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!!!]

Think of this series of posts as a trial – the trial of the rich and corporations for the damage and destruction they have committed against American democracy: “We, the People – vs – the rich and corporations

I. The CHARGES – the rich and corporations have corrupted the American legal system; they have corrupted American
government; they have corrupted the American economy; they have corrupted the tax system; they have
sabotaged the ability of ordinary people to achieve The American Dream.

II. They have done this, and much more, by changing the rules; by spending immense amounts of “campaign funds”
and other political favors to buy results; “justified” this by massive amounts of lying; creating new, radical,
reactionary ideology and weaponizing information; they have done this for simple. GREED.

III. “We, the PEOPLE of America will prove our case by using unspun NUMBERS from the Census Bureau, IRS, GAO, CBO;
using legal cases and guilty pleas; showing PATTERNS of corrupt and criminal behavior; disproving the massive
LIES of the rich and corporations; b y testimony of numerous qualified great historical figures.

IV. This trial will show that the rich and corporations, for GREED, CRUELTY, and CORRUPTION, deliberately sabotaged
the STATISTICAL peak of American middle class civilization, achieved 1947-1973, when America’s wealth was more
equitably shared, when corporate cultural NORMS supported more equitable distribution of wealth, when
government invested in the American people and society.
The result of this GREED and CORRUPTION is that, steadily, from l980 onward, life for “average” Americans
became more difficult, more expensive, less secure.

*** President Herbert Hoover: “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They’re too damn greedy.”

V. GREED
A. Perspective: if Joe Sixpack works l8-68, makes $50,000 every year, his LIFETIME earnings will be $2.5 million: if Suzie Sorority works 22-68, makes $100,000 every year, her LIFETIME earnings will be $4.6 million; the American president, supposedly THE most important person in the world, makes $400,000 a year.
B. CEOs often make $5-$l0-$20 million in ONE year; some financiers make billions.

***Wall Street Journal Reports [4/18/90]: “The market value of top managers “has been grossly inflated by prattle about the rarity of their talents..Executive talent is far, far more common than the talent..to spear a ground ball hit to the hole..”

C. “The most recent data shows..the top 1% of the national income and wealth now owns 31.4% of American wealth, more than that of the entire bottom 90%.” [11/19/23 N.Y. Times; Petrou; “Bidenomics..”]

***Adam Smith: “No society can..be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of..members are poor and miserable..It is but equity..that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have..and share of the produce of their own labor as to themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.”

VI. NUMBERS – everybody has “opinions”; some have REAL numerical FACTS. A major part of any serious criticism of the tragedy that oppresses post-1980 America is based upon UNSPUN FACTS – from Census Bureau, IRS, GAO, CBO.
YOUR own serious research must start with PATTERNS of 1946-2023; putting your research IN CONTEXT. WHY is 1980 often seen as a numerical dividing point??? What where the NUMBERS for 1946-1979 tax burden, tax rates, incomes, wealth??? What are the NUMBERS for 1980-2023???
The STATISTICAL peak of American middle class society was reached in 1947-73. WHY??? Though plagued by racism and misogyny, a mixed blue and white collar mass society was achieved for average people.
One of the major charges against the rich and corporations is they DELIBERATELY SABOTAGED what 1947-73 achieved, which means YOU. don’t live there. WHY can serious analysts say this???

***Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “..the marked reduction in inequality..between l950 and 1970 was due partly to developments in the markets but even more to government policies..In the years after the “Reagan Revolution.” by contrast, the divide in market incomes increased and..government initiatives designed to temper..inequalities of the marketplace were dismantled , taxes at the top..lowered and social programs were cut back.”

***”The One Percent Solution”: for the first time ever, in 2012 more than half of all income went to the richest 10%; “the richest 400 individuals now exercise a degree of influence comparable to rulers of ancient Rome.”

“$ervants of Wealth”: “From 1973 to 2003, median American family income rose only 22% after doubling between 1947-73. Average top 1% income more than doubled in the same period, top 0.1% tripled.”

