…An American taxpayer earning $30,000 to $40,000 paid $3,710..
If taxed at the same rate granted United Arab Emirates investors in the U.S., the American would have paid just $49.”
- ”American academic emphasis: Money over engineering. In the 1950s, more graduates were awarded masters degrees in engineering than in business management. In the 1980s, MBAs outnumbered engineers by more than 3-l.”
- ”The High Cost of Deregulation…What Went Wrong…Thousands of firms gone.  200,000 jobs lost..In the case of the savings and loan industry, the cost to taxpayers will be staggering…Now the push is on to deregulate..banking…” !!!!!!!!
- In 1978, before deregulation, around-trip ticket, Philadelphia-Pittsburgh, cost $86. In 1992, after deregulation, that ticket cost $460. !!!!And – YOU know of other costs since 1992 !!!!!!!!!!!!
- Post-deregulation, “The collapse of the U.S. trucking industry..Most of the top 30 trucking firms of 1979 are gone.”
Which also means lost middle class jobs; means devastation in some communities.
- ”What went wrong. The number of companies that provide fully paid medical insurance for their employees is steadily shrinking as American business transfers health-care costs to workers.” In 1982-1989 alone, individual coverage slipped from 75% covered to 48% covered; families from 50% covered to 31% covered.
- Between 1981 and l991, multiple corporate raiders attacking a highly profitable company, Simplicity Pattern, from having $l00 million in the bank, to being $l00 million in debt.
- ”The Disappearing Pensions….What Went Wrong. Under federal law, a company may remove money from an employee pension fund if it certifies that enough remains to cover its pension obligations. On 8 different occasions between 1983 and 1988, companies controlled by Victor Posner tapped employees’ pension plans….Total removed from pensions: $65.2 million.” One company’s workers lost over 40% of their pension coverage. Posner was not alone, page 178 shows 15 other companies whose workers were cut from 27% and 86% on their pensions.
- ”What Went Wrong  On Capitol Hill, it is the lobbyists who have the clout. they speak for vested interests, not the middle class. And they have been extraordinarily successful in blocking tax-law changes that would be detrimental to the privileged, as well as preserving tax breaks that benefit the few at the expense of the many – such as the tax exemption for interest paid on bonds issued by state and local governments.. 52% of 1989 tax-exempt interest income – $20.1 billion – went to 800,000 individuals and families earning $100,000 or more [less than 1% of filers]. 48%..went to 3 million individuals earning less than $100,000 [2% of filers]. 108.5 million individuals and families received no tax-exempt interest income..97% of all U.S. tax filers.”
- ”Rewriting The Government Rule Book Capital Gains Tax Cut: Who Gains? If Congress enacts a capital gains tax cut, the benefits will flow overwhelmingly to a tiny percentage of individuals and families. 72% of 1989 capital gains income – $108.2 billion – went to 1.3 million individuals and families earning $100,000 or more..1% of all U.S. tax filers.
28% of 1989 capital gains income – $42 billion – went to 7.2 individuals and families earning less than $100,000..6% of all U.S. tax filers. 103.8 individuals and families received no capital gains income..93% of all U.S. tax filers.”

  This series of posts: The Far Right Threat to Democracy – the rich and corporations, VIII, is an effort to educate YOU
in the MANY ways the rich and corporations have sabotaged America – its government, its economy, its society. Much of that case is built on UNSPUN NUMBERS, the PATTERN of which covers the entire recent modern era: 1945-2023.
    The answer to “Who Stole The American Dream?” should be obvious- it is the rich and the corporations they control.