VII. LYING – “alternative facts,” bogus ‘legal’ theories, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, half-truths, truth denial, “reverse engineering”, “the firehose of falsehood”, the “tobacco defense.” The American right has conducted a war on the truth for a hundred years, and more.

*** ex-Republican Josh Barro [2016]: “If [conservatives] look honestly enough, they will realize the conservative information sphere has long been full of lies. The reason for this..lying has been the most effective way to promote many of the policies favored by donor-class conservatives, and so they built an apparatus to invent and spread the best lies.” [“The Scheme”] note: perhaps the right’s biggest lie is that they are “conservative” – but then
REACTIONARY is – and sounds – far more threatening

*** Frank Luntz [2002 memo to GOP candidates]: “Should the public come to believe the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate..There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.” [“American Amnesia’]

*** Steve Bannon: “The Democrats don’t matter. the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” [“On Disinformation”]

*** “Merchants of Doubt”: “The Internet is flooded with the assertion..Carson was a mass murderer, worse than Hitler..In the demonizing of Rachel Carson, free marketers realize..if you could convince people..an example of successful government regulation wasn’t, in fact successful – that it was actually a mistake – you could strengthen the argument against regulation in general.”

The far right WAR ON TRUTH covers every possible method and strategy you can think of, and many you won’t. In EVERY sphere of life, every industry [almost], the plan is to CHANGE. HOW. AMERICANS. THINK, to provide “justification” for those changes. Literally A WAR ON TRUTH [inconvenient truths]. “The firehose of falsehoods” – the Putin model, is an “unremitting, high-intensity stream of lies, partial truths, and complete fictions spewed forth with tireless aggression to obfuscate the truth and overwhelm and confuse anyone trying to pay attention.” [“The Death of Truth’}

VII. CHANGING THE RULES – to destroy the 1947-73 middle class prosperity, the far right simply changed the rules: for government, for the economy, for taxes, for the law.

*** President Andrew Jackson [1832]: “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes..when the laws undertake to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society..who have neither the time or the means of scoring like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.”

*** “Tax The Rich!”: “..essentially all..economic gains of the last 20 years have gone to a tiny sliver of the wealthiest Americans, and that’s not by accident..It’s by design..The wealthy have paid for the ability to stand at the drawing board and plan out big parts of the economy so..the whole thing works particularly well for them.”

*** “tax the Rich!”: “A study by Princeton professor Martin Gilens shows..between the 1980s and..2020s, policies supported by the rich ended up being passed into law between 60% and 70%..not a single policy supported by the majority of voters but opposed by the rich and the business community ended up being passed into the law.”

*** Right-Wing activist Paul Weyrich warned: “We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country.” [D.Gann; New Republic; 10/27/97]

Begin YOUR research with double Pulitzer Prize winners Barlett & Steele”s “The Betrayal of the American Dream” and Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”

IX. DESTROYING DEMOCRACY – the far right has worked, quite successfully, to remake America into a theocratic oligarchy. the pre-1980 America that was reaching toward aa all-inclusive democracy has been systematically changed. We will present SOME of the mountain of evidence to this great THEFT.

*** Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1%, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important…our democracy is being put in peril.”

*** Nancy MacLean: “In writing this book..I have found myself more and more fixated on one gnawing question. Is what we are dealing with merely a social movement of the right whose radical ideas must eventually face public scrutiny and a rise or fall on their merits? Or is this the story of something quite different, something never before seen in Americsn history? Could it be – and I use these words hesitantly and carefully – a fifth column assault on American democratic government?……..
Pushed by relatively small numbers of radical-right billionaires and millionaires..profoundly hostile to America’s modern system of government, an apparatus of decades in the making, funded by those same billionaires and millionaires, has been working to undermine the normal governance of our democracy..”[“Democracy in Chains”]

*** U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman: “..the Court’s hard right majority is actively participating in undermining American democracy..the Roberts Court has contributed to ensuring..the political system of the United States pays little attention to ordinary Americans and responds only to the wishes of a relatively small number of powerful corporations and individuals.” [Harvard Law & Policy Review, “The Roberts court Assault on Democracy”}

X. CORRUPTION AND CRIMINALITY – Weekly, if not daily, corruption and criminality reports are in the news. But – this has long been recognized”
*** Chief Justice, Wisconsin supreme Court [1873]: “There is looming up a new and dark power..The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power..money is taking the field ax an organized power. the question will arise..which shall rule – wealth or man, which shall lead – money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?” [speech to U of Wisconsin grads; “Selling Out”]

This trial will produce a small part of the MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE that the far right threat to democracy by the very rich and the corporations they control is very, very real; has been escalating since 1980; and in left unchecked – will result in a theocratic oligarchy.
Heed the words of Theodore Roosevelt’s Mount Rushmore plaque:
“WE, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the
coming years; and shame andf disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light
of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men.” ? ……..

The following was a talk given at a funeral.

The words that begin to define Sandy are Character, class, compassion, and. courage.
I first met Sandy in late July, 1970. Our first date was walking around in a local park. Our second was walking around at a local county fair. After that I never dated another woman. I never wanted to.

Five months later, on Christmas Eve, upstairs at her parent’s home, I proposed to Her. Fortunately, She said “Yes.”

We became partners in life – in every sense of the word. Sandy was my best friend. My soul mate.
My teacher. I was addicted to. HER.

Since I was told of Her death, many people have said. “We’re sorry for your loss.” I’ve said thanks. But at the risk of offending you – you really don’t know what my loss is. Some here have been married 20-30-40-50 years. I don’t want to be seen casting dirt on that.
But – my loss is that I no longer have a nearly perfect human being living with me. A nearly perfect human being.

You have sen bits and pieces of her. I’ve seen HER 24/7 for 52 years.
SHE did have one minor defect – She had no athletic talent. And She didn’t really like attending games.
And – in recent years – the shock of all shocks – She told me She hated one person, who will go nameless here.
I used to tease Sandy that if She saw two people arguing about Adolf Hitler, She would likely find something good about him – he liked dogs and playing with little kids.

Part of our courtship was built around attending the hockey season tickets I had. She drover up when they played here. I drove to her job city when they didn’t. Being Sandy. – She covered up her distaste for sports to be with me.

We bought a wooded lot around 1972-73. Then we designed, together, that home. Sandy had gardens all over that lot – front, sides, back. We cleared out the brush. I built walking paths all over the back. So She could walk around to all Her gardens. Sometimes She would sit back there and read.
When it became too difficult for Sandy to live there, we bought our current home. Sandy and Jill designed that home. And, of course, Sandy has a small garden in the back. This year, it was Her best effort – ablaze in color.

We didn’t have “sex.” WE made love – some times twice a day. It might have been after dinner, movie, Brandy Alexanders. It might have been totally spontaneous – like the time She requested before I lefty to play hockey for a l0:30 game. We were asked to leave a certain restaurant by offended patrons. Then there was the time we almost got caught by the Sheriff……………

When we were trying to have children, one day Sandy told me she was pregnant. For a while I didn’t like that. – I didn’t want to share Her with anybody.
But – sharing Sandy with the world is what made Her Sandy. Allowing Her to fly free like the birds she photographed spread Her around to others.

Much of all of this can be summarized by one word: CHARACTER – which you all know She had in great abundance. If you haven’t – there are high school yearbooks with notes written by adoring students, cards and letters from friends – in the other room. In the other room, we set up three tables: education….family and friends…photography – so you could begin to understand what I said earlier…a truly one in a million woman – in both talents and in the way She trated others.

And then – unfortunately revealed by tragedy – COURAGE. Ever since we injured her knee on Colorado’s “Hanging Mountain” – Sandy has been in pain, which has been increasing.
She shielded me from most of it – but I could see it in her face. I knew that life was getting more difficult for Her. She had trouble with any steps.


And now She’s gone. I got to talk with Her for about an hour on Saturday. I told Her how much I loved Her. And how very proud She should be that HER children were absolutely magnificent in how they were building Her celebration of life. – the kids and their spouses.