The War on America by the “Right,” a 50-year campaign. The political-economic-religious-social RIGHT declared war on America decades ago. They have largely won. America 2023 is very much THEIR creation. It doesn’t work well for most Americans because it ISN’T SUPPOSED TO!!! Following are SOME perpetrator’s words.
- Paul Weyrich, far right activist: “..it is war. It is a war of ideology..a war of ideas..a war of our way of life..to be fought with the same intensity and dedication as.. a shooting war..” [1981]
- Pat Buchanan, 1992 Republican National Convention speech: ”There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war..for the soul of America.”
- Warren Buffett, billionaire investor: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
- Jay Grimstead, National Director, ”Coalition on Revival”: ”God has given us the Bible as a rule book for all society – Christians and non-Christians alike.”
- Robert Simonds, president, “Citizens for Excellence in Education” and “National Association of Christian Educators”: ”Our job is to evangelize..schools are the battle ground. The goal of 500,000 born-again Christians working inside the ‘system’ is to bring public education back under..control of the christian community.” [1991]
- future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell’s “Memorandum” [8/23/71]: “The America economic system is under broad attack..The most disquieting voices..come from perfectly respectable elements..The threat to the economic system..is also a threat to individual freedom.” Powell urge3d corporate investment in legal scholars..”constant surveillance ” of TV networks foe “criticism of the enterprise system,” building corporate political power “used aggressively,” new focus on courts, “the most important instrument for social, economic, political change.”
- ”The Theocons” – Richard J. Neuhaus: far more than evangelicals, “Catholics are uniquely posed..to transform the late 20th century into “the Catholic Moment.”..time had come for the church to assume “its rightful role in the the culture-forming task of constructing a religiously informed public philosophy for the American experiment in ordered liberty.”
Neuhaus and colleagues felt the Church provided a unifying agenda to transform the U.S. into a homogeneously traditionalist Catholic-Christian nation. If necessary, by force.
- Clayton Coppin: ”Only governments and ..courts remained as sources of authority, if enacted Charles’s [Koch} 
libertarian policies would eliminate these.’..”He was driven..to smash the one thing left in the world that could discipline him: the government.”
- Charles Koch, 1978 “Libertarian Review’ article: ”our movement must destroy the prevalent statist paradigm.”
- Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”
- Betsy DeVos [1997]: ”Soft money was..hard-earned..dollars..Big Brother has yet to control..I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point.. we do expect something in return..”
- Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi: ”I think it [Federalist Society] helps keep them [right-wing Supreme Court justices] in check..the check of the Federalist Society, criticism from those quarters is something they notice.. Scalia actually cares a lot about being consistent..I think..other conservative and libertarian judges and public officials notice things like that..it can have an effect on them.”
- Peter Wehner [1/10/20], Bush II speechwriter on today’s Republican Party: “..there existed in the Republican Party repulsive elements, people..attracted to racial and ethnic politics..moved by resentment and intolerance..” These “party guests” – extremists and racists – have taken over the party.
- Republican Representative Fred Heineman: ”When I see someone who is making anywhere from $300,000 to $750,000 a year, that’s middle class.” [10/25/96]   !!![the top 1% just became “the middle class”]!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Robert Jeffress, pastor, first Baptist Church of Dallas – has called gays “miserable,” “filthy” and “degrading.” ”What a lot of people miss is, America is not a church where everyone should be welcome regardless of race or background.”
   – “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.” In a 2011 sermon, he called the Catholic Church a corrupt version of Christianity that sprang from ancient Babylonian cults.
- Richard Fink, Charles Koch’s “grand strategist,” secretly taped at June 15, 2014 Koch donor summit: ”We got our clocks cleaned in 2012..” free-market conservatives had lost the crucial ‘middle third’ of voters, which believed liberals
cared more about ordinary people like themselves. These people also see “big business”..as greedy. they don’t care about the underprivileged.” Fink conceded the critics were right. The government-slashing of the Koch network was problematic. ”We want to decrease regulations..because we can make more profits..and cut government spending so we don’t have to pay so much taxes.”
- QAnon. “which centers on the baseless belief..Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the ‘deep state’ and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals” Who is Q? An unasked question – is he another Russian One QAnon adherent: “I really feel God pushed me in this direction.”
- Rich Bond, Republican Party chair [1992]: “There is some strategy to it [bashing the “liberal media”]..if you watch a great coach, what they try to do is ‘work the refs.’ Maybe the ref will cut you some slack on the next one.”
- William Kristol, Republican neoconservative: ”I admit it, the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was used an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.”
- Grover Norquist on the right-wing advantage: “the conservative press is self-consciously conservative and self-consciously part of the team. The liberal press is much larger ..so it’s conflicted. Sometimes it thinks it has to be critical
of both..”
- publisher Gary DeMar and other Christian Reconstructionists envision a society where government posts would be reserved for the righteous, as long as they are male. There would be thousands of executions yearly, with stoning preferred because it would turn deaths into “community projects.” Sinners marked for death would include adulterous
women women or lie about virginity, blasphemers, witches, children who strike parents, and gay men. Eliminated:
unions, Social Security, public schools, unemployment benefits, environmental laws, secular government.
- David Barton’s war on American history was conducted by books. His “The Jefferson Lies” falsities led to detailed
rebuttal from professors at a conservative Christian college. This led to kore books and more fact-checking, including
ten conservative college professors” report about numerous, often laughable errors in Barton’s works; a 500-page “Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right’s Alternative Version of American History” [2006] which destroyed Barton’s academic ‘credentials.’
- Pat Robertson: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.” [700 Club]
- Republican Senator James Inhofe: ”Wake up America. With all the hysteria, all the fear, all the phony science, could it be..man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? I believe it is.”
- Ann Coulter [6/20/10]: ”God said, ‘Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.”
- Evangelist Franklin Graham: ”I want to see at least one child in every public school in America who is trained as a witness for Jesus Christ. Let’s don’t surrender public schools. Let’s take them back..we’re going to have witnesses – every class, a young kid who can stand up and share his faith in Jesus Christ..When a child completes the program, we’ll send them a card..saying they are a certified evangelist with the Billy Graham Association.”
- Grover Norquist, right-wing ideological enforcer: ”My ideal citizen is the self-employed, home-schooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit. Because that person doesn’t need the goddam government for anything.”