But even this isn’t the complete story……….. Unsaid are all the little things between the TWO. OF. US over 53 years…..
LOVE AND LAUGHTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please forgive me for bragging on. SANDY…….. but remember………..this beautiful, intelligent, kindly, talentred WOMAN for some incredible reason fell in love with me……..so………
I was granted the ability to live with. HER for 53 years…………….a nearly perfect human being.

People have said they were sorry for. “MY” loss. Sandy was much bigger than me.
Our entire family has suffered an irreplaceable loss. Sandy was much bigger than this too.
All of you who have come here have also suffered a loss.

A nearly perfect human being.

Our “friends” on the far, reactionary “right” would like YOU to believe a number of fantastic fairy tales – that unscrupulous Americans are seeking to sabotage America by use of a large number of “witch hunts.” Some are these:

1) the plot to get Senator Joe McCarthy. While “Tail gunner” Joe was conducting his hunt for “communists” under American beds, especially in the State Department, certain “unAmerican” people began persecuting our Joe. He was accused of sloppy math , having stated 57, 81, 205 “Communists” were sabotaging America’s heroic struggle against Stalin and assorted Kremlin villains.

2) the plot to undermine the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. “Patriotic” Congressmen were themselves accused of unAmerican activities because their “investigations” put the heat on a number of “suspicious” people who either had been or were suspected of being members of the Communist Party. Instead of being celebrated as the true heroes they were, HUAC members were denigrated and vilified.

3) the plot to get the automobile companies. A consumer advocate zealot published evidence American car manufacturers had knowingly produced cars “unsafe at an speed..” People got upset because the car manufacturers did “adversary intelligence” by hiring detectives to follow and investigate the consumer advocate himself.

4) the plot to get Richard Nixon. The center-left hated Nixon. They finally got him for covering up 1972 election “adversary intelligence” operations at the Democratic Party headquarters. “Watergate” is thus a monument to the left’s 25 year campaign to get Richard Nixon, not a monument of patriotic truth.

5) the plot against the pesticide industry. They were accused of unfairly attacking Rachel Carson for her book, “Silent Spring,” about pesticides accumulating in the food chain and damaging the environment, for calling her a “hysterical’ female. Criticism of pesticides invokes bees and butterflies being endangered.

6) the plot against Ronald Reagan. The center-left disliked Ronald Reagan. They finally almost got him in the trumped up “Iran-Contra” hoax. The Reagan administration was accused of unConstitutional activity while they defended America from our enemies in Latin America and the Middle East!!! Impeachment of Reagan was even discussed.

7) the plot against the tobacco industry. Since tobacco kills its customers, it represents an easy target. Tobacco executives were forced to testify before Congress. People want to smoke, why not let them exercise this freedom? This is an obvious “personal responsibility” issue – and an obvious big government nanny example.

8) the plot against “pro-life” people. The center-left despises the “Pro-life” movement, saying this is an obvious First Amendment vilation by imposing their religious views on all Americans. Wrong!!! This is a “free speech” issue!!! “Pro-lifers” have a right to present their case for defenseless babies before the public and demand government protect the innocent babies from people who want to murder them.

9) the plot against President George W. Bush. The center-left despises Bush. They said he was illegally placed in office. Wrong!!! The Supreme Court approved his election!!! Center-left people criticized Bush”s invasion of Iraq. Some compared it to Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland. They criticized his tax cuts as unfairly favoring the top 1% and his “faith-based” policies as First Amendment violations. If he was so bad, why did he get re-elected?

10) the plot against gun manufacturers. They are selling a legal product!!! People have a “Second Amendment right” to have guns. Thousands of respectable, honest, good people aren’t committing crimes – why punish them?

11) the plot against conservative speech. The center-left insists conservative speech is a threat to American democracy, saying it is anti-American in its content: inciting violence, hatreds, and many prejudices; and also – fomenting many obviously false “alternative facts.” Conservatives have a First Amendment right to speak their views.

12) the plot to steal the 2020 election. The 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump – by Democrats, libs, Antifa, and others who hate America.

13) the plots against Donald Trump. the center-left hates Donald Trump. Trump is being persecuted for his “perfect phone calls” to authorities in Georgia and earlier, Ukraine. The center-left falsely insists he is guilty of numerous crimes. This is a weak case, a hoax, an obvious political persecution, obviously without merit.

l4) the plot against the fossil fuel industry. For 300 years, fossil fuels have powered “the industrial revolution” which modernized civilization. Misguided center-left people want to end all this progress because, THEY say, it is harming the earth. this evidence is in dispute – so why follow it?

Notice all these targets of witch hunts are on the conservative side. this therefore must confirm what the Fox News – talk radio echo chamber has said for years: the center-left is “out to get” the “true Americans” listening to Fox and talk radio. What else could explain all this?
The only presidents on the list are ALL Republicans What more do we need to know? Two other victims were attempting to expose Communists sabotaging America from within. What more do wee need to know?


Are the l4 cases above true witch hunts? Dictionary definition of witch hunt: “an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.”

THINK. on the last part of the definition: “..usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.”
WHO. REALLY. has done this since 1945? WHO is floating rumors and conspiracy theories???
WHO said they’d supplied “alternative facts”? WHO has pushed DOCUMENTED lies on almost everything?

NOW – the REAL facts on these supposed “plots”:

1) The effort to rid America of Senator Joe McCarthy and “McCarthyism” was based upon several years of his own, well-documented, virtually 100%, use of lies and false “evidence.” It began, documented, as a gimmick to get elected; was so successful in early Cold War America he kept doing it. He was undone by baseless attacks on the U.S. Army. The word “McCarthyism” is now used as a term of unAmerican behavior, of base and deceitful behavior.

2) The House UnAmerican Activities Committee was itself, by dictionary definition, a witch hunt. They used government power in the manner of the Inquisition. They made years of wild accusations against innocent people, ruined thousands of careers and lives, got people to turn on innocents to save their own skins, created an unAmerican atmosphere of fear and paranoia.

3) The failures of American car makers were documented, often obvious; emphasized “style” over technical quality. And – some American made cars were in fact “unsafe at any speed.” So bad were American cars that Honda, Toyota, other foreign cars became best-sellers, forcing American manufacturers to change.

4) Among the MOUNTAIN of evidence against Nixon and his cronies were tape recordings and confessions. “Follow the money” led to more DOCUMENTATION of efforts to manipulate the 1972 election. All so damning that Republican Congressmen told Nixon he had to go. He resigned before he could be impeached. “Watergate” is now used as a term for scandal.

5) Much international evidence was accumulated against DDT and other pesticides. The world is now worried about whether enough pollinators will survive to help produce the food we all eat. Rachel Carson has been overwhelmingly proven correct. This hasn’t stopped a new crop of Internet assassins from comparing her to Hitler as a mass murderer – in order to discredit her success, thereby aid all other industries under investigation.

6) President Ronald Reagan and his administration broke federal laws. there was enough evidence produced – including confessions by some of the perps – that serious legal minds said Reagan might have been impeached on “Ran-Contra”. ALONE. Reagan was forced to make a broadcast “apology” to the American public. Some of his cronies went to jail. An advisor told him he should consider contacting a criminal lawyer.

7) The infamous “tobacco defense” is now standard American industry playbook: muddy the waters and confuse people to create doubt [which various industries have been caught admitting they do!!!]. Tobacco itself must continually create new, young, customers because smoking kills people – which the tobacco execs publicly denied – so they must get people addicted, while denying this too.

8). “Pro-lifers” seek to impose THEIR. religious beliefs on America. This, by Constitutional plain English and 200 years of Constitutional law is unConstitutional. PERIOD. Separation of church and state is THE oldest American legal tradition. Religious oppression was one of the Founding Fathers 4 main fears in 1787. Study Roger Williams and his royal charter for Rhode Island; the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance; petitions by Virginia evangelicals; l776-1800 state constitutions [8 banned an active minister from their gov’t]; 1879 “Reynolds” Supreme Court opinion; and much more.
A “democratic” nation is going to. FORCE. a woman to carry to birth, even if the child cannot survive? This is what the Nazis said: you “owe” the state to carry children to birth.