 As previously stated, this is but a SAMPLE. of what the far right is thinking, what they want to do to totally change America into a theocratic oligarchy. And remember what Warren Buffett said: they’re winning. Research REAL. American history; what the Founding Generations said and tried to do; what Lincoln said; what happened during the “Gilded Age of 1865-1901; why the American people revolted against that in the “Progressive Era”: how the GREED of unrestrained capitalists led to the Great Depression of 1929-1941, Hitler, World War II, the Holocaust; why the American public elected FDR and Truman five [5] consecutive elections; why conservative President Eisenhower refused to undo the New Deal-Fair Deal reforms; how during the 20th century America became the democratic ideal for the world – culminating in the famous 1947-73 golden middle class prosperity - and then…”how the Empire struck back” – in the 1980-202X Far Right counter revolution that aims to return America to 1950, or maybe 1850.
      This series of posts under. “The Far Right Threat to Democracy – the rich and corporations, VIII – is designed to inspire. YOU.  to do some very serious thinking, some very serious truth finding about how the pattern of 1789-1979 American history, culture, law, economics, government has been. DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED. by the rich and the corporations they control for many reasons, GREED. being the major driver. 
    Think on that – people who are already. RICH, comfortable, POWERFUL – are not satisfied. they. NEED more!!!!!
 Do some research on fascism, especially the “14 characteristics.” America is ALREADY infected by some of these.
     The 2024 elections may turn out to be. THE most crucial elections since 1932. Please, do your best to be informed about the issues – INFORMED, not  seduced by “good sounding”. lies and propaganda. What do foreign countries like Canada, our friends in Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, etc. say?