9). By court decisions and prison sentences alone – G.W. Bush is one of America’s most criminal presidents. Add to this the massive damage done to American society: tax cuts for the rich, “faith-based” work taxpayers are force to finance, the 2008 Crash. His war on Iraq IS similar to Hitler’s 1939 attack on Poland – totally unjustified. Numerous documentation later revealed the mountain of lies told – not to mention massive incompetence and corruption in the war and afterward.

10) 50 years ago thr current death rate, mass shootings rate, and fear of gun violence did NOT exist in America. America is THE most unsafe advance nation by FAR. The Second Amendment does NOT cover civilians who are not part of a “well-regulated Militia” having the weapons they do – this would be the National Guard. In the old “Wild West” drunken cowboys were forced to surrender their guns before entering a town – the townspeople were tired of them shooting up their city. Now the “cowboys” ARE shooting up our towns – unConstitutionally.

11). By much DOCUMENTATION, what is said to be “conservative speech” is, in reality, antidemocratic and reactionary speech that not only involves much. LYING, but also incites violence and hatreds. A democracy runs on trust, tolerance, and truth – qualities the right-wing “echo chamber” violates – because it is THEIR BUSINESS MODEL {causing outrage}. DOCUMENTATION is found in right-wing media transcripts. A major scandal involved Fox “news” – not only saying one thing publicly over the air and the opposite behind scenes; but also, a major on-air personality was forced out because of his actions. Others have successfully been sued for defamation.

120 The “stolen” 2020 presidential election is Trump”s con job masterpiece. He lost the popular vote by 7 million votes!!! He lost in ALL the states he claims he won.. High-ranking members of his own administration said he lost.. Republicans in many states said he lost their state. He lost 60 court cases. Numerous Republican-led recounts proved he lost that election. The only bigger fraud is climate crisis denial.

13) Donald Trump is a CANCER. on America; a lying, cheating. demagogue. He is the anti-George Washington; THE person the Founding Fathers most feared. In Georgia he is #P01135809 because of numerous criminal acts by he and his cronies [“the perfect phone call”]. Federal charges on a wide range of felonious activity exist in multiple courts. His tax cuts go to billionaires – are 25% of the federal debt. He has filled federal courts with numerous dubious “judges.” The damage he has already inflicted on America so severe it worries countries around the world. He has profaned the office once held by Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and others.

14). Climate change denial is. THE. SINGLE. WORST. CRIME IN WORLD. HISTORY. For. GREED, the fossil fuel industry has sabotaged THE consensus. TRUTH {all outside their toadies]: humans are. DESTROYING. how the earth runs. We either stop burning fossil fuels or leave our children and grandchildren an earth that is uninhabitable. All-time heat records set almost every succeeding year; fires burning on several continents; “storms of the century” happening almost every year. Climate change migrants overwhelming other nations. Plants and animals moving away from the equator….. an on and on….

The far, reactionary “right” has polluted discussion with their LIES for 50 years, in ever increasing volumes . They. HAVE TO. LIE. – because. the factual truth is their enemy. “Witch hunts” are only the most sensational examples.

America once approached “perfection”. in 1947-73. That mixed economy, that ever increasingly democratic society. That society approaching a more equitable distribution of America’s wealth – was. STOLEN AWAY. by DOCUMENTED deliberate planning and execution – by the very rich and their corporations.

That ANYA of these “witch hunts” could be taken seriously is proof of how badly , deliberately, misinformed. the American people are – have been artfully led down a number of rabbit holes.

Want proof? Look seriously at ALL. the “solutions” offered by the “right” since 1970. How many of them made life better for all average Americans – vs – how many made life worse?
look at “deregulation” [ Wall Street, Big Pharma, energy, trucking, etc. – 2008 Crash!!!}; look at the high cost of “health care” [insurance execs get more than doctors!]; look at WHO got the major benefits of Reagan, Bush II, Trump tax cuts; look at job security; look at income inequality; look at WHO. is trying to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare; look at. WHO. appointed religious zealots to the Supreme Court; look at WHO. has tried to change the rules on almost everything that once made America “democratic”.

Keep electing Republicans and you’ll get more of this. ,