Ms. Zephyr Teachout: “Tyrants have arisen in every age because the taste for power informs every human institution and resides in every human being; how we harness it is the question over which nations live or die.
 ”For the last few decades, political scientists and economists have been living in a collective delusion, a fantasy that..owners of private corporations belong to a different species..are driven by the profit motive alone..they have no designs on the rest of us. All the average tycoon wants..is to make as much money as possible and to be left alone by those who are in the messy business of governance.”…
 ”This fantasy..[blinds us]..to the extraordinary political power that they have amassed..”
  “These people wield vast control over both our civic ans..individual lives. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his views about privacy in the spring of 2019..his words were more potent than any law..policies adopted by the corporation he controls impact hundreds of millions of people…Facebook has the power to determine which newspapers thrive…when Zuckerberg changes his mind he changes what we read..even how we think. When Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer – formerly Monsanto – decides to try out a new form of crop rotation, tens of thousands of farmers must go along with his experiment or face bankruptcy. Pfizer exercises a capricious power that we would never permit in a government agency; when it decides to hike up insulin prices before an earnings report, or just test a theory, people die. Google has gained power so vast as to be nearly invisible..Google can make or break any company or idea according to where it appears on a search result..”
 ”Two corporations control office supplies. Four..control wireless. Five..control food. Two..dominate retail. Five..control defense contracting. Four.. control home internet, and in many parts of the country, people have no say at all about which provider they use. One corporation dominates books. Five oil corporations control contracts at 50,000 gas stations. The entire pharmaceutical business model is a monopoly. Three corporations dominate the market for voting machines. A decade after they helped trigger the Great Recession, too-big-to-fail banks are bigger and more concentrated than ever.”
 ”In the last eleven years we have allowed over 500,000 mergers worldwide.. As mergers have grown, so have mega-mergers. Microsoft recently bought LinkedIn, and AT&T bought Time Warner..Amazon merge3d with Whole Foods, and Walmart announced that it would buy..Bonobos..”
 ”These monopolies extract wealth from people directly, through price-gouging and wage theft, and indirectly, by causing regional inequality and closing off opportunities to start businesses. they then extract political power too, so they can keep it that way.”
 ”..data harvesting and analytic tools have become ubiquitous. As a result, thr very nature of work is changing: surveillance, isolation, and fear are becoming a daily fact of the workplace. The 2010 Supreme Court case Citizens United struck down long-standing limits on corporate political speech. Corporations are using the leeway given them by. Citizens United. not only to spend money on Super PACs, but to let their workers know how they should vote.”
 ”The highest and best goals of America – equality and freedom – require government to protect citizens from any group or any person wielding too much power. We used to do this pretty well, using antitrust, campaign finance laws, public utility regulation, labor laws, and other anti-monopoly laws. but in recent years, our government has failed on all these fronts. Meanwhile, corporations have disabled key institutions designed to protect against arbitrary power.”
 ”The rule of law depends on transparency, reason giving, and each person being treated equally by the law..After the crash of 2008, the impunity of elite networks was on full display when no banker was jailed for lawless activity. And corporate monopolies are not just avoiding individual prosecutions..but building the architecture of a new system without protections for the powerless..Public courts have been replaced by arbitration in which judges are paid by corporations, reasons aren’t given, and no one knows what happens..justice is disappearing.”
 ”A vibrant news system can provide a check on private power and corruption in public institutions..it needs to be decentralized; ownership needs to be widely dispersed, and newspapers need to be able to survive on either ads or subscriptions.. failure to regulate and break up the advertising duopoly of Facebook and Google has allowed them to grab control over media and centrally edit the floe of information.”
 ”Economic democracy requires workers..able to bargain for decent benefits, and business owners to freely compete..as we have given the green light to monopolies, big corporations have been setting the terms – not negotiating for them..increasingly managing the entire economy for consumer goods..”
 ”..we can break these concentrations of power..We already have the tools..a new president can demand the the FTC and the Department of Justice stop mergers..State attorneys general can..investigate big trusts, block mergers..Congress could certainly help to speed the process, by passing laws that overturn decades of bad Supreme Court precedent and return us to the jurisprudence developed prior to 1981…”
 ”..monopoly is tyranny..no democracy can survive flor long once a few corporations have amassed governmental power in such a massive form and scale. those corporations use isolation, surveillance, and fear to extract value from workers, silence political dissent, exploit users and regulate all of us.”…
 ”They spy on workers and tell them what to think. They fund foundations that shape editorial boards. They are the biggest lobbyists. they don’t pay taxes. They embed themselves in federal, state, and local law enforcement. They build moats around their power and use predatory pricing or mergers to keep out competitors.”
 ”When a handful of CEOs and Wall Street financiers have subverted our democracy, destroyed our individual liberties, and stolen the value of our labor – all in the name of freedom and progress – then ..[they are]..tyrants.”

We, the People, ask the court to accept the following exhibits illustrating how the rich and corporations, on a constant basis, are damaging America, the American people, the American economy, American society:

– “white-collar crimes take a tremendous toll”: “The American Certified Fraud Examiners put the annual cost of occupational fraud and abuse in the United States at $600 billion last year..Thousands of workers lost their jobs as Dunlap wrecked Sunbeam..” [D.Beal; Pioneer Press; 7/21/2003]
– “Sugar industry rigged research”: ”The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to downplay the link between sugar and heart disease..They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades..” [A.O’Connor; N.Y.Times; 9/l3/2016]
– “Fired Employee fights FEDEX, and wins”. “Jennifer Harris is awarded $366M after jury agrees she faced retaliation after filing complaints to HR” [A.Martin; Dallas Morning News; ll/6/2022]
– “14 more charged in $53M Galleon Group insider case” “..insider-trading case that has snared one of America’s richest men and shown white-collar suspects to be using the cover-up tactics of drug dealers. the actions raise to 20 the number of people who have been charged..” [L.Neumeister; Associated Press; 11/16/2009]
– “Panama Papers Mossack Fonseca linked to 1,000 U.S. companies” ”Though many state’s laws allow corporations to operate under some secrecy, forming shell companies has been a cottage industry in Wyoming, Delaware, and Nevada..These companies are using mechanisms that are precisely designed to avoid prosecution..” [S. Reilly, B. Meath; USA Today; 4/16/2016]
-“Report; Five nonprofits sold favor to Abramhoff”. “Five conservative nonprofit organizations..”perpetuated a fraud” on. taxpayers by selling their clout to..Abramhoff, Senate investigators said..” [J.Grimaldi, S.Schmidt; Washington Post; 10/13/2006]
– “Wal-Mart told to pay $4.8M in overtime case”. “..in back wages and damages to thousands of employees” [5/2/2012]
– “Payoffs delay production of generic drugs” ”Brand-name manufacturers of more than two dozen drugs paid potential rivals to hold off on production..” [10/30/2011]
– “Citigroup to pay $158M to U.S.” ”..to settle claims its mortgage unit duped the U.S. government into insuring risky mortgage loans for more than six years.” [2/16/2011]
–“Sacklers’ immunity deal is tossed out”. “..U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon..found a bankruptcy judge overstepped his authority by approving the plan that gave the Sacklers immunity in return for $4.5 billion for those harmed by Purdue.” [T.Hals; Reuters; 12/21/2021]

Mr. Krugman, tell the court why the rich and corporations, by their behavior, are a threat to democracy

Mr. Krugman: “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 don’t subordinate their political goals to their duty to preserve the system, laws become meaningless and only power matters.
 ”And what we’re seeing..for years..is an invasion of our institutions by right-wing partisans whose loyalty is to party, not principle. this invasion is corroding the Republic..[is]..very far advanced.
 ”..the Republican Party is dominated by “movement conservatives,” a monolithic structure held together by big money – often deployed stealthily – and the closed intellectual system of Fox News and other partisan media…
 ”..it’s not just the courts..a growing number of positions in government agencies are being occupied by right-wing partisans who care nothing for, or actively oppose, their agencies’ missions….
 ”..when the public rejects their agenda..they use their power to overrule the democratic process..they rig the voting process..they strip offices Democrats win of power..When Democratic policies prevail despite all that, they us apparatchik-stuffed courts to strike down legislation on the flimsiest grounds…
 ”..but the game in question isn’t just about perpetuating the assault on health care, it’s about assaulting democracy in general. And the current state of the end game is probably just the beginning; the worst, I fear is yet to come.”

Mr. Krugman: “Modern U.S. conservatism is largely about the sanctification of selfishness – the argument that unrestrained self-interest is the key to prosperity and happiness. Right-wingers get angry at any suggestion that they might need to make some sacrifice to protect others.”

Mr. Krugman: “The skewing of America – the shift of a growing share of income to a small elite – was already clearly visible by the late 1980s..Not only did it mean..ordinary families were failing to share in economic progress, it meant a loss of our sense of living in a shared society..there was a sort of inequality-denial industry – more than a bit like the climate-denial industry..”

Mr. Krugman: “U.S. Census Bureau numbers on “distribution of Income Gains” for 1947-1989 show a “broad-based prosperity.” C.B.O. numbers for 1977-1989 show that top 1% families income doubled. Growth in productivity was siphoned off to the high-income brackets.”

Mr. Krugman: ”The modern Republican Party..is best seen as just one part of a highly organized movement that includes the Murdoch media empire, a dizzying array of think tanks and advocacy groups that are funded [mostly] by the same group of billionaires, and more…”movement conservatism”..didn’t fully take over the GOP until the 1990s. But now it’s the only kind of conservatism that matters – and it’s the driving force behind America’s deep political polarization.”

Mr. Krugman: “In return for this service {serving top 1% interests] business and the wealthy provided both lavish financial support for right-minded..politicians and a safety net – “wing-nut welfare” – for loyalists..comfortable berths waiting for those who left office..lobbying jobs..commentator jobs at Fox News and elsewhere..”research” positions..”
  “..we’re dealing with the second generation of Fox News conservatives,” who grew up entirely inside the right-wing bubble and don’t understand how people outside the bubble talk, think, and behave.”

Mr. Krugman: “..large economic players are dominating more and more..monopsony power is depressing wages..Concentration of hiring among a few firms, plus things like noncompete clauses and tacit collusion..reinforce their market power, don’t just reduce your wages..They also reduce or eliminate your options if you’re mistreated; quit because you have an abusive boss..”

Witness two – Pulitzer Prize winner Gretchen Morgenson: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, And Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon:

Ms. Morgenson: “Reckless Endangerment is an economic whodunit, on an international scale. But instead of a dead body as evidence, we have trillions of dollars in investments lost around the world, millions of Americans jettisoned from their homes and fourteen million U.S. workers without jobs. Such is the nature of this particular crime….
 ”We found that this was a crisis that crept up on us, building almost imperceptibly over the past two decades. More disturbing, it was the result of actions taken by people at the height of power in both the public and the private sectors, people who continue, even now, to hold sway in the corridors of Washington and Wall Street.
 ”Reckless Endangerment is a story of what happens when unfettered risk-taking, with an eye to huge personal paydays, gains the upper hand in corporate suites and on Wall Street trading floors. It is a story of the consequences of regulators who are captured by the institutions they are charged with regulating. And it is a story of what happens when Washington decides, in its infinite wisdom, that every living, breathing citizen should own a home.
 Josh and I felt compelled to write this book because we are angry that the American economy was almost wrecked by a crowd of self-interested, politically influential and arrogant people who have not been held accountable for their actions. We also believe that it is important to credit the courageous and civically-minded people who tried to warn of the impending crisis but who were run over or ignored by their celebrated adversaries.
 ”Familiar as we are with the ways of Wall street, neither [of us] ..was surprised that the large investment firms played such a prominent role in the debacle. But we are disturbed that so many who contributed to the mess are still in positions of power or have risen to an even higher rank. And while some architects of the crisis may no longer command center stage, they remain respected members of the business or regulatory community. The failure to hold central figures accountable for their actions sets a dangerous precedent. A system where perpetrators of such a crime are allowed to slip quietly from the scene is just plain wrong….
 ”analyzing the financial crisis, its origins and its framers, requires identifying powerful participants who would rather not be named. It requires identifying events that seemed meaningless when they occurred but had unintended consequences that have turned out to be integral to the outcome. It requires an unrelenting search for the facts, an ability to speak truth to power.
 ”Investigating the origins of the financial crisis means shedding light on exceedingly dark corners in Washington and on Wall street. Hidden in these shadows are people, places, and incidents that cab help us understand the nature of this disaster so that we can keep anything like it from happening again.

[Note: the above testimony is taken from “Reckles$ Endangerment How Outsized Ambition, Greed, And Corruption Led To Economic Armageddon”; 2011; Times Books – Henry Holt and Company. Informed readers will also know that their pleas and advise have been ignored. Knowledgeable analysts have repeatedly said this: another 2008 financial meltdown WILL occur – only when? thus illustrating this topic: the Far Right Threat to Democracy – the rich and corporations. More testimony from Morgeson and Rosner will be provided.]

Mr. Adam Smith, please tell the court why the rich and corporations are a threat to democracy.

Mr. Smith: “People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or some contrivance to raise prices.”

Mr. Smith” Most government is by the rich for the rich..civil government, insofar as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, and for the defence of those who have property against those who have none.”

Mr. Smith: “To widen the market and to narrow the competition is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow citizens.
  “The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listen3d to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”

Mr. Smith: “The disposition to admire, and almost worship, the rich and rthe powerful, and to despise, or at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”

Mr. Smith” “As soon as the land of any country has become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.”

Mr. Smith: “Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality. For one rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.”

Mr. Smith: “A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufacturers. The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly understocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities much above the natural price..”

Mr. Smith: “Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of  tacit, but constant and uniform combination not to raise the wages of labor above their actual price.”

Mr. Smith: “Labor was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold and sliver, but by labor, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.”

Mr. Smith: “To fell much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our beneficent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.”

This magazine is titled “American Oligarchy” – the four main parts: “American Oligarchy”; “Hoarding”; “Influencing”; “Dominating”. – all with the details to prove it!!!!! Read about the special private island in Florida, population 684, average income of $3 million. that requires a security-laden private ferry ride to get there – assuming one doesn’t have a helicopter or yacht. Read about 10 ways the top 1% hides their wealth – so YOU pay more taxes!!!!!!!!!

The current post series – VIII – threat to democracy by the rich and corporations – fits right into this issue of “Mother Jones” !!! – if you don’t already subscribe to it, you should. [p.s. – I have no financial ownership of it!!!]